RAeS BWC January 2025 Lecture
16 January 2025
The High Peak Dambusters
Doors Open 6:15pm.
Lecture starts: 7.00pm
Location: National Cold War Exhibition, Lecture Theatre.
Admission is free to Members of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Museum Members
Other visitors welcome with a donation – no booking required, just turn up.
This month’s Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton’s branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Lecture will be: The High Peak Dambusters
Our speaker will be Frank Pleszak who describes his talk below:
A chance discussion with my neighbour turned into an incredible journey of discovery into what really happened during the most famous of all wartime stories – The Dambusters. Norma’s uncle, Jack Marriott was one of the Dambusters, a Flight Engineer, who was sadly, but mysteriously killed on his way home from the Dams.
Even though everybody has heard of the Dambusters in reality most people know very little. What is generally known is based on the 1955 film. As good as it is, it has lots of inaccuracies, and at the time it was made some of the details of the raid were still subject to the official secrets act. In the film Jack’s Lancaster was shown crashing near to the Eder Dam, but in reality, it had dropped its ‘Bouncing Bomb’ and managed to fly part of the way home before being shot down as it approached the Dutch border.
My research into the Dambusters story led to discussions with some of the leading experts on the subject and I describe Jack’s life and the true details of what happened that night on the 16/17 May 1943 when he, and 52 of his fellow airmen lost their lives. Jack’s story though didn’t end that night and it continues right up to the present day.
