Wing Leader Ltd has been in historic aviation publishing for over 40 years. Team members, Mark, Simon, and Ian, have an unparalleled knowledge of ww2 aviation and will share their passion and enthusiasm, through these compelling short films.
Nice little presentation, with brilliant footage and impressive CGI - and/or a subtle(ish) advert for the excellent Wingleader Luftwaffe Crash Archive '...oh, look what we found on page...' :) ;)
Unseen? Was it just newly found in wreckage or storage? Seems so for a change, thankfully. Other popular titles I like to question are those with words lost or fogotten in them when what is supposedly lost or forgotten has clearly been found or remembered by someone
Great to see some genuine footage from a genuine channel, unlike all the other click bait regurgitated garbage currently swirling around. Well done. Keep up the great work.
My Grandmother was a meteorologist for the RAF stationed at (I think) Barton airport, Manchester. She used to weep while telling me about all of the young men that you would see leaving knowing the chance of them not returning home was greater than making it back alive. Hundreds of them.
The Luftwaffe personnel seem to be quite enthralled with the pilot, chatting in a friendly manner with him. Shared comradery among fellow pilots even enemy ones.
Interesting and dramatic, but to me the rudder doesn’t look like a Spitfire’s rudder (nor a Blenheim’s). No sign at all of the trim tab and I don’t see the counter-balance portion at the top. And did anybody check whether the clear photo of the downed pilot looks like that downed Spit pilot? Needs more research, less dramatic music…
The rudder doesn't look like a Spitfire rudder because it's the port tailplane... The distinctive 45 degree angle to the elevator is very obviously a Spitfire. Also the partially open radio hatch cuts the roundel at exactly the right place for a Spitfire. On the following day, a JG52 pilot, Alfons Bacher, was shot down over England and he remarked during interrogation that the day before, an English pilot named Wareing had been shot down and entertained in the Feldwebel's Mess before being taken to Calais. So bearing all that in mind, we think the research is pretty sound...
My father in law flew Spits in WWII. I remember him telling me about losses in training, and when I expressed surprise that so many promising young pilots were lost in what I would have considered "controlled" conditions, he pointed out what terrific pressure they were under to get new pilots into the line.
@Chrisgoss. There is a yt series that features the diary of a Luftwaffe pilot at one point stationed outside Calais in 1940. He had a movie camera and shot many movies,many the only footage from the cockpit of his 109. The footage you show was probably his. The series is called " Spitfire on my tail". He was shot down over England and said his movies were lost. He was a pow.
There was a kind of friendship and respect among the pilots,whatever side they were belonging The British airman was downed but seems to be in a good mood discussing with the germans
24 years old? Seems hard to believe these days - in the era of the Eternal Teenager - doesn't it? I rather suspect that many of these young men were Old Souls - come to rescue us (and the Germans) from a monstrous Evil.
We lost many brave young fighter pilots in the battle of Britain, and many other Lancaster bomber crews during the attack on the German city of Drezden, Gone from sight, but never gone from our thought.
I can't help but notice how friendly the conversation appears between him and the German pilots. Both parties seemed to realize that the other is just a guy like him. My dad was in the Army during WWII and once said, "Most of the Germans soldiers were just scared kids like us."
It could be that once he was down they let him know that they had avoided using cannons since they knew he couldn't get away and were actually using him for target practice.
At 2:28 I note 5 victory roundels. 1 X French (?) 2 x British and 2 X Czechoslovak. Does anyone know anything about those? They seem to have dates below them. 🤔EDIT: The 2 Czechs were probably flying with the French with Czech markings at the time indicated (May 1940) (source: Hunt, J. 2004 "Czechs in the RAF" p.7).
