Spitfires and Tempests originated this technique earlier. All that was needed to upset the V1 was to get the wing under the V1 wing to disrupt airflow without physical contact. I say 'all' but it was a very skillful and risky manouvre to accomplish! Eventually the Wily Hun fixed triggers to the wingtips which wouuld set off the bomb if interfered with in that fashion.
When I was a lad in the in early Nineteen. Forties I actually witnessed this happening. and I have always said had it not been for Bravery of such Men I would not be here today. in air raid I was always in the back window of our house, watching it all. and one day Heard the engine of the Doodle Bug, and saw it come over the railway, and as it did so, his flame went out, and the Engine stopped, the nose came down slightly, and I thought it was coming at our row of houses, then out of nowhere this plane was on the scene, and he seemed to lift the Wing of the Doodle Bug up, and it changed course Slightly, and crashed someway off in the fields in which we played, it something I shall NEVER forget. thanks to that Airman. !!!!!!!!
My father was a US soldier in England and described to me watching a Spitfire intercepting a V-1 by using it's wing to tip the thing over. He said he was relieved to finally leave for France because he could hear the things flying over his barracks every night.
That supprised me too. 20 mm canons were not new. I think the Meteors canon was made to have a higher firing rate and made lighter to fit on plane. And a plane requires a good autolader/ammo feeder. I guess it was a gamble.
That might be our (Americans) fault. We attempted to build the 20mm autocannons but failed repeatedly because the manufacturer (I don't remember who) could not follow simple instructions and kept getting the Headspace wrong in the barrels, the excessive headspace caused light primer strikes and failures to fire, there was no way to recock the gun. The British even went so far as to send over a complete gun and simply said "Copy It", they made numerous changes that just made it more unreliable and heavier plus still getting the Headspace wrong. The British finally basically said Screw It and said to just ship the original design and they pulled the barrels and remachined them to correct the problem. The only ones we used were the Mk3 versions that could be recocked in flight.
It is possible that it was too cold for them to function, lacking an engine next to the guns to keep a higher temperature. That's only a guess though, I know that the MiG 9 had gun problems owing to a large ammount of air passing by them through the intake so it could be something like that.
@Michael RedCrow the Sten series along with stuff like the PIAT anti-tank weapon were deliberately designed for quantity over quality, they were made to be fast and cheap to produce (and when they DID work were reasonably effective for what they were at least). Yeah they were unreliable but such weapons were the exception not the rule, don't seem to recall the Lee-Enfield, Bren Gun, Webley Revolver, Vickers K-gun or any of the other actually carefully precision-made stuff having such issues, at least not to anywhere near that degree. The final member of that family of SMG's, the Stirling, due to being far more carefully and professionally designed and built was actually a reliable workhorse of a gun that saw service all over the world post-war and still is doing in some countries
I have always found the British stiff upper lip and glib sense of humor awe-inspiring. Here's a terrifying futuristic vengeance weapon from the future. What shall we call it? .... The doodlebug....
The nickname actually comes from a local word for a type of beetle, the cockchafer, which makes a distinctive, loud buzzing noise as it flies. As did the pulse-jet powered V1s, hence the name.
@@MagpieOz Of course it was cutting edge, Germany led the way in guided rocket development. Name another country that had equivalent guided rocket weaponry even remotely approaching what germany fielded during the 40's.
The axial compressor was first demonstrated in England, the Germans were the first to get a production model running. While the Allies used centrifugal compressors because they were more reliable and better understood at the time. That’s part of the reason why the ME262 had to have entirely new engines every few hours. Axial jet technology wasn’t ready. It’s yet another example of the Nazis pouring scarce resources into on paper war-winning weapons using technology that wasn’t ready. The father, as we know it, of the turbo jet was British inventor Frank Whittle. Long story short, the British defense ministry rejected Frank Whittle’s design in part due to reviewing engineers at Armstrong-Whitworth pointing out, correctly as it turns out, that a turbo jet engine would be fundamentally inefficient. Instead Whittle patented the design, and not being top secret, the concept greatly influenced the Nazi design team led by Hans Ohain. Engineers at Armstrong-Whitworth, drawing upon their criticism of the Whittle concept, began development of the first axial-flow turbojets and the first turboprops. And it is this technology family that led directly to today’s turbofan jet engine. The Whittle design proceeded in private development, eventually being taken over by Rolls-Royce. By 1944, the Armstrong-Whitworth design developed higher thrust with superior throttle control, and the Powerjet/ Rolls- Royce centrifugal flow turbojet has proven itself to be far more reliable than the competing Nazi jet projects, the Jumbo 004 and the BMW 003. Steel is the wrong material from which to build jet engines. Given time, steel will always fail. It fails because the iron in steel sublimates out of the alloy, essentially turning the metal to Swiss cheese on a microscopic level. The general term for such long term metal fatigue is “creep.” In the 1940’s, no one knew that steel would inevitably fail given the temperatures and pressures in jet engines. The correct material that makes jet engines actually practical, and not simply impossible, is nickel alloy, which was a British invention, designed by the British jet design teams. There is no indication that the Nazi design teams ever understood that steel was never going to work, no matter how much they modified their design. The fact that nickel alloys were the solution was not at al intuitively obvious and the Nazis weren’t doing much in the way of R&D to discover the problem. The Nazis two major production jet engines never managed to last more than 25 hours. You can’t win a war when you have to replace, not merely one but two engines, the most critical and expensive component of an aircraft, every few hours. The icing on the cake is that the Nazis didn’t have access to sufficient quantities of nickel, courtesy of theRoyal Navy blockade, even if they somehow discovered that steel was never going to work.
My mum used to make Lancasters in Manchester. Her first job was installing the blackout curtains - until they realised they didn't actually need the windows along the fuselage.
