Thank God mistakes were made. Can you imagine if the Nazis had deployed their ME-262 sooner and had developed an atomic bomb first and combined them with their V-2 rockets? A dark and disturbing world locked in a death spiral into barbarism and total collapse in less than a hundred years. Thank God evil is, more often than not, pretty stupid.
My Dad flew B26s out of Sardinia. He almost never spoke of it, but did once tell a story of encountering the ME262 late in the war. They had an escort of Thunderbolts, and when the jets came at them out of the sun they hit two bombers and the fighters were right on their tail in pursuit. At the bottom of the dive, the jets put their noses up and flew back through the formation taking out two more bombers, while the Thunderbolts were down below circling, circling, circling to gain altitude. Meanwhile the jets had to return to base to refuel. We didn't get along well, but he had courage all his life.
The fighters eventually found an effective way of dealing with the 262s by following them to their airfields and knocking them out as they tried to land. Didn't much help the bombers when they were airborne, but by reducing their numbers, fewer and fewer were available to intercept.
He was the greatest aviator to come out of WW2. German speaker, he interviewed the German High Command. Sunk on board a carrier. Developed carrier landings, landed a Mosquito on a small carrier, Flew more aircraft types that anybody else- only pilot to have tested all the German aeroplanes and reported on them, and stayed in Germany rebuild German industry. Nobody will ever have his breadth of experience.
When he thought the Me 262 was the best airplane that makes them 'very scary' Thank goodness the German Airforce and leadership shot themselves in the foot. A win is a win, no matter how you get there. Our guys were good. Very good.
One of the things the United States did that virtually no other nation did, was quickly identify outliers, overperformers, particularly in aerial combat, pull them out of combat, and promote them to instructors. The theory was that it was more valuable to identify the best pilots early, and leverage their skills and experience to train as many as possible to be competent right out of flight schools. This is why American Aces have so many fewer victories than their counterparts on both sides. Those aces were pulled from front line combat and pressed into service as tacticians and trainers. Meanwhile, in all other air-services, the aces were left to attrition, while the training and tactics never changed or adapted to the emerging technology.
It was very true about top US pilots pulled out of combat for training duties. And it was very difficult for them to return to active combat duties usually taking about two years . By then it was late 44 or early 45, and much of the air to air combat was over.
@@richardvernon317 I'm quite certain the U.S. Air Corps, as well as the Navy, pulled the top pilots and kept them in instructor roles. There wasn't a rotation if I'm not mistaken. You'll see Nazi aces with thousands of sortees, while the American counterparts had a few hundred at most. Erich Hartman flew over 1400 missions for example.
My dad had a similar experiece.. He graduated at the top of his class, flying B25s and Liberators. He never flew in combat. They gave him a commision and made him an instructor.
1. Lack of long-term strategic planning. 2. Lack of an early long-range bomber. 3. Lack of coordination between service branches. 4. Lack of natural resources (aluminum). 5. Lack of a structured, long-terms pilot training program. 6. Lack of top management of production throughout the war. 7. Top management’s inability to delegate and accept the advice of experts.
1. more a lack of short term strategic planing to get to long term strategic goals, mixed with unrelaistic long term goals. thanks to the führer being a poltician not a general but having, at the same time, overall command. 2. there is nothing midrange bombers can't achieve that longrange bombers can in the early stages of the war. fighter cover was always limited to midrange at best. any longrange bombing by the allies was always covered by short to midrange fighters launched by aircraft carriers or from airfields not equipped for heavy bombers. 3. can't really speak to that but i never got the impression that luftwaffe and heer were badly coordinated. especially in the early war period there was a high coordination between CAS and ground forces wich made the (in)famous blitzkrieg possible. don't really know if that degraded in the late war. 4. agree 5. where do you get that from? after 1941 pilot training degraded thanks to the strain put on the luftwaffe, but prior to that you had a well structured and torough training program, with everything from general traing to specialised courses for nightflying, bombing recon ect. 6. again, where do you get that from? germany had a large inovative air industry with a lot of intelligent and competent people at it's head. german industry in general was led by a bunch of still famous engineers and pioneers in their field of expertise. there was some outside influence from (again) the füherer who didn't know shit about anything besides beeing a politcian, that led to some wierd decscions but that was hardly the fault of the industry leaders. 7. agree, a.h. as commander in chief of everything was (luckily) incompetent as fuck
One of the best descriptions I’ve ever heard of the luftwaffe was as a too small a blanket on a cold nite. It keeps getting pulled back and forth to try to cover more bed than is possible and eventually gets torn apart.
While this is true, it overlooks the fact that the allies had a similar problem. Goering stayed in post because of his personal loyalty to Hitler, his history and status in the party (member #34, if memory serves) and being a war hero. But being a WW1 pilot doesn't give you the skills to lead a military service! With the US, they were very swift to remove poorly performing officers. Within the UK slightly less so. They tended to be re-assigned out to the Far East. I personally think Leigh-Mallory is over-rated. And the loss of pilots & aircraft which were needed in the desert war and the far east to 'mushrooms and rhubarbs' was nearly criminal.
WW2 Veterans are few and far between, these days. When I was a kid in the 1960s, you couldn't throw a stone without hitting one. I ran into a Vietnam Veteran today. I commented that "I thought that the Vietnam guys were all "laying down" by now. (He did not take offense, as he knew what I meant...) and he told me that he would be 75 this year. That is a pretty ripe old age for somebody who did not have to survive a war. I was in awe...
Anyone else think these dronescapes videos are a bit off? They all seems to be clips of other people's content mashed together and the theme changes throughout the video. Just seems bizarre....
Just googled Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown - wow !. His lists of achievements and feats is endless, a very impressive man !. As a fellow Edin-burger I salute you, sir - RIP !
One of the greatest pilots, if not the greatest, that ever lived. We will soon release some old Betacam footage that was never seen before, adding to his endless legacy.
They reckon that no pilot will ever again fly as many aircraft types as Capt Eric Winkle Brown. At some point or another, he flew every aircraft in service especially axis machines (German, Italian and Japanese) after the war, as High Command were interested in his appraisal of them.
I've always felt that the Luftwaffe, like the rest of military in Nazi Germany, was geared towards a short war. It's equipment and operational doctrine was based around air superiority over the battlefield and providing tactical air support for the ground troops. The problem with that while the Luftwaffe could do excellent against neighboring countries (Poland, Denmark, the Low Countries and France), they didn't have the necessary reach to be effective against more distant opponents.
It was expected in Germany the war will end in two years but general winter made it impossible. That is why the attack against the Udssr goes to the south. They need the oil and metall from the Kaukasus. The irony in it was, they passed Stalingrad, that was not defendet at this time. Later this town was the beginn of the end.
If you dig into the inner circle of Nazism,they were preparing for a long war and what happened to their disadvantage was that the war came early. Germany had hoped there'd be no conflict till at the earliest,1945.
If it weren't for a few key battles one for the allies we would all be speaking German today. The Germans were far off and ahead in tech luckily Hitler wasn't all that great a tactician and he wouldnt listen to the greatest so he failed his army luckily he got greedy in Russia and the Americans joined and he made more mistakes... It could have been much much different.
A funny joke from the late war was a German soldier explaining: 'If you see silver planes in the sky, that's the Americans. If you see brown planes in the sky, that's the British. If you see NO planes in the sky, that's the Luftwaffe.'
Wow. He sure comes across pretty awesomely here. It's incredible that he a) was the actual guy who flew the German hardware, b) is on the record with his direct experiential insights, c) does it so well and eloquently.
What caused it to fail? Easy answer, Germany was fuel starved by 1941. Though they weren't completely without fuel/gas but it was a trickle by that time, no longer able to do large scale combined arms blitz maneuvers.
I agree but also disagree . I think Germany was the most powerful military force back then . Only thing don’t matter who you are you cannot win by fighting giants on 3,4,5 fronts .
Germany would not have gone to war if not for Hitler. In the start of Germany's road to world conflict,Hitler had predicted the other countries actions. He won territory without fighting. When fighting started Poland and France went better than planned. Lucky for the rest of the world his second half of his leadership was not even up to a fight with anyone. How are you going to get rid Of a guy who is popular and is on a streak?
Wow what an inside about aircraft development etc both in germany and with the allied command. as an airline employee in Auckland NZ, I met Sir Douglas Baden. And only years later I came to realise who he was talking to friend of mine. I learned a lot since. I met him because someone had to assist him going to the lavatory as he had both his legs missing. It was his eyes that i will never forget and his hand on my shoulder in appreciation. What a man! John Sciarone Auckland NZ.
Well, as German born in 1960 I had to understand my countries past and make sense of it. I have thought about almost every of these aspects and tried to figure how we could have won. After many, many sessions over many years I came to conclusion. There are, in my humble opinion, three reasons why we lost this war. And the third is the most convincing you will see. First, we should not have prosecuted the Judes and other “non-Arian” Germans. Before nazi power, these people have been proud members of our society contributing to all areas of society, most know for their contribution to science. Second, attacking Russia without piece on other fronts. Well. Third, starting this war to begin with. By no measure we could have won this.
Im english i believe If Hitler left his General's to do their jobs and not interfered Things would've been very different. The RAF was 90% destroyed and almost had nowhere left to use re taking off or landing But before finishing the job Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to switch and bomb London and other non military targets ( citys) Giving the RAF time to relocate and build more fighters. Without them we would have lost the battle of Britain and been invaded by German troops who were ready and waiting across the channel. That was 1940 2 years before Hitler declared war on the USA. If Britain had been invaded the USA would have definitely signed agreements to not interfere with German rule in Europe. ..without British merchant navy supplying Russia with weapons, tanks, and everything else they needed Hitler would have easily defeated Russia . ..then I think German scientists would have finished their design of long range fuel cells and and created a devastating version of the V2 Built squadrons of jet fighters. Built rocket bases and other military installations on western Ireland and launched rockets at and destroyed new York Washington & with tirpitz and the others plus fuel ships crossed the Atlantic and destroyed all US factories and major city's and within a year or less the USA would have to surrender or be wiped out Leaving Germany to rule everything. ..but he did interfere and that's why Germany lost the war .
Using so much manpower to exterminate people and control populations in over run countries was costly. The rest of the World is thankful that Hitler was taking all of those drugs.
At 12:15 - the Luftwaffe did drop a magnetic mine, into tidal water in Kent. RN specialists were able to make it safe, recover it, and study its tecchnical content. And thus ships could be 'degaussed' to make them unlikely to trigger such mines. Ouvry and Baldwin were the two heroes who worked on the unknown mine.
Also the amazing Halifax magnetic mine 'trawler'. It had an enormous electromagnet fitted around the whole fuselage and main wings, when energised, could trigger magnetic mines. The Halifax was the Land Rover of heavy bombers.
Yes that was a stupid move. The Germans deployed the magnetic mine in small numbers to begin with, allowing time for the British to develop counter-measures. They should have waited and deployed them en masse, which would have had a huge impact on British coastal shipping.
I read a book once about the German program to develop rockets. At one point, after much effort, forced labor and suffering, Hitler shut down all work because he had a dream that the program would never succeed. Remember that in WW2 history you have to factor in a madman.
When it came to the procurement of aircraft Germany and Japan were polar opposites. The German navy had no authority to obtain aircraft of it's own whereas the Japanese Navy had free reign to order the aircraft it wanted.
Two main reasons : the Luftwaffe lost half of its plane during the France campaign which meant a defeat against Britain. They never caught up. The stupid tendancy from Hitler to name an incompetent like Goering and keep him for political reasons despite complete failure. A bunch of courageous pilots named at high responsibilities without having a single competence in the job. The most famous figure beeing Udet.
Back in 1980 I worked with halve a dozen extremely talented German electrician & mechanics Installing a state of the art $10 million machine. None of them would admit that they are their company could make a mistake. Case in point we purchased a $5,000 pre stretched metric chain from them but it did not have a constant distance on links. They would not believe the option of our two best machnists that measured the chain so they flew a mechanic over from Germany a few days later and within a few minutes their guy said that chain was detective.
Maybe if they’re so perfect they could tell me why every older BMW my rich customers have need plastic boot trays under their oil pans because they all leak. I’ve heard of this arrogance displayed before.
I agree with you on Germans thinking they know everything and build everything better. This opinion comes from working with Germans in the automobile business for 18 years. They will not admit faults in their automobiles even when presented with hard evidence. I've even heard "you Americans don't know how to drive our cars". I'm speaking of BMW and Porsche. They are a very stubborn people.
