15 Minutes on How To Be A German Gunner [Bf 110 Edition] 

So I see you are sick of me repeatedly asking "What does this do!" while in a dog fight.

that music,... it's Luftwaffe NOT Loungewaffel

1) Open canopy 2) Throw away MG 3) Stand up 4) Unleash flamethrower 5) Apply sunglasses

Recycling bins for ammo drums. Because ve have to take care of Mutter Erde, ja?

There is an amazing book in Swedish on the bf110 written by the Grandson of Wolfgang Thimmig a bf110 Ace witch spent most of the war as a night fighter with his brother as gunner. The book is filled with pictures they took during the war up in the air and of their free time at base even their different diplomas for winning certain medals one of them signed by Mr fatty doo doo him self aka Hermann Göring. Anyway it's got tons of interesting notes about the the different models of bf110s he flew written down by Wolfgang him self during ww2 and several deep descriptions of the victories he scored. A literal translation of the books title to English would be "Night Hunters" Hope it gets published in more languages.

"significant emotional event" i see someone enjoys the Chieftains videos :D

"Why are we sitting in the gunner position?" And more importantly, why don't we have legs?! Or.. a body?

Now I'm curious if a gunner ever got a kill by tossing drum magazines at an enemy pursuer Hanz: "FUCK! I'VE RUN OUT OF AMMO!" Yankee: "I've got you now- what the fuc-?!" *MG15 drum mag smashes into propellers*

Excellent graphics and commentary. Thank you!

Not gonna lie, kind of want to fly a bf110 in real life. If I ever win the lottery I'm totally having one built hahaha.

As a m240 gunner in the army I use to count the bursts not the rounds. I had a fairly constant 6-7 round burst per trigger pull. So approximately 15-16 trigger pulls for a 100 round belt. You get pretty consistent with training. Just like the drum on the top weapon we would us visual just for a backup.

Keep thinking of those carefree candidates who applied for pilot training and was accepted by the Luftwaffe, but to their dismay later found themselves training as gunners at the flight school. What a fall.

A step by step tutorial on the BF 110 gunner simplified 1: open cockpit 2:throw away Mg-15 3:use panzershreck 4: look for communists

So. I just realized the MG-15 inspired a star wars blaster, like the MG-42 or the STG44/AK-47 did

Iv got quite the inconsistency to point out with regards to the radio. you said that the EK was the shortwave radio transmitter and the EL was the longwave transmitter however the radios clearly display the frequency that the operate on (3700 khz for EK and 370 Mhz for the EL). Well lets get into the maths. with wavelength = speed of light / frequency and knowing that the speed of light is aprox. 3*10^8 we can calculate the wavelength given these radios frequency: Starting with the shortwave radio running at 3700khz (3.7*10^6 Hz) we find the wavelength to be aprox 81.0m (3*10^8 / 3.7*10^6 = 81.08) Now knowing that the shortwave radio's wavelength is about 81m lets do the calculations for the long wave, The longwave uses a frequency of 370Mhz which is 3.7*10^8 Hz therefore: 3*10^8/3.7*10^8 = 0.81m wavelength. This shows that using the frequencies used in game the long wave actually has the shorter wavelength and vice versa. Now im not sure if this is a minor translation error or if its a mistake on the developers part but i just thought it's worth mentioning. Also i'm probably sad AF for noticing this immediately. Edit: I made a typo.

NO BACK REST??? Willi Messerschmitt, you cruel SOB!!!

Those ammo drums were nicknamed Schneckentrommel.

Can you please, please do more of those videos? Like the cockpit of bf109 or other planes.

For those of you wondering about the "saddle drum" operation. There is no linked belt feed that is typical for a machine gun. The individual rounds that are stacked in the drums are pushed through the spiral feed path built into each drum by a spring that unwinds from the center of each drum. Both drums feed the weapon in a alternating manner, right drum, then left drum, repeat until drums are empty. The MG 15 could empty a saddle drum in about 5 seconds of continuous fire.

Fascinating. You exceed expectations. Your videos always seem to cover something I have always been interested in.