I think I read in the BBC book “The Secret War” that after the V1 exploded in front of a fighter, the fighter would fly straight through the fireball, it would come out inverted due to the lower air pressure, also the pilots are would be burnt if he forgot to shut the air vent. Debris damage was common, Mosquitos could get very toasted!
I think you'll find that Mosquitos were also used reasonably successfully against the V1. They also had the speed, low-altitude ability, and more than enough firepower to do the job.
Amazing that Whittle began working on the jet engine as early as 1930, & it only came into practical use in late 1944, given the resources available for weapons engineering R & D that WW2 made available.
In the 1930's the great depression with millions unemployed/underemployed and huge cuts to the military there was little money for new unproven ideas. After the fall of France Britain was in short supply of proven weapons. An airplane without a propeller appeared ridiculous to those with power but little imagination. Hitler delayed the introduction of the jet until Germany was desperate and by then it was to late. The Me262 itself sufferer tail flutter and wasn't really ready for service and it's axial flow engines had many problems. Whittle said "If we want jets for this war they have to centrifugal flow. Axial flow is for the next war". Even in that war 'Korea" the MIG 15 with, centrifugal flow engines, proved itself the equal of the Sabre. There was also the problem of production. It took 12 weeks to convert an existing factories to a new type and that meant a loss of a quarter of a years production.
What I always had trouble wrapping my head around with the Meteor is at the time they were being built England was still producing the Fairy Swordfish...building both jet AND biplane combat aircraft!
Many of the V2s fell short as British intelligence were fairly successful in persuading the Germans that they were overshooting the target, thereby causing the Germans to “correct” their shots. This meant that many V2s actually ended up falling short and landing in Kent rather than on London.
@@RemingtonSVK then perhaps you should get hold of a copy of the book "Most secret war" by Prof. R.V. Jones in which it describes how the "corrections" were made.
That is correct, the British “turned” a number of captured agents who were sent to observe the impact sites of the V1s and report these to German intelligence. By feeding false data the target co-ordinates were changed accordingly and these V1s landed harmlessly in rural farm fields surrounding the London area. One of them was the famous double agent Eddie Chapman who was played by Christopher Plummer in the film "Triple Cross" from 1966.
The advantage a jet has over a piston engine plane is that it can take off and get up to it's top speed much quicker. So the Meteor could take off and get up to altitude and catch up quicker to the V-1 than say, a Spitfire. The Allies had piston engine fighters that had higher speed than the V-1, but the intercept time to take out the V-1's was crucial as there wasn't always much warning ahead of time for an incoming V-1.
Very interesting video about British jet fighters. Wasn't aware Britian was that advanced in jet fighter technology that they had theirs in latter part of 1944. Did not read or see other videos or historical news prints. Thanks for an informative and interesting video. Look forward to more of your videos !
My Nan was blown off her feet by a doodle bug explosion whilst pregnant with my mum . The turn of fate means I'm around to watch Mark's excellent documentary and not a twinkle that never blinked into existence.
Loving these videos, Mark. I never knew the Meteors saw actual combat, never paid much attention to Britain’s jet fighter. I really appreciate the lesser known parts of history that documentaries rarely show, Gives many of us a broader perspective.
The Meteor III, which had a considerable improvement in performance over the Meteor I, was also operated over Europe with the 2nd Tactical Air Force from the winter 1944/45. It was used almost exclusively in the ground attack/close support role and did not engage in any air to air combat. The RAF was careful not to allow any aircraft to fall in to German hands so they were not permitted to sortie very far over the lines.
I don’t want to take credit away, but when I was a pilot in the war, I actually got out of the cockpit, walked along the wing tip of my Swordfish, and butted out my cigarette on the wing tip of the V1. I used just enough pressure to cause the gyroscope to switch the V1 into descent mode and then I tossed the butt, causing the V1 to explode during its descent. The noise was amazing. When I got back in the cockpit, the light from the exploding V1 helped me find my pen under the dashboard.
So V1 was essentially the first drone? Brave pilots who risked their lives in hastily- developed new jets to stop fight these first robots of war. A great video, very informative and interesting.
First cruise missile would be more accurate. A drone has an operator controlling it from a live camera feed. A cruise missile operates on it's own from pre-programmed instructions.
Amazing history! I never knew about this British jet, and that it saw combat. Thanks for a good account, and the many numbers. It helps us appreciate what those brave people lived through.
Did not expect to come here to find out the air above my hometown is the site if the first jet on jet combat. Thank you Mark! (Also thanks for pronouncing Tonbridge correctly)
6:33 If we are to consider contact between a v1 flying bomb and Gloster Meteor “jet-on-jet combat”, then wouldn‘t the earlier instances of v1s getting away from meteors technically be the first successful jet-on-jet actions? Great video as usual!
In 1944 I was 9 years old and our school was on a day trip to a well known beauty spot. The Devil's Punchbowl, near Hindhead in Surrey. We all saw a V1 passing over us, when an RAF fighter came roaring down from above managed to get alongside and apparently tipped it up by flipping its wing. It overbalanced and immediately crashed about a mile further on from where we were jumping and cheering. Whoever the pilot was, he was very skilled and made it look simple.
Here's a story for Mark. About 30 years ago my brother's godfather told me the following. He had been at a Lutheran convocation and had met a German there who had served on the Eastern Front. He told him, that his immediate commanding officers were not actually German. Going through a long list of all the nationalities that fought on this front- and there were so many, the German man said "no" to every suggestion. When he had given up, the German said: "They were British." He then explained, that he had been attached to a Finnish unit and these men had come from Britain in 1939 to assist the Finns fight the Soviet invasion. They had remained in the Finnish Army and when Finland joined Germany in the "Continuation War" all the British personnel were asked to leave the army. However, it seems- and maybe, these men had become Finnish nationals, some remained and this German had served under them. I do not doubt my brother's godfather-- a very erudite and credible man who returned to Latvia and became a government minister until his death. Maybe, the German was not so credible, but this was a meeting of the Lutheran Church- not a bunch of drunks in a bar embellishing their own narratives about their war experiences. Perhaps, these British men died in combat- or returned to Finland or possibly the UK and just kept their mouths shut. It's a mystery all right.
