My uncle Tom was a B24 pilot whose plane caught fire over the Pacific. Tom told the crew to bail out and managed to hold it steady while most of his crew bailed, saving 6 men. He was on fire and burning up, according to the last man to jump, before the plane blew up, leaving no trace of Tom. Tom was decorated posthumously, but I'm sure if you could ask him, he would have said he was no hero, but just doing his job. My dad was a senior navigational instructor, who taught thousands of crewmen to get to their target and home safely.
19:36 that’s not burns from the gun being too hot. It’s actually due to the opposite. It’s so cold up there that his hands got stuck to the top cover of the feed tray.
As a resident of Trondheim, I was very pleased to see that I could recognize my home city through the bomb sights. Also, the submarine bunkers in question, called Dora, are still around an in use. It was determined after the war that they were too solidly built to be dismantled in any cost-effective way - blowing them up would have leveled half the town, so now they are in use housing the state archives.
I live in Trondheim, Norway. They didn't do much damage to the submarine bunkers in the bombing. In fact, the bunkers are still here. Today they are used as office spaces and a bowling alley. Both german soldiers and civilian norwegians were killed in the bombing.
The breakfast before mission was called last supper because of the casualty rate. The odds of an aircrew surviving or avoiding getting wounded or taken prisoner was about 24% before end of war. My grandfather was a flight engineer in a Lancaster. His plane was shot down and he lost his leg. He used to tell me he spent the rest of the war insulting Germans in a POW camp.
My great grandfather was a B17 gunner. When I was very young he told me a few stories, but they were always about fun times with his buddies, never about the missions. Except one. "My squadron commander came to me and said, 'They need more guys to train new crews back in the states. You want to go home?' So I thought, go to Colorado where it's pretty safe or go back up into the flak. Easy choice."
My late father in law, Jim, was a side gunner on a B-24 Liberator. He managed to get through the war without a scratch or being shot down. He never talked about the war. All he ever said to me was thank God you never had to see what a 20mm from a Bf 109 can do to a man. For those who don't know, a Bf 109 was the German responsible for more Allied planes shot down in WW2.
@@lancewolf2451 I don't know. All I know is what his wife told me. He enlisted right after Pearl Harbor and served with the 12th in Africa from 1942-45. She told me he could have come home earlier but decided to stay to see the war through to the end. After the war he went to work for GE as a mechanic. He also became a lay preacher in his Baptist Church. Except for nightmares, which diminished as time went on, he did not suffer from PTSD. Jim had led a hard life in his early years. As a West VA. boy growing up in the depression he earned extra money cutting and splitting wood. He came from a large family of 7 kids. He was always a kind and generous man. A true Christian. BTW, my wife and her brother were adopted. She was raised with the same love and care as their biological child.
My father, Albert Davis, was with the 351st/ 100th BG during this time, on the Picadilly Lily . He flew on all these missions depicted in the mini-series so far. His first mission was the Bremen raid . His last, 25th , was OCT3. His plane was shot down on OCT8th mission , along with many others. I hear they cover that in later episodes.
At this time, the US didn't have a decent escort fighter that could go all the way with the bombers. The older P-47 and P-51 fighters could barely make it across the Channel before needing to turn back. Some missions had twin-engine fighters like the P-38 Lightning or British Mosquito as escorts, but those were rare examples. By 1944 the P-51D model Mustang was available and its efficient Rolls-Royce Merlin engine allowed it to escort bombers to Berlin and back.
The P-51B/Cs with the addition of drop tanks could escort the bombers virtually anywhere they wanted to go. Don't get me wrong, the "D" is a great plane but we defer to it often because they are the primary example we see today on the airshow circuit.
The US Eighth Air Force lost more men fighting in the skies over Europe than the entire Marine Corps lost in the Pacific campaign. That just blows my mind. It was absolute chaos up there.
And RAF Bomber Command had the second highest fatality rate of any military branch in WW2. Second only to German U-boat crews. It was around 45% who got killed.
The air war over Europe was brutal. In addition, more guys died due to accidents and mechanical failures than in actual combat. On the ground, there are so many ways to take cover and get out of harms' way. Up in the air, you are caught in these thin metal flying machines, with swarms of German fighter planes and deadly German flak. Casualty rates were much higher than for infantry.
@@douglasgray1648 True. But I've heard/read anecdotes from infantry, armor and artillery veterans from many wars say on the ground its not so much the combat that was the problem, it was the misery and exhaustion of day to day existence on the front. Though naval war ranks highest on my personal fuck no list of ww2.
Hey Bis! Im so glad you are reacting to this! My Uncle Bill was a tail gunner in the 15th Air Force and flew missions over Romainia for one. He shot down two Greman Bf-109 fighters confirmed and 1 unconfirmed, and was awarded the Air Medal 4 times from April 44 until the end of the war. He actually loved talking about his service to me, and I was all ears! Needless to say, I have a soft spot in my heart for all those Bomber guys. The Army Air Corps had it better between missions than everyone else, but they also had many more casualties than all the other services.
Hi, I am excited for this series. Some things to know going in. When doing Precision Daylight bombing as the Americans where you must fly at a set altitude and course to ensure the bombs hit on target, so you are unable to maneuver. You fly straight and level to do max damage while avoiding as much of the Civilian population as possible. At those altitudes even five feet up or down could be the difference of hundreds of yards by the time the bombs reach the ground. One of my granddads flew a B 17 out of England from 43 to 45. I even got to ride in one that was sort of famous. It was C Cup in the 1990 movie Memphis Bell and was shown in Tora Tora Tora landing with one landing gear up. Any way My grandad said that the B 17 was strongest plain Boing ever made. After seeing and hearing some of the things they were able to do I tend to believe him.
I've been into ww2 since I was a kid. My grandfather fought at Guadalcanal and two jima with the third marine division. The Boeing b17 flying fortress was a very well built aircraft. I've seen some crazy pictures of planes that had their whole rudder and tail fin shot away, parts of wings blown off etc. The plane still made it home. The b17 coupled with the Norden bombsight was a game changer for the allies.
_“War is young men dying and old men talking”_ ~ FDR It's very hard to grasp the enormity of the undertaking that WWII was, how many lives it affected, how it impacted daily life... especially for these young men... who's average age was 19 -20 years old with so much of their lives was in front of them.... The scenes of the bombers in flight to target gives some perspective, but it is the crew interaction that really kills me... the camaraderie is the same regardless of when it takes place... just young men being bro's many who never had a chance to return and be sons, brothers, boyfriends, husbands and fathers...
The whole formation of bombers flew in a Large 'Box' Formation. "Low-Low means they were the lowest group of all, in the formation, and could not climb out that position - they could collide with another group OR could have bombs dropped onto them - BANG!). The formation was carefully designed to avoid both.
Several years ago I was blessed to go inside a B-17 at an airshow at Whiteman Air Force Base (home of the B-2 Spirits). Compared to the fighters the B-17 is a BIG plane...but inside it is surprisingly cramped. Especially the area where the tail gunner sits, and the station for the navigator/bombardier, the area below the pilots where Crosby sits (having 2 guys there is super cramped). This show does a good job of showing that. Also how "young" the guys were...you're right...when you see them on the ground interacting, some look 14 (the average age was somewhere between 18 to 19). Yes...these guys "almost" had a normal life at their bases...but the flip side is their causality rate was much higher than most of the forces on the ground. So far my only quibble with the show is that when they are calling out "Ju-88s" (a twin engine German aircraft...first used as a bomber, but later had various fighters versions)...if you "slow down" the footage...the planes attacking seem to have "twin tails or rudders"...they look more like Me-110s (a different German aircraft, a "Zerstoer" or heavy fighter). And I could be wrong...but other than that I am VERY impressed with this show. Thank you for reviewing it. I look forward to your weekly reviews (and seeing the new episodes each week). FYI: if you want to see a BIG plane from WW2, take a look at the B-29...it dwarfs the B-17.
