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Kiwi and Cherry Blossom had Nigger Brown boot polish until well into the 1960s.

You are right, I'm old enough to remember the colour nigger brown. Nevertheless I think Mart was correct in his implication that the name 'Nigger' will not be used. Indeed in re-runs of the original, scenes where the dog is called 'Nigger' are sometimes cut out.

They have and it is pathetic. As a large section of the populace seems to learn more from so called "faction" i.e. films and books "based" on facts than from real history it's very important that as many facts are preserved as possible.

Re-writing history is just plain wrong.

Speaking of which, we still have the Tom Cruise, 'Battle of Britain' to look forward to.

But with regard to the question from mart, probably, Spot.

After the Enigma code breaking movie, which the sceptics got hold of the code breaking machine not us. Also that Tom Hanks movie on D Day that suggested the Brits were not there at all.
What is to say that a Lancaster is even going to feature in the film, they will probably say that it was Flying Fortresses that broke the dam and that Barnes Wallace was a Harvard proffessor.

What you say about the mission is correct.

However you need to get into the mindset of the time. England had taken a battering on the ground in Europe, the Far East and from the air at home.

The 4 engined "heavies"- Lancaster, Stirling and Halifax - had started to give the UK an edge in the air war and a chance to hit the German war machine with more than the pin pricks the Blenheims, Wellingtons and Whitleys had allowed with their restricted range and light bomb loads.

Their missions were just as suicidal as they were sent as far as Berlin at a time when the Luftwaffe was predominant and many of those that survived the very efficient German anti aircraft fire were easily picked off in the early morning light over Holland and Belgium.

The Dam Busters raid was designed with many aims in view. The Spring melt and rains of 1943 filled the lakes behind the dams and provided the chance for a major attack which could be shown as damaging to the Ruhr and give some "good news" to a populace which had heard little of anything but defeat for three and a half years and also show that the British could devise working "super weapons".

The British welcomed the news - some said and still say say it was the start of the beginning of the end for Germany, as opposed to the "end of the beginning" quote of Churchill's at the Mansion House in November 1942 after El Alamein.

Gibson was made a hero, given a VC and sent off to the USA to tour and raise American public interest in beating Germany as well as Japan at a time when many in the US were pushing for a "Japan first" approach to the American war effort.

In all, the raid met its aims even though the damage to German industry and infrastructure were limited.

FIDO?mart wrote:

> So what is the dog's name going to be?
>
> Mart

FIDO? Now that would be confusing. FIDO during the war was a fog dispersal system for runways. See http://www.answers.com/topic/fido-device