The Fight For The Sky: Our Fighter Pilots Versus The Luftwaffe In Western Europe (1945)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ม.ค. 2010
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The fight for the Sky: Our fighter pilots versus the Luftwaffe in Western Europe, 1945. On the activities of the 8th Air Force Fighter Command in Europe. Shows a base near East Anglia, England. General Doolittle discusses a mission. Pilots are briefed for an escort mission over Germany. P-47's are relieved in flight by P-51's. German pilots rush to intercept U.S. planes. U.S. bombers and many German fighters are downed. Shows Gen. Kepner. Fighters destroy enemy planes, transportation and communication. Montage a series of still photos of U.S. fliers killed in action.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-47_Thu...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-51_Mus...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_Lig...
National Archives and Records Administration
The fight for the Sky
Department of Defense. Department of the Air Force. (09/26/1947 - )
ARC Identifier 63894 / Local Identifier 342-SFP-157.
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A family friend flew a P-47. On D-day his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He said it blew the engine out of his plane. He survived the crash in a field (in France), got out of his plane & hid in a hedge-row for almost three days, without moving very much. He watched the Germans walk past him, as they knew he was near by. He was saved by a farmer. He said his face was swollen from insect bits because he remained still because of the Germans.
Forty-years later he returned to the very spot he crashed & visited the son of the farmer who saved him. The young man showed our friend a plow his dad made from the P-47 our friend flew (change guns into plow shares?).
So many stories of bravery and resilience. These were truly incredible young men.
Why did they raise such an unhappy generation of children. My peers and I just did not have a loving relationship with our parents.
Sorry but the fact was my dad was a stoic and had no mercy for a child's feelings. Sadly my mother was an angry and violent alcoholic.
Perhaps between the depression and the war it was just too hard for them. Very sad. I don't know how I would have survived but for my grandparents and my brothers. Most of my peers had similar stories.
Perhaps some of you folks have had happier and more wholesome experiences.
@@capecod50s That's a very good question.As a boomer I was always rowing with my parents.My relationship with my kids has been much more harmonious.I don't deserve that really and I regret some of the way I behaved to my elders...But who knows why or where for in these matters.
In 1944 I spent 3 months in Peterborough. I was 10 at the time. We had an American air force base close by and all us kids were invited to it. We walked through a B17 and were fed by the canteen there on the base. Ice cream, and bubble gum, which I had not seen for 4 years was available, and I had proper coffee for the first time ever. The "yanks" as we called them, were so kind to us, I can forgive them a little chest beating these days.
I think that the American soldier has great empathy for civilians caught in a war zone, and for cousins in particular.
Great comments John! Thank you for the little history lesson, I always enjoyed my time in great Britain with the United States Air Force, the 8th Air Force in particular. God bless the Queen, and long live England, and God bless the USA!
Great story, thank you.
All usa and Uk propaganda usa Uk fought against 1/3 of The German army 60% were under 20 yrs Russia destroyed the natzi’s army all verbal propaganda farts By colonial Propaganda
Whata ya mean, there overpaid oversexed and over here
That was a touching epitaph to the pilots at the end, and rightly deserved, but not just the aces, the average by the seat of your pants pilots, the heavies, the transports, the PRs,AGs,Navs, AEs and spotters, they all deserve such a tribute, but we would be here for decades, so I will think of this as a tribute to them all, and may they RIP, Lest We Forget. 😔👍🇬🇧🏴
Oourah!!
🇺🇸
Francis, Stanley "Gabby" Gabreski - Polish-American the best fighter pilot, who loved especially Thunderbold power of its engine and the power of its heavy guns, to suppress Luftwaffe German pilots in the air combat. I honor his memory and achievements !! AMEN.
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You forgot to mention all the other , British , African , polish, fighter pilots , who did a equally brave awsum effort , thanks to ALL brave pilots aircrew , ground crew who helped keep the fighter planes in the air , thankyou ,
Cos without you ALL we would be speaking German or Japanese.
Less we forget.
Not German or Japanese. Russian. German military strength was rooted in the Wehrmacht. Not the Kriegsmarine or the Luftwaffe. And 75% of that strength was committed to the Ostfront. Which was where 80% of their casualties we're sustained.
My father was drafted in Jan 1942 into the 8th Army Air Force. He became a Staff Sargent Crew Chief first on P47's then P51's. His fighter squadron the 369th along with the 368th and 370th were stationed in East Wreatham, England. He let me know in no uncertain terms that the air war in Europe wasn't the glamorous sport that these Hollywood films portrayed. He related to me the times that they pulled shot up or burned pilots out of their planes. Not a lazy Sunday afternoon picnic.
Some of the best true-to-life novels written about the bloody reality of the air war are "Fighter" and "Bomber", both written by Len Deighton.