When it comes to your question about can they climb above the flak, generally not. Because bomber formations several layers "thick". in order to maximize ordnance coverage on the ground the aircraft at the top of the top of the formation dropped it's bombs between the aircraft below so it was of vital importance for everybody to fly at the precise heading and altitude they were supposed to.. German flak used a tactic of "Flak boxes", they would figure out the height and direction of incoming bombers and instruct several anti aircraft guns to fire in such a way that their combined fire created a "box" in the sky that was saturated with fragments from rounds bursting in the air that the bombers would need to fly thru.
I know a couple of guys who flew these kinds of planes in WW2. One rode his plane all the way down and was so broken up up so bad the Germans wouldn't feed him because they thought he was a goner. His story was told in his son's (Laurence Gonzalez) book. The other flew out with 27 other planes and only 3 returned...three times. Absolutely the greatest generation.
19:33 machine guns are mechanical devices, they can jam due to a number of things: bad ammo, poor primers, broken firing pin, not headspaced correct, etc. My coworker owns a Browning M1919A4 (basically a smaller version of the guns mounted on the B17) and while the gun runs well, one day, the gun just wasn’t running and we couldn’t figure out why. It happens.
In this case, the extreme cold would also wreck havoc with the gun. A machine gun needs to be well built and properly maintained to reliably operate under those conditions.
@@robertsmith4681 Right. Lubricants get really weird in those temperatures. Either freeze solid outright or turn into molasses. It's why the Canadian Military still uses bolt action rifles for its Arctic troops. Modern combat rifles cannot handle the cold.
The RAF tried bombing Germany in the daylight in the early years of the war but decided it wasn't working and with heavy losses so turned to bombing at night, although still suffered heavy losses. The Americans also suffered heavy losses and decided it wasn't working and had to suspend their bombing raids deep into Germany at the end of 1943/start of 1944 leaving the RAF to bomb Germany alone during this period. The Americans only restarted deep bombing into Germany in February 1944 when fighters were finally able to escort them all the way there and back.
Orange juice was a luxury item until after WW2. In fact Frozen Concentrate Orange Juice was invited during WW2 to prevent scurvy in the troops. Otherwise most American families could only afford Orange Juice maybe once or twice a year.
The JU-88 was the main German long-range fighter and night fighter for most of the war. It was actually designed and used as a bomber at the beginning of the war. It was faster than other German bombers, but slower than the shorter-range German single-engine fighters. Because the JU-88 had two engines, it could carry more of either forward-facing guns and ammunition to be a fighter, or bombs to be a bomber. To be a night fighter, it also carried radar equipment to be able to find British bombers in the dark.
When I had the chance to walk through a B-17 in 1984, I got scared because it was obvious that the crew couldn't dodge any incoming bullets or shrapnel from exploding shells. I was 24 at the time, and the man next to me was about 55-60. I asked him, how did they find people to ride on these? He replied, "they were drafted." That day I saw for the first time how deadly this part of the war was.
Hi Bisscute, it's fantastic you're reacting to this awesome new aerial warfare series :) I've seen the first episode and the other 8 look set to be epic! This is my kind thing! War in the air virtually never gets reacted to on youtube for some inexplicable reason! Air war is infinitly more exiting and entertaining to watch than land based warfare and I highly recommend war in the air movies like Memphis Belle & Red Tails for you to react to :)
(19:25) Machine guns are mechanical devices that can jam for a number of reasons involving the weapon or the ammunition. Jams are a common occurrence that can happen to even the best, which you saw in both Band of Brothers and the Pacific. That’s not from heat at 19:33, it’s from the extreme cold. Flying at that altitude for so long, the temperature inside those B-17 bombers would be freezing. It was so cold that the gunners hands got stuck to the gun, and he had to tear the skin off to free himself.
Flares turned out to be fairly ineffective for formation forming due to visibility. What they eventually settled on was to paint a single unarmed bomber in various garish vivid colors that would be visible for miles and form up on that aircraft. My dad served as a gunner on B24 and B17 bombers for 35 missions during the war. He said about thirty years ago that he was lucky not to be assigned to the 100th Bomb Group when he flew with the 8th Air Force. They earned an infamous reputation in the 8th Air Force for their high casualty rates. Not that it was much easier for other bomber groups either. My father saw one of the bombers in his squadron suffer engine failure on takeoff, crashing at the end of the runway. There wasn't enough left of the remains of the ten man crew bigger than a spoon after all the bombs, fuel, and ammunition detonated.
“I think your ancestors felt that” one of the best comments ever😂😂….. I’m loving this show! My dad was part of the “greatest generation” went to Germany toward the end of WWII….. I miss him dearly. I’m so happy that young people like yourself are watching these shows
Bliss at 3:02 you are incorrect. Major Gale "Buck" Winston Cleven married his childhood sweetheart Marjorie in July 1945. She died in August 1953 after a sudden illness with polio. Buck remarried in 1955 and remained married to his second wife until his death in 2006.
I can absolutely image the nerves on the first mission. While it was very different in Afghanistan than in WWII, I was still very nervous on my first combat flight
That's what I was telling my wife, time has passed but somethings haven't changed. Mission brief, life support gear, crew trans, preflight and takeoff. Like you said Afghanistan wasn't like the flying in WWII but there was always a possibility especially back in 2001-2002 time frame.
From enemy fighters, yes. From flak and crash landings no. One of my great uncles was a ball turret gunner in a B24 because he was 5'1" and absolutely refused to talk about the war.
irrelevant and not true anyway. If the plane is hit the gunner just gets out of the turret. which is why it was one of THE safest positions in the plane. @@Elmarby
@@Marcus-p5i5s The ball gunner is the one guy trying to get into a stricken plane when everyone else is trying to get out. Because that's where his parachute is. Why do you think that is giving him the best survival chance on board?
31:02 Almost the exact opposite. That was what would be called close air support (CAS). In that type of mission, a plane would be close by or flying over the area of a ground operation waiting for the call to help. What you see in this series is closer to what would be called strategic air bombing. It is much less about helping individual units on the ground and much more about impacting the overall war effort by bombing things like submarine bases or factories. The idea is to try to destroy the German ability to wage war at its current strength more than trying to defeat specific ground units. You can see it mentioned later in the series. They mention D-day and the ground invasion of Europe. So much of this was happening before that. And that made it much more dangerous. All of the land was controlled by the enemy and to get to the areas they wanted to go they had to fly over enemy territory for a long time.
7:32 B-17s and other bombers even german bombers had a tendency for navigational errors, thats why alot of bombers got shotdown over switzerland in the case of the germans and for the americans it was over Brest which was part of Occupied France, and it was one of the heaviest fortress of the war.
"Test Pilot is a 1938 American drama film directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, and featuring Lionel Barrymore. The Oscar-nominated film tells the story of a daredevil test pilot (Gable), his wife (Loy), and his best friend (Tracy).: The story ends with him flying the B-17, the plane featured in this series
35:22 and that is the reason I joined the Air Force and not the Army or Marines. I love my Army and Marine brothers and sisters, actually my son is a Marine, but their living conditions while we were deployed was horrible.
