Death of the Luftwaffe | Fatal Mistakes Made By Nazi Germany And The Me 262 Jet Aircraft
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 лис 2024
- Some of the reasons behind the death of the Luftwaffe, from the appointment of Ernst Udet, to his demise, and the many strategic errors made by Nazi Germany.
The Luftwaffe, the German air force during World War II, suffered a significant decline and eventual demise as the war progressed. Initially, it emerged as a formidable force, displaying impressive technological advancements and tactical superiority. Led by skilled commanders such as Hermann Göring, the Luftwaffe played a crucial role in the early victories of the German war machine.
During the early stages of the war, the Luftwaffe's Blitzkrieg strategy demonstrated devastating effectiveness, with a combination of dive bombers, fighters, and tactical bombers wreaking havoc on enemy forces and infrastructure. This dominance was most notable during the invasion of Poland, the Battle of France, and the early phases of the war on the Eastern Front.
However, the tide began to turn against the Luftwaffe as the war progressed. Several factors contributed to its decline. The first was the inability to sustain its initial technological edge. While the Luftwaffe initially possessed superior aircraft, including the renowned Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the versatile Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, technological advancements by the Allies gradually narrowed the gap. Allied forces developed more advanced aircraft, such as the British Supermarine Spitfire and the American P-51 Mustang, which surpassed their German counterparts in terms of speed, range, and firepower.
Another critical factor was the depletion of experienced pilots. The relentless air battles and high casualties took a heavy toll on the Luftwaffe's pilot ranks. The German pilots, who were initially highly skilled and experienced, were gradually replaced by less-experienced and inadequately trained recruits. This loss of skilled manpower diminished the Luftwaffe's effectiveness in combat.
Furthermore, the strategic bombing campaign by the Allies severely hampered the Luftwaffe's ability to project air superiority. Bombing raids targeted German airfields, production facilities, and infrastructure, resulting in the destruction of aircraft and key logistical support. The famous Battle of Britain fought primarily in the skies over England in 1940, was a turning point, as the Royal Air Force successfully defended against Luftwaffe attacks, ultimately preventing the planned German invasion.
The Luftwaffe's decline also resulted from the failure of the German military's overall strategy. Hitler's decision to engage in a two-front war by invading the Soviet Union while still fighting the Allies in the West stretched the Luftwaffe's resources and capabilities to their limits. The vast distances and harsh conditions of the Eastern Front presented enormous logistical challenges, forcing the Luftwaffe to divide its forces and focus on multiple theaters simultaneously. This dispersion of resources weakened the Luftwaffe's ability to concentrate overwhelming force in any one area.
By the later stages of the war, the Luftwaffe was further crippled by fuel shortages, limited production capabilities, and a lack of strategic vision. The air force struggled to adapt to changing circumstances, and its diminished operational capabilities were unable to counter the Allies' overwhelming air superiority.
#luftwaffe #aircraft #airplane
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.
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
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Capt. Brown, you Sir, were a legend in the time that your country really needed you.
Salute !.
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
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
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.
Excellent! A thumbs up for no insufferable background noise and music.
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!!!
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.
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.
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 ,
Thanks for replaying these great aerocinema shows
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.
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.
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.
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.
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....
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ural Mountains were the long range target that was untouched by Germany!
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.
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.
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 .
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!
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.
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.
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
Imagine walking into a forest in deepest Germany and coming across a line up of ME262s like that today...
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!
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.
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!😮
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
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 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.
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.'
Outstanding stuff: nice WWII footage and interesting interviews, keep them coming! Bravo!
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.
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.
This one was really good, great interviews, thanks!
