* SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments: Today probably the most awkward one on film. [[spoiler:"It's Nigger! They've done it!"]]
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The main theme is unforgettable.
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments:
** The squadron needs to let off steam ahead of the raid. "Right, boys: off with their bags [pants]!"
** In the book, on the train to London to be decorated following the operation, one of the squadron gets very drunk. The end result: "I losht my pantsh. Very awkward. Can't shee the King without my pantsh." There seems to be a theme going here...
* RetroactiveRecognition:
** A young Creator/PatrickMcGoohan makes an uncredited appearance as an RAF guard.
** A young Creator/RobertShaw is Flight Sgt. J. Pulford.
* SpecialEffectFailure: The shot where Popsy crashes makes it a little too obvious his Lancaster is a model, even by 1950s standards: the plane visibly bounces off the ground while still in one piece before the pyrotechnics go off.
* TearJerker:
** [[spoiler:Gibson's dog's]] death.
** The ending.
--->'''Barnes Wallis:''' Fifty-six men! If I'd known it was going to be like this I'd never have started.
** And later supremely understated by Guy Gibson:
--->'''Gibson:''' I've got to go and write some letters.
** Even more so when you know that as an officer in [=WW2=], Richard Todd had had to write those letters for real.
** A RealLife version: as of 2015, all of the members of the squadron have now passed on.
* ValuesDissonance: Naming the dog after the N-word, natch. Even in 1955, it was ''not'' a word Americans used in polite company, but it was acceptable in the UK.
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