The german jet lead with the me262 was shadowed by the Gloster Meteor. The British had a good test bed in the first jets with the Meteor. The Meteors service life was considerably longer in peacetime and the ME 262 service life faded very rapidly and was replaced quickly by newer second generation jets
After finding out my grandfather was captured in the Battle of the Bulge in WW2 I looked stuff on WW2. I concluded the nazis were self sabotaging and wouldn't have ruled for that long. We should never forget the lessons of the past. RIP grandpa and all the people who protected us in that time. I will remember.
One of the problems with the Luftwaffe command was trying to get one aircraft to do too many multirole actions. Gooring or Milch demanded that the medium bombers like the Ju88 be used in the dive bombing role. So as a result the wings needed to be strengthened which added more weight and reduced its speed. Another problem with production is that Hitler waited till 1943 to put Germany's war machine on a 24/7 full time basis.
The DE high command insistance that their planes were multi-functional in their rolls that resulted in these planes not being able to carry out any roll with competence, not too dissimilar to many sectors of our economy that requires that employees are competent in ALL tasks undertaken by those professionals in their discipline/industry while discarding those who specialise in particular aspects of their discipline /industry are overlooked /discarded by employers due to the assumption that such individuals are a liability to the employer, rather than an asset that compensates for the minimal skills of a generalist
Well that may or may not be true... read Richard Overy's book. He says the German economy was about to collapse when they went to war, as they didn't have enough foreign exchange and the government couldn't pay its debts. So in some ways, they were already at full stretch. in 1940 they had to basically temporarily disband some divisions to send the soldiers to work in the factories. They had a shortage of labour (especially skilled labour) and materials and may not have been able to work much harder at that time. They were only able to keep producing late in 1944 by making things out of spare parts, so when they broke down, they couldn't be fixed.
The Germans were producing more fighters at the end of the war than the beginning. After Poland and France Luftwaffe put units in reserve.and made.up losses in production put army units in reserve and did not go into war time production until 43-44. There was not a shortage of money but they could.not support the cost of 24/7 production. When they got free slave labour they could afford to go to wartime production. When thinking about mistakes or making changes in strategy results come back the same, like if Hitler had not interfered with the 262 it would have changed the out come of the war. I don't think it would have changed the out come but it would have gone down in a different way. Little changes at the beginning can make a huge difference in the end. One of the mistakes or oversights may be a better term, was the failure to increase the range of the 109. Simple drop tanks would have changed the Battle of Britain. The lack of strategic long range bombers were not as big of an oversight than no drop tanks. Strategic bombing was not as effective as the allies hoped, after bombing Germany to rubble they were producing more fighters at the end. Britain could not be bombed into submission and even if they could reach the U S I don't think they could have made us give up. The Luftwaffe had high standards and superior aircraft and training they changed their tactics from day to night bombing due to losses. The planes could be made up pilots and crews not so much. The Germans rotated their pilots and crews they were given leave and did there time as instructors. The Luftwaffe ended the war the way the British came in, pilots having a dozen hours of flight time going against seasoned vets. No matter what the Luftwaffe did it was going to lose it was just matter of time
I'm sure I read something about the DC ( can't rem the no) did more than all the bombers and fighters towards winning the war due to all everything it carried, men supplies , everything needed to keep the war going forward the unsung hero of ww2 . I don't know if that's true . But I definitely read it or heard it , Ive read and watched so many documentaries, series about ww2, I can't remember if it was an opinion or a fact ,
My father used to say how in awe he and others were of the ME262 in its early forays into combat. They actually had no idea what it was at first, but quickly learned that they had zero chance competing against it when it was just a question of speed. However, it had a lot of disadvantages as well, quite a few of them pointed out in this video, and the P-51 guys, at least, learned in time to take advantage of its lack of good control of its speed, which turned into also not having good control of its maneuverability when it really needed it, and the Allied pilots would take advantage of that vulnerability.
A very excellent and knowledgeable documentary. Thank you. Unified technology development and procurement, strategic bombing capacity (instead of a fascination with dive bombing), sufficient pilot training / experienced pilots and resources were what was missing. Thank you!
Strategic bombing did not work on the Germans how would it have worked for them. Today the Air force has the 1 bomb 1 hit mentality instead of drop a thousand and maybe hit something. The lack of range for their fighters was probably the biggest reason they failed.
It (262 Sparrow) must be used a fighter Bomber, the Blitz Bomber... Way to go Adolf, do some more Meth.. Too many different models, too many different calibers, too many "projects".. Should have settled on one or 2 designs MAX. Should have had a long range bomber.. etc etc etc.... The Luftwaffe was not the only entity, the German armaments industry had so many different projects going, so many different calibers of prototypes. They should have had one service rifle, the STG 44... One Tank, a simplified Panther with a good final drive with dual splines, better wheels for field repair and better engine. The list goes on and on and on and on... The Myth of German efficiency and quality was painfully DESTROYED as was the Nazi regime. Thank God.
What an excellent documentary, in particular the second one with Eric Brown RN, arguably the most experienced pilot in the British armed forces, if not in the whole world. I think that he flew every single British, American and German aircraft of his generation as a highly proficient test pilot.
Eric Brown had over 2500 Carrier landings . Far more than anyone else. The US Navy , not wishing to be outdone , put one of their hotshot navy pilots to beat his record . He ended up having a nervous breakdown. So there's that.
Battle of Britain is what failed Goring, he told Hitler it would only take a week to get Rid of the RAF, he underestimated the RAF and the Spitfires and Mosquitoes.
The attitude that it would only take a week was not so far fetched at the time the nasties were riding A wave of success that they could hardly believe. I am not a lover of Hitler and the Nazis, but their success at the beginning of the war gave them the attitude that they couldn't lose. Radar had been around before the war ships.used it to go through fog and to range guns granted it was not the same as the British chain home radar.tha t would give you altitude. Few people thought about using it to detect planes. Parliament wanted to see if a death ray could be made and used against aircraft. Britain being the only country to experience air bombing on it's cities. Despite the early warnings when combat between fighters happened it was the Germans who usually came out on top. The Germans would have loved to nail the RAF on the ground like the other countries that Germany took. Loses were so heavy they switched to night bombing. Goering was not up to the task of leading the Luftwaffe but you can't blame him for overconfidence in the early part of the war.
What a thorough and enlightening video. I would note that the Komet rocket plane had a nose cone of cast steel to act as armor, in conjunction with the slab of Lucite we see in the video footage. The device used to move a Komet on the ground was called a Schleppwagen. We even use "shlep" in English meaning to lug or carry something. I think that tow trucks in Germany are also called this. Test Pilot Opitz was an extraordinary glider pilot, and after the war he moved to America where he taught gliding and competed in gliding events in various parts of the U.S.A. Finally, Hannah Reitsch was interviewed whilst in her seventies, and you can see that the spark for flying is still burning brightly within her. You can find the interview on this platform. --Old Guy
'The device', it was two parts, the 'Sceuch Schlepper' made originally as an agricultural tractor by Robert Sceuch, I too have called it a Schleppwagen for fifty five years. The trailer is different, that for the Komet is unclear, I don't recall from my modelling days in the '60s but I found this the 'Kettenlaufwerk', a set is sold by Germania Figuren. I made a model of this and many other Luftwaffe exotics from drawings in 'Warplanes of the Third Reich' by William Green, long out if print, it's worth the $60-100 used.
The only fatal mistake was invading Poland; from then onwards they were living on borrowed time. Their complete failure in the Battle of Britain in 1940 was a sign of what was to come. By the time it was necessary to take on the USSR as well as the British Empire it was Game Over. The US joining the war in 1942 was merely a "pile on".
Mistake number two: Allowing themselves (Hitler, who else?) being successfully baited hook, line and sinker to shift focus from the British airfields and air defences in the Battle of Britain to the British cities after the more or less symbolic bombing of Berlin at 25 August 1940. Mistake number three: Attacking the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Until this point, Stalin had been a passive ally to Hitler, providing Germany with oil, chrome and Mangan and grain.
The U S came in late but they were more than a pile on. Fighting on two different fronts and supplying Russia and England with materials at the same time is something none of the other countries could dream of. The russians were losing entire armies and the British Expeditionary force left France and their equipment. Europe would still be at war if the russians and British were Hitler's only enemies. It was 1941 when the U S piled on.
Amen to that. Screwed up at Dunkirk. Completely botched the Battle of Britain and somehow convinced everyone he could airlift all resources into Stalingrad.
If only he stopped the morphine 10-12yrs earlier he maybe have extend the war by 3 months for his highly intelligent fuhrer 😆😅 thank god we realised just in time to stop trying to assassinate Hitler.
There shouldn't be any big or long thoughts concerning German strength on every field. You cannot win when you go against the greatest industrial giants in the world combined, it's just not possible.
That's not precisely true. Both the Soviets and the British were in dire condition. The British were at least Germany's equal in industry and the Soviets were actually superior, yet they were both facing destruction for a while. The clincher was the untouchable industries in the US that supported both. Had Germany left Japan to face the US alone, instead of declaring war on the US, it might still have beaten the Soviets, while the US expended its war efforts on Japan, alone. The British, by themselves, could not have prosecuted the strategic bombing campaign.
It's fortunate Nazi Germany had the leaders it did. It would have been really rough if they had had leaders of similar quality as those of Great Britain & the United States. I suppose the same could be said of Japan aswell.
These people made the Nazi Germany. They were too Ideologie AND too obsessed with themselves to follow the advice of better people. Hitler himself often reigned in the development of weapons, tanks had to become bigger, have more powerful cannons, like a little child in the cand store. Following advice of good experts means that you get contradicted, that you may have to change your aims, and that you can stand that. It's the same in Russia, and it will be the same if Donald Trump becomes President. He doesn't like to hear anything bad or complicated. There are sometimes managers that function the same way.
Arguably though, if Germany didn't have the leader(s) they did, they wouldn't have started the war in the first place. The whole of Hitler's strategy was a gamble, he believed he could act quickly enough to get his objectives, leveraging his superior aggression, the enemy's unpreparedness, as well as outright lying, breaking the morale of democracies and leveraging the reciprocal hate btw capitalism and communism. He never believed in a long war, as the hasty and unprepared entry of Mussolini in the war testifies.
24:20: ME262. Growing up in the UK we were taught at school that Germany and UK developed the gas-turbine jet engine independently in parallel. In a recently uncovered post-war interview However, Hans Von Ohain revealed that their early development program was entirely based on Whittle's 1930 Patent.
Do you have a reference to that interview? What we know for sure is that he initially denied having access,. Later he admitted to have had partial access to Whittle’s work, but his assistant confirmed he actually had full access to Whittle’s work, including drawings. He indeed credited Whittle as the inventor in his book. This details aside, given that Whittle’s work was delayed by roughly 5 years, his accomplishments eclipse Von Ohain’s, as Whittle’s engine could have had a working engine in 1934/1935, and probably even 1933 had he been supported, especially financially, like Von Ohain did
Whittle and v. Ohains designs are completely different. You are right, that there were developed parallel, but with different technical properties. Von Ohains design origins from an axial machine concept and Whittles from a radial one. Today only axial concepts survived in jet engines, while general gas turbines are in both design concepts. When Whittle and von Ohain met after the war, they found out, that Whittle began earlier than v. Ohain, but v. Ohain was first with a working machine. And the design of the axial type engine is much easier to construct with multiple stage compressor and turbine modules. Whittle had serious problems to get the thrust he needed from his radial design. On the other hand Whittle was a long time a lonely fighter for his idea, who got no support from the RAF or the DOW. Noone there saw the potential of his idea. V. Ohain had nearly unlimited resources from Heinkel and the Heereswaffenamt, but suffered on an early, deadline to deliver results. So he had to stage some of the first tests to convince Heinkel to go on. And he was right.
@@ingowalkerling5141axial turbo jet are much more difficult to built than centrifugal compressors turbo jets, because axial compressors need much more parts who need perfect alignment and use high quality steel, centrifugal compressors are cast aluminium, and a single burning chamber is very difficult to maintain stable burning whi is much more reliable and effective with multiple burning chambers
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers were not the only bomber threat the Americans possessed. There was no mention of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers, which also threatened the Fatherland and could carry more bombs than a B-17.
They were mostly equivalent types. B-24 was built in larger numbers, had a longer range and had a bigger payload. B-17 was a much more survivable airframe when damaged, had superior defensive armament from the E variant onwards and was easier to fly especially when damaged. Each type had its own niche, and the US production capacity was not negatively affected by producing two similar but different types in large numbers.
