What a gem! Thank you Armoured Carriers for finding and giving this to us. Especially nice that there is so little narration and so much music: the scenes narrate themselves without talk.
It is heartbreaking to watch films like this that depict those men from European countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland, to name a few, that came to Britain to fight the Nazis. They came here in the hope that they could free their countries and families and return home to pick up their lives where they left off, but it was not to be. The Nazi tyranny was replaced by the Soviet tyranny making return too dangerous. Thankfully many chose to remain with us in the west starting new lives here or overseas, and there are many people in the UK with European ancestry owing to these men. This bit of history is almost forgotten today, overlooked and rarely mentioned. Films like this help to keep this bit of forgotten history and the bravery of these men alive.
At this time, late 1944/early 1945, 311 Squadron was based at RAF Tain, in North-east of Scotland, just north from Inverness, doing patrols over the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to Iceland. Amazing capture.
A fascinating glimpse at a forgotten corner of the War. Emigre squadrons in Coastal Command, flying B24 VLR Liberators. Not enough is made of these "friends in a strange land" helping to defeat Nazism! By the way, it was a Liberator that captured a U-boat off Iceland. 😉
It looks like the 20mm cannons were on outriggers bolted to the fuselage. I'd always read that they were in one of the bomb bays. At least I think they were cannon. In one scene you can just see a muzzle as a ground crew ducks under the nose at 10:00...unless that's .50-inch in the nose.
The outriggers were for mounting 5 inch rockets. When carried, the 4 20s were mounted in a fairing at the front of the bomb bay. There was also a 2nd type of rocket launcher - a retractable one in the aft Bombay - this could be reloaded during flight.
To be honest, it looks like a collection of 7x5 plates taped together! Whatever they are, handling em like that, they'll be neither use nor ornament. Covered in scratches, you'd be hard put to get even a halfway decent image out of them! 😂
@@PercyPruneMHDOIFandBars Something like Ilford HP3 (was there HP2 and 1?) would have grain like corn flakes so the big format would be forgiving, they wouldn't be doing much or even any enlarging.
@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935I'm not altogether sure about the HP family I started on HP4 and the grain was fine! On 7x5 plates, 120 roll and 35mm roll too. Don't forget, they'd be using this stuff, printed for reconnaissance and using powerful manifying glasses to see tiny details. Just look at some of the photos from Peenemunde and the minuscule details that gave away V1 and V2 research there. That's part of the reason they used such big negs. You can selectively blow up areas of a photo with minimal loss of resolution! Yes. I'm that old, I learned my trade on film, before digital rubbish was even a twinkle in designers eyes!! 😱
@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935I'm not altogether sure about the HP family I started on HP4 and the grain was fine! On 7x5 plates, 120 roll and 35mm roll too. Don't forget, they'd be using this stuff, printed for reconnaissance and using powerful manifying glasses to see tiny details. Just look at some of the photos from Peenemunde and the minuscule details that gave away V1 and V2 research there. That's part of the reason they used such big negs. You can selectively blow up areas of a photo with minimal loss of resolution! Yes. I'm that old, I learned my trade on film, before digital rubbish was even a twinkle in designers eyes!! 😱
The thing that scared Winston Churchill the most, as prime minister in WW2, was the U-boats in the North Atlantic. Just think of these Czech crews, so far from home. Based on remote airfields, they truly drew the short straw. Not a lot of things to do in Orkney or Benbecula! Squadron life, Nissen huts with a coal stove. 14 hour patrols in all kinds of weather above the vast lonely Atlantic, in superannuated Liberators of questionable reliability. To make the world free again, that was their purpose.
Thank you for posting these but could you please stop resizing the films to 16:9? They were 4:3 originally so why are you not showing them like that? At 14:07, you can see that it is not tolerable.
Apologies. I missed that scene. I do go through these films and try to adjust the frame to capture the center of focus. I am adapting these to modern television ratios as I've had many requests to do so. My ultimate decision was based on my TH-cam analytics which reveals where these are watched the most (surprisingly on television, not mobile or PC). I cannot please everybody. But as these out-of-copyright films are available elsewhere in their original print shape, I thought I could try to satisfy the un-met requests. Regards,
@@ArmouredCarriersI would have thought that people interested in watching this sort of film wouldn't be bothered by black bars at the sides, but it seems I'm wrong. You say most people watch your content on TV. I watch TH-cam via my Xbox, which displays on the TV. Would that show up on your analytics as Xbox or as TV?
ARTICLE V The Government of the United Kingdom will return to the United States of America at the end of the present emergency, as determined by the President, such defense articles transferred under this Agreement as shall not have been destroyed, lost or consumed and as shall be determined by the President to be useful in the defense of the United States of America or of the Western Hemisphere or to be otherwise of use to the United States of America.
So Uboat hunting was mostly a matter of parade. Sports and aerial photography? No ASV nowhere explaining how to find an enemy vessel from above thick cloudlayers😂
What a gem! Thank you Armoured Carriers for finding and giving this to us. Especially nice that there is so little narration and so much music: the scenes narrate themselves without talk.
It is heartbreaking to watch films like this that depict those men from European countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland, to name a few, that came to Britain to fight the Nazis.
They came here in the hope that they could free their countries and families and return home to pick up their lives where they left off, but it was not to be.
The Nazi tyranny was replaced by the Soviet tyranny making return too dangerous. Thankfully many chose to remain with us in the west starting new lives here or overseas, and there are many people in the UK with European ancestry owing to these men.
This bit of history is almost forgotten today, overlooked and rarely mentioned. Films like this help to keep this bit of forgotten history and the bravery of these men alive.
