07/03/2017 Points West


07/03/2017

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Welcome to BBC Points West with Alex Lovell and David Garmston.

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Johnny Johnson from Bristol is the last British veteran

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of the those daring raids into the Nazi heartland.

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Now, Michael Buerk takes him back to Germany.

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The Dambuster raid was one of the most extraordinary raids in history.

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But the whole bombing campaign against Germany

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in the Second World War remains strategically and

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Johnny meets a man almost killed in the raids,

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as even some Germans call for Mr Johnson to be knighted.

:00:36.:00:46.

The police stage a series of raids to cut off the drugs

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A boxer on the ropes but still fighting.

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A fund to help an athlete diagnosed with cancer.

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Cancer is in the red corner but I am still strong in the blue.

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Peaches Golding is the first black woman in Britain to be appointed

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Good evening, and welcome to a special edition of Points West.

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The growing calls for Britain's last surviving Dambuster,

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George Johnny Johnson from Bristol, to be honoured.

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Over 300,000 people have now signed a petition demanding a knighthood

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for the man who took part in one of the most daring flying missions

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When we hear "Dambusters", we automatically think of the 1950s

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But that was just a dramatisation of one of the many missions

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which RAF Bomber Command flew over Germany.

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The actual Dambusters raids began late one May evening in 1943.

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19 Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron took off from Britain to attack

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three different dams, the Mohne, the Eder, and the Sorpe.

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Johnny Johnson's squadron was heading for the Sorpe,

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an altogether different design not at all suited to the bouncing bomb.

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One which needed a completely different, more audacious approach.

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As part of our 60th birthday year, we invited internationally acclaimed

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reporter Michael Buerk, who began his broadcasting career

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here at BBC Bristol, to take Mr Johnson back to Germany.

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They went to the place where he dropped his bombs and met

:02:40.:02:42.

Johnny Johnson may be looking at the present,

:02:43.:02:55.

He's back, three-quarters of a century, to a moonlit night,

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As a young man, he was part of RAF Bomber Command.

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Part of the sustained, lethal campaign against the Nazis'

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war machine that all but destroyed many of Germany's cities.

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A huge lake held back by the great Sorpe Dam.

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It's a tourist resort these days out of season.

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But 74 years ago, it was the target for the most famous

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The mission involved dropping specially invented bombs designed

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The Mohne, Eder and Sorpe Dams, captured in the 1950s

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As a bomb aimer, Johnny Johnson's job was to hit the Sorpe Dam.

:04:00.:04:10.

Our briefing was to fly across the dam to drop the bomb

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as near as possible to the centre of the dam.

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After six or seven of those, a voice from the back of rear turret,

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"Won't someone get rid of that bomb out of here."

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And, on the tenth run we were actually down to 30 feet.

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But ten times, you headed over the hill, over the town,

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down very sharply, 30 feet, drop it precisely in the middle,

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Ten times you tried before you got it right?

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It was something we hadn't practised at all in training,

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So it was practise, practise, practise here.

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Did you on this raid or any other have any thoughts for the people

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Not doing the actual operation at that time.

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Fritz Wortmann, then 14, was hiding in a tunnel

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The perfect air raid shelter, or so he thought.

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TRANSLATION: We went to the dam and got down to about 50 metres.

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After a certain time we heard the sound of engines.

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The intensity kept going up and down.

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Until suddenly there was a deafening explosion.

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The doors inside the dam burst open, and there

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Johnny's bomb was spot-on, but not enough to breach the Sorpe.

:05:58.:06:18.

Eight Lancasters were designated to hit the dam that night.

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But the other Dambusters blew great holes in the Mohne and Eder Dams.

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This old footage taken by an off-duty German soldier shows

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the breach at the Eder Dam two days after the attacks.

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Industrial valleys were flooded, depriving war factories

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of the water that they needed, badly frightening

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ARCHIVE: Wing Commander Gibson VC who led the great

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Lancaster raid over the dams, escorts the king during a visit

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by Their Majesties to an air station in the north of England.

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It was a godsend to a nation desperate for a victory.

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Johnny was there that day, personally congratulated by

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King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at RAF Scampton.

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..And resulted in enormous damage and dislocation to Germany's...

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No matter 1,300 German civilians had died.

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No matter the damage to Nazi war production was only temporary.

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The war's supreme feat of precision flying had dealt Hitler

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Now as two old men by the side of a lake where they both nearly

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Friends now, until the end of their days.

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And later in the programme, Michael will explore why Mr Johnson

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may have been overlooked for a knighthood and why the men

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of Bomber Command have never received a campaign medal.