@@B52Stratofortress1 Yes, I am fully aware of the B-24 Liberator and its contributions to the war effort in Europe. My father flew a B-24D as a co-pilot in Operation Tital Wave where they bombed the Nazi Synthetic Oil Refineries at Ploesti in Romania on 1 August 1943. This was the infamous low level raid where many American bombers were lost. My father was assigned to the 512 Bomb Squadron, 376th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force stationed at Bengasi, Libya in North Africa. Unknown at the time there were two German spies at the base that had tipped off the Germans about the upcoming raid. The Germans at the target area were already fully alert with fighters and flak batteries just waiting for the B-24's to attack. There were several B-24's lost on this mission due to fighters and flak. Even my father's B-24D Liberator was hit over the target area shortly after bomb release when an 88-mm flak shell went clear through the right wing and punctured a fuel tank. Fortunately, my father was cross trained as a flight engineer on Liberators. He transferred as much fuel as possible out of the damaged fuel tank to conserve as much fuel as possible. The flight engineer was busy helping the ball turret gunner at the time because his ball turret had jambed due to desert dust getting inside the electric motor. Once fuel transfer was complete, my father resumed his co-pilot duties. He pulled the mixture controls back beyond limits from what the tech orders recommended to conserve even more fuel. My father had all four engines running on the verge of detonation. They maintained good airspeed depite the damaged right wing and were not harassed by enemy fighters. By the time they landed at their alternate air base in Italy, all four engines were junk from overheating, but the plane got them home safely despite the damage to the right wing. The mission proved to be a disaster and my father suffered from PTSD after watching several bombers being shot down around the target area and knowing there were no survivors.
@@salvagedb2470 Actually 18,482 B-24 Liberators were built in the United States during the war. It was the most produced American military aircraft of WWII. Its true, when the Davis wing on a B-24 became damaged, it lost efficiency very quickly. As for the B-17, it was never really designed as a strategic bomber when it was first designed in 1937. It was intended to destroy battleships, which is why it could not carry a larger payload like the B-24 Liberator. At that time, the U.S. military felt the battleship was the biggest threat to the United States and Boeing designers developed the B-17 based on that premise. What it lacked in bomb carrying capability it had to make up for in shear numbers when it was used as a strategic bomber. My father later became an instructor pilot in B-17's when he was stationed at MacDill Field in Tampa, Florida. One of the B-17's he flew in the Training Command was the famous B-17F Memphis Belle when it was assigned to the 483rd Bomb Squadron as their training aircraft after it had completed its War Bond Tour in the United States. My father was assigned as their instructor pilot. Today, the Memphis Belle has been restored to factory new condition and is on permanent static display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
From what I've read, more planes would've meant nothing since what the axis lacked was fuel.... entire wings were grounded due to lack of fuel... not due to lack of planes. The produce more tanks, produce more planes argument falls flat when you start reading the economics of ww2 for the axis side
Please note it was the UK that was under threat , not just England . True English cities were pounded but repelled by the Uk , people from all over the UK were involved .
@@duncanmacmillan5558 In fact the first place Bombed by the Nazis was in Scotland And more than 200 enemy aircraft were shot down on Scottish territory. Although Peterhead was attacked more times than any other Scottish town, Clydebank suffered the greatest loss of life in one raid - the Clydebank Blitz.
The last documentary on the Me 163 was also highly informative. While being an efficient fighter aircraft, it had the nasty tendency to literally disolve a pilot if the acidic fuel leaked into the cockpit ! This happened at least once to an unfortunate pilot during test trials. Another nasty habit was when the detachable undercarriage bounced back too high into the starting plane, bringing it down immediately to a deadly crash landing in a ball of flame.
Me-262 uses also R4M non guided missile and with it improved the shooting down ratio of allied bombers. It was capable of launching 24 of them at 450m range, and when spreaded in a bomber formation produces the break of that formation and the growth of the distance between bombers. This effect led to lower the capability of cal.50 machine guns to accomplish their rules, avoiding a concentrated fire support. R4M it was not as sophisticated as Rhurstal X4, but avoid the need of guiding the missile. Also, with a working proximity fuse and a better designed warhead, it would be a formidable weapon.
rockets..... the very word missile denotes its guided... but the american had rockets too only promblem the nazi's had was ignition.....1/4 of em just b;ew up on the wing.... disterous for a jet
@@harleyme3163Citation? Or I call hogwash. Many fail to know N.S.D.A P., from 1942 through the end of their war, suffered from munitions sabotage. Some laborers were sabotaging Luftwaffe munitions during production process. Surviving Luftwaffe veterans uniformly speak of such in their memoires. Read on.
Dad, a B17 flight engineer saw a lot of 262’s August 5, 44, to January 45. I’ve read extensively about the 262, it was a failure because it used gasoline instead of jet fuel. When the 262 throttled back it would quit running and they couldn’t restart. We figured it out followed them home to destroy them.
Not impressed by your extensive reading. Gasoline was used for the on board two-stroke starter engine. The Junkers Jumo 004 jet engine however used J-2 as its standard fuel [synthetic fuel produced from coal] or a type of diesel oil. Note that aviation gasoline was not desirable due to its high rate of consumption & would not have been used unless no other choice was available. The 'flame out' was not caused by the fuel used, it was due to rough handling of the throttle - restart was possible but you need altitude.
I'd say especially the material aid to the USSR, their numbers wouldn't have meant as much without the ability to arm, feed and transport them. I do agree that it is easy to scoff at "foolish" mistakes post hoc. Especially when there could have been other political/tactical considerations and unknowns at the time that someone on the outside doesn't have to contend with years later.
@@joeyjamison5772 And Bombing German war factories help slow down the production process and the removal of supplies guns and troops from the frontlines
The Allies also were technically more developed. Documentations like this one are built on myths. The Germans did have some few, cutting edge technology, but it was all neither fully developed or coming 1944/45 and in few numbers. Tiger (I) II, Me262, U-boat XII, V2, StG44 all that things were technically very poor developed and broked down very often.. It would have need around 10 years of more development. But the Allies also were developing such weapons. So, Germany was good, but not good enough.
One major issue was Goerings belief in tactical bombers over fighters and the poor design of German long range fighters. Both decisions left the Luftwaffe poorly prepared to fight anyone with a close to comparable air force, especially when fighting offensively. Lacking a structured, sophisticated training program that could keep pace with losses was also crippling.
True, except for the ace, of all aces. I can't remember his name, but holds the record of confirmed kills in history. He had fuel, imagine him with 262.
Sorry to start with a grumpy comment: as in so many videos, the subtitles detract from all the hard work done to gather visual material. After the audio gets Goering's name correctly pronounced, the subtitle has it as Gehrig!😬 This apart, an excellent video with extremely good use of in flight footage of the aircraft. Very informative, and I would love to see a comparison of the Me262 and the Meteor.
Calum E. Douglas wrote a book called "The Secret Horsepower Race". He investigated the development and management of german Aero engines and it comes out that the Germans didnt even have the few grams of Nickel per exhaust valve for their engines. Ever wondered why the DB engines had roller bearings? Yes they couldnt even scrape enough common plain bearing material together to make them work. Second killer was the fuel, having a higher boiling point than the motor oil temperature, it kept diluting the engine oil due to direct injection issues until jamming the engine. Those issues combined with serious spark plug material problems cost many lives. Hans Joachim Marseille got killed thru those well known engine deficiencies. Read the book its great.
My dad was in ww2 and I ❤your documentaries ❤there are so informative and entertaining 👏 😄 please do a video on operation barbarossa 🎉🎉keep safe and God bless ❤️
The problem with the Luftwaffe was it’s short sighted conception. Any modern Air Force needs to compartmentalise it to be able to act in different roles. You need a naval Air Force Wing. A ground support wing. A reconnaissance wing. A strategic bombing wing. A fighter wing. A transport/logistics wing. A Fallschirmjäger/paratrooper wing. A domestic wing. Unfortunately for the Germans, they didn’t organise, plan or foresee the need for this type of organisation and thus tried to stretch their limited organisation to cover all these roles which it simply couldn’t.
When the narrator is real and bothers learning proper pronunciations and doesn't botch German words. Nicely done (this for the first half of the video only. Final parts will have Germanglish pronunciations)
Herman Göring stopped the double coupled engine intended for Heinkel 177, to make it extremely streamlined, surface cooled and faster than any of the contemporary fighters, because he knew from first hand that it would be impossible to handle in the field! But even in the field a German crew could change an engine on the 262 in half an hour, so the short lifespan was only a question of spares.
The dual engine He 144 was a better bbq than a bomber. Bombers get shot down a new bomber would not have helped the short range Luftwaffe fighters. The time it takes to replace a spit or P.51 spark plugs was as long as it took to replace an engine on a 109. That gave the Germans the ability to keep the planes they had in the air.
@markgranger9150 Only between 5000 and 8000 Junkers Jumo 004 engines were ever made. With a planned service life to scrap of 25 hours and in actual use 12.5 hours. That means the British Meteor Rolls Royce centripetal engines at 100 to 125 hours before major overhaul not scrapping meant that they were worth 10 Jumo engines each or even more. That is 500 to 800 RR engines in service life equalled the entire production of Jumo 004 engines in service life. The later centripetal RR engines pushed the Meteor to above the ME 262 top speed of 540 mph in level flight. Frank Whittle was correct to initially push for production of the simpler, more rugged, and easier to produce centripetal engines than axial jet engines. Unfortunately, both the Meteor and ME 262 were fuel guzzlers, and this limited the combat radius of the fighters. So they were never destined to meet in aerial combat.
I Don't Have The Link, But The Biggest Problems Were: Lack Of Good, Conventional, 4 Engine, Long Range Bombers; And, Neglect To Capitalize On Their Superior Jet Technology. Imperial Japanese Army Air Forces Had Similar Problems, With a Lack Of Long Range Bombers, And Failure To Develop Their Own Jet Technology.
A very important issue that this documentary fails to mention is the German shortage of fuel. American strategic bombing of oil refineries and synthetic fuel plants was biting hard towards the war's end. German armaments production was actually at its peak in bomb proof underground factories in late 1944. The severe limiting factor was lack of fuel. Me 262s were being towed on airfields by harnessed cows.
What's the deal with changing apect ratio of the images? I understand that later interviews were probably done with video ratio of 1:85 (wide-screen), but to stretch out the original war footage from 1:33 to 1:85, just seems sily. Have more confidence in the audience.
Most people seem to be unaware the Germans actually lost the battle for The Hague in 1940. Losing a stunning 125 Ju 52 transporter planes and damaging 47 more. The losses were so heavy they had to bomb Rotterdam to force Dutch surrender. Losing that many airplanes probably had it's effect on the Battle of Britain that followed soon after.
The high loss of German transport planes and paratroopers in the Netherlands would have had a significant effect on any potential invasion attempt of England. The German airborne troops would have been a vital part of any invasion. There was no way Germany could rebuild it's transport aircraft and paratrooper numbers so quickly. The German air assault on the island of Crete in May, 1941 saw another devastating loss of transport aircraft and paratroopers. At that point, the production of transport aircraft had to take a back seat to the large number of fighters and bombers Germany needed. When the German 6th Army became encircled in Stalingrad in November 1942, the Luftwaffe didn't have the transport aircraft to keep it supplied.
Of course the Netherlands played a great role in defeating the enemy, that is why in an act of kindness the Dutch authorities and vast parts of society were so keen to offer their collaboration in every field imaginable. LOL
@@dipling.pitzler7650 Sadly that is also true. But that does not include the Dutch armed forces. The Dutch that joined the SS or commi ted serious collaboration were not from the army but mainly from the police and other civl services.
@@boszdekler5304 Every country has its blind spots and as the past can not be altered it only matters how to deal with these in the future, but for this a honest retrospective and less bragging is needed.
@@dipling.pitzler7650 only trying to honour the people that fought a very unequal battle and achieved much more than expected. Not their fault the Germans succeeded in occupying the country.
I say I like the bf-110 and everyone says in the previous comments "that plane sucks and you should...". I still like it, I think it looks sharp plus it did serve a niche purpose. I also love the US A-10 even with all the more modern jets.
One of my retired colleagues was a pilot in the Royal Navy based at Lossiemouth when Eric Brown was I believe the station commander. One day while on parade, he tried to salute Eric with his sword, but accidently damaged and ripped Eric's uniform. The man was less than pleased, telling Nigel "that will cost you a new greatcoat!"