RCAF Frank C Johnson flew the Hawker Hurricane shot down in Germany crashed in a farmers field. Frank was taken pow for the last few months of the war with serious injuries. Frank passed away in September 2017 at the age of 95 RIP uncle Frank God bless
RIP, Sir. Per Ardua Ad Astra.
How he can be shot down in an hurricane at the end of the war as they were withdraw from front line fall 43?
@@badbotchdown9845 well Goole his name he did a interview before he passed,I think they improved the Hawker.. putting rockets on it. He was hit by flak..his plane was in for repair when he went down,his regular plane was shot down a few days later.. it's been recovered and it's being reconditioned in the UK
@@KevinJohnson-jc9ju Might have been a Hawker Typhoon, the Hurricane's replacement, that'd make much more sense.
@@Nghilifa yes
…my dad flew Thunderbolts over Europe during the war…took me on trips all over Europe when I was a youngster…shot down 2-on his birthday, then got shot down himself moments after (his 2nd-time being shot out the sky)…he spent 2-weeks hiding in a Belgian farmhouse behind enemy lines…he was nursed back to health there by the family then given clothes and bicycle he used to get back to allied military custody, and eventually return to air service as pilot again…great footage in this film..
I've had the honor to talk with several WWII fighter pilots. They ALL said that they had and undying respect and reverance for the troops on the ground. My father was in the 5th Armored Division in Europe during WWII. He said that when they had tactical air support they didn't worry to much. I remember the air support we got in the Nam. Saved our asses alot
WOW!!! Best fighter footage from WW2 I’ve seen , those 3 wonderfull war birds and there .50 Cals blazing the sky’s across Europe, the water scenes were particularly enjoyable with the water shooting upward with each round as it approaches its targets , total eye candy, Thank you brave men in those beautiful machines for the courage and tenacity you’ve displayed they the war and especially the brave pilots that never returned.
Thank you for all this footage, particularly all the shots of 56th Fighter Group at Boxted in Essex. Thought I spotted Capt. Fred Christensen in the briefing as well as Col. Dave Schilling strapping in to his P47. I used to live just near the end of the main runway back in the 1970s and sometimes used to walk along the remains of the Peritrack or runway, trying to imagine all the P47 engines of the whole Group lining up for one of these missions. Only the ghosts there now, but there is a lovely little museum on the remains of the NW Peri Track near where the old T2 Hangar once stood
Hubert Zemke was shot down and ended up in Stalag Luft I Barth. He established a rapport with the Camp commandant Oberst Willibald Sherer, an old line Officer and veteran of WW1. Conditions in the Camp were poor and except for the Red Cross parcels food was inadequate. Officers weren't required to work so boredom and poor discipline were a major morale factor. Zemke transformed the dispirited POWS into something like a crack unit which he called "Provisional Wing X". When the order came to evacuate the camp Zemke refused. The Commandant, now Oberst Warnstadt, decided not to press the issue, and turned over command of the camp to Zemke and marched his men out. Zemke was there to maintain order until Soviet troops entered the camp on April 30 1945. Zemke was shot down by Gunther Rall who later served in the post-war Bundeswehr.
Actually Zemke lost a wing in thunderstorm. He had recently been reassigned to a Mustang group from the famed 56th fighter group (the "Wolfpack") and their rugged P-47 Thunderbolts. His new group was transitioning from P-38s to P-51s but suffered from low morale and they needed a strong experienced leader to whip them into shape. Unfortunately he was caught in violent storm and had to bail out of his P-51. If he had still been flying P-47s and been in the same situation I bet it would have come thru the storm just fine.
Very enteresteen information .thsnk you very much !
Well, if my father didn’t make it through this war I wouldn’t be here. He was a P-40 pilot in China as one of the Volunteers. He was a p39 pilot and a P-47 pilot ( both Razor back and bubble top N-Model). He flew in every theater of WWII, amazing he’s still alive, this was a God thing!!!
I’m glad he’s hanging tough!
Deus o abençoe!
@XSoCal He was in the 355th 77th 79th, not sure which one’s were with which plane, still researching, he earned the distinguished flying cross and was an ace. I did mistakingly lie about him still being alive he died at the age of 76 in 1998, so I do apologize for my miss speaking about him.
@@haroldpayne2527 I do apologize when I, typed this in I actually lied mistakingly about him being still alive, I meant he made it through the war without dying. He died of cancer in 1998, but thankyou so much for your comment, and for your love for those who served.
@Carolus Martellus So appreciative of your comment, I do have to apologize, I meant he made it through the war, but he did die in 1998 from cancer. He flew the P40 in combat with the flying Tigers as well as the p39 and P47 all in combat. He was trained with the T 6 Texan at Calero I think in California.
