Postcards from the Paces: Dam Busters

This will be a quick blog post, but I found this story fascinating so I wanted to share. We drove into the Peak District National Park today, which is only about 25 minutes from the Sheffield City Center. Our destination was the Derwent Reservoir which has a dam you can walk to easily from the visitor's center. The dam itself is quite interesting to look at since it's two towers resemble castle turrets, however having been built in the early 1900's it is young compared to England's many castles!! It was wonderful to get out of the hot, noisy city and enjoy the peaceful countryside.

This dam played an important roll during World War II as the training ground for the Dam Busters. The Dam Busters were to fly into Germany and blow up their dams with an invention called the bouncing bomb. In order to prepare for their mission they practiced at the Derwent Dam. The planes flew low along the water and dropped the bouncing bomb that would skip along the water like a stone. After skipping along the water the bomb would hopefully sink down below the water at the base of the dam, explode, mission accomplished. The missions were successful and there is a memorial at the dam for those in the squadron. My dad says there was a movie made about the Dam Busters in 1954, so we may have to check that out when we get home.