Meteor missing out being the first jet fighter to take flight by a week due to typical English weather. My Grand Uncle flew Meteor's He started in the RAF in 1937, flew through the war and Battle of Britain, ended his career in Lightening's. The wing tip maneuver was pretty common due to the fact the V1 was so small the Allied planes had issue hitting them with guns the tip and flip was used more often it also saved ammo and was relatively safe.
Mark, you have an excellent narrating voice. not quite Sir Lawrence Olivier in the "World at War" series from the '70's but pretty bloody good! English accents really hit the sweet spot-forget the Australian accent ( mine), and better leave behind the NZ accent! Thankyou for this outstanding series!
My uncle still has a hole in his leg from a v1 that hit his school and my grandma had a near miss from one over Hythe , when they heard the engine cut out that's when they knew it was about to fall but fortunately it landed a few miles away in a field
I always wanted to have a clear picture of the V1 and V2 effect on England. Terrific explanation and amazing account of close in flight account. The V1 looks terrifying !
The opening music sets the tone as I am ready to learn aother lesson on history. When I was a lad the veterns of WWII were my neihbors, relatives and school teachers. I am even more appreciative of thier role in history. Thank you Mark Felton.
You're right; and the V-1 cruise missiles carried about a ton of military grade explosive, enough to take out an entire block of city houses and causing many civilian casualties. This new type of attack upset the English who lived in and near London, and they put pressure on Churchill, who in turn pressured his generals to capture the V-1 launch sites. This led to the indecent haste in planning the over-ambitious attack of Market Garden. The buzzing "Doodle bug" sound of the V-1s would stop just before the missile struck. The V-2 rocket flew at supersonic speed and it gave no warning - and it also carried a ton of explosives - so it was, like the V-1, much disliked by the British "targets."
My father served in an anti aircraft battery defending London. In one major logistical move all AA units were moved down to the south of England over a 24 hour period. This enabled the guns to engage the V1s as soon as they came within range crossing the coastline.
You forgot to mention that after the Normandie invasion the Germans moved the V1 operations to The Netherlands. The The Haque area to be more specific. Fantastic episode as always! Thank you Mark!😉
2:23 is not accurate. Ten to eighteen were launched - _per site._ Southeast England was launched on a hundred times per day at its peak - over 9000 were sent. There was also a Mosquito wing that was proud of its record against the V-1 but I can't remember which one.
David Moore Well not really because a duel means two parties fighting against each other. The V-1 was not designed to fight back against an opponent . Therefore calling these engagements as duels is a mischaracterization
@David Moore No it wasn't, thought the engine did use air-oxygen, it was more of a rocket engine than a turbojet engine. Ot really is more of the precursor of the modern cruise missile. The germans even build a wire antenna into the V1, wich would unfold after a given distance, to send signals wich would than be picked up by seperate stations to aproximate the current path and maybe correct the preprogrammed flight path of the next V1. Little fun fact: The germans even experimented with television guided variants of the V1.
What a cracking video .Well done .We were in Hanover town hall last year .I was chatting to a decent German chap about the destruction there during ww2 .He asked if I knew how many houses were hit in the London area .I said a million but your figure is spot on.
This is a new one on me. I had always been lead to believe that except for Germany, the Jet plane was never perfected until after the war. Cool video - as usual ❗️ 📻🙂
Eventually the Meteor would reach over 600 mph - post war of course. It was all a matter of engine development. The Whittle engine was safer and more reliable but it was bulkier and initially not as powerful. It is important to understand too that the Meteor was one of the fastest planes of the war at low altitude. At 5000 feet I don't think the ME 262 was that much faster. 540 mph was at high altitude. I think at 5000 feet and below it was hard pressed to get past 450 mph. 35 mph faster than the Meteor.
The 262 may have been slightly faster (and had the same armament basically), but do you really want to flying something where you had an engine made by concentration camp labour with a 4 hour average lifespan? Thats about a one in 4 chance that you will loose one of the engines on any given one hour sortie. And they dont let go nicely. And even if it doesnt burst into flames or send blades everywhere, trying landing that thing on one engine whilst being raped by Mustangs...
Any north Londoners reading this? At 0:50 the scene is Alexandra Palace's East Terrace, the flight of the V1 east to west, of course. There are a few accounts of V1s spotted from there and Londoners muttering in fear 'keep going, keep going'. As the home of the BBC studios, perhaps that camera hadn't traveled far.
One of the things often missed about the V1 attacks is that many that did get through overshot London. The Germans needed to make sure they had the range so asked their spies in London to report where they came down. The reports came back that the V1s were landing short of London so the range was extended. What the Germans didn't know was that their spies were now working for the British and the V1s were on target. So by extending the range they overflew much of London and came down to the north west. Mosquito nightfighters also flew these interception mission against night attacks. They were not told what they were intercepting only that the V1s were referred to as divers. Because the AA guns were in London they did not have time to shoot down the V1s so it was decided that the guns needed moving to the coast. They decided to move them all in one night but the problem was this would leave London vulnerable if the Germans mounted a night raid. As it turned out on the night chosen for the move the Luftwaffe did not attack and the guns were all in place by morning.
Big Blue You've got it the wrong way round. Turned German agents in London reported that the V-1's were overshooting London, so the Germans reduced the range which meant they came down south of London - a lot came down in Croydon, my home town.
Mark I was at the original V1 & V2 site on the Baltic sea at Peenemünde in Germany not so long ago. Very interesting and a lot of it still standing with V1 & V2 examples. Inside the factory there was an amazing collection of models that engineers had either made or were working on.