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Four people have been arrested in simultaneous raids in London this

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morning in connection with the supply of class A drugs

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The constabulary made the arrests with help

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Our Gloucestershire reporter Steve Knibbs joined the operation

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in Peckham and Lewisham in the early hours of this morning.

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This is the culmination of a long investigation.

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Stand-by, stand-by, strike, strike, strike!

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30 police officers from Gloucestershire carry out

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simultaneous strikes on four buildings, to arrest four people

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they believe are heavily involved in supplying drugs into the county.

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Within minutes, all four targets are arrested.

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Three men and one woman, all on suspicion of

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All, apart from one of them, are also suspected

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With the suspects in custody, specialist search teams

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and scenes of crime officers look in every nook

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At the moment we've seized a quantity of cash,

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various mobile phones, documentation regarding

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These arrests were part of Operation Sideswipe,

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aimed at targeting so-called dangerous drugs networks.

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Effectively, gangs who prey on vulnerable users

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They'll often take over someone's house to deal from,

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so-called cuckooing, all under threat

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This is one of the most significant operations launched

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by Gloucestershire Constabulary in recent years.

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It's taken months of gathering intelligence and analysing that

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intelligence, and detectives say it proves their determination to show

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that Gloucestershire isn't an easy target for those who want to deal

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These people think they can come in to Gloucester and commit

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the crimes they are doing, selling drugs to our

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young vulnerable people, and exploiting people.

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This is why it's important that we do take the fight back to them.

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They know who we are, and we look at arresting them

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and seizing their assets that are obtained through

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All four arrested today are still in custody,

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as the investigation into serious drug dealing in Gloucestershire

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continues in and away from the county.

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Steve Knibbs, BBC Points West, London.

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Peaches Golding says she's delighted at being chosen to be

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She'll be the first black person in history to be a lord lieutenant

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when she takes up the role in six weeks' time.

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The ceremonial role means she's the Queen's representative

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in the city, and Peaches says she'll do all she can to

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I think the term you guys use is "gobsmacked".

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That just doesn't happen to ordinary people like me.

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So, I guess, what it does prove is ordinary people can do

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She says her father who was a civil rights campaigner has always

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inspired her to fight for fairness and equality, something she says she

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will continue to do as Lord Lieutenant.

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Congratulations to her. A fundraising campaign's been

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launched for a Bristol boxer who's been diagnosed

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with incurable cancer. Dean Francis, who won many

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titles in his career, has been told been by doctors

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there's nothing more they can do. But now the boxing world is helping

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him in his biggest fight yet. Of all these champion

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boxers from Bristol, one has been handed

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the fight of his life. Dean Francis has bowel cancer,

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and it's spread to his liver. He has between six months,

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and three years to live. When they initially

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told me, I was numb. Me and my wife were

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looking at each other. I am going to approach it

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in the same way, positive, Cancer is in the red corner but I am

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still strong in the blue. And his support in that corner

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led by a world champion. He has always been

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a mentally strong person. He would come in the gym dancing,

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so confident about himself. I wanted to be like him,

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just the way he spoke to people I'm going to be just as strong

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for him, we will together. We are convinced we are

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going to beat this. The plan is to raise

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?100,000 online, to explore At times, it makes me emotional

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when I think about how much people My only wish is that,

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when I was fighting, they were around so I could have

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sold more tickets! But, yes, honestly,

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it is heart-warming! The fight is still very

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much in Dean Francis. Against the ropes, yes,

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but he's never been beaten easily. His spirit is so admirable,

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incredible. I am sure his positive vibes will

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beat it. Gloucestershire's triple

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Olympic gold medallist Charlotte Dujardin has received

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a CBE for services to equestrianism. She was presented with the honour

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by Her Majesty the Queen. Charlotte is the most successful

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British dressage rider ever. It's been confirmed that

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Gloucester Rugby head coach It follows Saturday's 30-27 defeat

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by Harlequins at Kingsholm. Fisher later tweeted

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that it was "time to make Bristol City take on Norwich

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tonight at Ashton Gate, looking to climb out

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of the Championship relegation zone. They dropped into the bottom

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three for the first time this season on Saturday,

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following their goalless City have won just twice

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in 21 league games. We return now to our main story,

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and the growing campaign to award a knighthood to Britain's last

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surviving Dambuster George "Johnny" Earlier in the programme,

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our guest reporter Michael Buerk took Mr Johnson back to Germany

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to revisit the dam he bombed and to be reconciled

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with his former enemy. It's hard for any of us to imagine

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what Johnny and his fellow airmen would have seen and felt,