The P-38 had 4 x .50 cal guns and one 20 mm cannon. The American 20 mm aircraft cannon had a tendency to not fire occasionally due to the firing pin not striking the shell primer hard enough. For a wing mounted gun that meant the gun was lost for the rest of the flight. However on the P-38 there was room in the nose to add a recocking mechanism. I don't know how this worked. If it was automatic or pilot operated. For the P-39, the pilot had a cable system that allowed him to recharge the 37 mm cannon if a round failed. I read that it took some effort to pull the cable back far enough to chamber another round. Later in the war, the Navy was going to 4 x 20mm cannon in place of 6 x .50 cal guns. I don't know if they had the problem fixed by then. The P-70 originally had 4 x 20 mm cannon located where normally (in an A-20) the bomb bay would be. I believe a crew member could reach the guns to replace the magazines or service them. Later they went to .50 cal nose mounted guns instead of the 20's. Perhaps because of 20 mm gun problems. The P-61 Black Widow had 4 x 20 mm cannons. As that plane didn't see service before mid 1944, perhaps the 20 mm cannon problem was resolved.
The U.S. made 20mm Hispano cannon were manufactured out of tolerance so the ammunition jammed. The U.S. navy got by better by greasing the ammunition.
Take moment to appreciate how well written that data is on the Pilots hand 16:09
Wow. One guy flying all those Thunderbolts, Mustangs and Lightenings...He must be good.
Well one thing we know for sure , it was not John Wayne....he chickened out and stayed in Hollywood , unlike Jimmy Stewart and Clark Gable among others.
Enjoy your freedoms brought to you by the Arsenal of democracy
It's amazing how all of these incredible aircraft became instant junk at the end of 1945. You'd think they would have left some on exhibit at local airports across the nation. It was impossible to get close to aircraft anywhere, except during airshows which were few and far between.
Most were sold for pennies
President Truman had a meeting with the scions of the aircraft industry and as a result of that meeting ALL military aircraft with more than 250 hours were destroyed so as not to stifle the aircraft manufacturing business.
BACK IN THE 50"S I, YOU COLD BUY A P-51 FOR AROUND $2000.
That Ju-52 didn't stand a chance💨
Completely & utterly amazing film! 👏🏼😎
The logistics for the missions are really mind-boggling, & think of all the mechanics, armorers, technicians, etc. that maintained everything!
Think of the coordination required on these missions, & piloting skills!
I salute every single one of these AMERICAN WARRIORS!!! 🇺🇸
American airmen were brave and committed, my father did 28 missions on B-17's 1944-5. He had great things to say about the fighter jocks. However... The USAAF fighter arm prevailed because of: 1) Training, and the ability to provide extended flight training with experienced ETO fighter pilots. 2) Numerical superiority. 3) Tactics utilizing numerical superiority. Trained and experienced Luftwaffe pilots one on one were the best of any combatant nation in WWII and proved it with their kill ratios. However, when your pilots fly until dead or grievously wounded they can't pass on their experience to trainee pilots. Nor can you compete when fuel is so scarce you end up putting fighter pilots in the air with less than 20 hours of flight training. Germany lost the air war due to Attrition, Poor Planning, Over Extension and Allied Determination
Mega Shout out for the AAF to continue Day Light after atrocious losses.!!
@@rpm1796 Yes! It was rough going, and even after losses due to fighters dwindled the FLAK remained deadly almost right up to the end of the War.
Among other things...
Jimmy Doolittle is a freaking hero. Along with the men he commanded. If you fight for your country, and die got your country. Its something to be respected. I know this, even when some history today is being written off. I'll never write any of it off. Those today would never know what its like to fight like these and others have fought.
My wife's great grandfather was Jimmy Doolittle. Her father was a wonderful man and a career military man and never used his name to get ahead , we sure miss him .
@@tonyrosa4750 a true American legend, your family must be very proud.
German Pilots had to fight from 1939 until the terrible end in 1945. They were forced to fight! Every day! They got an Iron Cross or a Wooden Cross!
Loved it when he said it was a beautiful summer "that day" man he must have lived in the uk to understand that one, but to end on a serious note this generation were of a different breed, my father was in the army from the day war was declared and he served and survived until demob but my uncle died on active service he was in the Royal Navy and was killed during the evacuation from Crete, army, airforce, navy and the other different sections all heroes, also great to see my favourite plane of all time in action the mustang the game changer of the air war
Yep, well if the commentator had been in England in '39 he'd have lived thru' a hotter summer than most of the East Coast USA had that year. Which is probably why the atmospheric conditions are called 'Whether' :)
In 1985 I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters, I took a long leave to the Philippines in August. When I came back the greeting to me was welcome back, we had summer last week, . . . you missed it !
Bahahaha
'Whether' comment resonates in the PNW
What isn't mentioned is this. Because of the relay system with the fighter squadrons, most of the time our fighters were outnumbered when the Luftwaffe launched their attacks. Fighting at odds of anywhere from 1.5 1 to as much as 5 to 1, they still attacked the incoming German fighters. There's one case where a flight of P-47's was initially outnumbered 15 to 1 until some P-38's and P-51's were able to get to them. Yet they still engaged the incoming Luftwaffe fighters and kept them off the bombers. Talk about courage.