Roland Beamont Hawker and TSR2 test pilot and RAF WingCo says he used the boundary layer to tip the V1s over. As a pilot I find that more likely than Mark's version. Also Winkle Brown [Greatest Test Pilot ever] used the same procedure.......
The age of the cruise missile had begun jet on jet combat nobody ever talks about that except for you Mark as always you are the best thank you so much for that little spell of history that means so much to the world good job
My understanding was that the Mosquito and Tempest types each accounted for over 600 V-1s, which puts the Meteor's 13 kills into perspective....Even P-47s killed more than that, and they could barely catch up with them.
I am constantly amazed at the weraboos that accuse the allies of bombing civilian targets while completely ignoring the Blitz and the V-1 and V-2. Weren't the "V" weapons classified as "vengeance weapons?"
My father was in the US 127th AAA gun battalion during WW2, until well after D Day they were positioned near Folkestone on the edge of England to intercept German air attacks against England. He told me many stories about how the brave pilots of the US and Royal Air Forces would chase after the V-1 "buzz bombs" and try to shoot them down before they could reach London. He said that he saw several pilots do the wing tipping method on the V-1's, and also added that a particular pilot for the RAF lost his life due to flying into the "guns only" area and being struck by friendly fire while chasing a V-1. He said that there was nothing that the AAA gunners could do, and that High Command had set up fighter plane only and AAA only interception areas that would maximize their efficiency in defending against the threat. He said that the Americans felt terrible about killing the British pilot, but there was nothing they could have done. The threat the V-1 bombs posed to the civilian population of London led to desperate actions by the fighter pilots, and that poor Englishman died as a result of not being willing to let anything past him, and chasing when he should have stopped. He was not on the gun crew that hit him, but knew them all, and said that they felt a tremendous amount of guilt at killing a friend and ally, even if it was not their fault.
Its thought (though im not sure if its ever actually been confirmed) that Spitfire pilots tipped the wing of V1s too. Spitfires reached speeds of about 369mph and its thought they had to dive in from altitudes of 5000 feet to get within a few hundred yards of the V1. If a pilot could get enough airspeed to get alongside it they didn't necessarily have to touch the wingtip of the V1 but instead used airflow to throw it off course.
Such a daring and genius maneuver by the pilot. Brilliant!
who dares wins
Spitfires and Tempests originated this technique earlier. All that was needed to upset the V1 was to get the wing under the V1 wing to disrupt airflow without physical contact. I say 'all' but it was a very skillful and risky manouvre to accomplish! Eventually the Wily Hun fixed triggers to the wingtips which wouuld set off the bomb if interfered with in that fashion.
that's because he cared for his people.
When I was a lad in the in early Nineteen. Forties I actually witnessed this happening. and I have always said had it not been for Bravery of such Men I would not be here today. in air raid I was always in the back window of our house, watching it all. and one day Heard the engine of the Doodle Bug, and saw it come over the railway, and as it did so, his flame went out, and the Engine stopped, the nose came down slightly, and I thought it was coming at our row of houses, then out of nowhere this plane was on the scene, and he seemed to lift the Wing of the Doodle Bug up, and it changed course Slightly, and crashed someway off in the fields in which we played, it something I shall NEVER forget. thanks to that Airman. !!!!!!!!
My father was a US soldier in England and described to me watching a Spitfire intercepting a V-1 by using it's wing to tip the thing over. He said he was relieved to finally leave for France because he could hear the things flying over his barracks every night.
I could understand problems with the jet engines, but reoccurring problems with the cannons ??
That supprised me too. 20 mm canons were not new. I think the Meteors canon was made to have a higher firing rate and made lighter to fit on plane. And a plane requires a good autolader/ammo feeder. I guess it was a gamble.
That might be our (Americans) fault. We attempted to build the 20mm autocannons but failed repeatedly because the manufacturer (I don't remember who) could not follow simple instructions and kept getting the Headspace wrong in the barrels, the excessive headspace caused light primer strikes and failures to fire, there was no way to recock the gun.
The British even went so far as to send over a complete gun and simply said "Copy It", they made numerous changes that just made it more unreliable and heavier plus still getting the Headspace wrong. The British finally basically said Screw It and said to just ship the original design and they pulled the barrels and remachined them to correct the problem.
The only ones we used were the Mk3 versions that could be recocked in flight.
It is possible that it was too cold for them to function, lacking an engine next to the guns to keep a higher temperature. That's only a guess though, I know that the MiG 9 had gun problems owing to a large ammount of air passing by them through the intake so it could be something like that.
@Michael RedCrow the Sten series along with stuff like the PIAT anti-tank weapon were deliberately designed for quantity over quality, they were made to be fast and cheap to produce (and when they DID work were reasonably effective for what they were at least). Yeah they were unreliable but such weapons were the exception not the rule, don't seem to recall the Lee-Enfield, Bren Gun, Webley Revolver, Vickers K-gun or any of the other actually carefully precision-made stuff having such issues, at least not to anywhere near that degree. The final member of that family of SMG's, the Stirling, due to being far more carefully and professionally designed and built was actually a reliable workhorse of a gun that saw service all over the world post-war and still is doing in some countries
There were Spitfire variants with 20mm cannons that were prone to jam, maybe those aircraft have the same root cause.
to be fair to the V-1, it sort of had a disadvantage in that dogfight, with its lack of a pilot and whatnot.
And the fact it was a cruise missile from 1942 and not a jet.
well, it is a jet-powered airplane...it's a clever/novel claim, ie, "jet vs jet", I never thought of it b4., so I have to give at least half-credit...
Absolutely brilliant videos Mark! I would go so far as to say more interesting than any TV documentary!! Keep em coming sir 😉
Apparently the current 2 dislikes are from former RAF spitfire pilots who didn't get to fly the Meteor.
Or just two salty Germans.
lol
😂 that's right, now it's 7.