They were fighting with the allies with the idea the allies would free their countries........ and got stabbed in the back.
I love anything B24, my dad was a gunner for the 8th Air force 2nd Division 392 Bomber group in England, Thanks for the upload.
At this time, late 1944/early 1945, 311 Squadron was based at RAF Tain, in North-east of Scotland, just north from Inverness, doing patrols over the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to Iceland. Amazing capture.
My cousin was Coastal Command MIA above the Bay of Biscay, flying in a Wellington MP538 of 172 squadron. William Forrester RIP #wewillrememberthem
A fascinating glimpse at a forgotten corner of the War. Emigre squadrons in Coastal Command, flying B24 VLR Liberators. Not enough is made of these "friends in a strange land" helping to defeat Nazism!
By the way, it was a Liberator that captured a U-boat off Iceland. 😉
A fascinating glimpse, thank you.
It looks like the 20mm cannons were on outriggers bolted to the fuselage. I'd always read that they were in one of the bomb bays. At least I think they were cannon. In one scene you can just see a muzzle as a ground crew ducks under the nose at 10:00...unless that's .50-inch in the nose.
The outriggers were for mounting 5 inch rockets. When carried, the 4 20s were mounted in a fairing at the front of the bomb bay.
There was also a 2nd type of rocket launcher - a retractable one in the aft Bombay - this could be reloaded during flight.
That disgustingly cheerful music when they are woken up...😠
What film format was that being examined at the end? it looks almost like 7" x 5" roll film ! No expense spared.
To be honest, it looks like a collection of 7x5 plates taped together! Whatever they are, handling em like that, they'll be neither use nor ornament. Covered in scratches, you'd be hard put to get even a halfway decent image out of them! 😂
@@PercyPruneMHDOIFandBars Something like Ilford HP3 (was there HP2 and 1?) would have grain like corn flakes so the big format would be forgiving, they wouldn't be doing much or even any enlarging.
@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935I'm not altogether sure about the HP family I started on HP4 and the grain was fine! On 7x5 plates, 120 roll and 35mm roll too.
Don't forget, they'd be using this stuff, printed for reconnaissance and using powerful manifying glasses to see tiny details. Just look at some of the photos from Peenemunde and the minuscule details that gave away V1 and V2 research there. That's part of the reason they used such big negs. You can selectively blow up areas of a photo with minimal loss of resolution!
Yes. I'm that old, I learned my trade on film, before digital rubbish was even a twinkle in designers eyes!! 😱
@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935I'm not altogether sure about the HP family I started on HP4 and the grain was fine! On 7x5 plates, 120 roll and 35mm roll too.
Don't forget, they'd be using this stuff, printed for reconnaissance and using powerful manifying glasses to see tiny details. Just look at some of the photos from Peenemunde and the minuscule details that gave away V1 and V2 research there. That's part of the reason they used such big negs. You can selectively blow up areas of a photo with minimal loss of resolution!
Yes. I'm that old, I learned my trade on film, before digital rubbish was even a twinkle in designers eyes!! 😱
The thing that scared Winston Churchill the most, as prime minister in WW2, was the U-boats in the North Atlantic. Just think of these Czech crews, so far from home. Based on remote airfields, they truly drew the short straw. Not a lot of things to do in Orkney or Benbecula!
Squadron life, Nissen huts with a coal stove. 14 hour patrols in all kinds of weather above the vast lonely Atlantic, in superannuated Liberators of questionable reliability.
To make the world free again, that was their purpose.
Thank you for posting these but could you please stop resizing the films to 16:9? They were 4:3 originally so why are you not showing them like that?
At 14:07, you can see that it is not tolerable.
Apologies. I missed that scene. I do go through these films and try to adjust the frame to capture the center of focus.
I am adapting these to modern television ratios as I've had many requests to do so.
My ultimate decision was based on my TH-cam analytics which reveals where these are watched the most (surprisingly on television, not mobile or PC).
I cannot please everybody. But as these out-of-copyright films are available elsewhere in their original print shape, I thought I could try to satisfy the un-met requests.
Regards,
@@ArmouredCarriersI would have thought that people interested in watching this sort of film wouldn't be bothered by black bars at the sides, but it seems I'm wrong.
You say most people watch your content on TV. I watch TH-cam via my Xbox, which displays on the TV. Would that show up on your analytics as Xbox or as TV?
I would really like to build a 1/72 model of an ASW Liberator.
I just bought a model of one a few days ago. You can see a video of it on my channel. Haven't built it yet.
Eduard has one - using the Hasegawa kit as a base.
✨🏴✨🥰✨👍✨♥️✨🤗✨.
This was made by the Czechs? Very cool.
Yes: a Royal Air Force (Ministry of Information) film produced by the Czechoslovak Film Unit about the Free-Czech Coastal Command 311 Squadron.
Very nice „American Night“ in the first few minutes, filmed underexposed in full daylight…..
Sadly, peace did not bring the promise of a better world to their nation. One wonders how these lads fared.
A lot of them made a life here. I knew a few.
ARTICLE V
The Government of the United Kingdom will return to the United States of America at the end of the present emergency, as determined by the President, such defense articles transferred under this Agreement as shall not have been destroyed, lost or consumed and as shall be determined by the President to be useful in the defense of the United States of America or of the Western Hemisphere or to be otherwise of use to the United States of America.
Guerra estilo inglesa..."" 🤓🥱😴
So Uboat hunting was mostly a matter of parade. Sports and aerial photography? No ASV nowhere explaining how to find an enemy vessel from above thick cloudlayers😂