@XSoCal Glad he survived..A brave man
so proud of them all...
Wrong! By 1944 the Luffwaffe was nearly always outnumbered hence the change to attacking the airfields. There were never enough in the sky
Thank you for posting this.
@Greenhornet270 Thank you for you and your father's service. You are our heros.
The Greatest Generation.
truth.
EXCELLENT photography . ( sound volumn so low, I miss a lot ) still great films of our AIR WAR . THANKS for action,otherwise, we would never see nor learn about
You're correct ...had to use headphones to hear it
The new Woke Brigade would ban all this WW2 history if they had their way!
The RAF also took part too, not that you would realise this from the film, great though it is. And fought the Luftwaffe for over two years before the USAAF made an appearance. But thank you for coming over here. Together we protect our freedom.
Field Marshal Montgomery did say the US reduced the war a couple of years saving lives but also brought the Japanese into the conflict so a bit of a mixed blessing
When I was a kid my next door neighbor was a veteran Jug pilot that fought in Europe...He and many other brave souls are the reason we don't speak German or Japanese, today...by force...
Not German or Japanese. Russian. German military strength was rooted in the Wehrmacht. Not the Kriegsmarine or the Luftwaffe. 75% of the Wehrmacht was committed to the Ostfront and the east was where they sustained 80% of their casualties. Defeat for Germany was inevitable after Kursk. Nearly a full year prior to D-Day.
Awesome! I love how the WII fighter pilots dressed. I see teamwork among individuals.
What a fantastic find! Enjoyed every minute of it, while getting further and further behind at work.
Reed Hadley! As always, my favorite narrator of these types of films.
US propaganda at its best, for sure
Reed Hadley...a man's man..strong authoritative voice enhanced by chain-smoking non-filtered cigarettes. I remember him well from the classic TV series "Racket Squad".
@@sonoranrain2330 YEAH!! "R-r-r-r-r-r-r-acket Squad!"
@@privacyadvocate6697 it's only propaganda when u loose. After u win & put in a book, It's all history.
@@sonoranrain2330 That's why he died at 63, the damned cigs!
Hands-down, the best collection of gun camera footage ever assembled.
It would be cool to see the German gun cameras too..it took ths world to defeat the German pilots..German aces had such high kill numbers. Gotta give credit where it's due
@@humbleone6405 this is a allied war film. Not supprising that the allies didnt have the german gun camera footage.
Also while german aces had the most kills, the allies (specificaly the U.S.) had the most aces because of their policy that a pilot would be forced to retire from service after getting 50 airial victorys. They would return home to train new pilots in order to have lots of good pilots instead of a few aces and a lot of idiots who are only good for crashing their BF 109s into B-17s (Sonderkommando Elbe).
Its not that the german aces were better, its just that the U.S. aces could not get past 50 kills.
The First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) was the primary film production unit of the US Army Air Forces during World War II, and was the first military unit made up entirely of professionals from the film industry...Veteran actors such as Clark Gable, William Holden, Clayton Moore, Ronald Reagan, and DeForest Kelley, and directors such as John Sturges served with the FMPU. -- Wikipedia
Thank you for a great video. I watch these and always feel very in awe of the courage and skill.
Luftwaffe fan-boys pulling their hair out and frantically punching the thumbs down buttons.
Gotta love the sound of those old radials.
The water cooled V12 Merlin had a sound that would give you goose bumps.
@@ALSmith-zz4yy True. But only on the left arm. It takes a radial to give you goose bumps on the right arm. lol
I have SIX radials; they drill holes up to 3inch in 3 inch plate. LOL
Carl Ray 8
Carl Ray v
Watching these guys makes me even more proud to be a citizen of this country. They did something incredible for the right reasons and we will likely have to again.
Good old gun-camera. Nothing shows more, the brutality of the modern warfare then the gun-camera. The P-47 was one of the
best fighter-bombers of WW2. Mustang and P-38 also. The hardest are the german gun-cams, when thei shoot on the B-17 bombers. The hole film is very impressiv. Thank you for uploading.
Eternal gratitude to all these heroes who liberated my country from the beast.
Danada, nothing but blood.
That time when youtube recommends actually does something right.
Absolutely Amazing Footage. Our Boys Then & now are As Tough as Nails . I really wish things from the 1940-50s were still the same today but yet with much of what we have today. It's just nice seeing how our men acted, Conversed & just many of the Common decencies between one another that they had back then , but we've Unfortunately lost in today's Society.
However I'll never forget nor should you the things are forefathers did & lost in order for us to have what we have today here in America & much of the rest of the world.
