How A Map Won The Battle of Britain - Air Operations 1940
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- Опубліковано 15 лип 2024
- It was a system at the heart of the Royal Air Forces' defence in 1940 but few talk about it. Let's have a closer look at RAF Air Operations, the Dowding System and how it helped win the Battle of Britain. Learn about modern RAF Air Operations: • How RAF Air Operations...
This video was sponsored by the Royal Air Force.
- Patreon: / milavhistory
⚜ Find Me On Social Media ⚜
- Twitter: / milavhistory
- Instagram: / milaviationhistory
- Facebook: / militaryaviationhistory
⚜ Sources ⚜
Andy Saunders, Battle of Britain Manual
Richard Overy, The Battle of Britain
⚜ Museums ⚜
Visit Bentley Priory: bentleypriorymuseum.org.uk/
Visit the Battle of Britain Bunker: battleofbritainbunker.co.uk/
⚜ Acknowledgements ⚜
I'd like to thank the staff at Bentley Priory, the Battle of Britain Bunker and the London Borough of Hillingdon for their kind welcome and assistence. Thank you also to Alan W., Charlie, Ellie R., Jenny Q.-J., Will C. and Will M.-J..
⚜ Music ⚜
Music and Sfx from Epidemic Sound
#sponsored #BattleofBritain #RAF
Sponsored by the RAF? Our boy is growing up
Haha!
I had to pause and make sure that is what he said
about time too. hopefully we will get Bismark top 5 planes at the RAF Museum. :)
The funny thing is that they had to hire a German to do the Battle of Britain video.
Sponsored by the RAF? *THE RAF?!*
Well, congrats man
Thanks, was well chuffed :)
Well certainly not the RAF Germany had to deal with in the '70 = the "Rote Armee Fraktion" 😅
Congratulations!
Aye, well done and well deserved... if only because he's the only German who ever lived who knows how to pronounce 'bomb, bomber' and bombing' correctly. :-) Top notch old chap.
Military Aviation History Nice use of the language.
A german lad explaining how Britain defeated the Luftwaffe. That was unexpected!
The most ambitious crossover ever
Germans love to get down to the details and disect the problem. Thus it doesn't matter if it is invading nighbours, rebuilding an economy, building cars or tanks or making documentaries- they love in depth informative infotainment. And Bismark delivers, and boy he does it good.
Acin75 indeed my friend
Facts are facts.
@@tonyennis3008 Tatsachen sind Tatsachen
Better than the "documentaries" you get on the regular TV. Well done Bismarck :)
Well said.
Cheers, very happy to hear you enjoyed it
Agreed!
Does regular TV still exist? I haven't watched it in years! :)
YT is the new TV and these are the new documentaries. Ably led by people like Bismarck, our educational interests are in good hands!
I was lucky enough to interview and to get to know one of the ladies in those statues, Eileen Younghusband. She died only a couple of years ago but I knew her well enough to say that she would have thanked you for this video. She always wanted people to know about the work of the Filter Room. You have done her and her comrades proud with this video.
Damn your production quality on this video is so good.
Both that and the camera work made this a pleasure to watch. As aviaptable states below "Better than the documentaries you get on ... TV".
Totally agree, this is like a TV documentary. Quality bit of work Bis
Had a damn fine team for this one, they deserve all the credit for the footage!
@@MilitaryAviationHistory Now that I maybe have a chance I have to say a very big thank you for making such good content. One part of the WW II aviation history that I haven't really seen covered that has a lot of interesting history is the Finnish air force during the war. They got a lot of things done with what little they had. A lot of amazing stories about good pilots.
Agreed. Thank you
Nice video, and as a former member of the Royal Observer Corps (we were "Royalled" for our work in the Battle of Britain), thank you for the mentions. However Observer Corps posts were not only on the coast but inland as well, otherwise we would not be able to track raids once they crossed the coast.
For the last few years I've been pretty much living and working in Uxbridge yet have never checked out the bunker, which is about a mile from me as I am keying this. I must take remedial action.
Go, say hi from me and enjoy :)
I thoroughly recommend taking a tour of the bunker. Be warned though, there's a lot of stairs to negotiate as you would expect.