Your colleague was lucky he was not in the Russian Airforce! If a Russian pilot ripped the coat of his superior, he would be castrated and his testicles would be stuffed into his mouth while he was still alive! Maybe you can understand why the Russians kicked the Nazi's asses when they were stupid enough to invade their country!😮
Excellent video! As Albert Speer states in his books, the regime did not go for massproduction until 1943 for ideological reasons. Also the Me262 was not used as an interceptor for ideological reasons because defense was considered defaetistic. Herman Goering was a useless drug addict that came to his brillant mind again when the allies had him cut off drugs before his trial after the war. He probably was kept in office because AH knew from the start that there was no chance to win this anyway. Like in WWI when the Austrian Empire knew that they would not stand a chance from the beginning but would refuse to go down without a sound.
I disagree. Hitler thought he was a genius and could not loose. He chose incompetents like Goring because he valued loyalty over competence, since he believed his genius could overcome any obstacle.
Very true, Austria quite literally lost WW1, and if you look at their battles against the very very under equipped Russians that becomes blatantly clear 😂 it’s funny cause Italy was the same for Germany, both weren’t technologically ready for the war when it started
I think you’re wrong about Hitler. He thought he could win it right up to the moment he pulled the trigger, and may have thought that would win it for him. He was totally delusional.
Total bs every word. Mass production has nothing to do with ideological reasons, nor it's the reason why Me262 was planed ro be used as f-b. Austro-Hungary knew they would not stand a chance??? They were eager to go to war.
Despite the u-boat threat to UK, early in the war long-range convoy air cover was held back so that explosives could be dropped all over Germany, mostly countryside apparently . . .
to suggest that aerial ASW was sacrificed in favor of bombing ground targets on the continent is inaccurate. It’s true that German submarines had considerable success from 1939 through early 1942, but that’s not because the UK and US ignored the threat or diverted resources elsewhere. Aerial ASW was at its embryonic stage in 1939 and the UK and US were feverishly developing capabilities while using what they had to counter the threat. By mid-1942, the USAAF fielded units and technology dedicated to aerial ASW, including airborne depth charges, magnetic anomaly detection, microwave radar, and others the Germans never figured out. The RAF was actively engaged in aerial ASW before that but with mixed success. And, remember they were fighting the Battle of Britain at the same time, so I will excuse them if they were somewhat distracted. B-18 and B-24 aircraft were purposely equipped for long range aerial ASW and their crews were organized and trained for this mission - they were not poached to perform other missions. Moreover, aerial ASW was carried out in earnest well before the USAAF and RAF began the coordinated bombing campaign over the Continent in 1943. The U.S produced 12,500 bombers in 1942, and over 28,000 in 1943. There were plenty to go around. The ASW mission was not a bill-payer for the bombing mission on the Continent. It’s true that the aerial ASW crews preferred hunting submarines in the offense rather than performing convoy escort in the defense but whether performing offensive or defensive ASW missions, they were performing robust and effective aerial ASW with dedicated aircraft and purpose-trained crews. German Admiral Doenitz acknowledged it himself in a June 1943 memo.
@@David-nx2vm Thank you for the details, but my statement is not inaccurate. The denial of VLR aircraft to convoy work is mentioned a number of times in literature on the Battle of the Atlantic, but only mentioned, not expounded at length. Yes, by 1942 good sense had prevailed, as well as availability in quantity. It was at the introduction of LR and VLR when the attack role was chosen instead of the defensive. The Battle of Britain in SE England was not a distraction from convoy escort, even if some pilots transferred to fighters at that time. By 1942, certainly 1943, B17s and B24s were doing the job in large numbers. I referred to the early war period, when much knowledge about effective ASW was being learned. There was no 'poaching' of USAAF aircraft from missions over the continent. By the time they got going, sensible allocation of production had been effected. Looking from a U.S. perspective as you appear to do, perception of 1939/41 events is probably less sensitive than my own, the British perspective. PS Don't forget the use of Icelandic bases - UK forces went there (including my father) long before U.S. ones did . . .
@@EllieMaes-Grandad Black Sky ASW doesn't Work!!! RAF Coastal Command tried it in early 1943 over the Bay of Biscay. They put as many aircraft as they could over the bay as possible in two one week periods and sunk jack shit. Lost aircraft to navigation failures and accidents as well. As for the VLR Liberator, the British had them in 1942!!! they got used as Transport Aircraft and Churchill used one as his personal transport.
@@EllieMaes-Grandad First Year, what Coastal Command had was good enough range wise, what they didn't have was the sensors or the weapons that worked. Where Aircraft really started to make a mark was mid 1942, but that was short lived because of Metox. Only in May 1943 did the aircraft start to rack up the kills because the weapons and sensors (plus intelligence) became really effective. You actually had more chance of hitting something important in Germany for number of hours flown than finding and sinking a U-boat before mid 1942. Plus anyhow, Bomber Command spend a lot of bombs and effort in attacking stuff in France in 1941 and 42 like German Warships.
Spot on, it's mostly all about the pilot, the ground team , planning and support, we had all that mattered most and had effective leadership in these critical areas, the axis had no chance
The fatal mistake that Nazi Germany made was starting a war that they had zero possibility of winning. Germany was a small Central European country with little natural resources and inadequate manpower taking on the three biggest empires on Earth. The most they were ever going to do was wreck havoc for a while and then get curb stomped once their opponents got up to speed. Germany winning WWII under any realistic circumstances is a fantasy. Ditto Imperial Japan.
Their big mistake was not Starting a competition to replace the Bf-109 in 1938. The winner of that competition would have started entering service in 1940.
I have been an ardent student of WWII since very young. From the Start to the Logistics to the Finish. Most do not know that the entire European Theatre War was a Vendetta of the Versailles WWI Armistice. Which Hitler foolishly ran as such absent of any logic whatsoever. If Hitler had let his Generals and Admirals manage the War and not turned on the Jewish People (along with countless other nationalities) ....Germany would have won Hands Down !!!! No Problem !!!! Instead his whole actions and planning were created around Vengeance !!! BTW: It was The Russians that bore the brunt of the War. The other Allies were there to take pressure off the Eastern Front and allow Russia to take Germany down. And Russia did with its own Vengeance! Harshly and Extremely !!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@andrewallen9993They didn't need to, if they had only had more manpower or industrial capacity and attacked Russia earlier instead of helping Mussolini in Italy, we might have seen Russia conquered. If Russia is conquered, their industrial capacity will be used in the German war effort instead. They needed to be quicker and smarter.
@@Vacced Lack of industrial capacity=inability to out produce the US. Lack of manpower=inability to out think the British due to putting big brains in infantry and kill all the Jews.
GREAT video, and I adore it. Noting, as to the fastest piston-engined aircraft in WWII... The M an N models of the P47-Jug hit 500mph plus on rather frequent occasion. Just an FYI.
The “Jug” was an awesome airplane ! Huge compared to other single seat fighters of the time. I don’t doubt the 500 MPH figure you said. Pilot said they had control problems in high speed dives that we know now are compressibility issues. But the jugs best attribute was durability. They was a story of a badly shot up jug that had the misfortune of running into a German Ace, who thought he had an easy kill to add to his considerable numbers. He used up all his ammunition, shook his head, saluted and flew away without shooting it down. The pilot stopped counting at 100 holes back at base .
@@mrwhips3623exactly. or even 13mm rounds, the germans were late to adopt the heavy machine gun and used the weak 8mm mauser until late in the conflict.
Heh. It's a Robot II camera. It can be synched with a machine gun or a cannon, that's why the cables. Very interesting to see it mounted on the head like a go pro. A lot of WW2 air combat footage comes from these cameras.
The constant reference to England and English is both disappointing and incorrect. Britain was made up of more than 1 nation. Scottish, Irish and Welsh soldiers, sailors and airmen as well as non combatants were around at the time and took on the Nazis.
Click the link to watch more aircraft, heroes, and their stories, and missions: www.youtube.com/@Dronescapes
All Wars are Fake.
😅😅😅
Thank God mistakes were made. Can you imagine if the Nazis had deployed their ME-262 sooner and had developed an atomic bomb first and combined them with their V-2 rockets?
A dark and disturbing world locked in a death spiral into barbarism and total collapse in less than a hundred years.
Thank God evil is, more often than not, pretty stupid.
shame you did not show any thing about the Haunebu MK 1,2,or 3
@@martiehensley4452😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😅
My Dad flew B26s out of Sardinia. He almost never spoke of it, but did once tell a story of encountering the ME262 late in the war. They had an escort of Thunderbolts, and when the jets came at them out of the sun they hit two bombers and the fighters were right on their tail in pursuit. At the bottom of the dive, the jets put their noses up and flew back through the formation taking out two more bombers, while the Thunderbolts were down below circling, circling, circling to gain altitude. Meanwhile the jets had to return to base to refuel. We didn't get along well, but he had courage all his life.
The fighters eventually found an effective way of dealing with the 262s by following them to their airfields and knocking them out as they tried to land. Didn't much help the bombers when they were airborne, but by reducing their numbers, fewer and fewer were available to intercept.
Sounds like the P-47 pilots were going for kills rather than protecting the formation. Their job was to chase them away, not follow them down.
@@martinbrode7131 what's that to do with living under Nazi rule? Or does your tiny brain make no distinction? 😂😂😂
God bless him for his services, we owe him and many like him for our freedom lol
My namesake fought with the "28 Maori Battalion" in Crete, never returned to New Zealand
I could listen to Capt. Brown, all day. His expertise and experience is truly amazing.
He was the greatest aviator to come out of WW2. German speaker, he interviewed the German High Command. Sunk on board a carrier. Developed carrier landings, landed a Mosquito on a small carrier, Flew more aircraft types that anybody else- only pilot to have tested all the German aeroplanes and reported on them, and stayed in Germany rebuild German industry. Nobody will ever have his breadth of experience.
When he thought the Me 262 was the best airplane that makes them 'very scary'
Thank goodness the German Airforce and leadership shot themselves in the foot. A win is a win, no matter how you get there.
Our guys were good. Very good.
@@howlr747 He flew more types of aircraft than anyone ever. A record that is unlikely ever to be broken.
@@howlr747I think he still holds the record for Carrier landings and take offs.
You may already have, but if not, his book "Wings on my sleeve" is a great read.
One of the things the United States did that virtually no other nation did, was quickly identify outliers, overperformers, particularly in aerial combat, pull them out of combat, and promote them to instructors. The theory was that it was more valuable to identify the best pilots early, and leverage their skills and experience to train as many as possible to be competent right out of flight schools. This is why American Aces have so many fewer victories than their counterparts on both sides. Those aces were pulled from front line combat and pressed into service as tacticians and trainers. Meanwhile, in all other air-services, the aces were left to attrition, while the training and tactics never changed or adapted to the emerging technology.
British rotated pilots in and out of the training posts as well.
It was very true about top US pilots pulled out of combat for training duties. And it was very difficult for them to return to active combat duties usually taking about two years . By then it was late 44 or early 45, and much of the air to air combat was over.
@@richardvernon317 I'm quite certain the U.S. Air Corps, as well as the Navy, pulled the top pilots and kept them in instructor roles. There wasn't a rotation if I'm not mistaken. You'll see Nazi aces with thousands of sortees, while the American counterparts had a few hundred at most. Erich Hartman flew over 1400 missions for example.
in addition, for the most part, the Allies did NOT have a 'target rich environment' (exceptions existed like in Malta);
My dad had a similar experiece.. He graduated at the top of his class, flying B25s and Liberators. He never flew in combat. They gave him a commision and made him an instructor.
1. Lack of long-term strategic planning.
2. Lack of an early long-range bomber.
3. Lack of coordination between service branches.
4. Lack of natural resources (aluminum).
5. Lack of a structured, long-terms pilot training program.
6. Lack of top management of production throughout the war.
7. Top management’s inability to delegate and accept the advice of experts.
Thank you for this list. It is right to the point. I was trying to put it all together but this says it all.
1 . Don't take on all the World at once .
1. more a lack of short term strategic planing to get to long term strategic goals, mixed with unrelaistic long term goals. thanks to the führer being a poltician not a general but having, at the same time, overall command.
2. there is nothing midrange bombers can't achieve that longrange bombers can in the early stages of the war. fighter cover was always limited to midrange at best. any longrange bombing by the allies was always covered by short to midrange fighters launched by aircraft carriers or from airfields not equipped for heavy bombers.