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
1) The Luftwaffe never seriously tried to develop the sort of four-engine heavy-bomber that would be needed across the vast distances of the Eastern Front, and, conceivably, one day against the United States. 2) Early on in the war Germany’s vast military apparatus began to run short on absolutely crucial raw materials such as fuel. 3) Bc of the early successes of dive bombers such as the JU-87 in the Spanish Civil War and in Poland, an absurd emphasis was placed on all subsequent German bombers that they too should be able to dive-bomb--this produced several “jacks of all trades,” which were competent, but *excelled* at none of the several roles they were expected to fill. 4) Germany’s Luftwaffe never had an integrated, early-warning, air-defense *SYSTEM* such as that developed by Dowding in Britain for the protection against mass, round-the clock (eventually well-escorted) fleets of bombers such as the Halifax, Avro Lancaster, and zUs B-17 Flying Fortresses carpet-bombing German cities. 5) And, finally, Germany invested far too much time, energy, resources, and effort into projects it swiftly abandoned (such as “The German Mosquito”). Even the projects that could be made to work such as the ME 262 jet (“Schwalbe”) could be produced in too small quantities, were often unreliable bc of characteristic German over-engineering; and bc of resentful slave-labour Germany was using in its underground, cramped, and dark production facilities late bc Allied bombing had destroyed most surface complexes.
Fore engine cut altso have a inpact on the war i the Atlantic theatre
1) is one of those tales ginned up by bad historians that continues to influence minds. The bombing campaigns against Germany took years and vast numbers of bombers and escort fighters to become effective, with enormous costs in money, fuel, and aircrew lives. The Germans didn't have the resources to maintain the force they had. Shortages kept the Bf 109 in service beyond its peak because the Germans couldn't afford to replace it. An effective heavy bomber force, not to mention escort fighters, was never an option.
@@charlesfaure1189 , there’s no reason to bo so aggressive and insulting. I assure you: many, many historians of Weimar and pre-WWII Germany have pointed out *precisely* what I pointed out about the Luftwaffe’s lack of interest in developing a four-engine heavy-bomber. OF COURSE as the war dragged on past 1942 the shortages (WHICH I *MENTIONED* IN MY ORIGINAL POST) made it more and more difficult for Germany to succeed at this; yet if all the money and resources WASTED on “wonder weapons” and obvious OFFENSIVE weapons (such as the Sturmtiger) when Germany was clearly fighting a DEFENSIVE war after 1943 had been spent on developing a heavy bomber fleet (rather than more and more dive-bombing-capable/ground support/jacks of all trades) Germany would at least have been paying attention to their own experts, such as Walther Wever, who had said Germany would *never* have the ability to defeat the USSR in an all-out war unless it used STRATEGIC BOMBING THAT WOULD BE POSSIBLE *ONLY* IF GERMANY DEVELOPED AND USED A FLEET OF HEAVY, FOUR-ENGINE BOMBERS TO TRAVERSE THE VAST DISTANCES OF THE SOVIET INTERIOR. If Wever had not died in a plane crash before the war, perhaps Germany’s massive and fatal over-dedication to the concept of the Schnellbomber could have been forestalled.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’m currently building a model of an ME-262, what the hell was Hitler thinking trying to make it a bomber!
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
No oil.
The luftwaffe failed for a myriad of reasons. Any one of the major ones could have ended up winning the war, had they not been done. The biggest was the alteration of the bombing strategy against England, in which they ceased prioritizing the British aircraft production, and instead shifted to population bombing. Which ended up allowing the British much needed breathing room to rearm their air wings. The top two issues that doomed the Luftwaffe would be the one named, and the fact that they ceased research and development of 4 engine long range heavy bombers early on. This is essential, later in the war versus USSR when they simply tore apart their production facilities and relocated them beyond the range of German bombers. Theoretically the German decision made sense, using more accurate, pinpoint bombing in more of an airborne artillery type of role, a heavy reliance on close air support, and close air protection. The problem was the handicap it created by leaving no long range option to attack Russian arms production. A close third would be the insane disaster that delaying the production of the Me262 ended up being. It could have entered service a full 2 years earlier than it did. Had it done so, that one plane alone could have shifted the conditions of the war, giving Germany air superiority in every theater it was deployed in. Thus allowing planes that ended up being less effective because of their obsolescence, such as the Ju87 to maintain far more effectiveness due to relatively safe skies. That in turn would have prevented the Russians from building up massive numbers of tanks, or the allies in landing at Normandy, or in Sicily.
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.
By the time, the 262s came out Germany was pretty much done. Germany couldn't compete with the industrial might of the USA.
A very good documentary indeed! Well done!
Many thanks!
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.
