I live in Norway not to far from the crash site of B-17C serialnumber AN525 . It was shot down on the September 8. 1941 raid . The crash site is a popular hiking destination today and I have been there many times . The crew are buried localy at Bygland cementary . This was the first time a B-17 was lost over enemy territory . In the 1980s and 90s I corresponded with Mick Wood , the capatian of AN535 on that same mission . In one letter he wrote that the decision to use those early B-17s the way they were ordered to was "stupid in the extreme" .
Those Coastal Command Fortresses just look the business. I've an Airfix model of a 100 Group Bomber Support Fortress. It's one of my favourite kits. The crew usually consisted of a German or Austrian Jewish RAF officer who would broadcast fake ground control instructions to night fighters. All air crews were brave those fellas were off the scale.
Can narrators please stop saying British Royal Air Force and British Royal Navy. The word British is not part of the name. Its just RN and RAF. He got it right later on.
The 'RCM' B-17s were flown by 214 Sqn, out of RAF Oulton, part of 100 Group. Also on the base, 223 Sqn, flying RCM B-24s. The group provided night-fighters, 'ferrets', jammers and chaff-layers, in support of Bomber Command's bombers. The history of the group is fascinating, and probably not well understood by most aviation enthusiasts.
Another 162 were Lend Leased to Britain. Most went to Coastal Command (11 U boats sunk solo and shared per u boat net) and some to BC with No. 100 Group for radio counter measures.
The deadly lessons learnt by the RAF , ultimately saved the lives of many USAAF crewmen , if the E and F models hadn't been introduced as a result of the experience of the RAF crews
@@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe GOERING "But in the beginning, we had not fully assessed the possibility of daylight bombers. Our fighters could not cope with them. When we were able to do so, there was a pause and then you sent them out with fighter escort. The Flying Fortress, for example, had more than we had anticipated. Our estimate was incorrect." LOST PRISON INTERVIEW WITH HERMANN GOERING: THE NAZI REICHSMARSCHALL’S REVELATIONS page
"ultimately saved the lives of many USAAF crewmen" Correct to the best of my knowledge. However, if FDR had not propped up Britain from 1939, hitler would not have declared war on the USA.
@@ludo9234 Pearl Harbor, it's not Dunkerque. The Tripartite Pact was a mutual DEFENSE pact. Excerpts from Hitlers declaration of war on the USA "(FDR) came back on the scene and on the 4th November, 1939, engineered the reversion of the Neutrality Law so as to suspend the ban on the export of arms (Cash and Carry amendment to the Neutrality Act, ND), in favor of a one-sided delivery of arms to Germany's opponents." "On the 17th July, 1940, the American President orders the blocking of French assets with a view, as he puts it, to placing them beyond German reach, but really in order to transfer the French gold from Casablanca to America with the assistance of an American cruiser." "In August 1940, a military programme is jointly drawn up between the U.S.A. and Canada. To make the establishment of a Canadian-U.S. Defence Committee" "In September 1940 he draws still nearer to the war. He turns over to the British Fleet 50 destroyers of the American Navy..." "Since England is no longer in the position to pay cash for all the American deliveries, he imposes the Lease-Lend Law on the American people." "As far back as the 9th December 1939, American (?cruisers) in the security zone handed over the German ship Columbus to the British ships. In the circumstances she had to be sunk (note: i.e. scuttled). On the same day, U.S. forces co-operated to prevent the attempted escape of the German steamer Arauca." (March 1940 SS Hannover captured in US Neutrality Zone and converted into escort carrier HMS Audacity, ND.) "...in March, all German ships were requisitioned by the American authorities." "Two German officers who had escaped from Canadian captivity, were-again contrary to all the dictates of international law-handcuffed and handed over to the Canadian authorities." "From the middle of April onwards, American watch over the Western Atlantic by U.S.A. patrols was extended, and reports were made to the British. On the 26th April, Roosevelt transferred to the British 20 motor-torpedo-boats and at the same time, British warships were being repaired in U.S. ports. On 5th May, the illegal arming and repairing of Norwegian ships for England took place. On 4th June American troop transports arrived in Greenland, to build airdromes. On 9th June, came the first British report that, on Roosevelt's orders, a U.S. warship had attacked a German U-boat with depth charges near Greenland. On 4th June, German assets in the U.S.A. were illegally blocked. On the 7th June Roosevelt demanded under mendacious pretexts, that German consuls should be withdrawn and German consulates closed. He also demanded the closing of the German Press Agency, Trans ocean, the German Information Library and the German Reichs bank Central Office. On 6th and 7th July, Iceland, which is within the German fighting zone, was occupied by American Forces or the orders of Roosevelt." "At the same time, he promised American help to the Soviet Union. On 10th June, the Navy Minister, Knox, suddenly announced an American order to shoot at Axis warships. On 4th September, the U.S. destroyer Greer obeying orders, operated with British aircraft against German U-boats in the Atlantic. Five days later, a German U-boat noticed the U.S. destroyer acting as escort in a British convoy. On 11th September Roosevelt finally made a speech in which he confirmed and repeated his order to fire on all Axis ships. On 29th September, U.S. escort-vessels attacked a German U-boat with depth charges east of Greenland. On 7th October, the U.S. destroyer Kearney acting as an escort vessel for Britain, again attacked German U-boat with depth-charges. Finally, on 6th November U.S. forces illegally seized the German steamer, Odenwald, and took it to an American port where the crew were taken prisoner." Jewish Virtual Library Adolf Hitler: Speech Declaring War Against the United States
@@paulnutter1713 Well, we used the ones that were actually good, up to the job. The USA being able to produce stuff by the thousand, safe from bombing raids and with pretty much unlimited resources, did help a lot. Especially after Pearl Harbour, when you finally stopped selling oil and metals to the Nazis.
