The First Berlin Raid - A Forgotten Allied Mission 

Size 11....

@@makomadeira5799 LOL! Perfect!

Boot misses target, German tooses up his field cap, lands on top of french aircraft. Plane falls apart.

flying at night, a single aircraft, when there were no operational ground radars - let alone night fighter radars - apart from mechanical hitches I think the chances of success, especially when flown by experienced and daring pilots were pretty good. The very reason for the second raid was the success of the first. In terms of suicide during the Battle of France try thinking RAF unescorted daylight raids by Fairey Battles on the Meuse Bridges (on one of these raids 35 out of a force of 63 Battles were shot down in one day) - out of those two, Id take my chances in a night flight in the Farman any day

@@sakerfrancis4028 Agreed. The Maastricht bridges.

My uncle was a kamikaze pilot. He had 27 successful missions.

@@raypurchase801 Aah, the old ones are the best...

@@raypurchase801 Read Sir Basil Embry's book ''Mission Accomplished'' relating the RAF fighting in the early stage of the war in Europe, in France, Belgium and Norway. & later how he escaped nazi captivity, being sheltered by a couple of French farmers. RAF Squadron Leader Patrick James Handy ''Bull'' Halahan escorted with his inferior Hurricanes, the ill-fated Battles in the raid & was shot down, but with 2 victories (1 probable). Later he led a Malta-bound flight of Hurricanes from the deck of HMS Eagle. He was instrumental in reducing the originally-converging-at-650m Hurricane guns to just 250m & the nazi earthward drops increased dramatically. Read too Paul Richey's "Fighter Pilot'' about his experiences in 1939-40 France.

That last bit was so incredibly Gallic, that it brought a smile to my face! Vive le mécanicien Corneillet!

@Chris D Have you ever considered translating the book yourself? It sounds like you have a good grasp of both French and English.

I bet those shoes created an even bigger stink in Berlin than the bombs ever did! But, alas, it does ruin my memories of that war film that credited the English as performers of the bombing. Mind you, it was a pretty naff film. But I was most disappointed as I was expecting it to be a WWI bombing - or even earlier.

I saw the book in a library 60 years ago, but never read it. I didn't know anything about the event until I read it some years ago in a passage in a French book on ww2 by Raymond Cartier. Still I didn't know the details until very recently when I read a full account of it. It's ''toutes proportions gardees'' the equivalent of USAAF Colonel Doolittle's April 1942 on Tokyo. The Americans with 16 bombers attacked several targets in one day. The French with one bomber attacked several targets in 3 nights. ''Toutes proportions gardees'' except for courage and daring that were never wanting in equality in both cases.

There was a 1950s series of books in French titled "Les Villes Ardentes 1940-1944'' - ''The Brazen Cities 1940-1944'' about the cities invaded by the nazis and liberated from them.

I undertood that reference

this History is the one WE want to be remembered ... please do look at this hand whilst my other hand takes ur wallet ..

Once?

The History Guy on RU-vid. Great channel.

It belongs in a museum!

Yea. They sold us in Munich and get our weapons in Wermacht hands.

I hope the victims get remembered

@@Dilley_G45 Who are the victims? German civilians?

@@samslick9000 if one bothers to find the info...actually a fee people died

@@Dilley_G45 everyone deserves to be remembered, but hey, can't blame the crews here : bombing civilians was a common practice in this war.

You probably do know a lot about WWII, but there is just so much more.

This is the first I've heard of this.

Yes, I thought that this was going to be about the bombing of Berlin by British Mosquito bombers, forcing a Soviet-German meeting into a bomb shelter, and raising Soviet doubts about the capabilities of the Germans. "If you have beaten the English, why are we in a bomb shelter and hearing bombs fall on Berlin?"

@@Dutch_Uncle 👊

Captain: Has our defensive armament been prepared? Crew Chief: Yes Sir, the 8mm machine gun has been reloaded! Captain: Very Good! We’re off to Berlin!

