I am a great lover of history and as a former Royal Air Force serviceman, I have a particular interest in military history. On this channel I aim to retell stories from the past, some may be well known, others not so well known.
This channel features battleships, aircraft carriers, fighter aircraft and bombers of World War one and World War two as well as into the Cold War era.
Along the way, I try to keep alive the stories of individual servicemen from the Air Force, Navy and Armies of the world as much as I can as their stories need to be remembered, lest we forget.
During the making of these videos, images and footage are chosen to be as accurate as possible but sadly this cannot always be the case and on occasion, images and footage will be used for illustrative effect.
I hope you enjoy my videos and please considering subscribing.
The bigger power stations built in the late 1970s had peak looping gas turbines that made 15 megawatts electric in two minutes. Olympus turbines provided the hot gas. Each one housed in a concrete blockhouse. We had one explode. The protection worked but the reinforced concrete riff was lifted and shifted. Seeing the damage it’s a surprise the Vulcan didn’t lose its ring.
Seems like this was the start of progressive governments thinking we don`t need a formidable Armed Forces. Cue present state where we couldn`t defend our own country in the event of a major conflict. SADLY WE ARE NOW A TINPOT MILITARY POWER who can`t even afford planes for our breakdown infested carriers.
You're only a real northerner if you were thick enough to vote for brexit *and* then vote tory in 2019 👍 The confluence of these two events would suggest northern and "historian" is something of an oxyMoron.
My father was one of the fire brigade crews that attended. It was mentioned that there might be nuclear weapons on board. No one thought twice they all went.
You can recall fighter/bombers, but you can’t recall ICBMs. From pulling the ‘ejection handle’ to deployment of parachute, only takes ‘one and a half seconds!’
I used to see The Vulcans flying overhead regularly when I was a kid back in the 70's, although I had no idea what they were at the time. Then a few years later on, I'd cycle up to Binbrook and watch The Lightnings doing their thing. It's a small regret of mine that I never joined The RAF, or at least never pushed harder to try. I went as far as going into the careers office and came out fancying joining the police, or the "Snowdrops", as they were called. I remember feeling pretty excited about the idea but then stupidly allowed myself to be put off by a lot of my RAF mates at school who were telling me that everybody hated them (the police) on camp. Ah well, shoulda, coulda, woulda and all that!
Similar thing happened outside Darwin when the RAAF was flying the Mirage III, pilot ejected following engine failure and the aircraft belly landed almost intact on a mudflat. Odd that they were both delta wing !
@@TheNorthernHistorian My comment was not a complaint. Some of the best YT channels (IMHO) don't post very often. When I see them I am always pleased with the content. I understand the effort that goes into the research of these lesser known stories.
The pilot who shot down the first German aircraft over the British mainland was Flt Lt Archie McKellar born in Paisley he's buried in Eastwood cemetery approximately 500 yards from where I'm writing this not as the records show it was Pinkerton. He was unfortunately killed the morning after the date officially given as the end of the battle of Britain so was excluded from the list of those who died then. Luftwaffe records say they have no record of flights in the area that day giving rise to the story that it was friendly fire.
Something similar happened to a Hawker Hunter. The pilot had lost control and ejected, joining the Caterpillar Club and watching his aircraft recover to normal flight without him.
My favourite band is a Japanese all female rock band called "BAND-MAID"...I have flown out to Japan twice from Scotland to see them live...The bands founder..Miku Kobato..claims to be an 810 year old pigeon...Apart from "BAND-MAID" she has her own solo project called "Cluppo"..and a ep called "HATOFULL"..Hato is Japanese for Pigeon.....Their is a line in one her songs that goes "Pigeons will save the world"..And for these guys...It really did!..Salute Winkie!
There’s a persistent story that a Vulcan crashed upon return to the UK from NZ. However, I have seen photographs of XH498 dated to 1966, looking alive and well in a camouflage scheme. The other two planes XH499 and XH502 also seemed to live long enough to be scrapped. As far as I can tell this fatal incident occurred in 1956 at Heathrow, upon returning from Australia, so this may be getting conflated with the 1959 events described here. There seems to be nothing else remarkable in the history of these three aircraft from 617 squadron. I was brand new in 1959, but did get to see a Victor at the Napier airport opening in 1964, as well as being overwhelmed by the spectacle of the RNZAF Vampire display team doing their thing. I much later met one of these pilots who had nothing but admiration for the handling of the Vampire.
I believe the Westland Whirlwind SAR helicopter was deployed from RAF Acklington and not in fact RAF Boulmer as disclosed in this documentary as Flight "A" of 202 squadron didn't redeploy to RAF Boulmer until 1976.
I was from trimdon station, I was at the school between trimdon colliery and trimdon village back road near fox cover, I remember the teacher ringing the bell to go in after play time and we all seen the plane on fire .. long long time ago but remember it so clear .no 1 killed was a miracle really .