Recycling actually was a virtue in ww2 Germany...... In fact they were the first regime to implement environmental protection laws on companies and factories, national parks, animal cruelty laws (hitler was very serious about animal cruelty and laws against it), and other conservation ordinances even before the war broke out.

Should totally throw the drum at the enemy aircraft to confuse them or something. For the cost of possibly hitting the rudder.

One day, they'll make a game with a functioning Morse key… :D

Idle thought....might the gunner have to be careful not to shoot out the tail fins??

i see the il2 game has more detail than war thunder

I like old planes.

LOVE your videos! Fast becoming one of my favorite channels.... would be very interested to see a similar video of the 110 or other German night fighter aircraft with the inclusion of onboard radar. Always been fascinated and mystified how that operated. Keep up the great work!

One benefit not mentioned about having that rear gun was that it could be removed - if the plane survived a crash - and taken along by the surviving crew to be used as a weapon.

"... so you open this handle... ZACK!" Großartig!

Great! I needed this video. Something useful to do since im unable to land any fucking plane in this game.

The 2 steps to becoming a german gunner: 1. Be born german 2. Be placed behind a working and loaded gun. Congratulations! You made it!

I just subscribed...you're just shy of 100.000 subscribers...keep up the fantastic work and you'll soon have 250.000 ubs...

Hi, Bismarck. At 5:30, it's called a 'saddle drum'. It's basically a circular magazine, no belts used. A modern example would be the Beta C-mag. The Luger had something similar called the snail drum.

Hey, could you please do a video on how to read Lichtenstein radar?

Don't often see that part of aircraft. Gives good impression of what the gunner /observer did. Didn't know that he could reload cannon. Interesting video, thanks.

There's something just so delightfully German about how intricate and space efficient that ammo feed and empty bin is. US gunners got a burlap sack, if they were lucky

This is probably more training than a German rear gunner in 1945 would have received lol

5:33 This is a Brezel! At least I call it that...

Wow german aircraft really was advanced

How do gunners not shoot their tails off please reply

My main question: how did you keep from shooting your own tail off in the excitement of battle?

Doesnt the gunner have some kind of seatbelt? I asking as I will guess that he will "flew" around when the pilot twist and turn the plane, and as well when he flies it up side down

Why don't you focus on one part of the aircraft for just a moment...frustrating to watch..couldnot continue

Instructions unclear: A neo-Nazi captured me and I'm on a BF 110

30 seconds with a lecture on the gunner’s seat. That’s all I needed 👍

I wish you showed us this while you were flying. Now I really want to see a video of you being a proper gunner/spotter!

Hallo - vielen Dank für die ausführliche „Einweisung“- mein Großonkel war Bordschütze auf der BF-110 - ich war noch recht klein als er mir von seiner Zeit auf der BF-110 erzählte- selbst heute Berufspilot, ist es sehr interessant für mich zu sehen wie das Cockpit des ersten fliegenden Familienmitgliedes im Detail ausgesehen - und wie es funktioniert hat! Danke und gute Flüge!

5:35 It's a snail drum. That particular one is a double snail drum.

Love the work and videos. What about maybe a video like this pt2, to fighting/flying as a tail Gunner?

Im growing to love your videos!!!! and i've been learning german for quite a while, and its nice to hear different people speak and pronounce things. i would love to play a few games with you someday! keep it up! :)

Stupid question: You say the the MG is pretty useless, unless the gunner scores some very lucky hits. Then, why did the engineers even bother to include such a rear gun, including all the extra stuff that is neccessary for it, like the gunner, his cabin, ammunition, and so on, which all is what you just don't want in a plane: weight. My second thought about this is: Without a rear gunner, maybe the BF110 would have been a decent fighter?

A magazine of magazines.... I like it. As long as the pilot and his gunner don't get their PORN confused with all that when they say "werfen mir ein Magazin" ..................(throw me a Magazine!).

“Zack!“

That was actually incredibly interesting! Thanks a lot for that!

How To Be A German Gunner? Me: Be German.

Step 1: eject Step 2: pray

"It's a *little* complicated…" = "it is German made"

"You have exceeded expectations" "Then expectations were not high enough" Typisch (typically) Gerrman.

