Wing Commander
Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...
Guy Gibson
Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, (12 August 1918 – 19 September 1944) was a distinguished bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. He was the first Commanding Officer of No. 617 Squadron, which he led in the "Dam B ...
of the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
, and the mascot of No. 617 Squadron. Gibson owned the dog when he was previously a member of 106 Squadron. Nigger often accompanied Gibson on training flights and was a great favourite of the members of both 106 and 617 Squadrons. He was noted for his liking of beer, which he drank from his own bowl in the Officers' Mess.
Nigger died on 16 May 1943, the day of the famous "Dambusters" raid, when he was hit by a motorist. He was buried at midnight as Gibson was leading the raid. "Nigger" (
Morse code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
: -. .. --. --. . .-. ) was the codeword Gibson used to confirm the breach of the
Möhne Dam
The Möhne () is a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Ruhr. The Möhne passes the towns of Brilon, Rüthen and Warstein. There is a large artificial lake near the mouth of the river, the Möhne Reservoir, us ...
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
. In July 2020 the headstone was replaced, with his name removed. The RAF said it "did not want to give prominence to an offensive term that went against its ethos".
Name
The word
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
was often used as a dog's name during the early part of the 20th century. A black explosive
sniffer dog
A detection dog or sniffer dog is a dog that is trained to use its senses to detect substances such as explosives, illegal drugs, wildlife scat, currency, blood, and contraband electronics such as illicit mobile phones. The sense most used by d ...
named Nigger served with a
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
mine clearance unit in 1944 during the
Normandy Campaign
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norma ...
. The black dog leading a
sled dog
A sled dog is a dog trained and used to pull a land vehicle in Dog harness, harness, most commonly a Dog sled, sled over snow.
Sled dogs have been used in the Arctic for at least 8,000 years and, along with watercraft, were the only transport ...
team on the
Terra Nova Expedition
The ''Terra Nova'' Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objec ...
to the Antarctic (1910–1913) was also named Nigger. The term was not considered offensive in the UK until the 1950s, being found earlier in novels and other contexts and causing no remark at the time.
Portrayal on film
Censorship
Nigger was portrayed in the 1955 British
war film
War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...
'' The Dam Busters'', in which he was mentioned by name frequently. In 1999, British television network
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
broadcast a censored version of the film, with all instances of the name removed. ITV blamed regional broadcaster
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...
, which in turn alleged that a junior staff member had been responsible for the unauthorised cuts. When
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
again showed a censored version in June 2001, it was criticised by
Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is an organization campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association w ...
as "unnecessary and ridiculous" and because the edits introduced continuity errors. The code word "nigger" transmitted in
Morse code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
upon the successful completion of the central mission was not censored. More recently, in 2012, ITV3 had shown the film uncut a few times, but with a warning at the start that it contains racial terms from the period which some people may find offensive. However, in 2013 the film had been shown a few times by Channel 5 uncut and without any warning. On Thursday 17 May 2018 an uncut version was shown on the UK channel
Film4
Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms, it ...
with a warning explaining the film was historical and that some would find it to be racially offensive.
Some edited American versions of the film use dubbing to change Nigger's name to Trigger.
Symbolism
Film critics have observed that Nigger is used in the film as a symbol of the men's emotional attachment to one another, an attachment that is not directly expressed between the film's characters. Sarah Street notes that the film, while full of emotion, does not articulate it except through secondary devices such as the affection that the characters are shown giving to Nigger. Christine Geraghty, a lecturer in media studies, observed that "Gibson's suppression of feelings is presented as appropriate rather than problematic, and the use of the dog as his most explicit emotional attachment is in keeping with the way in which class and masculinity are brought together in this isolated but self-sufficient figure." James Chapman, lecturer at the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
, adds to that the observation that the scene where Gibson is shown choking back his grief at the death of Nigger, silent and blinking awkwardly, is an example of the
stiff upper lip
A person who is said to have a stiff upper lip displays Courage, fortitude and stoicism in the face of adversity, or exercises great self control, self-restraint in the expression of emotion.
Renaming
Richard Todd
Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd (11 June 19193 December 2009) was an Irish-British actor known for his leading man roles of the 1950s. He received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, and an Academy Award for Best Actor n ...
, who played Gibson in the film, was interviewed on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''
Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...
'' programme in 2005 along with Jonathan Falconer, author of a book about the film, about the name of the dog and whether any remake of the film should retain the name. Todd, in a pre-recorded interview, said:
In response to being asked whether the name should be censored in a remake, Falconer said:
In response to being asked whether he thought people would accept this as historical accuracy, Falconer said:
In the same interview, George Baker, who also acted in the film, in response to being asked whether any opinion had been expressed on the name at the time that the film was made, said:
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...
, producer of a planned remake of the film, said in 2006 that "It is not our intention to offend people. But really you are in a no-win, damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't scenario: If you change it, everyone's going to whinge and whine about political correctness. And if you don't change it, obviously you are offending a lot of people inadvertently. ... We haven't made any decisions about what we'll do."
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...
, writer for the remake, was asked to provide several alternative names for the dog, and came up with several suggestions. Executive producer
David Frost
Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was a British television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme ' ...
rejected them all, saying "Guy sometimes used to call his dog Nigsy, so I think that's what we will call it. Stephen has been coming up with other names, but this is the one I want." Jackson's assistant contradicted this a week later, however, saying "To stay true to the story, you can't just change [the name]. We have not made any decisions yet. The script is still being written; and that decision will be made closer to the time." Later Fry said the dog would be renamed "Digger".
In 2012, historian and writer James Holland commented that controversy over the dog's name seems to have overshadowed other aspects of the raid. When he told people that he was planning to write a book on the raid, 9 out of 10 replied "What are you going to call the dog?" He found that the three characters connected with the raid that most people had heard of were Guy Gibson,
Barnes Wallis
Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979) was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack ...
, and Nigger.
See also
*
List of individual dogs
This is a list of individual famous actual dogs; for famous dogs from fiction, see List of fictional dogs.
Actors
Advertising
* Axelrod, Basset Hound, appeared in commercials and print ads for Flying "A" Service Station advertisements in ...
*
List of Labrador Retrievers
This list of Labrador Retrievers covers notable individual dogs that belong to this breed. The Labrador retriever is the most popular breed of dogs (by registered ownership) in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The breed is except ...