3. can't really speak to that but i never got the impression that luftwaffe and heer were badly coordinated. especially in the early war period there was a high coordination between CAS and ground forces wich made the (in)famous blitzkrieg possible. don't really know if that degraded in the late war.
4. agree
5. where do you get that from? after 1941 pilot training degraded thanks to the strain put on the luftwaffe, but prior to that you had a well structured and torough training program, with everything from general traing to specialised courses for nightflying, bombing recon ect.
6. again, where do you get that from? germany had a large inovative air industry with a lot of intelligent and competent people at it's head. german industry in general was led by a bunch of still famous engineers and pioneers in their field of expertise. there was some outside influence from (again) the füherer who didn't know shit about anything besides beeing a politcian, that led to some wierd decscions but that was hardly the fault of the industry leaders.
7. agree, a.h. as commander in chief of everything was (luckily) incompetent as fuck
NUMBER 1) Lack of Oil
44:10 44:10 44:10
Excellent! A thumbs up for no insufferable background noise and music.
One of the best descriptions I’ve ever heard of the luftwaffe was as a too small a blanket on a cold nite. It keeps getting pulled back and forth to try to cover more bed than is possible and eventually gets torn apart.
Yes that's a good point. Trying to do too many different types of aircraft. Cut down the different models and produce more
Great analogy!👍
40:52
That's as good an analogy as I've ever heard.
Kinda what happens when you take on US, UK, and USSR at ONCE lol
The allies were incredibly lucky that Goring was in charge of the Luftwaffe. His pride and ignorance were of great benefit to the allied war effort.
Exactly. He rode roughshod over Donitz denying the Kriegs Marine a bigger fleet including Carriers.
He was heavily addictet to Morphine...
"heavily" is a good pun. @@hiha2108
We were also very fortunate to have Hitler on their side.😂
While this is true, it overlooks the fact that the allies had a similar problem. Goering stayed in post because of his personal loyalty to Hitler, his history and status in the party (member #34, if memory serves) and being a war hero. But being a WW1 pilot doesn't give you the skills to lead a military service!
With the US, they were very swift to remove poorly performing officers. Within the UK slightly less so. They tended to be re-assigned out to the Far East. I personally think Leigh-Mallory is over-rated. And the loss of pilots & aircraft which were needed in the desert war and the far east to 'mushrooms and rhubarbs' was nearly criminal.
Couple of years ago, I met a WW2 veteran at a McDonald's and he said was a navigator on a B-17. I shook his hand and thanked him for his service.
What did he think of your fucking hair
WW2 Veterans are few and far between, these days. When I was a kid in the 1960s, you couldn't throw a stone without hitting one.
I ran into a Vietnam Veteran today. I commented that "I thought that the Vietnam guys were all "laying down" by now. (He did not take offense, as he knew what I meant...) and he told me that he would be 75 this year. That is a pretty ripe old age for somebody who did not have to survive a war. I was in awe...
That was sweet.
@@ksmith249 So it goes...
Thank you for your patriotism. God bless you.
Capt. Brown, you Sir, were a legend in the time that your country really needed you.
Salute !.
Thanks for replaying these great aerocinema shows
Anyone else think these dronescapes videos are a bit off? They all seems to be clips of other people's content mashed together and the theme changes throughout the video. Just seems bizarre....
Just googled Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown - wow !. His lists of achievements and feats is endless, a very impressive man !. As a fellow Edin-burger I salute you, sir - RIP !
One of the greatest pilots, if not the greatest, that ever lived. We will soon release some old Betacam footage that was never seen before, adding to his endless legacy.
He should have been knighted for recognition of his accomplishments
They reckon that no pilot will ever again fly as many aircraft types as Capt Eric Winkle Brown.
At some point or another, he flew every aircraft in service especially axis machines (German, Italian and Japanese) after the war, as High Command were interested in his appraisal of them.
@@rogerhayes2117
Is this roger Hayes of the 25th Inf.Div.
Meanwhile the German army was still using some horses to pull artillery. When an American POW saw this he knew the Allies would win. He was right.
Les unités mécanisées ne représentaient que 20 % de l armée allemande le reste était hippomobile
I've always felt that the Luftwaffe, like the rest of military in Nazi Germany, was geared towards a short war. It's equipment and operational doctrine was based around air superiority over the battlefield and providing tactical air support for the ground troops. The problem with that while the Luftwaffe could do excellent against neighboring countries (Poland, Denmark, the Low Countries and France), they didn't have the necessary reach to be effective against more distant opponents.
It was expected in Germany the war will end in two years but general winter made it impossible. That is why the attack against the Udssr goes to the south. They need the oil and metall from the Kaukasus. The irony in it was, they passed Stalingrad, that was not defendet at this time. Later this town was the beginn of the end.
If you dig into the inner circle of Nazism,they were preparing for a long war and what happened to their disadvantage was that the war came early.
Germany had hoped there'd be no conflict till at the earliest,1945.
If it weren't for a few key battles one for the allies we would all be speaking German today. The Germans were far off and ahead in tech luckily Hitler wasn't all that great a tactician and he wouldnt listen to the greatest so he failed his army luckily he got greedy in Russia and the Americans joined and he made more mistakes... It could have been much much different.
The biggest mistake the Germans made was the lack of an independent air force.
Germans staying true to old methods whilst using new technological advancement. TYPICAL OF GERMANS. THEY JUST DO NOT LIKE CHANGE!!!
A funny joke from the late war was a German soldier explaining: 'If you see silver planes in the sky, that's the Americans. If you see brown planes in the sky, that's the British. If you see NO planes in the sky, that's the Luftwaffe.'
Winkle was my dads CO at Lossiemouth, not only a great flyer, also a dammed fine commander, but by far ( to his men) a really nice guy!
Wow. He sure comes across pretty awesomely here. It's incredible that he a) was the actual guy who flew the German hardware, b) is on the record with his direct experiential insights, c) does it so well and eloquently.
What caused it to fail? Easy answer, Germany was fuel starved by 1941. Though they weren't completely without fuel/gas but it was a trickle by that time, no longer able to do large scale combined arms blitz maneuvers.
Great point. Which also resulted in flight training reduction. Less fuel available = less hours to fly.
Good. If Hitler won, everyone reading this would never have been born.
And fuel available was of poor quality which hampered the performance of engines, particularly the jets.
All their aces were in the air 24/7 until they died or indeed had no fuel.
I agree but also disagree . I think Germany was the most powerful military force back then . Only thing don’t matter who you are you cannot win by fighting giants on 3,4,5 fronts .
This one was really good, great interviews, thanks!
BIGGEST LUFTWAFFE MISTAKE: Not shooting Hitler and Goering in the head in 1938.
Germany would not have gone to war if not for Hitler. In the start of Germany's road to world conflict,Hitler had predicted the other countries actions. He won territory without fighting. When fighting started Poland and France went better than planned. Lucky for the rest of the world his second half of his leadership was not even up to a fight with anyone. How are you going to get rid Of a guy who is popular and is on a streak?
Your reply made me chuckle😊
You mean in 1933
😂
@@raypurchase801 You forgot Himmler in that comment friend.
Outstanding stuff: nice WWII footage and interesting interviews, keep them coming! Bravo!
Wow what an inside about aircraft development etc both in germany and with the allied command. as an airline employee in Auckland NZ, I met Sir Douglas Baden. And only years later I came to realise who he was talking to friend of mine. I learned a lot since. I met him because someone had to assist him going to the lavatory as he had both his legs missing. It was his eyes that i will never forget and his hand on my shoulder in appreciation. What a man! John Sciarone Auckland NZ.
Well, as German born in 1960 I had to understand my countries past and make sense of it. I have thought about almost every of these aspects and tried to figure how we could have won. After many, many sessions over many years I came to conclusion. There are, in my humble opinion, three reasons why we lost this war. And the third is the most convincing you will see. First, we should not have prosecuted the Judes and other “non-Arian” Germans. Before nazi power, these people have been proud members of our society contributing to all areas of society, most know for their contribution to science. Second, attacking Russia without piece on other fronts. Well. Third, starting this war to begin with. By no measure we could have won this.
Führer intended to Win the War with the "blitz" . . . didn't have Power to maintain a Great War !
Im english i believe If Hitler left his General's to do their jobs and not interfered
Things would've been very different.
The RAF was 90% destroyed and almost had nowhere left to use re taking off or landing
But before finishing the job Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to switch and bomb London and other non military targets ( citys)
Giving the RAF time to relocate and build more fighters.
Without them we would have lost the battle of Britain and been invaded by German troops who were ready and waiting across the channel.
That was 1940 2 years before Hitler declared war on the USA.
If Britain had been invaded the USA would have definitely signed agreements to not interfere with German rule in Europe.
..without British merchant navy supplying Russia with weapons, tanks, and everything else they needed
Hitler would have easily defeated Russia .
..then I think German scientists would have finished their design of long range fuel cells and and created a devastating version of the V2
Built squadrons of jet fighters.
Built rocket bases and other military installations on western Ireland and launched rockets at and destroyed new York Washington & with tirpitz and the others plus fuel ships crossed the Atlantic and destroyed all US factories and major city's and within a year or less the USA would have to surrender or be wiped out
Leaving Germany to rule everything.
..but he did interfere and that's why Germany lost the war .
Using so much manpower to exterminate people and control populations in over run countries was costly. The rest of the World is thankful that Hitler was taking all of those drugs.
Oh i forgot thats why we retaliated & bombed Berlin so Hitler decided to hit all major cities giving the R.A.F the time to strengthen.
This old chap is absolutely spot on.
Magnetic mines were dropped on the UK coastlines, but they were effectively countered.
Well, they stopped working when they got wet.
Mistakenly dropping them on mud-flats (where they could then be recovered, studied & effectively countered) was especially dumb.
At 12:15 - the Luftwaffe did drop a magnetic mine, into tidal water in Kent. RN specialists were able to make it safe, recover it, and study its tecchnical content. And thus ships could be 'degaussed' to make them unlikely to trigger such mines.
Ouvry and Baldwin were the two heroes who worked on the unknown mine.
Also the amazing Halifax magnetic mine 'trawler'. It had an enormous electromagnet fitted around the whole fuselage and main wings, when energised, could trigger magnetic mines. The Halifax was the Land Rover of heavy bombers.
@@ohgosh5892 There was a Wellington version, but I hadn't heard of a Halifax version.
Yes that was a stupid move. The Germans deployed the magnetic mine in small numbers to begin with, allowing time for the British to develop counter-measures. They should have waited and deployed them en masse, which would have had a huge impact on British coastal shipping.
I read a book once about the German program to develop rockets. At one point, after much effort, forced labor and suffering, Hitler shut down all work because he had a dream that the program would never succeed. Remember that in WW2 history you have to factor in a madman.
Obrigado!
Thank you so much!
Interesting how the Japanese also had bitter rivalry between the Army and Navy.
Pretty much every country.
RAF refused to release planes to close the Atlantic gap even as ships were being sunk.
@@knoll9812 True but with regards to Japan's rivalry it was a war within a war with was based on rival houses in Japan's past.
When it came to the procurement of aircraft Germany and Japan were polar opposites. The German navy had no authority to obtain aircraft of it's own whereas the Japanese Navy had free reign to order the aircraft it wanted.
@@singaporesling6112 Spot on.👍
Same as USA actually.
Two main reasons : the Luftwaffe lost half of its plane during the France campaign which meant a defeat against Britain. They never caught up.
The stupid tendancy from Hitler to name an incompetent like Goering and keep him for political reasons despite complete failure. A bunch of courageous pilots named at high responsibilities without having a single competence in the job. The most famous figure beeing Udet.
Back in 1980 I worked with halve a dozen extremely talented German electrician & mechanics Installing a state of the art $10 million machine. None of them would admit that they are their company could make a mistake. Case in point we purchased a $5,000 pre stretched metric chain from them but it did not have a constant distance on links. They would not believe the option of our two best machnists that measured the chain so they flew a mechanic over from Germany a few days later and within a few minutes their guy said that chain was detective.
Maybe if they’re so perfect they could tell me why every older BMW my rich customers have need plastic boot trays under their oil pans because they all leak. I’ve heard of this arrogance displayed before.
I agree with you on Germans thinking they know everything and build everything better. This opinion comes from working with Germans in the automobile business for 18 years. They will not admit faults in their automobiles even when presented with hard evidence. I've even heard "you Americans don't know how to drive our cars". I'm speaking of BMW and Porsche. They are a very stubborn people.