There was lots of dissent, strikes, and other things that were kept out of the press by heavy U.S. censorship during WWII. Like the narrator says at 29:51, "These are the films of the victors, and they do not show the cost." The true carnage and "cost" of the war wasn't revealed to the public until after it was over, when 405,399 sons, fathers, and brothers didn't come back home.
Incredible those WW II fighter pilots were awesome
The bravest of the brave . God bless each & every one of them .
Amen to that!
This is what we also say about our fighter pilots such as Erich Hartmann as seen many times in same Propaganda Holywood style movies but made in Nazi Germany. Greeting from Deutschland!
@@hillbilly4823 yes but our cause was just. Sorry just saying.
29:46 A few feet off the ground. He wasn't kidding!
kenworthNH they got low...one of the squad leaders in the euro theater on a attacking run got so low that he bent the propellers on his thunderbolt and had to bail out over Germany spent the rest of the war as a POW
Mowin' the grass.
ANOTHER AMERICAN BIAS AND
STRAIGHT UP AMERICAN PROPAGANDAS!!
LUFTWAFFE STILL REIGN SUPREME TILL THE END OF WW2 IN EUROPE.
LIKE AN ALLIED PILOT HV SAID AND I QUOTE:
'EVERY FIGHTER AIRCRAFTS THAT HAS A "SWASTIKA" EMBLEM ON IT MUST BE TREATED WITH RESPECT BECAUSE IN ANY ONE OF IT COULD BE AN ACE PILOTING IT"
END QUOTE.
THATS HOW HIGHLY AN ALLIED ACE PILOT PRAISED,ADMIRED AND RESPECTED LUFTWAFFE PILOT.
@@PatrickNthedesert I heard a story, that a P47 pulling up very low after a strafing run almost hit a German soldier. The plane was barely clearing a hill,when the soldier came over the top, and froze seeing the plane about to hit him. As the story goes the pilot feared he would hit him,but didn't. The pilot later figured that the soldier would fit in between the prop blades with one about a foot in front and one about a foot behind. That was considering his speed and the rpm s and it was a four bladed prop. Did that really happen. If the big radial engine was turning about 2200 rpm and a groundspeed of about 350 mph it's possible. That's about 146 blades passing per second and a groundspeed of about 500 feet per second,so a blade about every 3 feet. The soldier must have been incredulous to still be alive. The pilot also, hitting him probably would have pitched the plane down slightly at that altitude there was no margin.
I heard a WW2 vet at an airshow say he got hit hard on a strafing run. Almost lost control and flew through the roof of a French farm house. Had rafters stuck in the plane when he landed that would give your heart a speed test.
So good video!Thank you a lot!
Thank you for liberating Europe!
Even the German soldiers died, they deserve the same respect as well. A soldier is a soldier. He dies protecting his country. Real monsters are the politicians who start the war and have nothing to lose. Ask them, do their children go to war? Never!
Only a common man joins the army and his whole family pays for it.
Sorry. They were mostly fervent Nazis. Research the real history and you’ll understand why I haven’t much sympathy for the ardent Nazis.
Think of Poland, Russia and the other countries the Nazis invaded and massacred their non-combatants because they were an inferior race. “Following orders.” Right.
@@franksgattolin8904 it's about perspective. The British did horrible things in India. The same can be said about them as well. But the west portrays it as if they were the good ones when they themselves were doing the same shit.
Thank the Lord these BRAVE pilots from America along with our own you cannot say enough of the Heroism these selfless people looking back Thank GOD we won the war as well as all those brave people whom we owe so much lost their lives fighting to save the civilized World we have NO ROOM for Dictators we all know WHY.
Great tribute at the end.
Good video 👍 thank you
Wow, this is the best war footage I have watched before now
history every one should see
I sometimes feel I'm living in the wrong time...
The smell of avgas, the sound of a 100 radial engines, sweethearts at home and "nearby," and the music of the 40s!
A smoke, coffee, a swig of bourbon and the flight plan!
The tight feel of chute and harness, the rumble of your engine vibrating through you.
If it weren't for the war and all the death, being a pilot in those golden days of flight, would be as close to heaven a pilot could get to!
But it was the war and death all around you, that made the simple things in life so valuable!
I salute all our fighting men, on the ground, on and beneath the sea, and always those who dwell above us, like eagles!
I know what you mean. I thought that about WWII alot. I always wanted to be a P-51 fighter pilot but would come back to reality that it was serious business up there. At least I finally got to fly in the P-51 and appreciate what those young men did.
I feel the same way sometimes. Over-romanticizing the war or vicarious nostalgia for simpler times when things seemed to matter more. I don't know. As long as we remember they won't be forgotten.
