Last surviving Dambuster George ‘Johnny’ Johnson to star in new WW2 film of daring raid
Johnny to tell story of legendary bombing run in his own words for the first time on camera
THE last surviving Dambuster is making a new film - telling the story of the daring World War Two raid in his own words for the first time.
George “Johnny” Johnson - now 96 - will describe the role he played in the legendary Operation Chastise attack in Germany on May 17, 1943.
Johnny – who received an MBE from the Queen after a campaign by The Sun - will tell of his crew's daring mission to destroy three German dams, in an attempt to flood the factories supplying the Nazi war machine.
The documentary will focus on the crew's line of attack on the Sorpe Dam - the most difficult one to take out.
Johnny will reveal top secret training exercises he and his crew received in the specially-adapted Avro Lancaster – and how the strike was made.
Filmmaker Andrew Panton, from Thornbury, South Glos., has been working with Mr Johnson on the film for the past two years.
He said: "Johnny’s complete story of the attack on the Sorpe Dam has not been featured in film or told in his own words.
"This film enables Johnny to tell the whole story from his perspective and is brought to life with new animations and graphics.
"This will help the audience get a feel for what he had to do that night as the bomb aimer and the challenges they faced as they made the attack on the Sorpe Dam."
Andrew has used “green screen” technology to create re-enactments of the raids using actors and a 3D animation of crew flying the Lancaster bomber.
Johnny describes how he set off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.
From the start, the mission was considered almost impossible as the crew had to fly as low as 60ft level at night across miles of enemy territory.
To add to the risk, the bomb they were dropping had never been tried on the battlefield before.
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Johnny and his crew beat the odds to survive but eight Lancaster bombers were lost, with 53 out of 133 air crew killed.
More than 300,000 signed The Sun’s petition, which was launched after Johnny, of Bristol, missed out in last year’s New Year gongs.
Andrew hopes the film will be on show in Bristol later this year.