The german jet lead with the me262 was shadowed by the Gloster Meteor. The British had a good test bed in the first jets with the Meteor. The Meteors service life was considerably longer in peacetime and the ME 262 service life faded very rapidly and was replaced quickly by newer second generation jets
😂
Winkle Brown seems to forget about the Meteor. It flew very soon after the Me262 and entered combat service very soon after it.
@@pashakdescilly7517 'entered combat' with orders not to engage.
After finding out my grandfather was captured in the Battle of the Bulge in WW2 I looked stuff on WW2. I concluded the nazis were self sabotaging and wouldn't have ruled for that long.
We should never forget the lessons of the past.
RIP grandpa and all the people who protected us in that time. I will remember.
One of the problems with the Luftwaffe command was trying to get one aircraft to do too many multirole actions. Gooring or Milch demanded that the medium bombers like the Ju88 be used in the dive bombing role. So as a result the wings needed to be strengthened which added more weight and reduced its speed.
Another problem with production is that Hitler waited till 1943 to put Germany's war machine on a 24/7 full time basis.
The DE high command insistance that their planes were multi-functional in their rolls that resulted in these planes not being able to carry out any roll with competence, not too dissimilar to many sectors of our economy that requires that employees are competent in ALL tasks undertaken by those professionals in their discipline/industry while discarding those who specialise in particular aspects of their discipline /industry are overlooked /discarded by employers due to the assumption that such individuals are a liability to the employer, rather than an asset that compensates for the minimal skills of a generalist
Well that may or may not be true... read Richard Overy's book. He says the German economy was about to collapse when they went to war, as they didn't have enough foreign exchange and the government couldn't pay its debts. So in some ways, they were already at full stretch. in 1940 they had to basically temporarily disband some divisions to send the soldiers to work in the factories. They had a shortage of labour (especially skilled labour) and materials and may not have been able to work much harder at that time. They were only able to keep producing late in 1944 by making things out of spare parts, so when they broke down, they couldn't be fixed.
The Germans were producing more fighters at the end of the war than the beginning. After Poland and France Luftwaffe put units in reserve.and made.up losses in production put army units in reserve and did not go into war time production until 43-44. There was not a shortage of money but they could.not support the cost of 24/7 production. When they got free slave labour they could afford to go to wartime production. When thinking about mistakes or making changes in strategy results come back the same, like if Hitler had not interfered with the 262 it would have changed the out come of the war. I don't think it would have changed the out come but it would have gone down in a different way. Little changes at the beginning can make a huge difference in the end. One of the mistakes or oversights may be a better term, was the failure to increase the range of the 109. Simple drop tanks would have changed the Battle of Britain. The lack of strategic long range bombers were not as big of an oversight than no drop tanks. Strategic bombing was not as effective as the allies hoped, after bombing Germany to rubble they were producing more fighters at the end. Britain could not be bombed into submission and even if they could reach the U S I don't think they could have made us give up. The Luftwaffe had high standards and superior aircraft and training they changed their tactics from day to night bombing due to losses. The planes could be made up pilots and crews not so much. The Germans rotated their pilots and crews they were given leave and did there time as instructors. The Luftwaffe ended the war the way the British came in, pilots having a dozen hours of flight time going against seasoned vets. No matter what the Luftwaffe did it was going to lose it was just matter of time
They didn't have the Dakota!
I'm sure I read something about the DC ( can't rem the no) did more than all the bombers and fighters towards winning the war due to all everything it carried, men supplies , everything needed to keep the war going forward the unsung hero of ww2 .
I don't know if that's true .
But I definitely read it or heard it , Ive read and watched so many documentaries, series about ww2, I can't remember if it was an opinion or a fact ,
My father used to say how in awe he and others were of the ME262 in its early forays into combat. They actually had no idea what it was at first, but quickly learned that they had zero chance competing against it when it was just a question of speed. However, it had a lot of disadvantages as well, quite a few of them pointed out in this video, and the P-51 guys, at least, learned in time to take advantage of its lack of good control of its speed, which turned into also not having good control of its maneuverability when it really needed it, and the Allied pilots would take advantage of that vulnerability.
A very excellent and knowledgeable documentary. Thank you. Unified technology development and procurement, strategic bombing capacity (instead of a fascination with dive bombing), sufficient pilot training / experienced pilots and resources were what was missing. Thank you!
🙏👍
Strategic bombing did not work on the Germans how would it have worked for them. Today the Air force has the 1 bomb 1 hit mentality instead of drop a thousand and maybe hit something. The lack of range for their fighters was probably the biggest reason they failed.
The US had a long-rangge view.
It (262 Sparrow) must be used a fighter Bomber, the Blitz Bomber... Way to go Adolf, do some more Meth..
Too many different models, too many different calibers, too many "projects".. Should have settled on one or 2 designs MAX.
Should have had a long range bomber.. etc etc etc....
The Luftwaffe was not the only entity, the German armaments industry had so many different projects going, so many different calibers of prototypes.
They should have had one service rifle, the STG 44... One Tank, a simplified Panther with a good final drive with dual splines, better wheels for field repair and better engine.
The list goes on and on and on and on... The Myth of German efficiency and quality was painfully DESTROYED as was the Nazi regime.
Thank God.
What an excellent documentary, in particular the second one with Eric Brown RN, arguably the most experienced pilot in the British armed forces, if not in the whole world. I think that he flew every single British, American and German aircraft of his generation as a highly proficient test pilot.
Far from excellent, just another Mickey Mouse television bs
N988ME@@bdleo300
Eric Brown had over 2500 Carrier landings . Far more than anyone else. The US Navy , not wishing to be outdone , put one of their hotshot navy pilots to beat his record . He ended up having a nervous breakdown. So there's that.
I wonder what the wright brothers would think about how important and how deadly planes have become
Battle of Britain is what failed Goring, he told Hitler it would only take a week to get Rid of the RAF, he underestimated the RAF and the Spitfires and Mosquitoes.
Germany wasted a HUGE amount of it's resources in a failed attempt to bomb Britain into submission.
Sorry no mozzies in the Battle of Britain you probably thinking of c the hurricane which was more numerous than the spitfire
@@gordonfleming458 you could be right, as I’m now 82 years, doesn’t matter which plane it was , they saved Britains Ass.
The attitude that it would only take a week was not so far fetched at the time the nasties were riding A wave of success that they could hardly believe. I am not a lover of Hitler and the Nazis, but their success at the beginning of the war gave them the attitude that they couldn't lose. Radar had been around before the war ships.used it to go through fog and to range guns granted it was not the same as the British chain home radar.tha t would give you altitude. Few people thought about using it to detect planes. Parliament wanted to see if a death ray could be made and used against aircraft. Britain being the only country to experience air bombing on it's cities. Despite the early warnings when combat between fighters happened it was the Germans who usually came out on top. The Germans would have loved to nail the RAF on the ground like the other countries that Germany took. Loses were so heavy they switched to night bombing. Goering was not up to the task of leading the Luftwaffe but you can't blame him for overconfidence in the early part of the war.
Mossies were not a thing that affected Battle of Britain at all. They were yet to be developed into the brilliant weapon they became!
What a thorough and enlightening video. I would note that the Komet rocket plane had a nose cone of cast steel to act as armor, in conjunction with the slab of Lucite we see in the video footage. The device used to move a Komet on the ground was called a Schleppwagen. We even use "shlep" in English meaning to lug or carry something. I think that tow trucks in Germany are also called this. Test Pilot Opitz was an extraordinary glider pilot, and after the war he moved to America where he taught gliding and competed in gliding events in various parts of the U.S.A. Finally, Hannah Reitsch was interviewed whilst in her seventies, and you can see that the spark for flying is still burning brightly within her. You can find the interview on this platform. --Old Guy
The me 163 had no armor: you forgott this thing did weight less than 2tons…
'The device', it was two parts, the 'Sceuch Schlepper' made originally as an agricultural tractor by Robert Sceuch, I too have called it a Schleppwagen for fifty five years. The trailer is different, that for the Komet is unclear, I don't recall from my modelling days in the '60s but I found this the 'Kettenlaufwerk', a set is sold by Germania Figuren. I made a model of this and many other Luftwaffe exotics from drawings in 'Warplanes of the Third Reich' by William Green, long out if print, it's worth the $60-100 used.
Thanks!
Thank you!!!
The only fatal mistake was invading Poland; from then onwards they were living on borrowed time. Their complete failure in the Battle of Britain in 1940 was a sign of what was to come. By the time it was necessary to take on the USSR as well as the British Empire it was Game Over. The US joining the war in 1942 was merely a "pile on".
Mistake number two: Allowing themselves (Hitler, who else?) being successfully baited hook, line and sinker to shift focus from the British airfields and air defences in the Battle of Britain to the British cities after the more or less symbolic bombing of Berlin at 25 August 1940.
Mistake number three: Attacking the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Until this point, Stalin had been a passive ally to Hitler, providing Germany with oil, chrome and Mangan and grain.
The U S came in late but they were more than a pile on. Fighting on two different fronts and supplying Russia and England with materials at the same time is something none of the other countries could dream of. The russians were losing entire armies and the British Expeditionary force left France and their equipment. Europe would still be at war if the russians and British were Hitler's only enemies. It was 1941 when the U S piled on.
Thanks, man. Been interested in the Komet since a young feller. You filled in some gaps. Appreciated.
Glad I could help!
If you're interested in the Komet, check out the Greg's Airplanes channel for his series on that rocket-plane.
Göering is singlehandedly one of the main 3 causes of Germany's defeat...
Amen to that. Screwed up at Dunkirk. Completely botched the Battle of Britain and somehow convinced everyone he could airlift all resources into Stalingrad.
No he is not. Just another WW2 myth.
If only he stopped the morphine 10-12yrs earlier he maybe have extend the war by 3 months for his highly intelligent fuhrer 😆😅 thank god we realised just in time to stop trying to assassinate Hitler.
There shouldn't be any big or long thoughts concerning German strength on every field.
You cannot win when you go against the greatest industrial giants in the world combined, it's just not possible.
That's not precisely true. Both the Soviets and the British were in dire condition. The British were at least Germany's equal in industry and the Soviets were actually superior, yet they were both facing destruction for a while. The clincher was the untouchable industries in the US that supported both. Had Germany left Japan to face the US alone, instead of declaring war on the US, it might still have beaten the Soviets, while the US expended its war efforts on Japan, alone. The British, by themselves, could not have prosecuted the strategic bombing campaign.
It's fortunate Nazi Germany had the leaders it did. It would have been really rough if they had had leaders of similar quality as those of Great Britain & the United States. I suppose the same could be said of Japan aswell.
These people made the Nazi Germany. They were too Ideologie AND too obsessed with themselves to follow the advice of better people. Hitler himself often reigned in the development of weapons, tanks had to become bigger, have more powerful cannons, like a little child in the cand store. Following advice of good experts means that you get contradicted, that you may have to change your aims, and that you can stand that.
It's the same in Russia, and it will be the same if Donald Trump becomes President. He doesn't like to hear anything bad or complicated. There are sometimes managers that function the same way.
Arguably though, if Germany didn't have the leader(s) they did, they wouldn't have started the war in the first place.
The whole of Hitler's strategy was a gamble, he believed he could act quickly enough to get his objectives, leveraging his superior aggression, the enemy's unpreparedness, as well as outright lying, breaking the morale of democracies and leveraging the reciprocal hate btw capitalism and communism.
He never believed in a long war, as the hasty and unprepared entry of Mussolini in the war testifies.
24:20: ME262. Growing up in the UK we were taught at school that Germany and UK developed the gas-turbine jet engine independently in parallel. In a recently uncovered post-war interview However, Hans Von Ohain revealed that their early development program was entirely based on Whittle's 1930 Patent.
Do you have a reference to that interview? What we know for sure is that he initially denied having access,. Later he admitted to have had partial access to Whittle’s work, but his assistant confirmed he actually had full access to Whittle’s work, including drawings. He indeed credited Whittle as the inventor in his book.
This details aside, given that Whittle’s work was delayed by roughly 5 years, his accomplishments eclipse Von Ohain’s, as Whittle’s engine could have had a working engine in 1934/1935, and probably even 1933 had he been supported, especially financially, like Von Ohain did
Whittle and v. Ohains designs are completely different. You are right, that there were developed parallel, but with different technical properties. Von Ohains design origins from an axial machine concept and Whittles from a radial one. Today only axial concepts survived in jet engines, while general gas turbines are in both design concepts.