This guy must be a USC graduate, where our daughter went for her undergrad degree. We found her a bronze Trojan helmet just like that one!
(She graduated from Wythe Law at WM and Mary later.)
It's not Trojan. That's Greek
The Heinkel 177 " Greif " Bomber had paired engines , not one after another ( tandem ).
Then , you don't Need Speed on a dive bomb attack , you need speed brakes.
Then , the Germans licensed the Italians to build the Daimler Benz Engine, it was done by Alfa Romeo ( " Tifone " ).
Who are these so called " Historians " ?
hier und auf jeder anderen amerikanischen oder britischen Quelle gibt es keine Historiker! Nur den Narrativ des Siegers! Komödie!
@@berndbrakemeier1418And if Germany had won,which it didnt,the situation would have been reversed...
Also the Luftwaffe was designed from scratch to support the ground forces which they performed brilliantly. While the allied airforces totally neglected this role and did poorly until 1944. Look at the utterly worthless and costly allied air attacks against the Nazi Meuse River bridgeheads in May 1940, where they scored no hits and had most of their inadequate planes shot down by FLAK
It seems as though the US military brass were actually eager to make changes. You had Billy Mitchell pushing for a bigger and independent air force, and Navy commanders pushing for aircraft carriers, landing craft, newer submarines, and more. They clashed with old senior officers and the legislators. Then you have the Nuremberg laws, that may have held Germany back. It shrank the talent pool. Finally, Germany and Japan didn't use the rotation system. The US would train pilots, send them to combat, then rotate them back as instructors. Japan/Germany didn't do that, they kept the same instructors and let the pilots fight until they died.
One nation against three superpowers, I think that’s it.
Yeah, they were fools to let the war spread to multiple fronts. The US fought on 2 fronts, but we had those 2 gigantic oceans to protect us.
Three empires against a country smaller than Texas.
@@GenocideWesternersif you put it that way, Germany did really really well
Certainly more than one nation, there were several countries assisting the Nazis
@@georgebarnes8163 Exactly so!!!Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Czechoslovakia, many Caribbean countries, India, and the list goes on and on! Good for you to point this out!😊
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
👍🙏
I’ve been saying this my whole life and I will never change my mind. Without U.S. intervention (supplies, munitions, food) Germany would have worn down Great Britain and Russia. As pathetic as the Italians were without U.S. help they would have become a formidable force in the Mediterranean cutting off petroleum supply to GB. I’m not saying Germany & Italy would have won but they would have pushed the war into the early 1950’s which would have been devastating to GB & Russia.
There's too much Hollywood-influenced sentiments that America mostly saved the world during WW II, especially the European Theater. I used to think that too once upon a time growing up on some John Wayne movies but sometimes we Americans or Americana-fanboyz think the rest of the world was inferior unto themselves. Lend-Lease upon closer look was much more complicated than the America-saved-the-day notion.
Untrue Historic “Facts” It’s Time to Erase
Khalid Elhassan - September 8, 2020
32. The Myth of Soviet Reliance on Lend-Lease During WWII
An oft-repeated WWII myth has it that the USSR could not have survived or won without massive American Lend-Lease. Lend-Lease clearly helped, and Soviet successes in the second half of the war would not have been as dramatic without the hundreds of thousands of American jeeps and trucks that improved logistics and allowed for deep advances. And American airplanes were greatly appreciated - the Soviets’ second-highest scoring fighter ace of the war downed most of his kills while flying an American P-39 Airacobra.
However, the bulk of Lend-Lease did not arrive until 1944-1945, by which point the Soviets were already nearing victory. Indeed, meaningful amounts of Lend-Lease did not begin arriving until late 1943. By then, the Soviets had already halted the German advance and gone on the counteroffensive, rolling back the enemy’s gains and beginning the relentless march westward that ended in Berlin and Central Europe.
31. The Soviets Were Well on Their Way to Defeating Germany Before the Bulk of Lend-Lease Arrived
Belying the myth that the USSR could not have won without Lend-Lease is the fact that by the time the bulk of Lend-Lease arrived, the Soviets were well on the way to winning the war. In addition to halting the Germans at the Battle of Moscow in 1941, the Soviets had won major victories at Stalingrad and Kursk in 1943, liberated Ukraine and reached Poland in the winter of 1943-1944, and shattered Army Group Center in Operation Bagration in 1944.