Tallyho!
As someone that works in Air Operations in the modern Royal Air Force, I’m pleased to see the RAF sponsoring you to share our history with a wider, younger audience.
People think it was radar that won the Battle of Britain. In fact, it was the whole air defence system that won the battle. Excellent video on a war winning organisation.
WOW!! I've seen this system in movies but nobody has ever explained just what all went into making it work. Thx m8.
Thank you and you're welcome
Your English is getting better bis, and this video's made me think. Wow, home boy bis who loves aiplanes and play games on UA-cam is now being sponsored by RAF. Congrats bis
It's good but did he learn it in Dublin?
Christopher. Aeroplanes, not airplanes - that is American.
The publican in my local has one of those Observer Corp sector clocks, which I helped get working again. They were slave clocks supplied by the GPO and kept in sync down special phone lines. Really, just an adaptation of the slave clocks used in government offices all over the country. All the Observer Corp clocks had hand-painted 18 inch dials in a mahogany case. The clock in the video has 5 minute sectors, which was the case at the time of the Battle of Britain, but later in the war they were repainted with two-and-a-half minute sectors to give better time resolution and more suited to aircraft that could travel more distance in the same time. The master/slave clock system was a military secret at the time.
The RAF stations had sector clocks too, but of a different design (with outward pointing triangles) and were self-powered with silk-screened dials and the RAF emblem. They are nothing like as rare, although originals of both are very valuable.
Excellently done video! Sponsored by the RAF! Bismarck is the best aviation historian on UA-cam!
Now, we need to look at the Luftwaffe's command structure and how they felt about this British ingenious design
I suggest Bismarck gets in touch with the German air force school at Fürstenfeldbruck. They also have a department of history there and it is just a few km from the air museum in schleissheim near Munich.
yes
You're a natural presenter, I really enjoy your content!
Cheers!
So basically the RAF had the first Integrated Air Defence System (IADS), knitting sensors and shooters together into an orchestrated unity.
Great video!
Cheers
Ah you should have told me you were visiting Bentley Priory Museum
. I fly over it all the time. It's a way point for flying a southerly circuit at Elstree Aerodrome. Drop me a PM if you want to come flying some time.
I found u
I came here from discord
i guess im asking randomly but does anybody know of a method to get back into an Instagram account..?
I somehow forgot the password. I would appreciate any assistance you can give me.
@Luis Dominik Instablaster ;)
@Joe Jermaine thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now.
Takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
@Joe Jermaine it worked and I now got access to my account again. Im so happy:D
Thank you so much, you really help me out!
Never expected such a sponsorship
Neither did I :)
Why not? They sponsored a knowledgeable historian
@@MilitaryAviationHistory àku
I've loved this since a boy in the 60s and you have explained to me in this vid what I had never known ..thanks
Thank you very much
Wow the production quality of this was incredible, as well as being sponsored by the RAF
I wonder how Bismarck flew to Bentley Priory without being shot down...
Plenty of barrel rolls
@@hannecatton2179 But what about a Gloster Meteor?
@@MilitaryAviationHistory
Of course you mean rolling barrels of German lager... to distract the locals. 😋
This is fantastic! My kids now in their 20’s grew up on the “Battle of Britain”. This video broadens what we know considerably.
Thank you for this Bismarck - I doubt you can imagine just what an impact you make. My Great Grandmama (Mitzi's mum) and a Great Great Aunt (Leven's mother's sister-in-law) worked behind the scenes on this system of Command .. and they have shared some stories with me (because they really 'like' you .. Hmmm?) Like so many of that generation, now swiftly dwindling, they did not speak very much about their roles, and because they knew a number of languages Margot (104 years young) and Tulia (just 103) became more involved in the sneaky-beaky bits; your little visit brought back so many memories, it is a delight to hear them.
P.S. Grampa Leven wants to share a cartoon that sounds just like him and his brother Eugenio (it sounds like Oi-gen-yo) when they are speaking a form of German (throw in loads of slangey Italian/ Churchy Latin type words - and you'll have them off pat). ua-cam.com/video/S0Auzn8UeD8/v-deo.html
I hope you enjoy.