When Whittle and von Ohain met after the war, they found out, that Whittle began earlier than v. Ohain, but v. Ohain was first with a working machine. And the design of the axial type engine is much easier to construct with multiple stage compressor and turbine modules. Whittle had serious problems to get the thrust he needed from his radial design. On the other hand Whittle was a long time a lonely fighter for his idea, who got no support from the RAF or the DOW. Noone there saw the potential of his idea. V. Ohain had nearly unlimited resources from Heinkel and the Heereswaffenamt, but suffered on an early, deadline to deliver results. So he had to stage some of the first tests to convince Heinkel to go on. And he was right.
@@ingowalkerling5141axial turbo jet are much more difficult to built than centrifugal compressors turbo jets, because axial compressors need much more parts who need perfect alignment and use high quality steel, centrifugal compressors are cast aluminium, and a single burning chamber is very difficult to maintain stable burning whi is much more reliable and effective with multiple burning chambers
They also "borrowed" a truckload of design inspiration from Jack Northrup.
Of course it was!
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers were not the only bomber threat the Americans possessed. There was no mention of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers, which also threatened the Fatherland and could carry more bombs than a B-17.
They were mostly equivalent types. B-24 was built in larger numbers, had a longer range and had a bigger payload.
B-17 was a much more survivable airframe when damaged, had superior defensive armament from the E variant onwards and was easier to fly especially when damaged.
Each type had its own niche, and the US production capacity was not negatively affected by producing two similar but different types in large numbers.
@@B52Stratofortress1 Yes, I am fully aware of the B-24 Liberator and its contributions to the war effort in Europe. My father flew a B-24D as a co-pilot in Operation Tital Wave where they bombed the Nazi Synthetic Oil Refineries at Ploesti in Romania on 1 August 1943. This was the infamous low level raid where many American bombers were lost. My father was assigned to the 512 Bomb Squadron, 376th Bomb Group, 12th Air Force stationed at Bengasi, Libya in North Africa. Unknown at the time there were two German spies at the base that had tipped off the Germans about the upcoming raid. The Germans at the target area were already fully alert with fighters and flak batteries just waiting for the B-24's to attack. There were several B-24's lost on this mission due to fighters and flak. Even my father's B-24D Liberator was hit over the target area shortly after bomb release when an 88-mm flak shell went clear through the right wing and punctured a fuel tank. Fortunately, my father was cross trained as a flight engineer on Liberators. He transferred as much fuel as possible out of the damaged fuel tank to conserve as much fuel as possible. The flight engineer was busy helping the ball turret gunner at the time because his ball turret had jambed due to desert dust getting inside the electric motor. Once fuel transfer was complete, my father resumed his co-pilot duties. He pulled the mixture controls back beyond limits from what the tech orders recommended to conserve even more fuel. My father had all four engines running on the verge of detonation. They maintained good airspeed depite the damaged right wing and were not harassed by enemy fighters. By the time they landed at their alternate air base in Italy, all four engines were junk from overheating, but the plane got them home safely despite the damage to the right wing. The mission proved to be a disaster and my father suffered from PTSD after watching several bombers being shot down around the target area and knowing there were no survivors.
Always an Odd one that , the B24 never got the Lime light its Boeing cousin did , they built I think 18,000 of them ..
@@salvagedb2470 Actually 18,482 B-24 Liberators were built in the United States during the war. It was the most produced American military aircraft of WWII. Its true, when the Davis wing on a B-24 became damaged, it lost efficiency very quickly. As for the B-17, it was never really designed as a strategic bomber when it was first designed in 1937. It was intended to destroy battleships, which is why it could not carry a larger payload like the B-24 Liberator. At that time, the U.S. military felt the battleship was the biggest threat to the United States and Boeing designers developed the B-17 based on that premise. What it lacked in bomb carrying capability it had to make up for in shear numbers when it was used as a strategic bomber. My father later became an instructor pilot in B-17's when he was stationed at MacDill Field in Tampa, Florida. One of the B-17's he flew in the Training Command was the famous B-17F Memphis Belle when it was assigned to the 483rd Bomb Squadron as their training aircraft after it had completed its War Bond Tour in the United States. My father was assigned as their instructor pilot. Today, the Memphis Belle has been restored to factory new condition and is on permanent static display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
And of course the Afro Lancaster could carry more bombs and could fly further than a B17
A very good documentary indeed! Well done!
Many thanks!
Imagine walking into a forest in deepest Germany and coming across a line up of ME262s like that today...
From what I've read, more planes would've meant nothing since what the axis lacked was fuel.... entire wings were grounded due to lack of fuel... not due to lack of planes. The produce more tanks, produce more planes argument falls flat when you start reading the economics of ww2 for the axis side
Axis was supplied by standard oil. The Americans had a button to both start and stop the war as they pleased.
I love war birds of all ages
This was so in-depth an educational
I really enjoyed it
Thank you for putting in time to creat this documentary
👍🙏
Please note it was the UK that was under threat , not just England . True English cities were pounded but repelled by the Uk , people from all over the UK were involved .
Glasgow ,Belfast Cardiff to name but a few .
@@duncanmacmillan5558 In fact the first place Bombed by the Nazis was in Scotland
And more than 200 enemy aircraft were shot down on Scottish territory. Although Peterhead was attacked more times than any other Scottish town, Clydebank suffered the greatest loss of life in one raid - the Clydebank Blitz.
The last documentary on the Me 163 was also highly informative. While being an efficient fighter aircraft, it had the nasty tendency to literally disolve a pilot if the acidic fuel leaked into the cockpit ! This happened at least once to an unfortunate pilot during test trials. Another nasty habit was when the detachable undercarriage bounced back too high into the starting plane, bringing it down immediately to a deadly crash landing in a ball of flame.
Lots of great information here. It's really unfortunate that the digital filtering used on the original film footage is so over-processed.
Agreed. All the original footage has been stretched to fill the frame making everything look strange. It’s a crying shame.
@@michaelstandring5580 You must be fun at parties.
At 1:40 "...boxes with coils..." Georing was referring to the radio/radar equipment used on German night fighters.
Thank you for expounding on that. Very insightful
Me-262 uses also R4M non guided missile and with it improved the shooting down ratio of allied bombers. It was capable of launching 24 of them at 450m range, and when spreaded in a bomber formation produces the break of that formation and the growth of the distance between bombers. This effect led to lower the capability of cal.50 machine guns to accomplish their rules, avoiding a concentrated fire support. R4M it was not as sophisticated as Rhurstal X4, but avoid the need of guiding the missile. Also, with a working proximity fuse and a better designed warhead, it would be a formidable weapon.
rockets..... the very word missile denotes its guided... but the american had rockets too only promblem the nazi's had was ignition.....1/4 of em just b;ew up on the wing.... disterous for a jet
Even unguided it upped the kill rate by ~4x.
@@harleyme3163Citation? Or I call hogwash. Many fail to know N.S.D.A P., from 1942 through the end of their war, suffered from munitions sabotage. Some laborers were sabotaging Luftwaffe munitions during production process. Surviving Luftwaffe veterans uniformly speak of such in their memoires. Read on.
Dad, a B17 flight engineer saw a lot of 262’s August 5, 44, to January 45. I’ve read extensively about the 262, it was a failure because it used gasoline instead of jet fuel. When the 262 throttled back it would quit running and they couldn’t restart. We figured it out followed them home to destroy them.
Not impressed by your extensive reading. Gasoline was used for the on board two-stroke starter engine. The Junkers Jumo 004 jet engine however used J-2 as its standard fuel [synthetic fuel produced from coal] or a type of diesel oil. Note that aviation gasoline was not desirable due to its high rate of consumption & would not have been used unless no other choice was available. The 'flame out' was not caused by the fuel used, it was due to rough handling of the throttle - restart was possible but you need altitude.
@@nightjarflying give the man a break, a single article or too is quite extensive.
@@JeronimoStilton14 An extensively wrong article or two then
@@nightjarflying you missed my sarcasm I take it? And I wouldn’t know either way but articles and random googling do tend to have their error rates
@@JeronimoStilton14 stupidity & sarcasm by a stranger look the same in 'print' without the conventional sarcasm indicator
After watching this, I still think it boils down to the allies having greater numbers as opposed to tactical or technical mistakes on the Nazis part.
The war of the factories.
I'd say especially the material aid to the USSR, their numbers wouldn't have meant as much without the ability to arm, feed and transport them. I do agree that it is easy to scoff at "foolish" mistakes post hoc. Especially when there could have been other political/tactical considerations and unknowns at the time that someone on the outside doesn't have to contend with years later.
“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” -General John J. Pershing
@@joeyjamison5772 And Bombing German war factories help slow down the production process and the removal of supplies guns and troops from the frontlines
The Allies also were technically more developed. Documentations like this one are built on myths. The Germans did have some few, cutting edge technology, but it was all neither fully developed or coming 1944/45 and in few numbers.
Tiger (I) II, Me262, U-boat XII, V2, StG44 all that things were technically very poor developed and broked down very often.. It would have need around 10 years of more development. But the Allies also were developing such weapons. So, Germany was good, but not good enough.
One major issue was Goerings belief in tactical bombers over fighters and the poor design of German long range fighters.
Both decisions left the Luftwaffe poorly prepared to fight anyone with a close to comparable air force, especially when fighting offensively. Lacking a structured, sophisticated training program that could keep pace with losses was also crippling.
Not a single mention of Stalingrad and the dire lack of fuel, or the woefully inadequate number of available pilots.
True, except for the ace, of all aces. I can't remember his name, but holds the record of confirmed kills in history. He had fuel, imagine him with 262.
Sorry to start with a grumpy comment: as in so many videos, the subtitles detract from all the hard work done to gather visual material. After the audio gets Goering's name correctly pronounced, the subtitle has it as Gehrig!😬
This apart, an excellent video with extremely good use of in flight footage of the aircraft. Very informative, and I would love to see a comparison of the Me262 and the Meteor.
Calum E. Douglas wrote a book called "The Secret Horsepower Race". He investigated the development and management of german Aero engines and it comes out that the Germans didnt even have the few grams of Nickel per exhaust valve for their engines. Ever wondered why the DB engines had roller bearings? Yes they couldnt even scrape enough common plain bearing material together to make them work. Second killer was the fuel, having a higher boiling point than the motor oil temperature, it kept diluting the engine oil due to direct injection issues until jamming the engine. Those issues combined with serious spark plug material problems cost many lives. Hans Joachim Marseille got killed thru those well known engine deficiencies. Read the book its great.
My dad was in ww2 and I ❤your documentaries ❤there are so informative and entertaining 👏 😄 please do a video on operation barbarossa 🎉🎉keep safe and God bless ❤️
The second half of this video doesn't relate to the title.
It be longs in s separate video
I thought the same thing. Great content however
The problem with the Luftwaffe was it’s short sighted conception.
Any modern Air Force needs to compartmentalise it to be able to act in different roles.
You need a naval Air Force Wing.
A ground support wing.
A reconnaissance wing.
A strategic bombing wing.
A fighter wing.
A transport/logistics wing.
A Fallschirmjäger/paratrooper wing.
A domestic wing.
Unfortunately for the Germans, they didn’t organise, plan or foresee the need for this type of organisation and thus tried to stretch their limited organisation to cover all these roles which it simply couldn’t.
Ural Mountains were the long range target that was untouched by Germany!
When the narrator is real and bothers learning proper pronunciations and doesn't botch German words. Nicely done (this for the first half of the video only. Final parts will have Germanglish pronunciations)
By the time, the 262s came out Germany was pretty much done. Germany couldn't compete with the industrial might of the USA.
Herman Göring stopped the double coupled engine intended for Heinkel 177, to make it extremely streamlined, surface cooled and faster than any of the contemporary fighters, because he knew from first hand that it would be impossible to handle in the field!
But even in the field a German crew could change an engine on the 262 in half an hour, so the short lifespan was only a question of spares.
The dual engine He 144 was a better bbq than a bomber. Bombers get shot down a new bomber would not have helped the short range Luftwaffe fighters. The time it takes to replace a spit or P.51 spark plugs was as long as it took to replace an engine on a 109. That gave the Germans the ability to keep the planes they had in the air.
@markgranger9150 Only between 5000 and 8000 Junkers Jumo 004 engines were ever made. With a planned service life to scrap of 25 hours and in actual use 12.5 hours. That means the British Meteor Rolls Royce centripetal engines at 100 to 125 hours before major overhaul not scrapping meant that they were worth 10 Jumo engines each or even more. That is 500 to 800 RR engines in service life equalled the entire production of Jumo 004 engines in service life. The later centripetal RR engines pushed the Meteor to above the ME 262 top speed of 540 mph in level flight. Frank Whittle was correct to initially push for production of the simpler, more rugged, and easier to produce centripetal engines than axial jet engines. Unfortunately, both the Meteor and ME 262 were fuel guzzlers, and this limited the combat radius of the fighters. So they were never destined to meet in aerial combat.
