As most of the readers of this blog should know Douglas Webb was one of the Dambusters. May 16th is the 70th anniversary of the raid. It was a breathtaking display of daring, ingenuity and self-sacrifice that had a huge effect on the wartime generation and still inspires us today… and rightly so. I only met Doug a few times but it was incredibly humbling to meet a real hero from history. For a list of anniversary events I suggest you take a look Charles Foster’s Dambusters blog. For more information about Doug and the Dams raid check out the following posts of mine.
The Dambuster and the Bombshell
Douglas Webb
Some good posts on the BBC website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22544568
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22544567
The photograph above is not of Dougs’ sister but my sister who at the time was his fiance.
Thanks for that Joyce.
I’ll correct it. What’s your sisters name?
Thanks for replying so promptly. My sisters’ name is Anne Jones but her nickname to family and friends was Bebe! She is now 89 and living in a thatched cottage in a small hamlet in Essex. but she is not internet savvy at all, I have a little knowledge of details of Doug and would be furnish what details I have if you need them. Thanks.
Any details you have would be great.
I will also phone my ister to try and find out any other details of Doug.
I recently found these very interesting pieces in a local history magazine serving my area :
Was-the-Dambusters-bouncing-bomb-built-in-Netherton
Dad-kept-bouncing-bomb-secret-from-his-daughters
When I was a student nurse at Rochford Hospital in Rochford, ESSEX during the very early 1980s, I met a chap who said he had apparently worked on the bouncing bomb research with Barnes Wallis during WW2. He added that he was only a backroom boy in comparison, whatever that meant.
He was very ‘professor’ looking, more like a main player in the research, but I’ll never know now and in those days one didn’t pry too much into peoples affairs in the NHS.
I have a signed photo from the late great Richard Todd from years ago and I note one of his co-stars from the DAMBUSTERS film is still around thankfully – the great John Fraser :
http://www.johnfraser.org/
LEST WE FORGET :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K32Adi8nmzA