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as they flew low over the Sorpe Dam. We've created this 360 degree video

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which hopefully will give If we run this video for you,

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instead of approaching the dam from across the water like the other

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two missions, Johnny's aircraft had to negotiate this hilltop

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village into the valley so that he could drop his bomb

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in the middle of the dam. They hadn't been able to practise,

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and it took ten attempts before Johnny finally succeeded

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in hitting his target. They then had to make

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their escape over the forest. This 360 film is on our

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Facebook page now. So to Michael's second film

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in which he explores why the men of Bomber Command have never

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received a campaign medal. And he joins us afterwards

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to discuss why Johnny Johnson may have been overlooked

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for a knighthood. It was by far the most dangerous

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campaign of the war. Half those who took off to bomb

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Germany never came back. Of those who returned,

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only a few, now mostly 57,500 RAF Bomber Command

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airmen were lost. Historians believe these aircrews

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were responsible for the deaths of a quarter of a million

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German civilians. Nobody doubts the bravery

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and sacrifice. But what did it achieve,

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and was it justified? It's still controversial today,

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and the reason perhaps Bomber Command never

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got its own campaign medal. Just this thin and nondescript

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class, grudging, 70 years later, given to Bomber Command veterans

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three years ago. Johnny Johnson, last of

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the British Dambusters, despises it. Disgusted is the best

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way I can describe it. I feel that there has been no

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attempt to recognise the sacrifice ARCHIVE: The largest convoy ever

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taken to Russia is feeling its way through the danger belt

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north of Scandinavia. The worst journey in the world,

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Churchill called it. The veterans of the Arctic convoys

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who took arms and munitions to Stalin's Russia were finally

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recognised at the same time. It gives me huge pleasure

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to give you that. They were given their own full-blown

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campaign medal, the Arctic Star. It has made the surviving bomber

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boys feel even more rejected and fuelled the arguments over

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what they did, arguments I do think the reluctance to issue

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a Bomber Command medal at this stage does reflect how controversial

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it is, and the possible upset it would cause

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in Germany if they do, oh, they're decorating these people

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who destroyed our parents' cities. There is an embarrassment

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and uncertainty about how we should The city was attacked

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nearly 80 times. And now they are going

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to reap the whirlwind. For years, it was the only

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way Britain that could Five million Germans

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lost their homes. But critics say Bomber Command's

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impact on the war effort was less than claimed,

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and the continued destruction of German cities when the war

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was nearly won unjustifiable. Johnny Johnson is

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having none of that. Do you think that one of the reasons

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that Bomber Command wasn't properly recognised was almost a sense

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of shame at the death and destruction that

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Bomber Command caused? But I am quite convinced that

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Bomber Command fought the war I have a better version for what I

:18:59.:19:12.

called retrospective historians. Were you personally aware

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of the circumstances The answer to both

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those questions is, no. Johnny Johnson had

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a troubled childhood. An ordinary boy swept up by the war

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into the most famous RAF Not a hero, he says,

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not brave really. You say your lack of fear,

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your lack of emotion I had the misfortune or tragedy

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of losing my mother a fortnight From my early youth,

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a lot of the emotion They flew into history on the most

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famous bombing raid of them all. He is the last one left in Britain,

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the last one who can I feel very satisfied that I did

:20:25.:20:27.

what I could during the war. And I feel, in fact,

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honoured to have had the chance to take part,

:20:46.:20:51.

certainly, and in A chance to do my bit

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towards the war effort. That, I think, is the one

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thing I feel a proudness. Yes, proud that I

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was able to do that. Michael, thank you for coming

:21:06.:21:08.

in to talk to us about this. What was it like to take

:21:09.:21:22.

Johnny Johnson back to Germany? From my point of view,

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a real privilege. Living history, the last

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remaining British Dambuster, of the most famous bombing mission

:21:28.:21:34.

of the war, any war. To actually go back with him

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to the very point where That's so patronising,

:21:39.:21:40.

but really bright as a button. And to be there, you can see what it

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meant to him, see it in his eyes. You don't get the emotion,

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he is of that generation. As a television viewer,

:21:55.:22:00.

or being there, the emotions going through his mind

:22:01.:22:06.

even if he wasn't, even if his As journalists, we have

:22:07.:22:08.

to keep out of politics. But what do you think

:22:09.:22:12.

about this honours business? Well, his point of view

:22:13.:22:17.

is that he would love a knighthood. On behalf of all the people who lost

:22:18.:22:20.

their lives in Bomber command. And all those who went

:22:21.:22:26.

through it all and survived And they never got this

:22:27.:22:29.

campaign medal for all sorts And he feels, I think, as a lot

:22:30.:22:32.

of people running this campaign, if he got a knighthood, this would

:22:33.:22:44.

be the recognition that has so far A higher casualty rate

:22:45.:22:48.

than any other units in the war. A lot of people feel

:22:49.:22:53.

they weren't recognised, Then, the human cost

:22:54.:22:55.

of it, in Germany. We could do a moral maze programme

:22:56.:22:58.

about this, couldn't we? They bombed Bristol, bombed,

:22:59.:23:05.