It took the Krauts a while but they finally got a German agent in close to examine the system. Surely victory will come now that their secrets are revealed?
Not going to lie, the quality of production of this video astounded me. Shot like a well funded documentary but concise and efficient.
And sponsored by the RAF of all organizations. My how this channel has grown since the days of War Thunder.
@@hannecatton2179 I'm an American with German ancestry and "kraut" is a lot easier than getting called "squarehead" or something. (which was one of the few slurs that stung when I was a kid) Yeah, we eat sauerkraut, no, I can't help it that I was born with this jawline.
Love the system emphasis. It's really showing the extend to which support structures where developed and why sharp edge of spitfires squadrons was so well aimed. It also shows how small advantages accumulated throught whole campaign gave victory! Yay!
I had heard of the Dowding System; but seeing it explained was inspiring! Fantastic video. Genius!
Excellent. And this (in digital form) is how air intercept is still done today.
An Excellent Video on how important command and control system's actually are in any form of warfare.
Thanks for enlightening this subject for me. I always suspected that the air plotters and air command / organization were far more influential than previously thought. Radar, (chain home) was an important innovation but together with air command and control it was a battle winning combination that deserves the attention you have given to it.
Third time I've watched this. Time for me to say, man, this is good work. Absolutely tip top.
Amazing video sir. Great filming, very lively and precise at the same time, the production and staging are also a complete success in my opinion. The GSM was such an ingenious system.
Exactly the kind of video I would want to see on the UA-cam front page even when I'm not connected to my account.
Congratz for the sponsoring, I'm glad you managed to land safely, maybe they should reactivate this system!
Fly safe!
This is like a documentary you’d find on television, but with less filler and you get to the point. I love it.
Just checked Winston Churchill’s book and he describes this visit on September 15th 1940.
It’s fascinating. He describes the room being like a small theatre with the “large scale map table around which perhaps twenty highly trained young men and women with their telephone assistants” “opposite us where the theatre curtain would be covering the entire wall was a gigantic blackboard divided into 6 columns with electric bulbs for the six fighter stations”
He goes on in more detail and describes the events that unfolded.
“Hitherto I had watched in silence. I now asked “What other reserves have we? There are none” said Air Vice-Marshall Park. In an account which he wrote about it afterwards he said that at this I “looked grave”
Well I might. What losses should we not suffer if our refuelling planes were caught on the ground by raids of “40plus” or “50plus”!
The odds were great, our margins small, the stakes infinite.”
Bentley Priory is one of the last places I visited with my late father.
Hugely recommend a visit.
Excellent vid as usual, sir! congrats on the RAF sponsor
Thank you for the kind words and for sharing your memory :)
This is one of the most informative videos regarding this subject I have ever seen. Well done.
Really good job on this one. Fantastic camerawork and the meteorology part was just spot on.
Really well done professional video. It’s great to see how you have evolved from video game play thrus with funny banter to top notch historical vids. Good job!
EXCELLENT segment! As always, thank you so much for sharing.
Steve
Excellent documentary, many thanks. The only thing I might add is that you could have covered the activities at Bentley Priory in a little more depth. I thought I knew the Battle of Britain story well but a visit to the Priory (a wonderful day out by the way) opened my eyes to the value of the Filter Room. The sexy and glamorous Operations Room gets all the attention and the team in the Priory Filter Room are often overlooked. You showed a brief glimpse of the chart they used but could have explored it more. The radar stations were poor in deducing enemy bearing (and height) but could electronically measure range very accurately indeed. The Filter Room map has arcs of distance from each station and the WAAFs were allocated a station each and compared, continually, the range reports from "their" station with the girls on either side using where those range arcs crossed to produce a highly accurate "fix" for the enemy aircraft, which the Operations Room then relied on to manage successful interceptions. But a very good video, Well done.
British radar was relatively primitive at the time but it worked. Watson Watt’s motto was, ‘Second best tomorrow’.