MADALINA - 32:10 ALLIED BOMBERS HAD NO PROTECTIVE FIGHTER ESCORT (or) ONLY FOR A SHORT DISTANCE at the beginning of WW2 --- The American bombers suffered more casualties than the British with daytime bombing, but also because in the beginning the bombers were ALONE for all or part of the trip to Europe, Germany and back. The American fighters had one external gas tank on each wing (or one center tank) for additional fuel and longer mileage, but they had to drop their gas tanks to "dogfight" the German fighters when they showed up to attack the bombers. THE HIGH BOMBER LOSSES OVER GERMANY PUSHED THE AMERICANS TO DEVELOP LONG RANGE FIGHTER ESCORTS for Germany OVER TIME, DIFFERENT AMERICAN FIGHTER SQUADRONS WERE GIVEN NEWER AND BETTER FIGHTERS and ESCORTS as the twin engine P-38 LIGHTNING, the large and heavy P-47 THUNDERBOLT (JUG) and finally the P-51 MUSTANG. -- THE US NAVY IN THE PACIFIC had their own fighters because they had to be able TO TAKE OFF AND LAND ON AIRCRAFT CARRIERS (first the WILDCAT, later the HELLCAT, and then the CORSAIR with gull shaped wings) The P (letter) in the American fighter name = P for PURSUIT (of enemy bombers from 1930's strategy), F = FIGHTER, B = BOMBER From 1944 to the end of the war, the P-51 MUSTANG gave America "AIR SUPERIORITY" over the enemy air force, in both Europe and the Japanese home islands. It was now AMERICA'S BEST FIGHTER and the LONGEST RANGE FIGHTER ESCORT for bombers at high altitude. The bombers could now go all the way to Germany or Japan and back with the P-51 Mustangs as escort. The American P-51 MUSTANG fighter served in WW2 and also the Korean war from 1950-53 . THE MASTERS OF THE AIR movie series with an episode of the TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, RED TAILS AMERICA IN WW2 STILL HAD SEGREGATION (SEPARATION of white and black people in their jobs, public housing and education), so with the US Air Force trained graduates of WW2, the famous TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (trained in Tuskegee, Alabama) were more than 900 black Americans who flew both fighters and bombers. The Tuskegee pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group had painted RED TAILS on their P-47s and later P-51s THEIR NICKNAME WAS THE "RED TAILS" RED TAILS (2012) movie TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (1995) movie THE MASTERS OF THE AIR movie series is from the BOOK by Donald Miller (2007) "Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany" GERMAN FIGHTERS WW2 (against Allied bombers) === MESSERSCHMITT ME 109 FOCKE WULF FW 190 MESSERSCHMITT ME 262 (1945 the new German jet) Because of the new and faster jet fighter, Allied pilots were to patrol above enemy airfields, so they could shoot down the jet during take off and landing AMERICAN BOMBER LIST in WW2 === B-17 FLYING FORTRESS (in the Masters of the Air movie series) B-24 LIBERATOR B-25 MITCHELL (twin engine used in the Pacific against the Japanese) B-26 MARAUDER (twin engine) B-29 SUPERFORTRESS (new modern design, "super bomber" used against the home islands of Japan and the atomic bomb drop). It was a high altitude (31,850 feet) daytime bomber, and could carry 20,000 pounds of bombs to a target 2,600 miles away, at a speed of 400 miles per hour MEDIUM bombers = TWIN engines HEAVY bombers = FOUR engines VERY Heavy bombers = B-29 On AMERICA'S BIRTHDAY July 4, 1942 the EIGHTH AIR FORCE made its FIRST BOMBING of Nazi-occupied Europe. But because the B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber groups were still in America, they used the 15th Bomb Squadron (LIGHT BOMBER). They were flying the A-20 HAVOC (called Bostons by the British); these were American made twin-engine light bombers. Four airfields in German-occupied Holland were selected as targets. The US Air Force's first B-17 HEAVY BOMBER missions were railway yards in FRANCE August 1942, January 1943 the German North Sea port of Wilhemshaven, and April 1943 Bremen GERMANY The (MASTERS OF THE AIR series) 100th Bomb Group also flew in D-DAY AND THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE 17 AMERICAN MEDALS OF HONOR were awarded to members of the Eighth Air Force in WW2 The Eighth Air Force suffered nearly half of all casualties of the US Air Force in WW2 (47,483 out of 115,332). More than 26,000 of these men were killed in action. By the end of WW2, the US Air Force had created worldwide 16 numbered air forces (the First through Fifteenth and Twentieth) WW2 US BRITISH AIR FORCE MOVIES === TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (1949) THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969) MIDWAY (1975) US Navy battle of Midway against Japan PEARL HARBOR (2001) or TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970) Japanese view of the attack on Pearl Harbor LANCASTER SKIES (2020) DEVOTION (2022) THE DAM BUSTERS (1955) SECRET MISSION (1942) THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944) REACH FOR THE SKY (1956) FIRST LIGHT (2010) ENOLA GAY The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980) FLYING TIGERS (1942) RED TAILS (2012) TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (1995) MY WW2 and TRUE STORY MOVIE TIMELINE === IS IN MY EARLIER COMMENT BELOW THANKS - Dave Strong
Pilots definitely had it much easier than grunts. They have a better quality of life when away from the front. Grunts or ground forces are almost always within a stone throw from fighting.
Hi Biss, great reaction again. I´m anxious how it is going on. @32:00 the german planes can´t be JU-88, cause the Junkers JU 88 was a bomber with only one machine gun in the rear for self defence. The german fighter planes in this scene, with two engines and double tail unit, were Messerschmitt BF110. This plane had a max. speed up to 600 km/h compared to the B17 max. speed of 480 km/h.
German Luftwaffe standard fighters were the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. And fighter planes were indeed faster and much more maneuverable than heavy bombers like the B-17.
Some facts they may or may not disclose is that the Life expectancy was 6 weeks numerically I believe that translated to 7 out of 10 did not survive. In the first 9 months of this part if the war 25 THOUSAND pilots and crews died. That is greater than the first 3 yrs of Marines killed in action in the Pacific. The biggest reason was none of our fighter planes had the fuel capacity to travel to the Bombing destinations. Another issue they faced was freezing as they really only had bomber jackets and tremal underware and gloves the temperature was close to -50 degrees. And yes, there were some very handsome men in the military. My dad was one. He had a tentative offer to be in Wings the film. I had but lost professional stills from the film given dad. He was Colonel LaMays crew chief.
Oh Yea, hypoxia is a thing I know from Green Dot Aviation channel about plane emergency's. It slowly deprives Your brain of air, untill falling unconcious and later expiring. First symptoms are similiar to being drunk. That's why cabin pressure has to be maintain in every plane.
EDIT German fighters common during the war = ME 109 Messerschmitt and the FW 190 Focke Wulf. The final year of the war the Germans brought in their new jet fighter the Messerschmitt Me 262 The Junkers Ju 88 was a slower, twin-engined German medium bomber. The Messerschmitt BF 110 was another twin-engine fighter bomber and night fighter
One extra note: Their lives seem pretty good (Most crews were about 60% oficers), but bear in mind that the USAAF 8th Air Force, alone, lost more people in combat over Europe during WW2 than the ENTIRE US Marine Corps lost in the whole Pacific Campaign. The US Army Air Forces fielded at least 20 Air forces to various Theatres, including Training within the USA. The US Air Force was not formed as a separate Military arm until 1948.
Pro tip. Eatly in the war, Britain and America could hit crap on their bombing runs, terrible sighting targeting and plane leveling systems... basically done by eye. A woel famous german qctress who lived in America, i think Marlene Dietrich, was also a genius. She developed plane leveling gimble systems and gyroscopes, for exact targeting, height, speed, and distance. She did the same for submarine targeting with sonar. She is also called, the mother of WiFi, since she first drew it up and experimented with it!
Great choice Miss Bisscute. You should react to The movies Memphis Belle (1990) about world war II airplanes and Greyhound (2020) with Tom Hanks about boats and Subs (Germany U Boats) you Will like them.
The 100th casualty rates in the 8th Air Force was insane. The entire 8th Airforce lose more men in the entire war than the entire Marine Corps did fighting the Japanese during world war 2. Famous actor Clark Gable was in the 351st, and he flew 5 combat missions on paper. But they said he would sneak off to other planes and served more missions. MGM forced the government to send him back when they heard he was nearly shot down lol
And RAF Bomber Command had the second highest fatality rate of any military branch in WW2. Second only to German U-boat crews. It was around 45% of RAF Bomber Command who got killed.