Jared Young more likely salty Americans who believed they invented the first jet engine and jet fighter
I don't understand who would dislike this or why
Mark is going down as a legendary historian.
I have always found the British stiff upper lip and glib sense of humor awe-inspiring. Here's a terrifying futuristic vengeance weapon from the future. What shall we call it? .... The doodlebug....
lol
The nickname actually comes from a local word for a type of beetle, the cockchafer, which makes a distinctive, loud buzzing noise as it flies. As did the pulse-jet powered V1s, hence the name.
@@Ulfcytel Should have called the V1s 'Cockchafers' then.
We do try to keep a stiff upper lip
Ok, i have to say only the British would name a cutting edge high tech nazi rocket activity raining down on their cities a "doodlebug"
Wasn't really cutting edge, spitful desperation more than anything else
it's a way to make it seem less scary
@@MagpieOz it was cutting Edge back then
@@MagpieOz Of course it was cutting edge, Germany led the way in guided rocket development. Name another country that had equivalent guided rocket weaponry even remotely approaching what germany fielded during the 40's.
Me: _Wonders when Mark Felton uploads next_
Mark Felton: _Uploads_
Me: _Impossible_
The axial compressor was first demonstrated in England, the Germans were the first to get a production model running. While the Allies used centrifugal compressors because they were more reliable and better understood at the time. That’s part of the reason why the ME262 had to have entirely new engines every few hours. Axial jet technology wasn’t ready. It’s yet another example of the Nazis pouring scarce resources into on paper war-winning weapons using technology that wasn’t ready.
The father, as we know it, of the turbo jet was British inventor Frank Whittle. Long story short, the British defense ministry rejected Frank Whittle’s design in part due to reviewing engineers at Armstrong-Whitworth pointing out, correctly as it turns out, that a turbo jet engine would be fundamentally inefficient. Instead Whittle patented the design, and not being top secret, the concept greatly influenced the Nazi design team led by Hans Ohain.
Engineers at Armstrong-Whitworth, drawing upon their criticism of the Whittle concept, began development of the first axial-flow turbojets and the first turboprops. And it is this technology family that led directly to today’s turbofan jet engine. The Whittle design proceeded in private development, eventually being taken over by Rolls-Royce. By 1944, the Armstrong-Whitworth design developed higher thrust with superior throttle control, and the Powerjet/ Rolls- Royce centrifugal flow turbojet has proven itself to be far more reliable than the competing Nazi jet projects, the Jumbo 004 and the BMW 003.
Steel is the wrong material from which to build jet engines. Given time, steel will always fail. It fails because the iron in steel sublimates out of the alloy, essentially turning the metal to Swiss cheese on a microscopic level. The general term for such long term metal fatigue is “creep.” In the 1940’s, no one knew that steel would inevitably fail given the temperatures and pressures in jet engines. The correct material that makes jet engines actually practical, and not simply impossible, is nickel alloy, which was a British invention, designed by the British jet design teams. There is no indication that the Nazi design teams ever understood that steel was never going to work, no matter how much they modified their design. The fact that nickel alloys were the solution was not at al intuitively obvious and the Nazis weren’t doing much in the way of R&D to discover the problem.
The Nazis two major production jet engines never managed to last more than 25 hours. You can’t win a war when you have to replace, not merely one but two engines, the most critical and expensive component of an aircraft, every few hours. The icing on the cake is that the Nazis didn’t have access to sufficient quantities of nickel, courtesy of theRoyal Navy blockade, even if they somehow discovered that steel was never going to work.
Seriously the Meteor is slept on so hard by the history community, too many only pay attention to the ME-262
Danny Medina BuT dUh EvIl aLlIeS sToLe GeRmAn TeChNoLoGy
My aunt Betty flew spitfires to the airmen in the UK and a Lancaster she died aged 95 the German air force never got her but dementia did
My mum used to make Lancasters in Manchester. Her first job was installing the blackout curtains - until they realised they didn't actually need the windows along the fuselage.
I think I read in the BBC book “The Secret War” that after the V1 exploded in front of a fighter, the fighter would fly straight through the fireball, it would come out inverted due to the lower air pressure, also the pilots are would be burnt if he forgot to shut the air vent. Debris damage was common, Mosquitos could get very toasted!
I think you'll find that Mosquitos were also used reasonably successfully against the V1. They also had the speed, low-altitude ability, and more than enough firepower to do the job.
Amazing that Whittle began working on the jet engine as early as 1930, & it only came into practical use in late 1944, given the resources available for weapons engineering R & D that WW2 made available.
In the 1930's the great depression with millions unemployed/underemployed and huge cuts to the military there was little money for new unproven ideas. After the fall of France Britain was in short supply of proven weapons. An airplane without a propeller appeared ridiculous to those with power but little imagination. Hitler delayed the introduction of the jet until Germany was desperate and by then it was to late. The Me262 itself sufferer tail flutter and wasn't really ready for service and it's axial flow engines had many problems. Whittle said "If we want jets for this war they have to centrifugal flow. Axial flow is for the next war". Even in that war 'Korea" the MIG 15 with, centrifugal flow engines, proved itself the equal of the Sabre. There was also the problem of production. It took 12 weeks to convert an existing factories to a new type and that meant a loss of a quarter of a years production.
Those statistics are horrifying. I knew they were a pain, but didn't realise the extent of damage after D-Day.
What I always had trouble wrapping my head around with the Meteor is at the time they were being built England was still producing the Fairy Swordfish...building both jet AND biplane combat aircraft!
@@PenzancePete but then the Swordfish made a comeback, for some reason that I don't know, and was still in service after the Albacore.
Many of the V2s fell short as British intelligence were fairly successful in persuading the Germans that they were overshooting the target, thereby causing the Germans to “correct” their shots. This meant that many V2s actually ended up falling short and landing in Kent rather than on London.
that is some high level of trolling
@@RemingtonSVK then perhaps you should get hold of a copy of the book "Most secret war" by Prof. R.V. Jones in which it describes how the "corrections" were made.