The video work is slick. Lots of panning shots that FIT - i.e. they aren't just done because they're available but because they add something to the emphasis. The sound is slick too. Walking, talking and tracking. Good work to your whole crew!!
Mr Bismark, please don't forget the Luftwaffe lads, they were brave as well. I didn't know about the 15 min colour segments until now, well presented. Excellent video as always, thanks.
Why does everyone feel the need to *leap* to the defense of German pilots? Give it a rest, most of the officers were members of the Party and complicit in genocide, but no one is saying they acted cowardly in the air. They were only cowards at home
Yes, remember the pilots who strafed those polish mothers, and committed dozens of warcrimes.
Coming in low and slow over the briny, posing as vulnerable Heinkels when they were in fact angry Bf-109s? Shocking.
Luftwaffe brave ? They thought they were going to slaughter Fighter Command in weeks with their superior numbers and flying skills paving the way for invasion, the bully got a thrashing thank God.
Brave boys shooting WW1 Biplanes out of the skies over Spain, Poland and Russia and strafing fleeing civilians for a laugh. I have no sympathy for soldiers of tyranny, be they Luftwaffe or the Indian Colonial force
Air Marshal Dowding was a genius as he:
1) Knew the battle was going to generate a lot of information rapidly
2) Realized that he needed to process that information quickly
3) Knew that the product of the process had to be simple, understandable and capable of changing with time.
Great job on this video. Thankyou for the great watch.
awesome video, also great to see how your channel has been evolving:D.
Thanks
Very cool and informative.
A great video Bismark, loving the very professional presentation! Fingers crossed more videos like this to come ^-^
Plenty of them planned :)
Superb video. The production values and presentation take this to the next level.
Excellent video, well done Bismarck 🙂
Danke :)
That was really well done. Nice work!
A very interesting presentation on data integration and data presentation that demonstrates that it could all be done without computers - you just needed enough people who knew what they were doing, working in a co-ordinated manner. Simple but brilliant. Very well presented and illustrates extremely clearly how the Few were enabled by the Many. Good work!!
All the computers do is speed up the data flow, other than that the machines are quite dumb and you really need somebody in the data chain who knows what he (or she) is doing in the management of information. Even today, in an air defence centre a good half of the people working in there are just maintaining and cleaning up the picture so that the fighter / weapons controllers can do their side of the job more effectively.
It obviously because of secret pigeon Air Force used by Scotland, every one expects a spitfire but no one expects a Scottish pigeon
The should've used Aberdonian seagulls - they're real mean bastards.
@@Calum_S last time I was in Scotland, the seagulls traumatized me deeply.
Great video - and brilliantly explained - super job.
Thanks for all the work you put into these videos, which are always fascinating.
Brilliant stuff Bis, you're knocking it out of the park.
Excellent video, great content.
The quality is superb
Very well produced and on the mark, did not detect any B.S.. A.V.M. Lord Dowding was a Leader with Great Vision and Great respect for the Safety of His Chicks... Lest we Forget.
I was and still am extremely proud to have served in the R.A.F.
Brilliant Bis. Great presentation.
This is excellent...thank you!
Thanks
Excellent work. I watch a lot of your videos. Much appreciated
This is a fantastic video. It really makes you think about the BoB differently - and warfare more generally. Thanks!
An excellent and very informative video. Thank you.
Brilliant. So clear in his explanations about how the system worked. Thank you
The architect of this system, Hugh Dowding, was an interesting guy and worthy of a vid to himself. A raging introvert, and so deeply affected by the casualties suffered by the RAF that he tried to contact his dead pilots.
He and Park lost out in the bureaucratic struggle to people like Leigh-Mallory after the Battle.
Excellent video.
Cheerz
It was with considerable foresight that a national network of dedicated underground telephone cables were laid, independent of the Post Office.
Your videos are are getting really good! You are creating a fabulous educational resource for the future - well done!