Ejection seats haven’t been invented yet. So they simply jumped out of hatches or in single seat aircraft they jettisoned the canopy or opened it and jumped.
American bombers flew during the day. The British ones would go in at night. They would NOT be in formation (just a "stream" with them going in and out the same way), and the follow-on planes dropping on the fires set by the leads. They also had to take a picture of their bomb drop (to prove they had gone all the way). If anything, the RAF took worse losses than the 8th (they mostly depended on not being found, they had fewer and smaller guns). First warning they often got was their wing folding up, because a radar-equipped night fighter had got below them. Both lost a similar amount of men, but The 8th had a LOT more wounded and Prisoners than bomber command (they had much better odds of parachuting out) average British Crew size was about 7 (only one pilot, fewer gunners), to the B17 and B-24s 10. The German pilots did NOT like going after heavy bombers (too much chance of a lucky bullet hitting them). One description of attacking a bomber box was "(having intimate relations) with a hedgehog, that was ON FIRE". The daylight bombers may have done their most important damage, pulling the Luftwaffe up to fight, once they could be accompanied by fighters "all the way", the constant fighting wore down the Luftwaffe, meantime in the early episodes they will be taking a LOT of damage. One thing the B17 was famous for, was getting back to base with a LOT of damage. A quick trip on google will show a good set of samples.
The series is, for the most part, following the 100th Bombardment Group of the Eighth Air Force, which flew from England. Doubtful that Ploiești will be in the series. Edit: A later raid on Ploiești may be featured in relation to a certain fighter squadron which had red tails.
Most dangerous job of WW2 Ball Turret Gunner why Easy You could get shot The Turret could get stuck and won't open while making a crash landing It could get shot to pieces and fall off
@BissFlix Also its very early days the u.s entered the war soooo a lot of the top brass are from ww1 and thought that the Flying Fortresses didn't need any Fighter planes They were so wrong the German Airforce/Lufawaffa aren't just shooting a rifle round at the planes they are shooting a 20mm auto Cannon at them 20mm round is the size of the size of a Soda Can flying at you at Mach 3 It's the same round used in the A10 warthog and No Flak jacket/Bullet Proof vest is going to save you much less a helmet if you get hit Flak/AA guns shoot a special round that detonate like a shotgun shell that's what's inside that black smoke Can do anything about Flak except pray you don't get hit
@BissFlix if you do get shot down and survive pray its over The English Channel and Not Nazi occupied France otherwise you'll end up as a POW One pliot ended up at Aschwizt concentration camp for three weeks Yep until the sat he died at the age of 97 in 2004 he never got Josef Mengeles house of Screams out of his head
as a ww2 plane lover and ww2 movie lover u just learned about series now i want to watch them!!! let my 6700 wats seround system with 2 18 inch 2300 watts of bass i want to pump tbise movie to loud valume!!!!
It needs more jewels to chose to cancel a mission than drop bombs randomly. Don't forget that it is an occupied era, the target is surrounded by civilians allied civilians, the people they were specificaly trying to save.
The speed of the aircraft is exacerbated by the fact they fly straight at each other if both air craft are flying at 300 miles an hour the closing speed is 600 miles an hour. The Germans flew attacked from the front as this had the least guns firing at them for the shortest time. Also less armour and the personnel in the most advantageous position if killed or injured. The bombing seen near the base is probably Great Yarmouth or Norwich both targets during WW2.
This strategic and not tactical bombing. Troops calling for strikes against enemy positions on the battlefield are not carried out by heavy bombers like the B17. These are planned missions against targets like industrial targets or in this case submarine pens.
@@brandonmartin08 It comes from the French sarcastic word for brothel "clapier"(rabbit hutch). It was also known among the English as "the French disease".
저는 새로운 밴드 오브 브라더스의 시리즈는 전쟁의 큰 전환점이 된 미드웨이 해전에서 용감하게 희생하신 뇌격기 편대들을 재조명 하는 드라마가 되길 원했습니다. 이상하게 헐리우드는 여러 영화나 드라마에서 반성하고 있는 독일을 항상 손쉬운 적으로 삼고 반성은 커녕 자신들의 과오를 미화하고 있는 일본을 쉽게 미화합니다. 아직도 엔화에 휘둘리는 것일까요? 아니면 옛 동양의 적에 대해 환상을 품고 있는 건가요? ㅎㅎㅎ
Retired-Cpt Dale Dye, Godfather of literally every war movie/ series ever-made ( including this piece of 💩) literally sold his most unwanted story to Apple+ $250.000.000 for 9_eps. This would be the first time ever that one of dye's creations was forced to include Baby-Faces and was not aloud to fire any of the cast for misconduct or lack of discipline.
The American army Air-core chose to bomb during the day as they thought that better precision with the Norton Bomb sight. Unfortunately the testing for the sight happened in cloudless skies in Texas not the cloudy skies of Northern Europe.
First episode takes place in 1943, so it is United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF). United States Army Air Corps ceased to exist on 20 June 1941.
@@HollywoodMarine0351 Thanks I wasn’t sure off the top of my head when it changed. Knew it changed but not when. Must also apologise for the spelling mistakes,Dyslexia is a bitch.
I stopped watching after the first episode. It is nowhere near as good as BoB or the Pacific. The acting is hollow, the storyline felt rushed, the CGI is too much, and the score is 'meh'. Hanks and company finally failed.
![แฉกลโกงงานวัด 2024 [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.106 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/taC5dpP3HXA/mqdefault.jpg)
My uncle Tom was a B24 pilot whose plane caught fire over the Pacific. Tom told the crew to bail out and managed to hold it steady while most of his crew bailed, saving 6 men. He was on fire and burning up, according to the last man to jump, before the plane blew up, leaving no trace of Tom. Tom was decorated posthumously, but I'm sure if you could ask him, he would have said he was no hero, but just doing his job. My dad was a senior navigational instructor, who taught thousands of crewmen to get to their target and home safely.
19:36 that’s not burns from the gun being too hot. It’s actually due to the opposite. It’s so cold up there that his hands got stuck to the top cover of the feed tray.
As a resident of Trondheim, I was very pleased to see that I could recognize my home city through the bomb sights. Also, the submarine bunkers in question, called Dora, are still around an in use. It was determined after the war that they were too solidly built to be dismantled in any cost-effective way - blowing them up would have leveled half the town, so now they are in use housing the state archives.
Bombproof state archives😆
And bowling alley :)
@@Haakonisak Indeed. If the world blows up, all that remains will be a bowling alley and the Norwegian state archives.
I live in Trondheim, Norway. They didn't do much damage to the submarine bunkers in the bombing. In fact, the bunkers are still here. Today they are used as office spaces and a bowling alley. Both german soldiers and civilian norwegians were killed in the bombing.
just wait. we'll get them.
Are the subs set inside bunkers or just docks?
I love bowling…. I’m just not very good at it 😅
The breakfast before mission was called last supper because of the casualty rate. The odds of an aircrew surviving or avoiding getting wounded or taken prisoner was about 24% before end of war. My grandfather was a flight engineer in a Lancaster. His plane was shot down and he lost his leg. He used to tell me he spent the rest of the war insulting Germans in a POW camp.
My great grandfather was a B17 gunner. When I was very young he told me a few stories, but they were always about fun times with his buddies, never about the missions. Except one.
"My squadron commander came to me and said, 'They need more guys to train new crews back in the states. You want to go home?' So I thought, go to Colorado where it's pretty safe or go back up into the flak. Easy choice."
My late father in law, Jim, was a side gunner on a B-24 Liberator. He managed to get through the war without a scratch or being shot down. He never talked about the war. All he ever said to me was thank God you never had to see what a 20mm from a Bf 109 can do to a man. For those who don't know, a Bf 109 was the German responsible for more Allied planes shot down in WW2.
Deepest respect for your Father In Law's service
How many missions?