That is correct, the British “turned” a number of captured agents who were sent to observe the impact sites of the V1s and report these to German intelligence. By feeding false data the target co-ordinates were changed accordingly and these V1s landed harmlessly in rural farm fields surrounding the London area.
One of them was the famous double agent Eddie Chapman who was played by Christopher Plummer in the film "Triple Cross" from 1966.
USAAF P-47 Thunderbolts were credited with 18 V-1 kills, so they were fast enough at low altitudes to down V-1s also.
He did say the Meteors were the only aircraft that could do it *easily* - obviously other aircraft managed it, including Spits.
The advantage a jet has over a piston engine plane is that it can take off and get up to it's top speed much quicker. So the Meteor could take off and get up to altitude and catch up quicker to the V-1 than say, a Spitfire. The Allies had piston engine fighters that had higher speed than the V-1, but the intercept time to take out the V-1's was crucial as there wasn't always much warning ahead of time for an incoming V-1.
Why am I just finding out the British had an operational jet fighter in 1943?
@@PenzancePete Yeah, okay like us Americans don't read or study history, right? That's a pretty stupid comment.
@@PenzancePete BecAusE yoU arE a Us CitIzeN, pll your head out of your arse
Because people like to act like the Germans were decades ahead at jet tech ave deciding the various allied jets takes away from that
They were not operational if you use the military definition. There were some flying but not ready to go into combat.
I am a history nutter as you would say and this is one of the great history channels on u tube
Very interesting video about British jet fighters. Wasn't aware Britian was that advanced in jet fighter technology that they had theirs in latter part of 1944. Did not read or see other videos or historical news prints. Thanks for an informative and interesting video. Look forward to more of your videos !
My Nan was blown off her feet by a doodle bug explosion whilst pregnant with my mum . The turn of fate means I'm around to watch Mark's excellent documentary and not a twinkle that never blinked into existence.
Your painstaking attention to detail is breathtaking. Great video Mark.
Loving these videos, Mark. I never knew the Meteors saw actual combat, never paid much attention to Britain’s jet fighter.
I really appreciate the lesser known parts of history that documentaries rarely show, Gives many of us a broader perspective.
The Meteor III, which had a considerable improvement in performance over the Meteor I, was also operated over Europe with the 2nd Tactical Air Force from the winter 1944/45. It was used almost exclusively in the ground attack/close support role and did not engage in any air to air combat. The RAF was careful not to allow any aircraft to fall in to German hands so they were not permitted to sortie very far over the lines.
I don’t want to take credit away, but when I was a pilot in the war, I actually got out of the cockpit, walked along the wing tip of my Swordfish, and butted out my cigarette on the wing tip of the V1. I used just enough pressure to cause the gyroscope to switch the V1 into descent mode and then I tossed the butt, causing the V1 to explode during its descent. The noise was amazing. When I got back in the cockpit, the light from the exploding V1 helped me find my pen under the dashboard.
I heard about this story.... 20 years ago. Thanks for reminding me and filling in the details.
So V1 was essentially the first drone? Brave pilots who risked their lives in hastily- developed new jets to stop fight these first robots of war. A great video, very informative and interesting.
First cruise missile would be more accurate. A drone has an operator controlling it from a live camera feed. A cruise missile operates on it's own from pre-programmed instructions.
Amazing history! I never knew about this British jet, and that it saw combat. Thanks for a good account, and the many numbers. It helps us appreciate what those brave people lived through.
Trying to shot down drones is no combat.
You know what’s more amazing than anything else being explained in this video? The AVERAGE age of those Royal Airforce pilots was just 20!
Did not expect to come here to find out the air above my hometown is the site if the first jet on jet combat.
Thank you Mark! (Also thanks for pronouncing Tonbridge correctly)
6:33 If we are to consider contact between a v1 flying bomb and Gloster Meteor “jet-on-jet combat”, then wouldn‘t the earlier instances of v1s getting away from meteors technically be the first successful jet-on-jet actions?
Great video as usual!
Man i just want to thank you for spending the effort to covrt to the metric units
Me too, it was very considerate of you, thanks from Portugal
I am a simple man. When I see a Mark Felton video I watch.
Thank you Mr. Felton. A rare story in history, yet a very important one.
Just over 1,000,000 buildings destroyed or damaged. Just over 2000 V1s landed. That's about 500 per V1. That's a huge success rate.
In 1944 I was 9 years old and our school was on a day trip to a well known beauty spot. The Devil's Punchbowl, near Hindhead in Surrey. We all saw a V1 passing over us, when an RAF fighter came roaring down from above managed to get alongside and apparently tipped it up by flipping its wing. It overbalanced and immediately crashed about a mile further on from where we were jumping and cheering. Whoever the pilot was, he was very skilled and made it look simple.
Here's a story for Mark. About 30 years ago my brother's godfather told me the following. He had been at a Lutheran convocation and had met a German there who had served on the Eastern Front. He told him, that his immediate commanding officers were not actually German. Going through a long list of all the nationalities that fought on this front- and there were so many, the German man said "no" to every suggestion. When he had given up, the German said: "They were British." He then explained, that he had been attached to a Finnish unit and these men had come from Britain in 1939 to assist the Finns fight the Soviet invasion. They had remained in the Finnish Army and when Finland joined Germany in the "Continuation War" all the British personnel were asked to leave the army. However, it seems- and maybe, these men had become Finnish nationals, some remained and this German had served under them. I do not doubt my brother's godfather-- a very erudite and credible man who returned to Latvia and became a government minister until his death. Maybe, the German was not so credible, but this was a meeting of the Lutheran Church- not a bunch of drunks in a bar embellishing their own narratives about their war experiences. Perhaps, these British men died in combat- or returned to Finland or possibly the UK and just kept their mouths shut. It's a mystery all right.