The sound is right, From what I've heard , the mustang w/ the RR Merlin engine was enough to make the guys that flew it have lots of hearing loss when they got older. One fighter pilot said on a long soiree you would be about deaf when landing afterwords. I think it would be a far trade off, Ha Ha
Don't forget the pervasive knot in your stomach, knowing that every time you get in the cockpit and fly off might be your last. And the numb grief you dare not express as you lose your brothers in arms in combat. And knowing that the folks you love back home might one day get that telegram that they dread more than anything on earth. Let's not be sentimental to the exclusion of what the reality was REALLY like for these brave men.
@@joefriday2275 US Navy, 1980-1984... USS Spartanburg County, LST 1192...
I stand and salute!
Did you notice the pilots were actually wearing their oxygen masks? Something about Hollywood cartoon/video game movies in the last 20 years or so seem to think this was unnecessary. Respect for the guys who actually flew the missions should demand accuracy.
Excellent documentary
...at 3.35 note the Bamboo Bombers in the background !
Thanks Boyd!
A huge radial engine, R-2800 Double Wasp, 12:10, few sounds are as sweet as that! Wow!
Most who lost an engine did not survive, including an experienced pilot who put a video online showing off his P-38 and giving the impression that he was very capable. With a sudden power failure you immediately put rudder and bank toward the good engine while feathering the dead one's prop or else the torque augured you in. One thing about the plane was that the guns were on centerline, which concentrated the rounds at any distance rather than them crossing at a selected distance out front.
Amazing stall at 24:00...
Back then with no GPS but only primitive tools like compass, rulers, pencils, watches, how they could navigate to their targets was incredibly amazing, apart from sudden change of wind/weather etc. Didn't matter how good the planes were but getting them over the target was a GREAT job. Without the courage/sacrifice of those adorable men/women, the world might be very different today. WWII's surely brought a lot of changes to the world.
The bombing of historical cities and the murder of civilians from 10km height, children is no heroism, but butter work. We have Nazism here, Covidnacism.
Difficult but not really hard, until the 90's every pilot could "dead wrecond navagate
That's some of the best gun camera film ever! Another shinning example of the greatest generation ever! Thank you!
Thank you for the nice video!
WOW!!! Very Good Work!!!!!!BRAVO!!!!! Heroes!!!!!!!
Incredible gun camera footage.
Excellent. Thank you.
Lots and lots of gun camera action here, great stuff.
I'd really love to see a movie that captures this battle as fully as this documentary does. I'm surprised it's not really been done like "The Battle of Britain" was in the last 75 years!
At the moment it would be a woke Disney affair which I would NOT want to see, with History being rewritten.
THIS ACTUAL footage shows it ACTUALLY happening, and I had the privilege of meeting a couple of 100thBG flyers on their final Reunion at Thorpe Abbots. My Mum nearly married one of these brave guys and always dearly remembered the fun she's had as a 20yr old, and also how it hit some of them when they lost a good friend on a raid. BRAVE young men
One my favourites was the Lancaster bomber with 4 Merlin engines made at Castle Bromwich Birmingham England...
As an air cadet I had a ride in one,a great memory
I worked at Jaguar Cars Plc, Castle Bromwich. It was the Spitfire made there and the A block doors are still open and the width to roll out a Spitfire. The used to fly away to their squadron from an airfield that is now the Castle Vale housing estate. The famous 'Spitfire Island' is outside the factory. My Mum made parts for the Spitfire Merlin and Griffin engines at AP Lockheed, Leamington Spa.🇬🇧
25:18 brutal scene! An FW190 on the ground, engine on, strafed while taxing... A tornado of cal .50 bullets over its engine and cockpit!
Easy one, always said fuck killing the machine, kill the man.
P38s, P47s and P51s bringing it to the enemy! Awake the sleeping giant and your chickens will come home to roost! This is by far the best combat film of ww2 gun cams! Our parents and grandparents saved the world from tyranny! From my grandfather (WW2 South Pacific Veteran) to yours, we proud Americans Salute you, the greatest generation!
And today you support tyrants. Great progress.
@@haraldschmidt8828 Care to elaborate? That's a broad stroke of a keyboard there.
Did Americans really think 70 million people Germany was going to cross the 3,200 mile Atlantic , land on the west beach of NY of 130 million people USA and push west overland 3,000 miles to for LA and occupy North America?
How does A small country like Germany take over the world? Did the have different Math back then?
@@Crashed131963 Hitler decided to declare war on the U.S! It wasnt so much about them invading the states as it was them torpedoing our ships. At one point there was actually a U boat that was patrolling the east coast. It worked it's way down off the florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico and was torpedoing our civilian ships. Until it was sunk. So it was more about that than the germans actually stepping foot on U.S soil. Although I'm pretty sure plans were drawn up by the reich.
@@haraldschmidt8828 ??? Care to be specific, Herr Schmidt...
That’s where the line “Give them the whole 9 yards” came from - The length of a 50 cal belt
I love you, dude you blew my mind
Very interesting! I have heard that all my life.