@@lancewolf2451 I don't know. All I know is what his wife told me. He enlisted right after Pearl Harbor and served with the 12th in Africa from 1942-45. She told me he could have come home earlier but decided to stay to see the war through to the end. After the war he went to work for GE as a mechanic. He also became a lay preacher in his Baptist Church. Except for nightmares, which diminished as time went on, he did not suffer from PTSD. Jim had led a hard life in his early years. As a West VA. boy growing up in the depression he earned extra money cutting and splitting wood. He came from a large family of 7 kids. He was always a kind and generous man. A true Christian. BTW, my wife and her brother were adopted. She was raised with the same love and care as their biological child.
My uncle was KIA over Germany in a B-24. His remains lie at rest in the National Cemetery in Belgium
@@kellahella5286 I honor your uncle. Men and women who fight for freedom should all be honored along with the flag they fought under.
My father, Albert Davis, was with the 351st/ 100th BG during this time, on the Picadilly Lily . He flew on all these missions depicted in the mini-series so far. His first mission was the Bremen raid . His last, 25th , was OCT3. His plane was shot down on OCT8th mission , along with many others. I hear they cover that in later episodes.
At this time, the US didn't have a decent escort fighter that could go all the way with the bombers. The older P-47 and P-51 fighters could barely make it across the Channel before needing to turn back. Some missions had twin-engine fighters like the P-38 Lightning or British Mosquito as escorts, but those were rare examples. By 1944 the P-51D model Mustang was available and its efficient Rolls-Royce Merlin engine allowed it to escort bombers to Berlin and back.
Also the addition of drop tanks to the p51 allowed them to stay with the bombers.
The P-51B/Cs with the addition of drop tanks could escort the bombers virtually anywhere they wanted to go. Don't get me wrong, the "D" is a great plane but we defer to it often because they are the primary example we see today on the airshow circuit.
The US Eighth Air Force lost more men fighting in the skies over Europe than the entire Marine Corps lost in the Pacific campaign. That just blows my mind. It was absolute chaos up there.
And RAF Bomber Command had the second highest fatality rate of any military branch in WW2. Second only to German U-boat crews.
It was around 45% who got killed.
The air war over Europe was brutal. In addition, more guys died due to accidents and mechanical failures than in actual combat. On the ground, there are so many ways to take cover and get out of harms' way. Up in the air, you are caught in these thin metal flying machines, with swarms of German fighter planes and deadly German flak. Casualty rates were much higher than for infantry.
@@douglasgray1648 True. But I've heard/read anecdotes from infantry, armor and artillery veterans from many wars say on the ground its not so much the combat that was the problem, it was the misery and exhaustion of day to day existence on the front. Though naval war ranks highest on my personal fuck no list of ww2.
19:35 /// It was completely cold. His hands froze to the gun so he had to tear them off.
Hey Bis! Im so glad you are reacting to this! My Uncle Bill was a tail gunner in the 15th Air Force and flew missions over Romainia for one. He shot down two Greman Bf-109 fighters confirmed and 1 unconfirmed, and was awarded the Air Medal 4 times from April 44 until the end of the war. He actually loved talking about his service to me, and I was all ears! Needless to say, I have a soft spot in my heart for all those Bomber guys. The Army Air Corps had it better between missions than everyone else, but they also had many more casualties than all the other services.
Hi, I am excited for this series. Some things to know going in. When doing Precision Daylight bombing as the Americans where you must fly at a set altitude and course to ensure the bombs hit on target, so you are unable to maneuver. You fly straight and level to do max damage while avoiding as much of the Civilian population as possible. At those altitudes even five feet up or down could be the difference of hundreds of yards by the time the bombs reach the ground. One of my granddads flew a B 17 out of England from 43 to 45. I even got to ride in one that was sort of famous. It was C Cup in the 1990 movie Memphis Bell and was shown in Tora Tora Tora landing with one landing gear up. Any way My grandad said that the B 17 was strongest plain Boing ever made. After seeing and hearing some of the things they were able to do I tend to believe him.
I've been into ww2 since I was a kid. My grandfather fought at Guadalcanal and two jima with the third marine division.
The Boeing b17 flying fortress was a very well built aircraft. I've seen some crazy pictures of planes that had their whole rudder and tail fin shot away, parts of wings blown off etc. The plane still made it home. The b17 coupled with the Norden bombsight was a game changer for the allies.
_“War is young men dying and old men talking”_ ~ FDR
It's very hard to grasp the enormity of the undertaking that WWII was, how many lives it affected, how it impacted daily life... especially for these young men... who's average age was 19 -20 years old with so much of their lives was in front of them.... The scenes of the bombers in flight to target gives some perspective, but it is the crew interaction that really kills me... the camaraderie is the same regardless of when it takes place... just young men being bro's many who never had a chance to return and be sons, brothers, boyfriends, husbands and fathers...
The whole formation of bombers flew in a Large 'Box' Formation. "Low-Low means they were the lowest group of all, in the formation, and could not climb out that position - they could collide with another group OR could have bombs dropped onto them - BANG!). The formation was carefully designed to avoid both.
Several years ago I was blessed to go inside a B-17 at an airshow at Whiteman Air Force Base (home of the B-2 Spirits). Compared to the fighters the B-17 is a BIG plane...but inside it is surprisingly cramped. Especially the area where the tail gunner sits, and the station for the navigator/bombardier, the area below the pilots where Crosby sits (having 2 guys there is super cramped). This show does a good job of showing that. Also how "young" the guys were...you're right...when you see them on the ground interacting, some look 14 (the average age was somewhere between 18 to 19). Yes...these guys "almost" had a normal life at their bases...but the flip side is their causality rate was much higher than most of the forces on the ground.
So far my only quibble with the show is that when they are calling out "Ju-88s" (a twin engine German aircraft...first used as a bomber, but later had various fighters versions)...if you "slow down" the footage...the planes attacking seem to have "twin tails or rudders"...they look more like Me-110s (a different German aircraft, a "Zerstoer" or heavy fighter). And I could be wrong...but other than that I am VERY impressed with this show. Thank you for reviewing it. I look forward to your weekly reviews (and seeing the new episodes each week). FYI: if you want to see a BIG plane from WW2, take a look at the B-29...it dwarfs the B-17.
When it comes to your question about can they climb above the flak, generally not. Because bomber formations several layers "thick". in order to maximize ordnance coverage on the ground the aircraft at the top of the top of the formation dropped it's bombs between the aircraft below so it was of vital importance for everybody to fly at the precise heading and altitude they were supposed to.. German flak used a tactic of "Flak boxes", they would figure out the height and direction of incoming bombers and instruct several anti aircraft guns to fire in such a way that their combined fire created a "box" in the sky that was saturated with fragments from rounds bursting in the air that the bombers would need to fly thru.
Marge is played by Isabel May who played Elsa Dutton on the mini series 1883.
I know a couple of guys who flew these kinds of planes in WW2. One rode his plane all the way down and was so broken up up so bad the Germans wouldn't feed him because they thought he was a goner. His story was told in his son's (Laurence Gonzalez) book. The other flew out with 27 other planes and only 3 returned...three times. Absolutely the greatest generation.
You know them ?
@@Melrose51653 I knew both of those men when they were alive as well as others and often I would ask them about the war.
19:33 machine guns are mechanical devices, they can jam due to a number of things: bad ammo, poor primers, broken firing pin, not headspaced correct, etc.
My coworker owns a Browning M1919A4 (basically a smaller version of the guns mounted on the B17) and while the gun runs well, one day, the gun just wasn’t running and we couldn’t figure out why. It happens.
In this case, the extreme cold would also wreck havoc with the gun. A machine gun needs to be well built and properly maintained to reliably operate under those conditions.
@@przemekkozlowski7835 This, they probably had to run them bone dry because of the cold and machineguns generally like to run wet.