The key is when Lend-Lease equipment was delivered. American commitments and promises of Lend-Lease were made early, beginning in 1941. But a variety of factors caused significant time to elapse before the US could make good on those commitments, starting with the time needed for American factories to transition from peacetime production of civilian goods to a war footing. Moreover, America had her own rapidly expanding military - 16 million men were put in uniform during the war - to arm and equip, which was often a higher priority than Lend-Lease.
30. When We Held Back Lend-Lease Out of Fear That It Would End Up in German Hands
Lend-Lease deliveries, especially during the war’s first year, were sometimes delayed by a perception that the USSR might collapse at any moment. So there was a fear that our Lend-Lease equipment might simply end up as German war booty. Because of such fears, on more than one occasion during the Soviets’ darkest hours in 1941-1942, ships that were already loaded with Lend-Lease destined for the USSR were offloaded.
The equipment was then redistributed to the US military, or if the ships were already underway, they were diverted to Britain and the equipment was given to the British instead. Even when the goods were ready and fears of Soviet collapse had receded, it took years to establish reliable routes.
29. It Took Time to Establish Reliable Lend-Lease Routes
Lend-Lease deliveries were initially routed across the Arctic Ocean to Murmansk. However, that was a hazardous passage, and many convoys were savaged by German planes and submarines operating from Norway. The quantities delivered were more symbolic than meaningful, and were of use only in the peripheral Arctic fronts facing Finland. Another more meaningful route was through Iran, which the Allied occupied precisely for that purpose. However, the Iranian road and rail infrastructure necessary for the delivery of significant aid was not completed until the second half of 1943. Aid through this route went mainly to the Soviets’ southern fronts, which were more important than the northern ones supplied through Murmansk, but were not the main front.
The main supply route, through which Lend-Lease finally gushed like a torrent, was through Vladivostok. From there, it made its way via the Trans-Siberian railway to the central fronts and the Soviets’ main war effort. However, that was the most difficult route, and it took the longest time to establish. Getting it ready and in action required not only significant work on the Soviet end, but also the creation of an entire road and rail network from scratch, across Alaska and Western Canada, to handle the massive mountains of aid.
Greg Beyer, BA History and Linguistics, Diploma in Journalism
March 11,2022
“From 1941 to 1945, total lend-lease aid to the Soviet Union accounted for only 5% of the Soviet GDP in total. And it is a salient point that over 80% of the aid was received after June 1942, when the tide of the war had already turned against the Germans on the Eastern Front.”
“War Is Boring”
Robert Beckhusen Mar 27, 2017
Armor
The Allies supplied more than 12,000 tanks to the Soviet Union. More than 5,000 came from the United Kingdom and Canada and included Valentine, Churchill and Matilda tanks. The United States, for its part, supplied nearly 1,400 M3 Lee tanks and more than 4,000 M4 Shermans.
While a substantial amount, these numbers were small in comparison to the tens of thousands of T-34s - the Red Army’s mainstay - produced during the conflict. The T-34 boasted superior armor, maneuverability and firepower.
The British tanks, having been supplied earlier in the war, were particularly handy in 1941 and 1942, the most decisive period in the war. But Soviet tankers were not fond of the British machines, especially the early-generation Valentines and Matildas, which had small turrets and underpowered cannons.
To be sure, the tanks were better than nothing, but outmatched in direct tank-on-tank combat with the latest German Panzers then rolling out of the Third Reich’s factories. David Glantz, a historian and author of When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, noted that Soviet tankers preferred the American tanks to the British ones, but preferred Soviet ones most of all.
“The Shermans' narrow treads made it much less mobile on mud than its German and Soviet counterparts, and it consumed great quantities of fuel,” Glantz wrote. “In fact, U.S. Army Ordnance planners had standardized this width early in the war to ensure that Shermans would fit onto ocean transports and across existing U.S. bridging equipment, two considerations that meant nothing to the Soviets.”
