Thank you for the excellent video! I am researching a Spitfire PR.IV pilot who bailed out over the Netherlands on 28 December 1941. He ended up in Stalag Luft 3 where he was a part of “The Great Escape”. Sadly he was also one of the 50 RAF officers of the 73 recaptured escapees that were murdered by the Gestapo. I have a FB page about him and the aircraft: Spitfire PR.IV AA804 - Remembering P/O Charles P. Hall
Excellent video on a often overlooked part of the Spitfire story. I liked that you mentioned about the Spitfire PR having to show itself over a target gained from Ultra intelligence. Pretty sneaky. Still all that the pilot would have had to do would have been to lift up into the contrail layer and then leave some tracks easily visible from the ground. Having a couple of books on the Spitfire, one of which includes a story of a PR mission flown by a USAAF pilot, I can assure you that they were very conscious of Not leaving contrails, but rather flying just below the level so that anyone trying to get above the PR Spitfire would give themselves away with their contrail. If spotted and being pursued, then climbing up through the contrail layer to as high as possible while advancing the throttle was the first line of defence. Mark from Melbourne Australia
One thing I’d not realised until I interviewed a WW2 PR pilot was that they put most of their effort into covering the same targets on a regular basis. The idea being that if anything changed that would indicate activity of some kind.
@@VenturaPublications Well you have to know just how much effort your enemy is putting into Rescue/Recovery and Repair. If you don't watch it carefully then they can have time to repair a factory and also to camouflage it to make it appear that it is still damaged.
My uncle ran a Spitfire PR group in Berlin post WW2, he said they used to get up to all sorts of high jinx to get photos of the Russian sector of Germany and Berlin. He was horrified with the suffering of the German people from the indescriminate bombing, having been part of Bomber Command for the war, he felt a degree of responsibility for tge carnage.
Really fantastic video and well put together. A few things mentioned there that I didn't know and all of it was extremely interesting. I'm really looking forward to the next instalment of the later marks of PR Spits.
In France, reconnaissance pilots are nicknamed "the only intelligent fighter pilots". It means something. I cannot imagine flying in a non pressurised cockpit for more than 8 hours at freezing 🥶 altitudes, performing pinpoint first class navigation and photographing enemy targets. They were the cream of pilots. What i ignore is what kind of Merlin engines they used. Knowing how sensitive it was to cooling glycol links,these guys should have been belorded. How many missions LR did they have to fly before beeing tour expired? Thanks so much for this video.
I never realised how far these Spitfire could fly without drop tanks. I knew they had the range to reach Germany, but I assumed drop tanks were always involved. I read somewhere an interview with Joe Smith of Supermarine after the war and he thought he should have given more consideration to increasing fuel capacity so that armed Spitfires could have reached Germany from England , he thought it would have been a (relatively) adaption compared with other adaptions the Spitfire went through in it's operational career.
I may put up a short video about two extended range Spitfires the Americans built to encourage the British to do just that. But I guess the mustang came along. The US plane was based on the use of drop tanks.
Yes I have heard that too. In fact they were able to fly one of them across the Atlantic (via Greenland I think). However Joe Smith was talking about massively increasing it's range without drop tanks, and he thought it may have been a relatively straightforward adaption (certainly no more difficult than some others it went through). I seem to remember that he recalled that they were never pressed to investigate it properly. I also wonder why the RAF didn't use Mustangs as they had them at the time and with drop tanks they could fly there camera installed and fully armed. I guess there must have been a reason as even the USAAF used Spitfires (among others) for PR work. Great videos by the way.@@VenturaPublications
There's an excellent book called 'The Relentless Offensive' that goes into some detail of the battles Arthur Harris had with the Air Ministry and British purchasing authorities to get a better deal for his crews. Much of it is about turrets and bomber build quality. Apparently the RAF decided that building a long-range fighter was a waste of time, as a short-range fighter could always outperform it. And that was that. As a result, after the Battle of Britian the Spitfire did very little to advance the Allied cause through years of adversity, until they were belatedly deployed overseas.
Thank you for your reply. Very interesting. It's a shame about the RAF view that a short range fighter would always outperform a long range one, as the Spitfire was always one of the worlds best dogfighters and I think would have given a good account of itself in the air over Germany.@@lllordllloyd
Just so interesting, my dad flew 50 missions in a pr MkX1 in Burma, didn't talk much about it. Makes you realise these guys were very skilled and clever to fly, navigate and take photos. I know he said he would count the seconds on his timed run by counting, photography one, photography two, photography three, etc. After the war went to university and became a civil engineer and never flew again.
Hi Murray. I have photos you sent me from your fathers album and some were published in our long sold out PR Spitfire books. I’ll do a video on the PR.XI at some stage. I’m trying to keep each one to about 15 minutes so the PR. XI may need more than one!! Cheers. Malcolm
Hi Malcolm, Are there any plans to reprint the Classic Warbirds Merlin PR Spitfires No.10 book as I have never been able to track down a copy at a realistic price.
Hi Murray. I've had contact from the son of one of your father's old comrades. If you would email me please. The email address is a link on the channel home page. Cheers, Malcolm
Thank you for the excellent video!
I am researching a Spitfire PR.IV pilot who bailed out over the Netherlands on 28 December 1941. He ended up in Stalag Luft 3 where he was a part of “The Great Escape”. Sadly he was also one of the 50 RAF officers of the 73 recaptured escapees that were murdered by the Gestapo.
I have a FB page about him and the aircraft: Spitfire PR.IV AA804 - Remembering P/O Charles P. Hall
Outstanding, thanks so very much.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Really enjoying this series
Great work sir on an under appreciated a/c. Thank you.