You know in the UK all my life, being into 'planes, going to airshows, making kits since the 20th Century. No one around me ever said Junkers like "Chunkers". Junk has another meaning, so we avoid it with an important word like Junkers. The Junkers, always said like "Yoonkers" were an important social class in Germany and in Prussia before that, however, people that are really into aircraft and engines, they will always call the Junkers Jumo like "Yoonkers yoomo 211". I notice that you follow German pronunciation with other words, like with saying Zerstorer correctly, but not with an important word like Junkers, which we always try to pronounce properly to show awareness of other cultures, as well as to not junk the Junkers. Americans don't seem to care about that, but they're not English. Maybe we're strange like that. We also say the name Gunther like "Goonter" and never like "Gun-ther", mostly because of how they introduce themselves. But honestly, I'm qualified in history and none of my lecturers ever said Junkers like Chunkers. Edit: you said altimeter fine, you put the stress in the right part of the word (over the I), also a former English teacher. Cannon is an uncountable noun. Lord Tennyson's Poem about the Charge of the Light Brigade starts a stanza with "Cannon to the left of them, Cannon to the right of them", he didn't mean one on each side. Cannon is an uncountable noun, like with sand, hair, shampoo, bread, Lego, money and so on. Americans also make this mistake, but again, they're not English, not a good source for learning English.

Should play Aces High 3.

This is my favorite plane to fly in IL-2. It's great to know more about it!

Step 1 : Migrate to Germany Step 2 : Take out German citizenship. Step 3 : Buy a gun Step 4 : Lean to shoot said gun

hmmm. The radio says MHz...Mega Hertz instead of cycles per second as in Mcps as I used to see. The original recommendation that Hz=cps was in the 1920s maybe but I recall the international adoption in 1960 or 61. Did Germany use Hz before the rest of the world? I also seem to see a 12 hour clock. When I was in Sweden back in the 80s, the clocks were 24 hour and most military units, even the US Army (last to adopt I think) have used 24 time since before WW2 (our WW2). Swedish language seemed to imply they used 24 hour clocks forever. I assumed that meant Germany had it that way too.(??) Sooo...are there some anachronisms in the simulation? I used Siemens signal generators in my career years ago before LCD displays could relabel in another language and had to learn to plug the cable into the Ausgang instead of the Eingang or no test signal. Some connectors said auspufen but was that right? sounds funny, like smoke output. The signal generator itself was signalerzeuger in the manual (which I could not read) but the label on the equipment was 'messsender' (transmitter I think) which of course was always read in the US as "Mess Sender." So I think that aircraft has a messsender (no doubt when being shot at).

Beautiful work my friend! good content and we'll presented. I've know a few people from Germany in my life and your English is really good my friend!

what is not well published about the brave rear gunners on a bf110.. Walter Scheel our german foreigen affairs minister and later president in the 1970tys was reargunner under command from Major Martin Drewes ... if you are german reading i recommend this very good book about Drewes life named: Sand und Feuer, Jagdflieger im Irak und über Deutschland

"Hans! Keep those Hurricanes off my tail! Oh, and can you be a dear and load my cannon rounds too?" "Listen Wolfgang, get off my back! I can do one or the other, I can't do BOTH at the same time!" "Geez Hans, stop being such a grouch already!"

On a BF110 C4 varriant would the gunner get out of that hatch he opend to fire the MG or would there be a side hatch?

Essentially it's Al -Tim - Meter Hope that helps

The MG-13 and MG-15 were so named because the Treaty Of Versailles restricted German arms development, particularly that of machine guns and aircraft (this is why the BF-109 is basically a tuned recreational aircraft). Since they were a bit cheeky they developed new arms however to duck the rules they designated them things like MG-13 and 15 so they could claim they were weapons already in service or development during WW1. Unsurprisingly, this didn't work brilliantly.

Being in the Gunner of a BF 110 is probably the worst job a pilot would have, abysmal weapon coverage, cramp as hell....... and having a gun that is relatively under-power...... But you're right, at least you can drive an enemy off. Still kinda sucks since we are shooting at each other.

If you want some really good information about the MG-15 being used in the aircraft. Take a look at this video from forgotten weapons! Really interesting!! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RsaIJtr1tEY.html cheers!