Absolute mad lad Biz. Outstanding quality and I hope funding keeps up to continue, I’m perfectly fine waiting for this content. ❤️ u Biz 🥰
Thank you, Austin
best explanation i've ever seen. Marvellous, thanks
Thanks, this ironed out a few details for me.
personally I would say this map is an early (first) form of virtual reality. the real world situation was represented on a map so one person could understand the tactical situation across the whole area of operations this allowed crucial decisions to be made at a non local scale giving a strategic advantage that compensated for the limited resources of fighter command through efficient use like one well aimed round rather than a huge barrage
Nice video. Really goes in depth when I’m terribly important part of the battle of Britain. Thanks.
Absolutely fascinating. Thanks.
Great quality!
Another well presented video. Please could you do some on the Luftwaffe? Everyone can visit museums, and read books and media covers the Battle of Britain well, but it's always good to see the other side. How did the Luftwaffe plan it's assault on Britain, and how did they continue to put up tough resistance to the Day and nightie bombing raids late 44 into 45. As you are a German speaker with superb English it would be great to see the other perspective!! Keep up the great work on your channel!
A fascinating video. So much better quality than any of our recent British documentaries :)
Very well done. Thank you.
Excellent video 👍
It was nice that you mentioned the work of the Observer Corps,some videos on the B of B don't,there were some things not quite right.The Observer Corps covered the whole country not just the coastal areas,even to the Shetland Isles eventually, with 40 of their own operations centres feeding information in real time to the RAF. For their work during the B of B they were given the Royal title in April 1941.There is only one of the 40 Ops Rooms left now and that is in Bury St.Edmunds in Suffolk in the Guildhall.I will be there on the next open day on the 30th October to explain how the Observer Corps system worked using our Plotting Table and Long Range Board and how the RAF received the information they needed to counter the German aircraft.
Good show! Very clear explanation of the operations.
Some mention should be given to intelligence from Bletchley Park and RAF Cheadle, which helped inform Dowding and Park of both high level decripted comms and low grade cipher traffic from Y stations.
Heck keep this up and you'll be *the* only go to guy for high calibre aviation history productions. :)
Great Video !
Great program thanks 😁👌👌👌
Best work yet!
Fantastic stuff - free, professionally produced content that's so much more detailed than the dumbed-down TV channel documentaries.
Klasse doku! Noch ein bisschen länger und du wirst wie David Attenborough mit deutschen Akzent. Super!
Great documentary! Just a little bit longer and you will be like a David Attenborough with a german accent. Superb!
Ha, das waer was!
@@MilitaryAviationHistory ich meine was ich sage/I mean what i say .
Brilliant. Well done sir.
Today we are told about data science and things like that, but just look at this : they communicte coordonates and activity of hundreds of planes hundreds of miles, they organize everything in a easy to read and write way,back in 1940. That's really incredible
"...but behind them were the many." Brilliant.
Outstanding production.
My grandad was an AA gunner at RAF Kenley...it was heavyly hit in a raid and my grandad, loss some of his sight in his right eye, which resulted in him being send to the Shetland Islands. He was so upset able it as his unit was send to North Africa.
WOW, sponsored by the RAF. Bismark is getting some real creed in "The Hood". Way to go. You deserve it. A very professional and informative video. I always wondered and now I know.
Good job, Great watch!
The Luftwaffe came knocking, and we already had tea ready.
Extraordinary depth of knowledge and detail! Wow! Ausgezeichncit! Vielen Dank!
By god how far you have gotten, you went from simply presenting animations and presentation and referencing books commonly, to being sponsored by the RAF! And your video quality is so amazing too! Documentary-level, 3000x better than what is presented on the "History Channel".
You stepped up your production quality, looks great!
Had a great team, they helped me a lot in getting this done.
Good episode. The only things missing from it was a discussion of the 'Battle of Barking Creek' a friendly fire incident early in the war that exposed a few problems with the system that were able to be solved before the Battle of Britain proper got started. The other is that during WWI when the Germans launched a Zepplin/Conventional aircraft assault against London the British evolved something that aside from radar was pretty close to the Dowding system as it evolved prior to WWII. Both might be worth episodes.
Unbelievable system in 1940 ..nice to see it explained this way
Excellent biz! Was that the visit when Winston Churchill asked how many reserve fighters were available. Only to be told there were none. Everything was in the air.