@@robertsmith4681 Right. Lubricants get really weird in those temperatures. Either freeze solid outright or turn into molasses. It's why the Canadian Military still uses bolt action rifles for its Arctic troops. Modern combat rifles cannot handle the cold.
The RAF tried bombing Germany in the daylight in the early years of the war but decided it wasn't working and with heavy losses so turned to bombing at night, although still suffered heavy losses.
The Americans also suffered heavy losses and decided it wasn't working and had to suspend their bombing raids deep into Germany at the end of 1943/start of 1944 leaving the RAF to bomb Germany alone during this period.
The Americans only restarted deep bombing into Germany in February 1944 when fighters were finally able to escort them all the way there and back.
Orange juice was a luxury item until after WW2. In fact Frozen Concentrate Orange Juice was invited during WW2 to prevent scurvy in the troops.
Otherwise most American families could only afford Orange Juice maybe once or twice a year.
The JU-88 was the main German long-range fighter and night fighter for most of the war. It was actually designed and used as a bomber at the beginning of the war. It was faster than other German bombers, but slower than the shorter-range German single-engine fighters. Because the JU-88 had two engines, it could carry more of either forward-facing guns and ammunition to be a fighter, or bombs to be a bomber. To be a night fighter, it also carried radar equipment to be able to find British bombers in the dark.
When I had the chance to walk through a B-17 in 1984, I got scared because it was obvious that the crew couldn't dodge any incoming bullets or shrapnel from exploding shells. I was 24 at the time, and the man next to me was about 55-60. I asked him, how did they find people to ride on these? He replied, "they were drafted." That day I saw for the first time how deadly this part of the war was.
Hi Bisscute, it's fantastic you're reacting to this awesome new aerial warfare series :) I've seen the first episode and the other 8 look set to be epic! This is my kind thing! War in the air virtually never gets reacted to on youtube for some inexplicable reason! Air war is infinitly more exiting and entertaining to watch than land based warfare and I highly recommend war in the air movies like Memphis Belle & Red Tails for you to react to :)
(19:25) Machine guns are mechanical devices that can jam for a number of reasons involving the weapon or the ammunition. Jams are a common occurrence that can happen to even the best, which you saw in both Band of Brothers and the Pacific. That’s not from heat at 19:33, it’s from the extreme cold. Flying at that altitude for so long, the temperature inside those B-17 bombers would be freezing. It was so cold that the gunners hands got stuck to the gun, and he had to tear the skin off to free himself.
Flares turned out to be fairly ineffective for formation forming due to visibility. What they eventually settled on was to paint a single unarmed bomber in various garish vivid colors that would be visible for miles and form up on that aircraft.
My dad served as a gunner on B24 and B17 bombers for 35 missions during the war. He said about thirty years ago that he was lucky not to be assigned to the 100th Bomb Group when he flew with the 8th Air Force. They earned an infamous reputation in the 8th Air Force for their high casualty rates. Not that it was much easier for other bomber groups either. My father saw one of the bombers in his squadron suffer engine failure on takeoff, crashing at the end of the runway. There wasn't enough left of the remains of the ten man crew bigger than a spoon after all the bombs, fuel, and ammunition detonated.
“I think your ancestors felt that” one of the best comments ever😂😂….. I’m loving this show! My dad was part of the “greatest generation” went to Germany toward the end of WWII….. I miss him dearly. I’m so happy that young people like yourself are watching these shows
Thank you, glad you enjoyed that ❤️
Bliss at 3:02 you are incorrect. Major Gale "Buck" Winston Cleven married his childhood sweetheart Marjorie in July 1945. She died in August 1953 after a sudden illness with polio. Buck remarried in 1955 and remained married to his second wife until his death in 2006.
I can absolutely image the nerves on the first mission. While it was very different in Afghanistan than in WWII, I was still very nervous on my first combat flight
That's what I was telling my wife, time has passed but somethings haven't changed. Mission brief, life support gear, crew trans, preflight and takeoff. Like you said Afghanistan wasn't like the flying in WWII but there was always a possibility especially back in 2001-2002 time frame.
Thank you for your service!
@@willracer1jz Thank you for your service!
the belly ball turret was one of the safest positions in B-17's & B-24's
From enemy fighters, yes. From flak and crash landings no. One of my great uncles was a ball turret gunner in a B24 because he was 5'1" and absolutely refused to talk about the war.
TOTAL FROM ALL CAUSES! Look it up. The USAAF compiled all the data at the end of the war.@@benschultz1784
Only true if the plane doesn't go down. If the plane does go down, the ball turret gunner is pretty much fucked.
irrelevant and not true anyway. If the plane is hit the gunner just gets out of the turret. which is why it was one of THE safest positions in the plane. @@Elmarby
@@Marcus-p5i5s The ball gunner is the one guy trying to get into a stricken plane when everyone else is trying to get out. Because that's where his parachute is.
Why do you think that is giving him the best survival chance on board?
31:02 Almost the exact opposite. That was what would be called close air support (CAS). In that type of mission, a plane would be close by or flying over the area of a ground operation waiting for the call to help.
What you see in this series is closer to what would be called strategic air bombing. It is much less about helping individual units on the ground and much more about impacting the overall war effort by bombing things like submarine bases or factories. The idea is to try to destroy the German ability to wage war at its current strength more than trying to defeat specific ground units.
You can see it mentioned later in the series. They mention D-day and the ground invasion of Europe. So much of this was happening before that. And that made it much more dangerous. All of the land was controlled by the enemy and to get to the areas they wanted to go they had to fly over enemy territory for a long time.
Yes. Very close. That pump is a primer. It pumps fuel into the cylinders to help start. I’m a pilot. I’m impressed you knew that.
7:32 B-17s and other bombers even german bombers had a tendency for navigational errors, thats why alot of bombers got shotdown over switzerland in the case of the germans and for the americans it was over Brest which was part of Occupied France, and it was one of the heaviest fortress of the war.
Ssssooooo cool, you know aviation!! Watching this with you is GREAT!
"Test Pilot is a 1938 American drama film directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, and featuring Lionel Barrymore. The Oscar-nominated film tells the story of a daredevil test pilot (Gable), his wife (Loy), and his best friend (Tracy).:
The story ends with him flying the B-17, the plane featured in this series
35:22 and that is the reason I joined the Air Force and not the Army or Marines. I love my Army and Marine brothers and sisters, actually my son is a Marine, but their living conditions while we were deployed was horrible.
MADALINA - 32:10 ALLIED BOMBERS HAD NO PROTECTIVE FIGHTER ESCORT (or) ONLY FOR A SHORT DISTANCE at the beginning of WW2 --- The American bombers suffered more casualties than the British with daytime bombing, but also because in the beginning the bombers were ALONE for all or part of the trip to Europe, Germany and back.
The American fighters had one external gas tank on each wing (or one center tank) for additional fuel and longer mileage, but they had to drop their gas tanks to "dogfight" the German fighters when they showed up to attack the bombers. THE HIGH BOMBER LOSSES OVER GERMANY PUSHED THE AMERICANS TO DEVELOP LONG RANGE FIGHTER ESCORTS for Germany
OVER TIME, DIFFERENT AMERICAN FIGHTER SQUADRONS WERE GIVEN NEWER AND BETTER FIGHTERS and ESCORTS as the twin engine P-38 LIGHTNING, the large and heavy P-47 THUNDERBOLT (JUG) and finally the P-51 MUSTANG. -- THE US NAVY IN THE PACIFIC had their own fighters because they had to be able TO TAKE OFF AND LAND ON AIRCRAFT CARRIERS (first the WILDCAT, later the HELLCAT, and then the CORSAIR with gull shaped wings)
The P (letter) in the American fighter name = P for PURSUIT (of enemy bombers from 1930's strategy), F = FIGHTER, B = BOMBER
From 1944 to the end of the war, the P-51 MUSTANG gave America "AIR SUPERIORITY" over the enemy air force, in both Europe and the Japanese home islands. It was now AMERICA'S BEST FIGHTER and the LONGEST RANGE FIGHTER ESCORT for bombers at high altitude. The bombers could now go all the way to Germany or Japan and back with the P-51 Mustangs as escort.