No, it's not. The first known idiomatic use of that phrase dates back to 1907, long before World War II. It had nothing to do with .50-caliber machine gun ammunition belts in the wings of American fighter planes in World War II. The belts of ammunition used in American fighter planes varied depending on the aircraft. There is ample evidence to show that this phrase had nothing to do with World War II or .50-caliber ammunition belts in American fighter planes of the period. You're free to look it up if you don't believe me.
@@theflash62281 tell us where the phrase came from then
@@SerenityMae11 It came from a news paper article in southern Indiana in 1907.
The flick was for wartime morale and fictionalized quite a bit; some of the planes being shot down are Japanese. Some of the American planes even have invasion markings on the wings and filmed during the D-Day invasion. The B-17 at 20:36 with "half his tail shot off" is a well known event where the bomber got out of formation and was struck by a friendly 500-lb bomb dropped from higher up. Encyclopedias of the 1950's such as The Book of Knowledge claimed the crippled bomber completed its bomb run and landed safely back at base. In fact, the B-17 went out of control and crashed. You can find numbers of references to the true story on the web, including the plane's tail number and crew outcome.
My uncle mentioned they had to paint white stripes on the planes just so the American pilots wouldn't shoot them... apparently they shot at anything..not my words I wasn't there
Your point?
If I am going into combat, give me a P-47 D40/RA every time. Tremendous speed, firepower and ruggedness. Super tough Pratt and Whitney Double Wasp radial engine could have cylinders shot out and still keep running. Fastest and most nimble of ALL WW2 planes at high altitude with the single exception of the long nosed FW 190s with the Jumo engines. Yes, if I want to come home to my lovely wife and mom and dad, then give me a Jug every time!
Can't argue with that ! ! ! !
And with the addition of two wing tanks and one belly tank, able to fly to Berlin and back. By that time P-47s were able to cover 80% of Germany. But by then with the invasion of Western Europe they were needed for close air support to support the ground troops. But in the Pacific the final model, the P-47N (4 groups) was used to along with the P-51s to escort the B-29s. The P-47N actually had a longer range than the P-51D.
6 tonnes of destructive power
The A-10 worthhogs of WW2. Love those Jugs on the P47's.
Great stuff ... What style .. What Guts .. Owe those brave men so much.
Look how low that jug is at 29:38! These young men were incredibly brave
No matter what it took brave men to defeat Germany . May God bless each & every one of them .
aTHOUSAnd to one in favor of usa,my heroes,no I not impressed by those odds,Germans flew till death,thousands of missions,Wee flew 25 and wow they want hero status, bomber groups were burning women,kids,aged,and ill.,and hospitals ,to death.That was a war crime,Coventry was 1citymand a error in navigation.We destroyed all over 5o,ooo pop.Wave it proud?
@@jameswallis6093 LMAO What history book were you reading hahaha. I am guessing it was written in crayon.
@@MIck-M OH to be blissfully stupid appeals to you,The Greatest Combat Aviator,Flew over35oo combat missions sometimes 6 in a days,his name Hans Erlich Rudel.A fan of History channel does't know shit,but is fat,and stupid.Alfred "BOMBER Harris,RAF wing command started the reduce the civilians,to death and rubble campaign,and we jumped right in.Once the Mustang could protect from fighters,it was quite common for a bombing missions to have 1ooo or more{" heavies")with "HE"and incendiaires as a load.PATTON said allies had reduced Germany to nothing but rubble,in addition ,that we fought the wrong enemy,Even the Monastery ,a 1500yr old artifact to be spared at Monte Cassino,Italy,the US bombed with 300 bombers ,one church.That joe,was a war crime,GERMANY"S best people were fighting in USSR,America primarily fought newly wed kids,and nearly dead retirees,The toll of combat dead for German aviators was .tremendous.They were National heroes,and fine men.
@@jameswallis6093 Well, it just goes to show you that some people shouldn't be fighting a war they aren't equipped for.
@@ut000bs Germany was a victim of International Zionism,for the crime of putting Germans in control of their nation,and refusing the trap of debt slavery through Central(Internationalist}Banking by the Gold standard.
Another problem the P-38s faced in Europe was that 4 of them landed at a German airbase in '43, which gave away their performance parameters. But after Lockheed put dive flaps on 'em they were formidable, avoiding compressibility in a dive, which meant the '109s usually failed if they chose to dive to get away. There's a video online that gets into the P-38's problems. It killed those who suffered a catastrophic engine failure near the ground on T/O - still does for those who own one.
One advantage I understand that the US Army Air pilots had was they used High-octane flight fuel.
50 cals. can do some real damage with 6 guns, and especially 8, as in Thunderbolts. But you sure dont want to be hit with more than a couple 20 mm cannon shots, lest your in a P47-D Thundetbolt, as they can usually take the hit and keep on ticking. With the tables turned on the receiving end those 50's can turn your ME109 or F190's into Swiss cheese in a 3-5 second burst.