YT has only just "recommended" this video to me, but its a godsend. I've spent the last few years arguing with nazi sympathisers who insist that Britain dropped the first bombs on the enemy's territory and civilians in WW2. While I'm aware of RAF Bomber Command's early daylight raids on German naval units in the "Jade" estuary off Wilhelmshaven and other North Sea shipping areas, the fact is that they were carried on out naval units at sea AND in broad daylight so as to avoid collateral damage of bombing ships in German ports and to avoid the hitting of neutral shipping in the target sea areas. From my own research the course of events appears to be as such.... First German bombs dropped on the British mainland? 16th October 1939 saw the very first bombs dropped on Britain when the Germans launched scattered air attacks over port and industrial facilities around the Scottish city of Edinburgh, and the RN naval base at Rosyth. First bombs dropped by the RAF on German soil? Although the RAF had launched bomber attacks on Kriegsmarine naval units in the North sea from Sept 3rd 1939 onwards, it was actually the 19th March 1940 that the FIRST RAF bombs landed on German soil... When on 13th November 1939 the luftwaffe bombed RAF Sullom Voe a seaplane base with port facilities in the Shetland Isles (with the resultant death of a rabbit, and no hits on the 9 seaplanes or 2 RN vessels stationed there), the RAF retaliated by hitting the nazi seaplane base at Hörnum on the island of Sylt in the North Sea. These were THE VERY FIRST RAF bombs to land on German soil....5 months AFTER the first German bombs had landed on British soil. The first British or German civilian casualty caused by the bombing of the opposing side during WW2? 16th March 1940 when German bombs hit the village of "Bridge of Waithe" near Stenness on the Orkney Islands during an attack on the Home Fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow, which killed a 27 year-old County Council employee, James Isbister (luckily, his wife, baby son, and the neighbour James was endeavouring to rescue from her bombed cottage all survived). First British bombs to drop on the actual German mainland? 11th May 1940, when the British air ministry for the first time allowed the bombing of railway yards, communication centres and bridges west of the Rhine River to interrupt German supply lines supporting their undeclared assault into the NEUTRAL Low countries and France on 10th May 1940. Previous to this date the British air ministry in an effort to stop the inflaming of the conflict had refused to allow the RAF to drop ANY bombs on the German mainland, instead the RAF supplied the German demand for toilet paper by dropping propaganda leaflets on German cities. The RAF attacks on 11th May 1940 had also come after REPEATED attacks against RN installations on the British mainland, most notably at Rosyth near Edinburgh, Cromarty Firth & Scapa Flow all in Scotland throughout the winter of 1939/40. First British bombs dropped EAST of the Rhine River? On the night of 23/24th August 1940 the RAF launched an attack on Berlin. This attack directed at the Klingenberg Power Station in Eastern Berlin & Templehof airport was in RETALIATION for REPEATED luftwaffe raids on RAF Fighter Command Sector Airfields within the suburbs of Greater London throughout July and August 1940 that had already caused HUNDREDS of innocent British civilian deaths & casualties (euphemistically known nowadays as "collateral damage") this was inspite of Hitler's previous decrees that no bombs should be dropped within the boundary of Greater London. Obviously that decree had never reached the ears of Herman Goering. German retaliation for the one night of bombing of Berlin on 23/24th August 1940? The launching of the all out assault against British cities from 7th Sept 1940 onwards, culminating in the world's first attempt to create a "firestorm" during operation "moonlight sonata" on the British city of Coventry on the night of 14/15th Nov 1940, where the luftwaffe sent 575 bombers using their world beating "X-gerat" bombing system (in the Germans own words capable of placing "target indicator" flares with an accuracy of 50 meters at 200 miles range) over the civilian city centre of Coventry dropping 550 tons of high explosive (including hundreds of "flammen" (oil) bombs) followed by over 30,000 incendiary bombs. The final death toll of that single raid? A previously unheard of 568 innocent civilians, this was in addition to the thousands of other British civilians already killed & injured in other cities across Britain over the previous 2 months. The first British bombing raid directly targetted at German civilians? "Operation Abigail" on the night of 16/17th December 1940, (3 months AFTER the opening of the nazi "blitz" on British cities) the Dec 16th attack by the RAF was launched against the German city of Mannheim where 100 RAF bombers dropped 100 tons of HE and 14,000 incendiaries inflicting a death toll on the German population of 34 dead and 81 injured. Not to worry though , the RAF eventually "upped its game" and showed the Germans how to do it properly a year or two later. Thank you for this very interesting video. Subscribed .
in spring 1945 was any attack pointless... we have similar stories from Czechoslovakia... Where the USAF bombed essentially every major city and near by factories... more that 30 air raids in April and early May,... Claiming navigation errors, but we all know that those attack were intentional to criple our post war economy for that B#tch Churchill had secret meeting with Stalin and gave us withouth any consultation with Roosewelt to the soviet sphere of influence !!! Effectively Englad had betrayed us 2x during one war !!! I´m sure he rots in hell now together with Chamberlain !!!
Very interesting and well presented. These young heroes were pioneers at the sharp end of high technology aviation. Like their combatant brethren , they should not be forgotten. Large numbers of these heroes lost their lives in training accidents during the wars.
Joined H.M.S. Eagle in 1967 during the refit when we used H.M.S. Centaur as the accommodation ship, I thought being on a frigate was cramped, but the Centaur beats all... I was an A/LREM at this stage and spent one of my most enjoyable periods whilst in the Andrew (apart from Mauritius 🙂) where I was under a great CREL (wish I could remember his name 😞) looking after the 692 & 693 UHF radios. She was a good ship and we had a great crew during the 67/68 commission. Pity you didn't cover that period in the video as we covered the withdrawal from Aden. We finished up the commission in the Arctic and will never forget the "Northern Lights" whilst me and a few mates were leaning on the funnel to keep warm - some good memories now that I am 78.
My grandad was on the Barham, he was witnessed by survivors making it out onto the hull but did not survive the blast. He was to transfer to Repulse so either way his fate was sealed. RIP grandad and all those in Davy's locker.
Winston Churchill speaking about this air raid: “Well it’s true we weren’t invited to attend, on the other hand we didn’t want to be left entirely out of the proceedings.”