It’s about the French. Hollywood will never ever read the script

@@paulbourguignon3632 Maybe we could give it the same treatment as the submarine crew that captured the first Enigma Machine. That is, write out the men that actually did it and pretend it was Americans! But this is a really cool event that I never heard before. It's a shame they had to destroy the plane. What a museum piece that would be!

​@@RaoulThomas007I thought that the bombers also utilized 20mm hispanos

After this, people on the street would greet him as Herr Meyer.

@@SynchroScore questionable, given that there is no wartime source of him saying the "Meyer" quote. The story appears for the first time in the 60s.

That's pretty funny since "Der Dicke" held the official title of "Reichsjagdminister" ("Reichsminister of hunting and wildlife"). An avid hunter and wildlife enthusiast (kinda like Ted Nugent), Goering would hold lavish parties at his mansionsand go out hunting on his property with his guests to entertain them. Reportedly he was not pleased one bit each time one of his esteemed visitors took a strong, grown buck down.

@@bezahltersystemtroll5055 Well, take it up with Doctor Felton. I'm afraid I don't recall just where I read that.

@@TonySlug Tito and Franco were both known to be crazy hunters to a degree that was insane. On the level that these East Indian Maharajas practiced.

Elan on a plane

@George Washington speaking,inb as an anti American communist, no they're not. Confusing liberals and communists was a Nazi thing and still is. Are you a fascist or an idiot ? (Do some reading before deciding)

@@julianshepherd2038 I agree although I'm a loyal but with complaints American moderate. Fascist and idiot way too often go together. Basic know who your enemy is ignorance there. Anti Trust though breaking up these companies should be done.

@@julianshepherd2038 He isn't confusing liberals with communists. That may have been true 10 years ago, but try to get those "liberals" to say anything bad about communism or socialism. Regardless, the Nazis had far more in common policy wise with the modern left than they ever had with the modern right.

I have read a ton and can't believe I have not heard about this or the plane. It reminds me of the Doolittle mission. Definitely blows my mind! After reading so much!

100% agree.

I gotta say that's a good point.. These videos and the knowledge are fantastic

just please no Raid Shadow Legends

Superb factual, historical programs from top man Mark, well deserved praise for professional dialog, well spoken with clear and distinct vocal. Simply the best, can't thank this man enough.

Consider donating a few $$ to Mark via PayPal or whatever system is in the description. The knowledge & entertainment value is well worth it.

S.W.J. ..................Churchill I think, was a Jazz Buff , way out Daddy ???????

France is very underated in WW2, despite a major defeat, the country finished the war with a force of half million soldiers made by De Gaulle from scratch. And they did great, they even were the most succesfull troops engaged in Italy. France is quite complex in this war, the country was technically speaking in civil war with too separate governement claiming they were the true legitime state.

@@cpp3221 De Gaulle was in command of tanks in early 1940 and acquitted himself well. A proud Frenchman, personally unpopular with many on the Allied side, he was an astute politician who took care of her future, outwitted the communist résistants in Paris and went on to do much good for her, along with some mistakes too.

​@@artinnevada The French army and generals were still relying on WW1 tactics and completely not ready for the blitzkrieg, same as the British and Polish in 1940 hence why no countries were able to drive the germans out at that time.

I think the French soldiers who did their best to defend the perimeter of the beaches around Dunkirk also deserve great credit.

De Gaulle had the balls to fight but Petain had PTSD and dropped his sacks.

Well put. Few remember or note the French held the line at Dunkirk so the British could escape. They fought on, very bravely, even after the British left. And that's no insult to the Brits or anyone else. It made sense on a tactical level. But, yes. The French covered the Brit's 6 at Dunkirk and fought on quite valiantly.

U can also add the French air raids over Italy or the Battle of Menton, also known as the battle of Saint-Louis bridge (9 French soldiers vs 3 000 alpinis) in 1940.