Meteor missing out being the first jet fighter to take flight by a week due to typical English weather. My Grand Uncle flew Meteor's He started in the RAF in 1937, flew through the war and Battle of Britain, ended his career in Lightening's.
The wing tip maneuver was pretty common due to the fact the V1 was so small the Allied planes had issue hitting them with guns the tip and flip was used more often it also saved ammo and was relatively safe.
It's amazing how just a few months ago you had about a couple of thousand of subscribers and now you've grown so much! Congratulations!
Mark, you have an excellent narrating voice. not quite Sir Lawrence Olivier in the "World at War" series from the '70's but pretty bloody good! English accents really hit the sweet spot-forget the Australian accent ( mine), and better leave behind the NZ accent! Thankyou for this outstanding series!
NZ accents basically make me hit mute and turn on CCs...
My uncle still has a hole in his leg from a v1 that hit his school and my grandma had a near miss from one over Hythe , when they heard the engine cut out that's when they knew it was about to fall but fortunately it landed a few miles away in a field
I always wanted to have a clear picture of the V1 and V2 effect on England. Terrific explanation and amazing account of close in flight account.
The V1 looks terrifying !
Thank you for your excellent, informative and educational videos! !!
The opening music sets the tone as I am ready to learn aother lesson on history. When I was a lad the veterns of WWII were my neihbors, relatives and school teachers. I am even more appreciative of thier role in history. Thank you Mark Felton.
My respect to the British people and Service members. American cousin. Smyrna Tennessee 👊👍🎗😎
An unstoppable wave of quality from Mr Felton rolls on
What a great surprise to open up to on my lunch break! Keep up the great work!
Nice that Jerry took the time to paint the V1s.
Very informative. I had no idea the V1s were so destructive.
You're right; and the V-1 cruise missiles carried about a ton of military grade explosive, enough to take out an entire block of city houses and causing many civilian casualties. This new type of attack upset the English who lived in and near London, and they put pressure on Churchill, who in turn pressured his generals to capture the V-1 launch sites. This led to the indecent haste in planning the over-ambitious attack of Market Garden.
The buzzing "Doodle bug" sound of the V-1s would stop just before the missile struck. The V-2 rocket flew at supersonic speed and it gave no warning - and it also carried a ton of explosives - so it was, like the V-1, much disliked by the British "targets."
My father served in an anti aircraft battery defending London. In one major logistical move all AA units were moved down to the south of England over a 24 hour period. This enabled the guns to engage the V1s as soon as they came within range crossing the coastline.
Encore une fois, excellent sujet, inédit, bien documenté et bien raconté !
You forgot to mention that after the Normandie invasion the Germans moved the V1 operations to The Netherlands. The The Haque area to be more specific.
Fantastic episode as always! Thank you Mark!😉
2:23 is not accurate. Ten to eighteen were launched - _per site._ Southeast England was launched on a hundred times per day at its peak - over 9000 were sent.
There was also a Mosquito wing that was proud of its record against the V-1 but I can't remember which one.
Great video Mark!! The designation "V" was for VERGELTUNGSWAFFE. In English, "Vengeance Weapon".
Thanks Mark for another great video. And I like the music you have selected for videos.Keep them coming.
The first combat between fighter jets was during the Korean War. The V-1 was not a fighter plane but instead it was the first cruise missile
Yeah that’s kinda a big error here
but it is a jet vs a jet. not a jet plane, just a jet.
David Moore Well not really because a duel means two parties fighting against each other. The V-1 was not designed to fight back against an opponent . Therefore calling these engagements as duels is a mischaracterization
@David Moore
No it wasn't, thought the engine did use air-oxygen, it was more of a rocket engine than a turbojet engine. Ot really is more of the precursor of the modern cruise missile. The germans even build a wire antenna into the V1, wich would unfold after a given distance, to send signals wich would than be picked up by seperate stations to aproximate the current path and maybe correct the preprogrammed flight path of the next V1.
Little fun fact: The germans even experimented with television guided variants of the V1.
@@dmoney6005 he did specifically just say jet not jet fighter
What a cracking video .Well done .We were in Hanover town hall last year .I was chatting to a decent German chap about the destruction there during ww2 .He asked if I knew how many houses were hit in the London area .I said a million but your figure is spot on.
Fascinating- and very professionally done - Thank you.👍
I feel smarter just listening to your English accent for 5 or 10 minutes. Your documentaries are a wealth of knowledge. Thanks for your great work.
What an absolute mad lad! Mate literally decides to stop a missile with his own jet! Absurd as it may he actually put the bugger to a stop.
My dad worked on meteors as an instrament fitter when he did national service on the Raf in the early 1950s.
I remember that thumbnail. ..Airfix 1/72 dogfighting twin pack from late 60s early 70s
Omg the kills V1 made no wonder it was a wonder weapon for the time.
This is a new one on me. I had always been lead to believe that except for Germany, the Jet plane was never perfected until after the war.
Cool video - as usual ❗️
📻🙂
"The Meteor's high speed and heavy armament (...)"
Laughs in 262
Eventually the Meteor would reach over 600 mph - post war of course. It was all a matter of engine development. The Whittle engine was safer and more reliable but it was bulkier and initially not as powerful. It is important to understand too that the Meteor was one of the fastest planes of the war at low altitude. At 5000 feet I don't think the ME 262 was that much faster. 540 mph was at high altitude. I think at 5000 feet and below it was hard pressed to get past 450 mph. 35 mph faster than the Meteor.
The 262 may have been slightly faster (and had the same armament basically), but do you really want to flying something where you had an engine made by concentration camp labour with a 4 hour average lifespan? Thats about a one in 4 chance that you will loose one of the engines on any given one hour sortie. And they dont let go nicely. And even if it doesnt burst into flames or send blades everywhere, trying landing that thing on one engine whilst being raped by Mustangs...