@@unclenogbad1509 Pearl Harbor "when you finally stopped selling oil and metals to the Nazis." Thanks for an actual LOL. hitler declared war on the USA because FDR had been propping up Britain from 1939. You can read all of the reasons in his lengthy declaration which can be found in the Jewish Virtual library. In 1939 US GDP was three times that of Britain despite Britain preparing for war for at least one year.
On average Lanc's carried about 1/3 (2,000 pounds) more than 17's. I found some interesting information in a document that can be found by Searching; Operational history of Lancaster 1B R5868 This Lanc flew 136 operational sorties in two years and ten months (less than one a week) and dropped "466 tons (assume long) approx" or 3.42 long tons or 7,675 pounds on average. I did not deduct missions in which bombs were jettisoned due to engine failure or the entire load was flares or mission was called off in flight. I will leave that to someone dedicated to perpetuating the myth all Lanc's carried 14,000 pounds of bombs on every mission. On pages one and two (July and August 1942) the entire load was 3,360 pounds of bombs. On page one two raids were in daylight, the next daylight raid would be in July 44. On page two a bomb load is 2,000 pounds plus "6 x 4 flares". "(USA)" appears nine times with bomb type. Some of the notes are interesting. Recommendation by two pilots the aircraft be withdrawn from bombing, one friendly fire incident, "bomb doors damaged by bombs" and one midair collision with another Lanc over the target. I was amused by the listing of a USAAF general as "Passenger" (instead of observer) as if they were going to drop him off somewhere.
@@GregWhitfield1 Look up "How common was friendly fire among bombers in WWII". It's an interesting video. It wasn't a real problem but waist gunners did tend to chew up their own tailplane. What I found most interesting was many aircraft came back with flak, 7.92, 50cal, 15mm & 20mm damage. Very few came back (.1%) with rocket or 30mm damage. If they were hit they went down.
Lucky for the Russians that 50% of German fighters, and all the best pilots were in the west. Luckier still that half the total production of 88mm guns were earmarked for use as AA weapons in the defence of the Reich.
"As the Luftwaffe encountered more Allied heavy bomber raids, it became apparent that great increases in defensive fighter firepower were needed, especially against the even more heavily armed American bombers. This dynamic led to the development of ever more heavily armed sub-types of fighters, including some Focke-Wulf 190s with six 20 mm cannon, the most ever mounted in a German single-engine fighter (Dill 2015, 50-4). This sub-type entered service concurrently with the most powerful weapon used by German fighters during the war, the 210 mm rocket mortar, which was used in significant numbers from July 1943 onwards both on the Western Front and in the Mediterranean, but not in the East (Forsyth 2016b, 53-7). The ultimate result of these developments, focused on the needs of defence against strategic bombing, was that the aircraft types retained on the Eastern front were ever more poorly armed in comparison to those in the West. Just 15% of Luftwaffe aircraft guns were allocated to the East by January 1944 (Table 4), a much lower proportion that the 34% of combat aircraft allocated to this theatre (Table 2). While the desperate German attempts to develop technology to confront Allied pressure have been noted in the literature (van Creveld 2011, 116-7), as has the German tendency to use older aircraft in the East (O’Brien 2015: 65, 291). What has not been sufficiently emphasised is that these aircraft possessed considerably less firepower, on average, as demonstrated here." page 15 How were German air force resources distributed between different fronts in the years 1941 to 1943 pdf
The narrator was discussing the shift to night saturation bombing, which Sterlings were carrying out at the time. The Halifax and Lancaster aircraft had not yet entered service, while the B-17s were transferred to coastal command.