@@methodeetrigueur1164 of course, even if I think that Saint Louis Bridge action is pretty well known. But there is so much action that happen during the Campagne de France that deserve to be explain to all the people. There is an amazing books about those fight (I don't know if it was translated in english), it's "comme des lions" (like lions) by Dominique Lormier. It really show that the French campaign was everything except an holiday trip for the Germans.

@@TOMCATnbr I read it 25 years ago…

@@TOMCATnbr Sorry 15 years ago.

Do you say that every time?

@@krisfrederick5001 Yes he does.

Too late! I’d already had him. His name was Paul Freeland

@@krisfrederick5001 not really.

I think german confidence was earned. The Germans looked invincible before operation barbarosa. You dont think so my friend?

@@keithjefferson9863 really reminds me of the Tyson quote: everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Germany thought they were invincible, the world occasionally agreed, yet by the end of the Spring of 1945, most every big German city was destroyed, their armies universally retreating and dying at one of the highest war casualty rates in human history and their mechanized armies and the luftwaffe being outclassed and/or outmanned on every front. They got punched, stumbled, got grappled and then kicked to shit from every cardinal direction and even if they weren’t, the Americans alone developed the means to erase the nation should they want to long, long before anyone else could have. Germany had 70 scientists devoted mostly part time to developing nuclear power, then nuclear weapons at the time the Americans employed some 130,000 and the equivalent today of tens of billions of dollars a year. Germany’s victory was hopeless, even without the Russian invasion. Any hope to the contrary is fantasy. Hitler was simply outmanned and outgunned because he was deluded by the fantasy he was invincible. History speaks for itself, Germany was never invincible and their confidence was earned on the basis on fights they won when the defensive party basically didn’t even fight back. France ‘fought’ as disparate brave fighters with no coordination and scant willpower by the political class to engage in another protracted war in their territory. You can’t really consider most of the rest real fights. They annexed and invaded nations piecemeal, picking only fights they were certain they could win. They failed to do so with regards to Britain, the first nation to put up a stiff and spirited organized defense with a sole piece of technology thwarting the entire luftwaffe; radar. Then, when Germany failed to defeat a nation of smaller military capability, they tried to beat Russia, assuming the Russians would revolt the same as they did against the tsar, a dumb and hopeless endeavor based almost purely in misguided assumptions about the Russian people, state and capability entirely proven wrong by their failure to even reach the capital. Then, they declared war on the US and drew in essentially the China of that age against themselves and allied with a monetarily and industrially more capable coalition. Hitler fucked up basicslly everything, his confidence was obviously misplaced as he oppressed (leading to the flight of Germany’s best nuclear scientists) then murdered tens of millions in mechanized cold blood, got a sizable % of the German population killed, the nation divided and the legacy of his political ideology into a slur for likely centuries to come.

@@keithjefferson9863 Oil was their Achille's heel.

Confident that britain and us would ally with them to stop the communist invasion

As Spike Milligan said in his Trilogy of six war memoirs, it was amazing to him that a bunch of ill - disciplined oiks could beat the best trained army in the world, as he watched them march in serried ranks, guarded by two Tommies, out of Berlin, from the back of the lorry he was in, going into Berlin. He and his mates gave them a razzing, and they kept their eyes front...

Interesting

A polish aircraft in 1939 made it to Berlin is impressive....

I don't disbelieve this, but I would like to see the documentary evidence that the authors have drawn on. It would be interesting, indeed.

@@keithjefferson9863 Poland had one of the most modern airforces in the world prior to the outbreak of the war... this isnt a stretch by any means! 1930's was a golden age for Polish airforce.. however, Germany was more advanced than EVERY nation when the war broke out... :-/

This is simply not true.

You can. If you don't do it, you'd be convicted and shot for insubordination. The French have killed a lot of their own men before for not dying in battle...