The photo is of an outdoor factory tjat was concealed in the forest in Bavaria, near the Danube. Diggers still turn up parts to this day.
I Don't Have The Link,
But The Biggest Problems Were:
Lack Of Good, Conventional,
4 Engine, Long Range Bombers;
And, Neglect To Capitalize On Their Superior Jet Technology.
Imperial Japanese Army Air Forces Had Similar Problems, With a Lack Of Long Range Bombers,
And Failure To Develop Their Own Jet Technology.
A very important issue that this documentary fails to mention is the German shortage of fuel. American strategic bombing of oil refineries and synthetic fuel plants was biting hard towards the war's end. German armaments production was actually at its peak in bomb proof underground factories in late 1944. The severe limiting factor was lack of fuel. Me 262s were being towed on airfields by harnessed cows.
I’m currently building a model of an ME-262, what the hell was Hitler thinking trying to make it a bomber!
A lot of insights here, great video.
What's the deal with changing apect ratio of the images? I understand that later interviews were probably done with video ratio of 1:85 (wide-screen), but to stretch out the original war footage from 1:33 to 1:85, just seems sily. Have more confidence in the audience.
Most people seem to be unaware the Germans actually lost the battle for The Hague in 1940. Losing a stunning 125 Ju 52 transporter planes and damaging 47 more. The losses were so heavy they had to bomb Rotterdam to force Dutch surrender. Losing that many airplanes probably had it's effect on the Battle of Britain that followed soon after.
The high loss of German transport planes and paratroopers in the Netherlands would have had a significant effect on any potential invasion attempt of England. The German airborne troops would have been a vital part of any invasion. There was no way Germany could rebuild it's transport aircraft and paratrooper numbers so quickly.
The German air assault on the island of Crete in May, 1941 saw another devastating loss of transport aircraft and paratroopers. At that point, the production of transport aircraft had to take a back seat to the large number of fighters and bombers Germany needed. When the German 6th Army became encircled in Stalingrad in November 1942, the Luftwaffe didn't have the transport aircraft to keep it supplied.
Of course the Netherlands played a great role in defeating the enemy, that is why in an act of kindness the Dutch authorities and vast parts of society were so keen to offer their collaboration in every field imaginable. LOL
@@dipling.pitzler7650 Sadly that is also true. But that does not include the Dutch armed forces. The Dutch that joined the SS or commi ted serious collaboration were not from the army but mainly from the police and other civl services.
@@boszdekler5304 Every country has its blind spots and as the past can not be altered it only matters how to deal with these in the future, but for this a honest retrospective and less bragging is needed.
@@dipling.pitzler7650 only trying to honour the people that fought a very unequal battle and achieved much more than expected. Not their fault the Germans succeeded in occupying the country.
Awesomely put together documentary
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you for this video; excellent information, excellent presentation. 👍🏽
Our pleasure!
Always brilliantly edited documentary 👏 👌
Glad you enjoyed it
I say I like the bf-110 and everyone says in the previous comments "that plane sucks and you should...". I still like it, I think it looks sharp plus it did serve a niche purpose. I also love the US A-10 even with all the more modern jets.
Excellent content!
Glad you think so!
One of my retired colleagues was a pilot in the Royal Navy based at Lossiemouth when Eric Brown was I believe the station commander. One day while on parade, he tried to salute Eric with his sword, but accidently damaged and ripped Eric's uniform. The man was less than pleased, telling Nigel "that will cost you a new greatcoat!"
Your colleague was lucky he was not in the Russian Airforce! If a Russian pilot ripped the coat of his superior, he would be castrated and his testicles would be stuffed into his mouth while he was still alive! Maybe you can understand why the Russians kicked the Nazi's asses when they were stupid enough to invade their country!😮
Fascinating documentary! thank you.
Thank you too!
Excellent video! As Albert Speer states in his books, the regime did not go for massproduction until 1943 for ideological reasons. Also the Me262 was not used as an interceptor for ideological reasons because defense was considered defaetistic. Herman Goering was a useless drug addict that came to his brillant mind again when the allies had him cut off drugs before his trial after the war. He probably was kept in office because AH knew from the start that there was no chance to win this anyway. Like in WWI when the Austrian Empire knew that they would not stand a chance from the beginning but would refuse to go down without a sound.
I disagree. Hitler thought he was a genius and could not loose. He chose incompetents like Goring because he valued loyalty over competence, since he believed his genius could overcome any obstacle.
Very true, Austria quite literally lost WW1, and if you look at their battles against the very very under equipped Russians that becomes blatantly clear 😂 it’s funny cause Italy was the same for Germany, both weren’t technologically ready for the war when it started
I think you’re wrong about Hitler. He thought he could win it right up to the moment he pulled the trigger, and may have thought that would win it for him. He was totally delusional.
@@Orbitalresonancefrequencies Far more to that war than meets the eye.
Total bs every word. Mass production has nothing to do with ideological reasons, nor it's the reason why Me262 was planed ro be used as f-b. Austro-Hungary knew they would not stand a chance??? They were eager to go to war.
Very interesting.
📻🙂
The Luftwaffe didn't fall. It was the victim of a superior power.
It was the victim of a bunch of psychopaths, and the million of sheep that followed them.
Unfortunately history repeats itself
@@Dronescapes that too
great video. but why... why the bad audio??
Despite the u-boat threat to UK, early in the war long-range convoy air cover was held back so that explosives could be dropped all over Germany, mostly countryside apparently . . .
to suggest that aerial ASW was sacrificed in favor of bombing ground targets on the continent is inaccurate. It’s true that German submarines had considerable success from 1939 through early 1942, but that’s not because the UK and US ignored the threat or diverted resources elsewhere. Aerial ASW was at its embryonic stage in 1939 and the UK and US were feverishly developing capabilities while using what they had to counter the threat. By mid-1942, the USAAF fielded units and technology dedicated to aerial ASW, including airborne depth charges, magnetic anomaly detection, microwave radar, and others the Germans never figured out. The RAF was actively engaged in aerial ASW before that but with mixed success. And, remember they were fighting the Battle of Britain at the same time, so I will excuse them if they were somewhat distracted. B-18 and B-24 aircraft were purposely equipped for long range aerial ASW and their crews were organized and trained for this mission - they were not poached to perform other missions. Moreover, aerial ASW was carried out in earnest well before the USAAF and RAF began the coordinated bombing campaign over the Continent in 1943. The U.S produced 12,500 bombers in 1942, and over 28,000 in 1943. There were plenty to go around. The ASW mission was not a bill-payer for the bombing mission on the Continent. It’s true that the aerial ASW crews preferred hunting submarines in the offense rather than performing convoy escort in the defense but whether performing offensive or defensive ASW missions, they were performing robust and effective aerial ASW with dedicated aircraft and purpose-trained crews. German Admiral Doenitz acknowledged it himself in a June 1943 memo.
@@David-nx2vm Thank you for the details, but my statement is not inaccurate.
The denial of VLR aircraft to convoy work is mentioned a number of times in literature on the Battle of the Atlantic, but only mentioned, not expounded at length.
Yes, by 1942 good sense had prevailed, as well as availability in quantity. It was at the introduction of LR and VLR when the attack role was chosen instead of the defensive.
The Battle of Britain in SE England was not a distraction from convoy escort, even if some pilots transferred to fighters at that time.
By 1942, certainly 1943, B17s and B24s were doing the job in large numbers. I referred to the early war period, when much knowledge about effective ASW was being learned.
There was no 'poaching' of USAAF aircraft from missions over the continent. By the time they got going, sensible allocation of production had been effected.
Looking from a U.S. perspective as you appear to do, perception of 1939/41 events is probably less sensitive than my own, the British perspective.
PS Don't forget the use of Icelandic bases - UK forces went there (including my father) long before U.S. ones did . . .
@@EllieMaes-Grandad Black Sky ASW doesn't Work!!! RAF Coastal Command tried it in early 1943 over the Bay of Biscay. They put as many aircraft as they could over the bay as possible in two one week periods and sunk jack shit. Lost aircraft to navigation failures and accidents as well. As for the VLR Liberator, the British had them in 1942!!! they got used as Transport Aircraft and Churchill used one as his personal transport.
@@richardvernon317 I was referring to the first few years of WW2.
@@EllieMaes-Grandad First Year, what Coastal Command had was good enough range wise, what they didn't have was the sensors or the weapons that worked. Where Aircraft really started to make a mark was mid 1942, but that was short lived because of Metox. Only in May 1943 did the aircraft start to rack up the kills because the weapons and sensors (plus intelligence) became really effective. You actually had more chance of hitting something important in Germany for number of hours flown than finding and sinking a U-boat before mid 1942. Plus anyhow, Bomber Command spend a lot of bombs and effort in attacking stuff in France in 1941 and 42 like German Warships.
Spot on, it's mostly all about the pilot, the ground team , planning and support, we had all that mattered most and had effective leadership in these critical areas, the axis had no chance
The fatal mistake that Nazi Germany made was starting a war that they had zero possibility of winning. Germany was a small Central European country with little natural resources and inadequate manpower taking on the three biggest empires on Earth. The most they were ever going to do was wreck havoc for a while and then get curb stomped once their opponents got up to speed. Germany winning WWII under any realistic circumstances is a fantasy. Ditto Imperial Japan.
Nice! Thanks for great content.
🙂🙏
Their big mistake was not Starting a competition to replace the Bf-109 in 1938. The winner of that competition would have started entering service in 1940.
I have been an ardent student of WWII since very young. From the Start to the Logistics to the Finish. Most do not know that the entire European Theatre War was
a Vendetta of the Versailles WWI Armistice. Which Hitler foolishly ran as such absent of any logic whatsoever. If Hitler had let his Generals and Admirals manage
the War and not turned on the Jewish People (along with countless other nationalities) ....Germany would have won Hands Down !!!! No Problem !!!! Instead his
whole actions and planning were created around Vengeance !!! BTW: It was The Russians that bore the brunt of the War. The other Allies were there to take pressure
off the Eastern Front and allow Russia to take Germany down. And Russia did with its own Vengeance! Harshly and Extremely !!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was no way Germany could out think,design or genius Britain or out produce the US.
@@andrewallen9993They didn't need to, if they had only had more manpower or industrial capacity and attacked Russia earlier instead of helping Mussolini in Italy, we might have seen Russia conquered. If Russia is conquered, their industrial capacity will be used in the German war effort instead. They needed to be quicker and smarter.
@@Vacced Lack of industrial capacity=inability to out produce the US.
Lack of manpower=inability to out think the British due to putting big brains in infantry and kill all the Jews.
Great stuff. Thanks
Glad you enjoyed it
Adolph pushing the left wing of that ME-109 at 13:19
Lack of replacement pilots and their aeroplanes...Mr. Citino is excellent, as always...
GREAT video, and I adore it. Noting, as to the fastest piston-engined aircraft in WWII... The M an N models of the P47-Jug hit 500mph plus on rather frequent occasion. Just an FYI.
The “Jug” was an awesome airplane ! Huge compared to other single seat fighters of the time. I don’t doubt the 500 MPH figure you said. Pilot said they had control problems in high speed dives that we know now are compressibility issues. But the jugs best attribute was durability. They was a story of a badly shot up jug that had the misfortune of running into a German Ace, who thought he had an easy kill to add to his considerable numbers. He used up all his ammunition, shook his head, saluted and flew away without shooting it down. The pilot stopped counting at 100 holes back at base .
@@mrwhips3623exactly. or even 13mm rounds, the germans were late to adopt the heavy machine gun and used the weak 8mm mauser until late in the conflict.
The N model was also longer ranged than the P51. It came out fairly late in the war and was only used in the Pacific
Heh. It's a Robot II camera. It can be synched with a machine gun or a cannon, that's why the cables. Very interesting to see it mounted on the head like a go pro. A lot of WW2 air combat footage comes from these cameras.
The constant reference to England and English is both disappointing and incorrect. Britain was made up of more than 1 nation. Scottish, Irish and Welsh soldiers, sailors and airmen as well as non combatants were around at the time and took on the Nazis.
I can find no reference to English, apart from English Channel and English coast. Which are both correct. Everything else is correctly named British.