The American P-51 MUSTANG fighter served in WW2 and also the Korean war from 1950-53 .
THE MASTERS OF THE AIR movie series with an episode of the TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, RED TAILS
AMERICA IN WW2 STILL HAD SEGREGATION (SEPARATION of white and black people in their jobs, public housing and education), so with the US Air Force trained graduates of WW2, the famous TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (trained in Tuskegee, Alabama) were more than 900 black Americans who flew both fighters and bombers.
The Tuskegee pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group had painted RED TAILS on their P-47s and later P-51s THEIR NICKNAME WAS THE "RED TAILS"
RED TAILS (2012) movie
TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (1995) movie
THE MASTERS OF THE AIR movie series is from the BOOK by Donald Miller (2007) "Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany"
GERMAN FIGHTERS WW2 (against Allied bombers) ===
MESSERSCHMITT ME 109
FOCKE WULF FW 190
MESSERSCHMITT ME 262 (1945 the new German jet)
Because of the new and faster jet fighter, Allied pilots were to patrol above enemy airfields, so they could shoot down the jet during take off and landing
AMERICAN BOMBER LIST in WW2 ===
B-17 FLYING FORTRESS (in the Masters of the Air movie series)
B-24 LIBERATOR
B-25 MITCHELL (twin engine used in the Pacific against the Japanese)
B-26 MARAUDER (twin engine)
B-29 SUPERFORTRESS (new modern design, "super bomber" used against the home islands of Japan and the atomic bomb drop). It was a high altitude (31,850 feet) daytime bomber, and could carry 20,000 pounds of bombs to a target 2,600 miles away, at a speed of 400 miles per hour
MEDIUM bombers = TWIN engines
HEAVY bombers = FOUR engines
VERY Heavy bombers = B-29
On AMERICA'S BIRTHDAY July 4, 1942 the EIGHTH AIR FORCE made its FIRST BOMBING of Nazi-occupied Europe. But because the B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber groups were still in America, they used the 15th Bomb Squadron (LIGHT BOMBER). They were flying the A-20 HAVOC (called Bostons by the British); these were American made twin-engine light bombers. Four airfields in German-occupied Holland were selected as targets. The US Air Force's first B-17 HEAVY BOMBER missions were railway yards in FRANCE August 1942, January 1943 the German North Sea port of Wilhemshaven, and April 1943 Bremen GERMANY
The (MASTERS OF THE AIR series) 100th Bomb Group also flew in D-DAY AND THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE
17 AMERICAN MEDALS OF HONOR were awarded to members of the Eighth Air Force in WW2
The Eighth Air Force suffered nearly half of all casualties of the US Air Force in WW2 (47,483 out of 115,332). More than 26,000 of these men were killed in action.
By the end of WW2, the US Air Force had created worldwide 16 numbered air forces (the First through Fifteenth and Twentieth)
WW2 US BRITISH AIR FORCE MOVIES ===
TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (1949)
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969)
MIDWAY (1975) US Navy battle of Midway against Japan
PEARL HARBOR (2001) or TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970) Japanese view of the attack on Pearl Harbor
LANCASTER SKIES (2020)
DEVOTION (2022)
THE DAM BUSTERS (1955)
SECRET MISSION (1942)
THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944)
REACH FOR THE SKY (1956)
FIRST LIGHT (2010)
ENOLA GAY The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980)
FLYING TIGERS (1942)
RED TAILS (2012)
TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (1995)
MY WW2 and TRUE STORY MOVIE TIMELINE === IS IN MY EARLIER COMMENT BELOW
THANKS - Dave Strong
Awesome reaction of my favorite episode of Masters Of The Air!!!!😊😊😊😊😊
The reason they got so well treated was that the average life expectancy of the pilots was 6 weeks.. so got looked after .. 😀
Just as many guys were killed due to accidents and malfunctions as in combat.
Pilots definitely had it much easier than grunts. They have a better quality of life when away from the front. Grunts or ground forces are almost always within a stone throw from fighting.
Hi Biss, great reaction again. I´m anxious how it is going on.
@32:00 the german planes can´t be JU-88, cause the Junkers JU 88 was a bomber with only one machine gun in the rear for self defence. The german fighter planes in this scene, with two engines and double tail unit, were Messerschmitt BF110. This plane had a max. speed up to 600 km/h compared to the B17 max. speed of 480 km/h.
Thank you so much ❤️
Very cool that this has been released, the air war doesn't get much love anymore sadly.
German Luftwaffe standard fighters were the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. And fighter planes were indeed faster and much more maneuverable than heavy bombers like the B-17.
The clap is gonnarhea. And not Guarmere from Band of Brothers
Some facts they may or may not disclose is that the Life expectancy was 6 weeks numerically I believe that translated to 7 out of 10 did not survive. In the first 9 months of this part if the war 25 THOUSAND pilots and crews died. That is greater than the first 3 yrs of Marines killed in action in the Pacific. The biggest reason was none of our fighter planes had the fuel capacity to travel to the Bombing destinations. Another issue they
faced was freezing as they really only had bomber jackets and tremal underware and gloves the temperature was close to -50 degrees. And yes, there were some very handsome men in the military. My dad was one. He had a tentative offer to be in Wings the film. I had but lost professional stills from the film given dad. He was Colonel LaMays crew chief.
77% of 8th airforce from 42-until end 44 over Europe were casualties if crews made 15 missions they were on borrowed time
Oh Yea, hypoxia is a thing I know from Green Dot Aviation channel about plane emergency's. It slowly deprives Your brain of air, untill falling unconcious and later expiring. First symptoms are similiar to being drunk. That's why cabin pressure has to be maintain in every plane.
The men were not complaining about the food. The "last Supper" is a reference to some of the aircrews not coming back from the mission.
The german fighters were Ju 88. =)
EDIT German fighters common during the war = ME 109 Messerschmitt and the FW 190 Focke Wulf.
The final year of the war the Germans brought in their new jet fighter the Messerschmitt Me 262
The Junkers Ju 88 was a slower, twin-engined German medium bomber. The Messerschmitt BF 110 was another twin-engine fighter bomber and night fighter
One extra note: Their lives seem pretty good (Most crews were about 60% oficers), but bear in mind that the USAAF 8th Air Force, alone, lost more people in combat over Europe during WW2 than the ENTIRE US Marine Corps lost in the whole Pacific Campaign. The US Army Air Forces fielded at least 20 Air forces to various Theatres, including Training within the USA. The US Air Force was not formed as a separate Military arm until 1948.
Pro tip. Eatly in the war, Britain and America could hit crap on their bombing runs, terrible sighting targeting and plane leveling systems... basically done by eye. A woel famous german qctress who lived in America, i think Marlene Dietrich, was also a genius. She developed plane leveling gimble systems and gyroscopes, for exact targeting, height, speed, and distance. She did the same for submarine targeting with sonar. She is also called, the mother of WiFi, since she first drew it up and experimented with it!
I see, thanks
Great choice Miss Bisscute. You should react to The movies Memphis Belle (1990) about world war II airplanes and Greyhound (2020) with Tom Hanks about boats and Subs (Germany U Boats) you Will like them.
The guy who plays Curt is a boxer in real life.
The 100th casualty rates in the 8th Air Force was insane.
The entire 8th Airforce lose more men in the entire war than the entire Marine Corps did fighting the Japanese during world war 2.
Famous actor Clark Gable was in the 351st, and he flew 5 combat missions on paper. But they said he would sneak off to other planes and served more missions. MGM forced the government to send him back when they heard he was nearly shot down lol
And RAF Bomber Command had the second highest fatality rate of any military branch in WW2. Second only to German U-boat crews.