Pointless is a better word.

@@axelpatrickb.pingol3228 that's a very inaccurate or biased statement...

​@@axelpatrickb.pingol3228 there were only a few execution for the exemple in WW1... In a democracy, citizens lifes are the most valuable thing for the state, especially in France.

​@@Arno_L - You seem to be implying the raid had a "point" since you disagree that it was pointless. What was that point? It didn't change the outcome of the Battle of France in 1940, nor probably even delayed it. The raid makes for an interesting story today but I'm pretty sure that was not the original motive.

The old vets always say, it's the sounds and smells that they remember the most, especially the smells

@@chrisoliver4757 for many Vietnam vets I’ve talked too and heard speak it’s specifically the smell of diesel fuel. Or Jp4 if they were in helicopters a lot.

@Hew Jarsols To be fair, if they're American that's how they spell it. Amusing name by the way.

I wonder if it's courage or just boredom. When there's a war on, soldiers (no mater the service) don't want to be left behind. Being left behind is depressing and boring. The "fun" is out on the field. Rarely boring out there.

@@morgan97475 You are right. My grandfather was a skilled tradesman working in a protected job at the start of World War 2. However, he didn't want to be left behind and wanted the opportunity to see some of the world. So, inspite of not having to, he joined up to the services and ended up in Burma fighting against the Japanese.

With remarkable panache.

I get teased for my French ancestry all the time.......pisses me off. Thanks for the video!

@@thomash4447 you have nothing to be ashamed of. According to the BBC: "There have been 53 major wars in Europe. France had been a belligerent in 49 of them, UK 43. In 185 battles that France had fought over the past 800 years, their armies had won 132 times, lost 43 times and drawn only 10. Giving the French military the best record of any country in Europe. According to British historian Niall Ferguson, France is the most successful military power in history. The French participated in 50 of the 125 major European wars that have been fought since 1495; more than any other European state. They are followed by the Austrians who fought in 47 of them, the Spanish in 44 and the English (and later British) who were involved in 43. Out of 169 battles fought since 387BC, they have won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10. Idiots try to judge the French military record using one battle, not realizing how foolish that makes them look.

@@thomash4447 But you were born here, and I take it you don't have an accent?

@VoltigeurFR it doesn't really matter does it, a fantastic story.

I know what you mean. The history teacher I remember from my schooldays was so fkn boring, he made it hard to believe that water is wet.

@@stoopingfalcon891 or maybe you guys were just too stupid or uninterested to pay attention..

he is*

a teacher grts paid to teach, not entertain. RU-vidrs get paid by entertaining their aydience and capturing interest in their content.

@@stoopingfalcon891 a teacher grts paid to teach, not entertain. RU-vidrs get paid by entertaining their aydience and capturing interest in their content.

The official motto of the SAS (as displayed on their cap badge) is ‘Who dares wins’. (No ‘He’).

@@AtheistOrphan Thanks, knew it was something along like that.

@@AtheistOrphan Honi soit qui mal y pense!

@@rabbi120348 - As on my brother’s Queen’s Regiment cap badge!

@@AtheistOrphan Also on the Order of the Garter. Even (some of) us Yanks learned that!

“When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up.”. Hermann Goering

You meant: " 'Old moi Dubonnet!" didn't you?😉

@@Mackeson3 Hermann Meyer*

dude... the cliche is getting really tiresome... AND i TOOK THAT PERSONALLY!!!!!!!111

I Think it Was ADOLPH GALLAND Who said THAT Herman goring Was an Arse !!!😂g

Or this plane.

and some of the Allies might have said hold on there Bucko, the Yanks said hold my Beer most of the Brits, I Say wait for a minute old boy holdoff on high tea I'll be right back I got some nasty Jerries challenging us the rest of the Brits saying hold my Guniness some rude Germans is challenging me during a dart match I take that personally

Good idea.I wonder if there were south-africans in the waffen ss I know about a south african Olympian trained in the ss.