Is it Bf 110 or Me 110? Heh heh. Just saw that other vid about 109. I mean Me 109 I mean Bf 109. Really enjoy your channel Bizheim

It's interesting to me, but I'm a huge nerd!

Fun fact, the MG15 was so called as Germany wasn’t meant to be developing or making any new machine guns, so calling it the MG26 would have been a giveaway.

What was the reason the Germans didn't use a heavier caliber gun? The American's used a single 12.7 MM. Or the British would use two 7.26mm guns.

I was hoping you would say that the empty ammo canisters were usually thrown at Spitfires... I wonder how much weight would be saved if the gunner and equipment were removed from a 110 and the fuselage redesigned.

I wonder how often - during *intense* aerial combat - the rear gunner just 'CHUCKED' the empty magazines out of the aircraft, slammed a full mag onto the gun, and continued firing?

Like drinking from a FireHose of interesting detailed information! Jeesh the world was complicated in WW2! Thanks!

It would take a lot of nerve to strap in and trust your fate to another pilot. I just wouldn't be happy flying backwards and having to give up to this situation 😮

Great video bro just great, diferent but still interesting. Thanks for info videos like this :-)

So, actually a Radio/Wireless Operator Air Gunner. Interesting that the WOP AG doesn't appear to have a harness?? Can I assume that's an oversight? Hard to imagine how he would remain effective if the pilot had to start throwing the aircraft about.

What game is it?

Here Hans you get 825 rounds to shoot in 12 magazines with their own recycling bin. WTF. America: Belt ammo and all shells and links just pile up on the floor. You can clean the shit later but in combat you need nonstop ammo.

I wonder why they didn't put more powerful defensive guns on their planes. Either a 13mm, or twin 7.92mm. I know some did. Why not all of them?

Prefer twin 30's or even twin 50's. Murica, firepower. Failed dayfighter, terrific night fighter.

I can never understand the me-bf designation on messherscmitt planes. Why are some me109s and others bf109. I know they r pretty much the same. I was using the 109 as an example

One gun is better than no gun.....not really. One gun is equivalent to 200 lbs of weight, weight affects handling. The single 7.92 gun with gunner was a waste of weight.

What a death trip! I can only imagine what the gunner was thinking, when an American P51 Mustang attacked with 50cals blazing.

very interesting and I thank you for your job but... slow down the "camera": after a minute and a half I realize nothing because I just do not have the time to focus on anything!

The transistor has shrunk radios tremendously. You can fit everything in between the radio's controls.

that would be more then enough for a DCS or CoD , BUUUT not here. It would be more useful if with your next tutorial you would write on your screen what command we need to bind and use. and with the state of the game I had a funny feeling that my keyboard would not be enough (for a former ArmA player to say that really says a lot about how bad the lack of basic interactive cockpit is)

Had to stop watching this after 1 minute 20 seconds because of the way the camera view kept whirling around.

I don't know if it would be answered or not, but here it is. Could be a moronic question but how did they keep the gunner from shooting his own tail off? I am really curious.

Did WW2 fighters carry a significant reserve of oil in the event they got shot? If a modern piston engine airplane pops a significant oil leak like that its pretty much pick a field or a lake within a few kilometers because you don't have that long before the engine totally fucked.

Why do some german fighters have the pilot sit offset to the right side of the cockpit? I've tried to find info on that all over the internet,and wasn't lucky at all. Do you happen to know anything about that?

Could you do a similar video on how the hell the gunner on the Me 410 works if it's in the game because I have no clue

what is this game? can it be played on a mac air, pro, or desktop? Is there a joystick? Know nothing of contemporary gaming.

It seems the gunner always got the short end of the stick when it came to defending his plane. Did this machine gun at least have a greater range then the weaponry of the allies' fighters? Did the gunner have to sit like a dummy while the Spitfire was chewing him up until his gun was effective. It doesn't sound like a great career.

Nice explanation, but try to be smoother when panning and tilting, these fast and sharp movements make me sick.

Why does the short wave radio have kHz and long wave MHz? Shouldn't it be reversed?