Same armament? well, perhaps comparable, but not absolutely exactly, is it? 4X20mm Meteor, 4XMK108 30mm, in 262?
ONE MILLION BUILDINGS!? Are you sure!? Damn, those things were effective!
Any north Londoners reading this? At 0:50 the scene is Alexandra Palace's East Terrace, the flight of the V1 east to west, of course. There are a few accounts of V1s spotted from there and Londoners muttering in fear 'keep going, keep going'. As the home of the BBC studios, perhaps that camera hadn't traveled far.
One of the things often missed about the V1 attacks is that many that did get through overshot London. The Germans needed to make sure they had the range so asked their spies in London to report where they came down. The reports came back that the V1s were landing short of London so the range was extended. What the Germans didn't know was that their spies were now working for the British and the V1s were on target. So by extending the range they overflew much of London and came down to the north west.
Mosquito nightfighters also flew these interception mission against night attacks. They were not told what they were intercepting only that the V1s were referred to as divers.
Because the AA guns were in London they did not have time to shoot down the V1s so it was decided that the guns needed moving to the coast. They decided to move them all in one night but the problem was this would leave London vulnerable if the Germans mounted a night raid. As it turned out on the night chosen for the move the Luftwaffe did not attack and the guns were all in place by morning.
Big Blue You've got it the wrong way round. Turned German agents in London reported that the V-1's were overshooting London, so the Germans reduced the range which meant they came down south of London - a lot came down in Croydon, my home town.
Mark I was at the original V1 & V2 site on the Baltic sea at Peenemünde in Germany not so long ago. Very interesting and a lot of it still standing with V1 & V2 examples. Inside the factory there was an amazing collection of models that engineers had either made or were working on.
Mr Felton there's really nothing else to watch on TH-cam except your videos.
Thanks for educating us my guy. You're a hero!
Roland Beamont Hawker and TSR2 test pilot and RAF WingCo says he used the boundary layer to tip the V1s over. As a pilot I find that more likely than Mark's version. Also Winkle Brown [Greatest Test Pilot ever] used the same procedure.......
Of all the bombing we experienced, this was the scariest for me. I can still hear them coming............
The age of the cruise missile had begun jet on jet combat nobody ever talks about that except for you Mark as always you are the best thank you so much for that little spell of history that means so much to the world good job
Incredible footage and incredible video , I’ve learned new things about the V-1 , thank you
Your videos are cool Mark!! Please make more of these!!
My understanding was that the Mosquito and Tempest types each accounted for over 600 V-1s, which puts the Meteor's 13 kills into perspective....Even P-47s killed more than that, and they could barely catch up with them.
I am constantly amazed at the weraboos that accuse the allies of bombing civilian targets while completely ignoring the Blitz and the V-1 and V-2. Weren't the "V" weapons classified as "vengeance weapons?"
Fivers
Probably some people here won't even be born without those successful Intercepssions.. It always gives me goosebumps watching this channel
The V-1's were much more complex than I thought, and I never knew that Britain had a jet fighter! Great channel Mark!
Another Mark Felton gem!
Mark Felton is an awsome communicator of history
Ah gotta give the british respect, they are really mad men
As always you deliver top-quality content, thank you! I recommend your videos to anyone interested (or sometimes not) in history.
Seen this before somewhere but still Interesting and Entertaining! Cheers
My father was in the US 127th AAA gun battalion during WW2, until well after D Day they were positioned near Folkestone on the edge of England to intercept German air attacks against England. He told me many stories about how the brave pilots of the US and Royal Air Forces would chase after the V-1 "buzz bombs" and try to shoot them down before they could reach London. He said that he saw several pilots do the wing tipping method on the V-1's, and also added that a particular pilot for the RAF lost his life due to flying into the "guns only" area and being struck by friendly fire while chasing a V-1. He said that there was nothing that the AAA gunners could do, and that High Command had set up fighter plane only and AAA only interception areas that would maximize their efficiency in defending against the threat. He said that the Americans felt terrible about killing the British pilot, but there was nothing they could have done. The threat the V-1 bombs posed to the civilian population of London led to desperate actions by the fighter pilots, and that poor Englishman died as a result of not being willing to let anything past him, and chasing when he should have stopped. He was not on the gun crew that hit him, but knew them all, and said that they felt a tremendous amount of guilt at killing a friend and ally, even if it was not their fault.
I love the footage of these v1 rockets being shot In the air
They weren't rockets.
Mark, you are so good at what you do. Very grateful!!!!
Great Videos. Kind of like a mini documentary. Only much shorter and packed with much more information. Awesome work. Keep it up
Thanks a lot, Mark! Congratulations on the 200k subs, they will grow for sure, just keep cranking out the good stuff =)
You constantly amaze me with your facts Mark well done mate !!!!
If they knew Mark Felton was going to make documentaries 75 years later, they would have filled WW2 in colour.
I could swear I remember a story about a Spitfire pilot who also took out the V-1 by touching wings and upsetting the V-1 guidance system.
I read this story in an old our army at war comic. It was the second story after sgt. rocks story had ended.
I had no idea they destroyed that many buildings, that really is significant, though still a wasted effort.
This theme deserves a whole movie, culminating on the daredevil manouver of Dixie Dean, loved this video, cheers
Its thought (though im not sure if its ever actually been confirmed) that Spitfire pilots tipped the wing of V1s too. Spitfires reached speeds of about 369mph and its thought they had to dive in from altitudes of 5000 feet to get within a few hundred yards of the V1. If a pilot could get enough airspeed to get alongside it they didn't necessarily have to touch the wingtip of the V1 but instead used airflow to throw it off course.
Thank you Mark for the history videos, that make my drive home so much more tolerable. Greetings from Los Angeles, California.