I think he already did, did he not ?

@@stomper1234 except that Ireland has never been unified as a single independent country.

@@dotdashdotdash but it will be !!

@@shutup2751 Except it won't. There is no majority support and a lot of people in the ROI don't want the North because they correctly guess it will just lead to a Protestant, Unionist version of the IRA and bring back the troubles.

i forget what phenomenon its called, but i first saw the story about the "Meyer" thing yesterday and got a chuckle out of it - i had never seen it referenced before. Since then, I have since seen it 10+ times in 24 hrs. Awesome stuff though and I got a good laugh out of your comment :)

Would it be outrageous to say I find him quite likeable?..... Sorry.

@@rob5944 Goering was a very charismatic and amusing man. He apparently enjoyed being the but of a joke.

I don't know about the air raid shelter story. But he was asked about his Meyer quip by an American reporter during the Nuremberg Trials. He was reportedly very embarrassed by the question.

@@rob5944 Göring was Hitler's man of choice to entertain foreign dignitaries for a very good reason - he was a charmer

F5

I have a book written after the war by the pilot of the Jules Verne, Henri Yonnet and it gives some information on their fates, I'll list them here: After the Battle of France, the commander of the Jules Verne, capitaine Henri Daillière, advised the onboard mechanic Corneillet and the radio operaror Scour to return to civilian life as their specialties would guarantee they'd find jobs. On the other hand he encouraged the youngest of the crew, the bombardier Deschamps to remain in the navy and pursue a promising career. Their fates after that is left unsaid in the book. The navigator, Comet, was a long-time friend of capitaine Daillière but again the author doesn't elaborate on what happened to him later. As for the author Henri Yonnet, he remained a pilot in the Vichy navy until January 1941. He flew several recon missions over Gibraltar against the british, until he apparently felt too frustrated by the general mood in the Vichy military and was disgusted by the requirement to swear an oath of allegiance to Pétain which arrived at the same time he learned his brother had been shot by the germans, seemingly for revenge over the raid on Berlin. So he left the navy, the book doesn't say anything about the rest of his life during the war, but I suspect he eventually joined the allies. He certainly survived to write his book. Lastly, Capitaine Daillière was deployed to Dakar as commander of the naval aviation base there in January 1941. There he met again with Henri Yonnet and unsuccessfully tried to convince him to stay in the navy. On 11 October 1942, he took the place of the dorsal gunner on a Martin Maryland to fly a two-plane recon mission over the british base at Freetown in Sierra Leone. As the plane suffered from an oil leak, it had to return to base for a quick repair, which meant that they arrived 20 minutes after the first one. As a result, the local RAF squadron was in full alert and intercepted them. No planes were shot down in the ensuing fight, but Daillière was unfortunately shot through the head by a single bullet from a chasing Hurricane.

The intro music....like a siren calling us all together

He was killed while piloting a Vichy airfare reconnaissance plane off Sierra Leone in October 1942. His aircraft was surprised by a RAF Hurricane who opened fire on the Vychist plane. He was killed by these shots, but his co-pilot brought the damaged aircraft back to base.

None of the French Army gave up to the Nazi, Surrender after being hopelessly cut off and similar incidents but never for a lack of bravery. The French being known for stupidity would not be totally accurate but understandable but for cowardice no. Saying the French were cowards is like saying a prize fighter face down on the mat after being knocked out is a coward.

And no radios in the tanks along with one man turrets.

Yep and the inexcusable part a horrible communication system with bad generals who should have never survived a major training exercise pre war. Even with WWI tactics by the Germans the French would done badly against them. Reading account after account how French reinforcements always too late.

Actual no tech. Ummm they had no bombers and had to convert a passenger carrying plane. And old tech Maginot line.