It was around 45% of RAF Bomber Command who got killed.
Ejection seats haven’t been invented yet. So they simply jumped out of hatches or in single seat aircraft they jettisoned the canopy or opened it and jumped.
American bombers flew during the day. The British ones would go in at night. They would NOT be in formation (just a "stream" with them going in and out the same way), and the follow-on planes dropping on the fires set by the leads. They also had to take a picture of their bomb drop (to prove they had gone all the way). If anything, the RAF took worse losses than the 8th (they mostly depended on not being found, they had fewer and smaller guns). First warning they often got was their wing folding up, because a radar-equipped night fighter had got below them. Both lost a similar amount of men, but The 8th had a LOT more wounded and Prisoners than bomber command (they had much better odds of parachuting out) average British Crew size was about 7 (only one pilot, fewer gunners), to the B17 and B-24s 10.
The German pilots did NOT like going after heavy bombers (too much chance of a lucky bullet hitting them). One description of attacking a bomber box was "(having intimate relations) with a hedgehog, that was ON FIRE". The daylight bombers may have done their most important damage, pulling the Luftwaffe up to fight, once they could be accompanied by fighters "all the way", the constant fighting wore down the Luftwaffe, meantime in the early episodes they will be taking a LOT of damage.
One thing the B17 was famous for, was getting back to base with a LOT of damage. A quick trip on google will show a good set of samples.
Thanks for the info ❤️
The key for a gear-up landing is to have no gas in the wings...
Not quite ..... Fuel burns, vapor explodes.
I thought this series started in North Africa with Ploiești bombing raids..
The series is, for the most part, following the 100th Bombardment Group of the Eighth Air Force, which flew from England.
Doubtful that Ploiești will be in the series.
Edit: A later raid on Ploiești may be featured in relation to a certain fighter squadron which had red tails.
Most dangerous job of WW2 Ball Turret Gunner why
Easy
You could get shot
The Turret could get stuck and won't open while making a crash landing
It could get shot to pieces and fall off
I see ❤️
@BissFlix Also its very early days the u.s entered the war soooo a lot of the top brass are from ww1 and thought that the Flying Fortresses didn't need any Fighter planes
They were so wrong the German Airforce/Lufawaffa aren't just shooting a rifle round at the planes they are shooting a 20mm auto Cannon at them
20mm round is the size of the size of a Soda Can flying at you at Mach 3
It's the same round used in the A10 warthog and No Flak jacket/Bullet Proof vest is going to save you much less a helmet if you get hit
Flak/AA guns shoot a special round that detonate like a shotgun shell that's what's inside that black smoke
Can do anything about Flak except pray you don't get hit
@BissFlix if you do get shot down and survive pray its over The English Channel and Not Nazi occupied France otherwise you'll end up as a POW
One pliot ended up at Aschwizt concentration camp for three weeks
Yep until the sat he died at the age of 97 in 2004 he never got Josef Mengeles house of Screams out of his head
as a ww2 plane lover and ww2 movie lover u just learned about series now i want to watch them!!! let my 6700 wats seround system with 2 18 inch 2300 watts of bass i want to pump tbise movie to loud valume!!!!
I'm going to love these!
It needs more jewels to chose to cancel a mission than drop bombs randomly.
Don't forget that it is an occupied era, the target is surrounded by civilians allied civilians, the people they were specificaly trying to save.
@Bissflix You asked about “the clap.” It was slang for gonorrhea.
For a belly landing modern Boeings are better since by the time they reach their destination, probably some door and windows have already popped off.
My best Friends Dad was a crew chief in the 100th.
The speed of the aircraft is exacerbated by the fact they fly straight at each other if both air craft are flying at 300 miles an hour the closing speed is 600 miles an hour. The Germans flew attacked from the front as this had the least guns firing at them for the shortest time. Also less armour and the personnel in the most advantageous position if killed or injured. The bombing seen near the base is probably Great Yarmouth or Norwich both targets during WW2.
Austin is not married… and he didn’t start dating Kiaia till 2 year’s later
Not sure they had Elvis haidos in the 1940s or the military would allow it .
Even the real Elvis had to get a haircut when he was in the army .
This strategic and not tactical bombing. Troops calling for strikes against enemy positions on the battlefield are not carried out by heavy bombers like the B17. These are planned missions against targets like industrial targets or in this case submarine pens.
8:09 France was occupied by the Nazis at this time. That’s why the bombers were being shot at
Weird situation. 1st time I watch one of these reactions to a war-movie, war-seeies, that I haven't seen...🙄🤨
The Clap in this movie is a STD😁😁
Recommend: The Great Escape. 😊😊❤❤
The Germans were in light fighter planes not like the American Heavy bombers .. hence the speed .. Great Reaction 😀🥶🇮🇪☘️
Sure
The clap is gonorrhea, a common STD.
Called the clap because you clap your hands on your johnson to pop out the infection
@@brandonmartin08 It comes from the French sarcastic word for brothel "clapier"(rabbit hutch). It was also known among the English as "the French disease".
If you want a TV series that is absolutely worth reacting to, you want 1883.
I love this series❤❤❤
"The clap" is/was common slang for gonorrhea, (kinda ties back to Band of Brothers no?)
Thanks ❤️
FYI, "the clap" is a slang term for gonorrhea.
Didn't the Elvis movie come out 2 years ago?
It will get very crazy
You should do a reaction to Memphis Belle.
저는 새로운 밴드 오브 브라더스의 시리즈는 전쟁의 큰 전환점이 된 미드웨이 해전에서 용감하게 희생하신 뇌격기 편대들을 재조명 하는 드라마가 되길 원했습니다.
이상하게 헐리우드는 여러 영화나 드라마에서 반성하고 있는 독일을 항상 손쉬운 적으로 삼고 반성은 커녕 자신들의 과오를 미화하고 있는 일본을 쉽게 미화합니다.
아직도 엔화에 휘둘리는 것일까요? 아니면 옛 동양의 적에 대해 환상을 품고 있는 건가요? ㅎㅎㅎ
Europe was always a priority because it was a bigger threat 1939-1945 Read the history
유럽은 더 큰 위협이었기 때문에 항상 우선순위였습니다. 1939-1945 역사 읽기
Retired-Cpt Dale Dye, Godfather of literally every war movie/ series ever-made ( including this piece of 💩) literally sold his most unwanted story to Apple+ $250.000.000 for 9_eps. This would be the first time ever that one of dye's creations was forced to include Baby-Faces and was not aloud to fire any of the cast for misconduct or lack of discipline.
What? He married his childhood sweetheart and she died suddenly. He didn't dump her.
can you react to 2000 movie family man ,for music aretha franklin aint no way,there is not a good live version available
“He was with a girl for 10 years, and decided to dump her for a girl 10 years younger!”
And the problem is?
Edit: Maybe that was a bad choice of words. Historical drama may be a better description.
1:55 "...But..." But, what?
The clap is v.d.
The American army Air-core chose to bomb during the day as they thought that better precision with the Norton Bomb sight. Unfortunately the testing for the sight happened in cloudless skies in Texas not the cloudy skies of Northern Europe.
First episode takes place in 1943, so it is United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF). United States Army Air Corps ceased to exist on 20 June 1941.
@@HollywoodMarine0351 Thanks I wasn’t sure off the top of my head when it changed. Knew it changed but not when. Must also apologise for the spelling mistakes,Dyslexia is a bitch.
The clap is gonorrhea.
I forget the you was a flight attendant.
This one will be very peculiar to you I guess !
Some people just shouldn’t watch war movies/shows you unfortunately are one of them
React to leo movie
How we luv you
I stopped watching after the first episode. It is nowhere near as good as BoB or the Pacific. The acting is hollow, the storyline felt rushed, the CGI is too much, and the score is 'meh'. Hanks and company finally failed.
A little less talk please.