Which is something of an irony. The Sherman’s standardized tread width, which the Soviets didn’t like, helped get the tanks from the United States to the Soviet Union in the first place.
But it’s unlikely the aid turned the war entirely in the Soviet Union’s favor, as the German military was overstretched even during the 1941 invasion. That vulnerability was exposed terribly during the Red Army’s 1941-1942 Moscow counter-offensive - and it’s unlikely Germany would have won the war even if it had captured Moscow. And that was when Lend-Lease was just beginning.
As far as I'm concerned the Royal Navy had the Supermarina's number in the Mediterranean. On a lesser note: for Axis to land forces in North Africa was nuts with not taking out Malta first.
The battle for north Africa was won before 41 the English captured the land between Cairo and Tripoli and did it with less.than 10,000 men and a few tanks. After the capture of Tripoli the army was packed up and sent to Greece then Hitler sent Romeo to Africa and he did the same thing the belts did to the Italians in reverse.
Can we not honestly say that nobody could predict how the war would turn out if the Americans had not intervened! I have a gypsy friend who tells fortunes for money, and she even admits she does not have any supernatural powers which would allow her to be able to predict the future!!!!!!
My father was a navigator on a B17 bomber. My father described the B17 as almost indestructible. The B17 could take an enormous amount of battle damage and keep flying.
Good overview, but a little dated regarding the 262. To their credit they didn't come out and say it, but alluded to Hitler keeping the 262 from being an interceptor. We now know that was not true. However, they very accurately pointed out that the Do-335 was not just the fastest twin-engined fighter, but the fastest piston-engined fighter period. THAT was truly a failure of the Luftwaffe.
The 262 also accurately shows how deeply Hitler was fixated on trivial matters better left to O5s and O4s.
Me-262's biggest issue was the Engines were not ready until mid 1944 (even in the limited life span versions that were produced).
@@richardvernon317 Exactly, and with slave labor requiring extensive quality-control. Not to mention the lack of fuel.
If they would have had the B 17 they would have tried to make a dive bomber out of it.😂
one mistake was being at war with a country with a longer reach and greater numbers than your own and letting that war evolve into a war of attrition
The Russians are making the same mistake in Ukraine that the Germans did in USSR. Overstretched supply lines that are easily attacked by long range weapons. The logistical supply chain for the Germans in WW2 was a nightmare. And the same thing is happening today in Ukraine.
@@richardharmon647 those who don't learn from the past...
@@richardharmon647not really.
"There where no German fighters an D-Day above the Normandy landings"
More than enough official documentation that the Luftwaffe flew over 250 sorties over the Normandy beaches during the first day.
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.
One of the major differences in training doctrine between the US and the Luftwaffe is that the US sent it's best fighter pilots back to the states to become insructors so the next wave of pilots had learned from our best whereas the Luftwaffe kept their best pilots in the front line operational units. When these pilots were shot down and were either killed or captured their knowledge and experience was lost leaving their next wave of pilots without that knowledge.
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.
The amazing thing is that they got as far as they did and lasted as long as they did. They were doomed almost from day 1.
The fatal mistake was just one thing: Hermann Goering
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)
German Strengths:
1. Really good marching bands, excellent tubas.
2. Great parades.
3. Brutal occupations and sadistic atrocities.
4. A tactical air force which was invincible when it met no opposition.
5. A good short range commerce raider navy._
6. Domination of the first 10 months of a five year war.
7. Inventing wonder weapons.
German areas needing improvement:
1. Leaders without leadership abilities, common goals or realistic plans.
2. A horse-drawn army.
3. A semi obsolescent short range tactical air force.
4. A navy which could not project power.
5. Inabilty to effectively employ new wonder weapons.
6. Oh, yeah. Lost the war. Total fail. Country bombed flat...occupied...divided...starving.
Yes. The last one trumps all the "what ifs".
Right on all counts.
@@dustylover100 Don't forget, they also lost the first large scale war. You would think they would have done better with all that previous practice.
