WW2 Fleet Air Arm - Pilot Eric 'Winkle' Brown
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown was a Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft and carried out a world record number of deck landings and catapult take-offs.
When war was declared, Eric was a student in Munich and was arrested by the SS and incarcerated for three days. He was one of 60 British students exchanged by the Red Cross for 60 German students in Britain. Eric joined the RAF in 1939 but quickly transferred to the Fleet Air Arm because of the shortage of FAA pilots.
Eric served with 802 Squadron which was to operate from the world’s first escort aircraft carrier which was made from a captured German banana boat, HMS Audacity. Eric gives a vivid description of the sinking of the ship in the Bay of Biscay, during which the aircraft broke loose, causing huge casualties amongst 400+ men on deck, and how he was one of only 2 survivors of a group which perished from cold in the winter sea.
Towards the end of the war, Eric became CO of the Enemy Aircraft Flight, the objective of which was to capture and fly back to Britain advanced enemy aircraft and to go to the enemy’s main research establishment to bring back equipment, engineers, and scientists. In April 1945 he was sent to Germany to investigate German jets that had been abandoned, and he went to Belsen concentration camp to interrogate Josef Kramer and Irma Grese. He also helped identify Himmler who was being held at Luneburg.
The Archive also holds Eric's audio interview and photographs.
Not just the greatest pilot but one of the great adventurers of history. Arrested by the SS, survived the sinking of his ship, saw the first British jet fly, got a German airfield to surrender to him and one other guy, was there at Belsen, interviewed Nazi leaders and located a lot of the best German technology. That on top of what he did as the greatest test pilot in history.
The Greatest test pilot of ALL time. Not only because of the greatest number of test aircraft he has flown but also because of the myriad of dangerous situations he has been through, and survived in his life!...A REAL HERO.
Probably the greatest pilot ever, period. He flew some incredibly dangerous prototypes, long before flight simulators, when you had to eyeball the plane to decide how it might behave. Good lord! And of course people who flew several of the same planes after him were killed in crashes, as you no doubt know. He tested the DH 108. All three prototypes were destroyed in crashes, and the pilots killed.
Very well made programme! Thanks for sharing! Captain Brown has been one of my heroes for many years and this video does him justice so thank you once again!
Thanks uploader.
What he said in last 5 minutes is so true
....absolutely.
Great interview...👍
One of our last great generation.
This man and many others are the heroes of our past lives . They fought for our freedoms. Why do our governments want to give it all away?
Because they are not of us.
Had the pleasure and honour of meeting Eric in person at Shuttleworth, Beds, UK. He was an amazing person and toally captivating in his delivery of war experiences. Very respected and greatly admired and I will always remember him and his siginng his book to me. One of a kind!
I think you mean 'the only one of a kind' (i.e. unique). 'One of a kind' means there are others of the same kind.
And do you know there are some on you tube who doubt his veracity
In top 5 most competent men of the 20th century. Top 2 or 3 best ever test pilots.
A fantastic interview - how well he spoke! But what Winkle Brown relates here is just a small fraction of his experiences. If someone had written a fictional story of someone doing all he did and saw, it would make a great story but nobody would possibly believe it was feasible. And yet he lived it all.
Here is to the memory of the members of the commonwealth who died defending the UK and its overseas territories.
Cpt Eric winkle brown the greatest test pilot ever ,he met the american Chuck yeager, who later broke the speed of sound he says chuck yeager was very ''standoffish'' toward him and never got on together more yeager then brown, eric brown reflects back when he had the opportunity to be the first to break the sound barrier, they had a jet powered prototype ready for a test flight, but for some reason the british government pulled the plug, and ordered brown to cease any further work this left brown in a very angry along with his team and mystified state... why ? he was ordered to hand over all data , drawings , blueprints, collected thus far, including the moving Tail assembly which the americans took to solve the failures it suffered in its record attempt
It was the Miles 52 program The Americans had approached the Brits with a quid pro quo arrangement that they would give the Brits something and would get something on the Miles 52 program The problem was that the Brits were 18months ahead . When Miles handed over the Flying tail it was all ahead full with the US while pressure was put on Miles from the UK Govt to close it down
Although Brown never says in his book, the inference is that the US put pressure on the UK government to close the Miles program down .
In quite a few times the War Debt was the catalyst .
Such things are frequently mentioned in Films etc The Diplomat, Yes Minister
@@jacktattis Yes, I quite agree plus the eagerness of Churchill to play lap dog to American demands, he gave a lot of top secret cutting edge technology away the British were way ahead in rader development and overnight the Americans caught up what I find puzzled over was the the American Norden bombsight the RAF wanted to barrow some while they were working on a new design themselves but it was a year away but the Americans refused because the Germans might get one from a shot down RAF bomber
Did anybody tell the Americans that the Germans had already stolen the blueprint years earlier which the Americans refused to believe No it was because of the chief of the US navy who hated the British and refused to help the British it was a waste of money and investment the Germans consider it a fancy full bombsight of little value
@@jacktattis Yes i agree the Americans differently pulled you owe us a favour card out of there bottom or two they knew about what was going on in Britain with there attempt at the sound barrier attempt for sure .
they came over the whole bunch of them straight to the prime minister with cap in hand we all know how eager Churchill was to the American when he was in power the demands he was h American himself and basically offered what ever they wanted he gave away the entire family silver to accross the pond.
Chuck Yeager was a complete twat towards brown jealous sob he knew of Eric brown and his exploits as a test pilot and he knew he couldn't match him but he could if he broke the sound barrier first hence why the Americans put pressure on Clermont Attlee then British prime minister 1947 Yeager got his revenge on brown over on the British because of the British expertise help irony at itd finest
The Norden bombsight is another pet hate why the Americans refused to let the RAF use it they say it was in case the Germans got hold of it didn't nobody tell the Americans that the Germans already had it they stole detail of it and shipped it over Germany the Nazis had a well established spy network in America .
industrial espionage was one of the ways they kept tabs on things the Americans were designing bombers guns and the Norden bombsight the Germans thought it was overly complex and unnecessary expensive they had a good bombsight and though it was a waste of effort
However the reason the RAF never got there hands on one earlier in the war was because of admiral King .
Aside for the fact American bomber's were scattered all over Europe shot down in doves with I tact bombsight lol
Would have loved to have met him & say thank you for his service. His life story is amazing!!