You are very welcome
Great video - I love your work mate. Thank you!
Glad you enjoy it!
Excellent video on a often overlooked part of the Spitfire story. I liked that you mentioned about the Spitfire PR having to show itself over a target gained from Ultra intelligence. Pretty sneaky. Still all that the pilot would have had to do would have been to lift up into the contrail layer and then leave some tracks easily visible from the ground. Having a couple of books on the Spitfire, one of which includes a story of a PR mission flown by a USAAF pilot, I can assure you that they were very conscious of Not leaving contrails, but rather flying just below the level so that anyone trying to get above the PR Spitfire would give themselves away with their contrail. If spotted and being pursued, then climbing up through the contrail layer to as high as possible while advancing the throttle was the first line of defence.
Mark from Melbourne Australia
Thanks for the input Mark
One thing I’d not realised until I interviewed a WW2 PR pilot was that they put most of their effort into covering the same targets on a regular basis. The idea being that if anything changed that would indicate activity of some kind.
@@VenturaPublications Well you have to know just how much effort your enemy is putting into Rescue/Recovery and Repair. If you don't watch it carefully then they can have time to repair a factory and also to camouflage it to make it appear that it is still damaged.
Wet wings were self sealing mustang had stability warnings after takeoff ?
My uncle ran a Spitfire PR group in Berlin post WW2, he said they used to get up to all sorts of high jinx to get photos of the Russian sector of Germany and Berlin. He was horrified with the suffering of the German people from the indescriminate bombing, having been part of Bomber Command for the war, he felt a degree of responsibility for tge carnage.
Thoroughly enjoyed your video-will look out for others.Many thanks,Kerry.
Really fantastic video and well put together. A few things mentioned there that I didn't know and all of it was extremely interesting. I'm really looking forward to the next instalment of the later marks of PR Spits.
Thanks for the positive feedback
amazing watch,thank you so much for making and sharing
In France, reconnaissance pilots are nicknamed "the only intelligent fighter pilots".
It means something.
I cannot imagine flying in a non pressurised cockpit for more than 8 hours at freezing 🥶 altitudes, performing pinpoint first class navigation and photographing enemy targets.
They were the cream of pilots.
What i ignore is what kind of Merlin engines they used.
Knowing how sensitive it was to cooling glycol links,these guys should have been belorded.
How many missions LR did they have to fly before beeing tour expired?
Thanks so much for this video.
Yes, the unpressurised cockpit would be no fun at all!!
I never realised how far these Spitfire could fly without drop tanks. I knew they had the range to reach Germany, but I assumed drop tanks were always involved. I read somewhere an interview with Joe Smith of Supermarine after the war and he thought he should have given more consideration to increasing fuel capacity so that armed Spitfires could have reached Germany from England , he thought it would have been a (relatively) adaption compared with other adaptions the Spitfire went through in it's operational career.
I may put up a short video about two extended range Spitfires the Americans built to encourage the British to do just that. But I guess the mustang came along. The US plane was based on the use of drop tanks.
Yes I have heard that too. In fact they were able to fly one of them across the Atlantic (via Greenland I think). However Joe Smith was talking about massively increasing it's range without drop tanks, and he thought it may have been a relatively straightforward adaption (certainly no more difficult than some others it went through). I seem to remember that he recalled that they were never pressed to investigate it properly. I also wonder why the RAF didn't use Mustangs as they had them at the time and with drop tanks they could fly there camera installed and fully armed. I guess there must have been a reason as even the USAAF used Spitfires (among others) for PR work. Great videos by the way.@@VenturaPublications
There's an excellent book called 'The Relentless Offensive' that goes into some detail of the battles Arthur Harris had with the Air Ministry and British purchasing authorities to get a better deal for his crews. Much of it is about turrets and bomber build quality.
Apparently the RAF decided that building a long-range fighter was a waste of time, as a short-range fighter could always outperform it. And that was that. As a result, after the Battle of Britian the Spitfire did very little to advance the Allied cause through years of adversity, until they were belatedly deployed overseas.
Thank you for your reply. Very interesting. It's a shame about the RAF view that a short range fighter would always outperform a long range one, as the Spitfire was always one of the worlds best dogfighters and I think would have given a good account of itself in the air over Germany.@@lllordllloyd
Just so interesting, my dad flew 50 missions in a pr MkX1 in Burma, didn't talk much about it. Makes you realise these guys
were very skilled and clever to fly, navigate and take photos. I know he said he would count the seconds on his timed run by counting, photography one, photography two, photography three, etc. After the war went to university and became a civil engineer and never flew again.
Hi Murray. I have photos you sent me from your fathers album and some were published in our long sold out PR Spitfire books. I’ll do a video on the PR.XI at some stage. I’m trying to keep each one to about 15 minutes so the PR. XI may need more than one!! Cheers. Malcolm
Hi Malcolm, Are there any plans to reprint the Classic Warbirds Merlin PR Spitfires No.10 book as I have never been able to track down a copy at a realistic price.
@@andrewfletcher4943 I have had to let that idea fade and that is part of the reason for puting out these short TH-cam videos.
@@VenturaPublications That is a pity. Excellent videos though, the best description of PR variants I have come across.
Hi Murray. I've had contact from the son of one of your father's old comrades. If you would email me please. The email address is a link on the channel home page. Cheers, Malcolm
Love this video but you must increase your sound levels.
Thanks for the feedback
Were wet wings self sealing
Off the top of my head, I don’t believe the PR.IV wet wing was self sealing. Cheers. Malcolm