Coventry, that kind of stuff. It was the only way we could hit

:23:06.:23:13.

back for a large portion of the war. I think it becomes more morally

:23:14.:23:17.

questionable when you get to the end of the war,

:23:18.:23:19.

when this huge bombing campaign was going on,

:23:20.:23:22.

and it was not particularly precise, Anyway, we were winning the war,

:23:23.:23:25.

should it have gone on so long, should so many more

:23:26.:23:35.

have been killed. Some morally questionable

:23:36.:23:37.

areas there. But Johnny wasn't

:23:38.:23:38.

having any of that. From his point of view,

:23:39.:23:40.

you had to be up there When Points West started

:23:41.:23:43.

going on air, this would What you brought out of your film

:23:44.:23:46.

was a beautiful moment, this sense Yes, the other thing

:23:47.:23:52.

that was interesting, in Germany, We haven't got one,

:23:53.:23:58.

they have got one there! The chap who runs the Dambusters

:23:59.:24:03.

Museum who came to see us, he thinks Johnny ought

:24:04.:24:07.

to get a knighthood. He thinks Bomber Command

:24:08.:24:10.

ought to be recognised. If the Germans think that,

:24:11.:24:13.

there is the interesting argument that perhaps we should

:24:14.:24:15.

think that too. Welcome back to the west,

:24:16.:24:17.

what was it like to come back? I came down White Ladies

:24:18.:24:22.

Road, and it all came You are welcome at any

:24:23.:24:28.

time, just don't ask to present the news,

:24:29.:24:32.

Michael! I did ask to present

:24:33.:24:35.

the news all those years ago and they turned me down,

:24:36.:24:38.

I'm afraid. And you can watch even more

:24:39.:24:41.

of Johnny's journey back to Germany She is in London tonight. If Michael

:24:42.:25:09.

would have asked to do the weather, he would have had a cracking

:25:10.:25:12.

picture. Some of them sum up the day. Here it

:25:13.:25:18.

is, blue sky with Cloud pushing towards us. Stretching all the way

:25:19.:25:23.

back to the Atlantic which means normally you have some rain in the

:25:24.:25:27.

forecast. That is what is happening in the next few hours, a rain band

:25:28.:25:32.

pushing in, and a warm front bringing milder air. We see a tangle

:25:33.:25:38.

of other fronts. Downhill in terms of the weather but uphill as it work

:25:39.:25:44.

in terms of temperatures. As the rain pumps in tonight, it boosts the

:25:45.:25:48.

temperature up to 11 degrees tomorrow morning. A different start

:25:49.:25:55.

to this morning. But the continued to see more rain.

:25:56.:25:59.

Flight and patchy through the day, some hill fog. Drier interludes

:26:00.:26:03.

particularly in Gloucestershire before further rain by the end of

:26:04.:26:08.

the day. Look at these temperatures, it will feel like spring even though

:26:09.:26:14.

you have some rain, 13 degrees. The rain pushes away tomorrow night.

:26:15.:26:18.

Into Thursday, a ridge of high pressure builds in, meaning we are

:26:19.:26:25.

looking at a cracking day on Thursday. Some cloud at first. Some

:26:26.:26:31.

breaks in the clouds from the north in the afternoon, sunny and bright

:26:32.:26:36.

styles coming through. On the breezy side but not significant winds. 14

:26:37.:26:44.

Celsius. It will feel very nice. Friday, continuing to hold onto the

:26:45.:26:49.

milder air. There could be some patchy rain at times. Bright spells

:26:50.:26:56.

at weekends. Colder at the start of next week.

:26:57.:26:58.

Thank you so much for being on tonight.

:26:59.:27:00.

You've been watching a special edition of Points West.

:27:01.:27:02.

Thank you for your company this evening.

:27:03.:27:04.

We leave you tonight with just a few images of Britain's last

:27:05.:27:08.

Dambuster George "Johnny" Johnson on his emotional return to Germany.

:27:09.:28:13.

I could be a boxing champ, AND build your computer.

:28:14.:28:17.

I am more than just the beard or the nation's favourite dish.

:28:18.:28:21.

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