In that one strafing run with the huge explosion, you can see the wingman's plane ahead and taking the brunt of the shock wave and almost engulfed in the explosion...one of the reasons why pilots were supposed to strafe with wider gaps in time.
He was killed.
At 17:40 the term "grimly determined" was probably a common phrase. After all it was used by Dr. Morbius in the Sci-Fi motion picture made a few years later in the movie "Forbidden Planet". Dr. Morbius used the phrase "grimly determined" in that move as well when he introduced the crew for the first time into his home on Altair IV.
Amazing that the cameras looking directly at the pilot didn't block his view. I mean, the cameras back then weren't the size of a GoPro. ; )
I get the feeling that part was staged for the film.
There's a wartime color documentary about a P47 squadron in Italy. I think it's called THUNDERBOLT.
Shows how they installed cameras all over some planes. Inside and out.
Has some great content and a bit of gore. I'm sure it's on the TH-cam.
The cameras were mounted under the plane...
Some great combat footage here, one of the best videos I've seen! 👏🏼😎
IGot this Thank you
These guys were the best of the best, bred to heroism by the very best of American families, they are the true 'long grass', there will never be another generation of young men to rival the quality of that WW2 generation in all the branches of the Military of those times so long ago now but never will be forgotten. In a thousand years people will still watch these old films about WW2 and marvel at the selfless heroism of those Young Men
Got news for you- the german pilots were more than equal to American pilots.
@@wilsonblauheuer6544 They had vastly more experience pilots than our guys and often superior machinery, once we caught up we whipped them good, what are you a Nazi sympathiser?
@@rotax636nut5 The German experten were the best due to superior experience as the Americans were rotated out after 50 missions. Which is why the top American pilots only amassed 20-30 kills as opposed to the triple digits accumulated by the top German aces. A top ace like Erich "bubi" Hartmann had no trouble shooting down P-51's over Romania flying bf-109's.
Excellent video.
now the meaning of "In war, truth is always the first victim" reveals to me
Robert the non truth is how the wars start isn't it?
.50cal armour piercing incendiary X8 Imagine being on the receiving end of that much firepower.
That's a bad day 😧
4 x 30 cm guns make way worse damage,,Those guys were brave,,they fought against an enemy that had prepared for war for 10 years , was well trained and had much better weapons..as the jet Me262
Leaves about a foot of magnesium fire behind the slug, awesome round. Light 'em up
Thank you.
Excellent video, one that everyone should watch. Those men were true heroes that we could never thank enough and we could never repay their great sacrifices so that we may keep this great country and have the freedoms we have today. Lately many people have been taking their great freedom for granted especially certain athletes like Lebron James and Kaepernick and many others that choose to bend a knee when honored our flag that our military fought and sacrificed so much for. Those people need to take a moment to watch videos like this and examine their conscience and be grateful for what they have and what they are able to achieve here.
Thank you to all our military personal and God bless them and God bless the USA.
Did Americans really think 70 million people Germany was going to cross the 3,200 mile Atlantic , land on the west beach of NY of 130 million people USA and push west overland 3,000 miles to for LA and occupy North America?
How does A small country like Germany take over the world? Did the have different Math back then?
A valid and interesting point.
It was a great idea to put the British Rolls Royce Merlin engine into the Mustang, dont like to sound piky but credit where credit is due.
Until then with the pratt and whitney, it was known as the castrated mustang, thank you English engeringing.
@@georgemacdonell2341 No Mustang ever had a Pratt&Whitney. Pratt made radials.
Allisons?
@@georgemacdonell2341 yes, Allison and Rolls-Royce
Nice post. I've got an edited version of this on an old VHS tape so many scenes seen here are missing. And I'm sure the narrator is different too.
That P-38 #162 was all over the place! And it could flip around into a mirror image and fly the other direction as well.
It's a P-51B-15, 43-24761, of the 361st FG, 375 FG, flown by 2nd Lt. Sherman Armsby, who was killed. It happened on August 26, 1944 at Perl, a small German town near Luxembourg.
what bomb group is that at 34:03? i always wanted to know.
Found a drop tank deep in the woods on the Hunsurick not far from Rheinbollen, that's what I did in my off time searched for war relics 1975-82
Hell on Roller Skates. Just kidding. A buddy was 1st Armored at Ansbach.
I wondered about all those drop tanks cast all over Europe, and if they were ever found. Most people wouldn't have known what they were. Good find!
at 11:42 is David Carl Schilling, flying ace with 22,5 victories, 6th leading ace of 8th AF and 3rd leading ace on P-47 and in 56th Fighter Group, after Gabreski and Johnson, in january 1943 became leader of 62nd Squadron and 12th august 1944 became commander of 56th Fighter Group
The 56th was one bad ass group of men, they ripped a path through the Luftwaffe that they never recovered from.
Incredible combat footage!