Why u med
You left out snappy uniforms
Hey, I was about to add " snazzy uniforms", but somebody beat me to it with their comment here!!! The Nazis were the stupidest invading force in history! The ancient Romans, Alexander the Great and his Macedonians, Napoleon, the Spanish conquistadores, and just about everybody did it better than the Germans! Oh, what could go wrong, We are just going to decide to conquer the whole world, not just Poland!😅
The Luftwaffe was beaten not by the allies but by Hitler and Goering Britain was beaten during the Battle if Britain and then Hitler in a fit of pique changed the targets from airfields to cities and hence the war changed
Britain was never beaten in battle of Britain..ohh god
This video has turned out to be a gem !
One point considering the Me-262 and its delay due to Hitler wanting a bomber:
Utter nonsense ! How long would it have taken the design and construction team (of which Willy Messerschmitt himself wasn't even a part) to come up with a simple bomb rack ? The answer is Monday moring before the 9.30h (Ersatz-)coffee break. You have a working bomb rack lying around an tell the apprentice to come up with a solution.
262 was delayed due to a lack of working engines. Junkers (of which Hugo Junkers wasn't a part of either) had massive initial production problems. And due to the mentioned "life-time issues" they could never keep up once the 262 went operational.
Interestingly, the first test unit to test and operate the 262 under combat conditions was a recon unit, IIRC along with some Ar-234. They flew some missions over Normandy in summer 1944.
Pilot conversion training was done on the spot since designated 262 pilots were usually already very experienced. Most pilots found the conversion to 262 easier than from one prop to another. All issues in mind !
Also, 262 wasn't hit that hard by the overall fuel shortage because it didn't use high octane fuel but a sort of diesel. That said, fuel was available, it just couldn't be transported to where it was needed.
Thank you
Not that easy.. Taking 2 x 500 kg bombs change the whole weight balance.. Fuel tanks have to be moved around
.
It's been written that the scrap time for an ME 262 engine was about 25 hours. Winkle Brown spoke to Galland after the war ended and was informed that the real figure for the aircraft engine was 10 to 12 hours. Sheesh that would allow for only a few sorties then straight into the recycling bin. Wow!
I read that conversion training was quite challenging for fighter pilots but easier for ex bomber pilots as they already had multi engine experience and alot more training hours than the fighter pilots did.
@@mikeharris7780 Not really if compared to bomber pilots converting to Bf109. 109s had the bad habit of killing unexpecting and newbie pilots on take-off. The high torque flipped the aircraft over if you weren't careful with stick and rudder; that's something a twin-engine wouldn't do to you. There were certainly other issues with 262 and rookie pilots.
Speaking of which: I have no idea if there were any newbies on 262 or if they were all conversion pilots.
I've read an account of a 109 instructor (an NCO) who was training a former bomber pilot (rank captain, hundreds of missions, knights cross and the lot). The captain "knew it all" and was almost killed on his first take-off. He was lucky, but 109 probably killed more novice pilots than the USAAF. I've once came across a number of 50% pilot/aircraft losses due to accidents within the Luftwaffe; that's including every aspect, not only training issues.
The Strategic Bombing Study conducted after WW-II found that strategic bombing was far less effective than this movie claims. German war production actually peaked in the Autumn of 1944. However, there were indeed major problems with under-funding the navy. As for actual production, the film claims that Germany was concentrating production in Germany. While there could possibly have been more production in Italy, there was actually lots of war production in France. The Japanese also developed a jet fighter, but while they had a flyable prototype before the end of the war, they did not reach the production stage.
The Luftwaffe was defeated by Goring.
Interesting seeing the early ME262 tail dragger torching the field, and the bird cage over the jet intakes; I’d never seen that footage before.
The Luftwaffe was being (re)constructed long before 1933 . . . . training facilities in Russia, gliding clubs all over the place . . .
They were doing everything secretly before 1933, but when Hitler took power in 1933, he announced that they weren’t following Versailles rules…and the Luftwaffe became official.
I THINK that’s what they meant here.
There was still gliding clubs all over Germany when I lived there in the 70/80s.
@@davehoward22 Same sort of enthusiasm as in the 1930s probably.
The Luftwaffe never existed before 1933(5) and nothing to do with Russia
You might want to do some more research reading about what was going on secretly, when, how and where it was happening . . . @@bdleo300