That was not a bomber and even the most pitiful early 30s fighter could have downed it

Tech was mostly outdated WW1 stuff, the Maginot Line had new Tech in it, but was in itself an outdated concept. The French Soldiers fought well, their Leadership and Communication was hopelessly outdated, though. After all, they thought they won WW1, why change things?

Great comment, and was thinking similar.

Try flying a complete enemy territory that is "slightly" bigger than Luxembourg and you'll find out why it was a suicidal mission.

@@brucewallace6282 well Bruce let's put a few figures into the argument to cement my point. Suicidal would mean a near 100% Chance of being killed - but let's be conservative and call it a 90% chance. Chances of surviving as a RAF bomber command pilot during WW2 - when most of the raids were easily spotted with ground radar that vectored fighters into kills, night fighters were equiped with their own radars and their offensive weapons that had been developed to more effectively bring down bombers all hand in hand with massive increases in flak batteries and better tactics to combat night raids - was 55.6%. Now that's a terrible figure and really undelines the sheer bravery of thousands of unknown names who in my opinion risked far more than Capt. D, but as bad as those survival odds are they're not suicidal. When Dailliere flew his night mission the German night defences were nowhere near primed to combat a single bomber making a surprise raid on Berlin - even if they had been, according to the RAF statistics he might have had at at least a 50% of surviving. By the way Dailliere did sucumb during the war - but was killed by the RAF, after he joined up with The Vichy fascists and took over as commander of Dakar aibase. In Senegal. The Brits flew out of Gambia to take him out.

​@@sakerfrancis4028 In other words, if Dailliere had been an Englishman, it would have been an act of bravery, but as he was just a pitiful Frenchman he should have better stayed home. And what makes you believe you're right in your mind is "look, he turned tables and got shot by the RAF. No much a big fuzz to say about this guy, really."

@@brucewallace6282 Bruce I think you're a little confused with the content of my post - I'm just stating figures that show making a night raid on Germany during WW2 was highly dangerous but not suicidal .And the danger grew as the war went on and technologies developed. And RAF bomber command was not made up of purely of English personal - brave crew members from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and even Free French perished in those raids. You really must think more carefully when commenting in a discussion like this.

If there were 3 bombers modified for this mission, why did only one do it?

@@davidvoinier6008 Serviceability? Spares cannibalised from the other two?

Yes, he could have held night bombing classes. #1. Locate and hit Target. #2 how to return safely.

Sounds too closely to 'alternative facts'. I think, logically, there's the history of what we all THINK happened, and then much more interesting one that ACTUALLY happened.

We’ll spoken!

Also many French were evacuated from Dunkirk

The only people I hear calling the French cowards are Brexiteers, the ones that think Dunkirk was a success rather then cowards running away from a superior enemy. Two can play the nonsense game. In my youth I met a French man on a train with a mangled face that was in the French resistance and was tortured by the Nazi suffering horrendous injuries, I didn’t see cowardice written on his face but bravery.

@@cormackeenan8175 Having been to that part of France that was so fiercely fought over in two wars, only an idiot would think the French were not brave fighters who fought many determined actions that clearly were not favorable in the defense.

@@cormackeenan8175 Sadly, we’re not the only country with those idiots.

Thanks for the footnote to this video.

I was about to ask this question ! Thank you for the info.

For the Vichy French fighting the allies

@@1maico1 Actually no he wasnt. His last flight originated in Freetown, then the capital of British West Africa, and home to the British base at Lungi Field.

I would spell it Mire (mud).

Was thinking the exact same thing. Been learning over time from a few various places, they really haven't been given the credit they should.

Success? It was embarrassingly pathetic. It was a publicity stunt, and a pointless one at that, not a legitimate bombing mission.

@@hoodoo2001 sometime "pointless" Action can change the world face years later...

@@hoodoo2001 It boosts morale which France very much needed. Many pointless things happen in war, the propaganda value often far outweighs the action itself. The mission was to bomb Berlin and that is what they did

Haha nice