Unbelievable RAF Strategies: American Reacts to Battle of Britain 

Never has so much, been owed by so many, to so few! We will never forget them and we will never surrender, to those who will see the end of Britain.

I am English but the Polish pilots were the best fighters in ww2. Shame we never thanked them and just sent them home. Not fair.

@@UndergroundHouseAndTechno It does from the point of view that we are an independant country governed by our rules and not some un-elected EU fat cat bureaucrat hell bent on ramming left wing woke gay rights and mass immigration down our throats whilst contributing to the desctuction of society as we know and knew it. Brexit makes perfect sense, self governance is exactly what Ukraine is fighting for you muppet

It was disgraceful that we treated the Poles so poorly after the War. They received no recognition and were not allowed to join in the celebrations and honours.

@@steveaga4683 Wow, I'm ashamed to say I didn't know that, yes it's disgraceful to say the least. Poles are the warriors of Europe, most Poles I've met around Londonstan are damn fine people and will be the saviours of Europe should Putin step one foot into their land. We are already at war with Russia, they will announce this next month, Google "Andrew Bridgen already at war".

The royal family: Slavery, colonialism and race ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oXPovFm9BTA.html

The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain. It was triggered by the Chinese government's campaign to enforce its prohibition of opium, which included destroying opium stocks owned by British merchants and the British East India Company. The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow the opium trade.[1] The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860, and consequently resulted in China being forced to legalise opium.[2]

​@@nickdanger3802so you are talking about the east India company then yeah...... not Britain. A corruption that sadly forced the armed forces to act for profits

@@nickdanger3802 Britain has done much evil, and much good. No former, or current, great power can claim only good, just as no one can claim it were only evil. To do so is to blind oneself to the truth.

@@nickdanger3802 then China become communist and killed 80 million of its own people, in the worlds worst ever mass killing of people, so your point is? They killed more people than all other 20th Century dictators and all wars of 20th century put together, again your point is?

But Britain WAS alone !!! That is unless you can provide us with the details of the luftwaffe air assaults on Canberra, Ottawa, Delhi and Wellington? Or how the Wehrmacht stood poised to launch its invasion of the Indian sub continent or Canada? Or how the Kriegsmarine attempted to strangle the British Empire out of the war by enforcing a u-boat blockade of Australia and New Zealand? Oh news just coming in...... NONE OF THOSE THINGS HAPPENED because the ONLY nation facing ALL of those threats between July 1940 and April 1941 was GREAT BRITAIN ALONE.

Don't forget the czechs

Why not name each person individually and provide a bio

Let me correxct you Sandra.... It WAS just Britain, there were NO attacks on the rest of the commonwealth, or ANY other country between July 1940 and April 1941. The inhabitants of the rest of the Empire, or the rest of the world were NOT suffering the threat of invasion by the nazis or the assault of the FULL weight of the German Werhmacht. The small number of commonwealth troops in Britain at the time does NOTalter that fact.

Let me correct you Sandra.... It WAS just Britain, there were NO attacks by the German Wehrmacht on the rest of the commonwealth, or ANY other country between July 1940 and April 1941. The inhabitants of the rest of the Empire or indeed the rest of the world were NOT suffering the threat of invasion by the nazis, blockade by the German navy or assault by of the FULL weight of the German Luftwaffe. The small number of commonwealth and troops of other nations in Britain at the time does NOT alter that fact. Glad to have been of help in correcting your misrepresentation of the facts.

WE MAY HAVE TO PUT THAT TO THE TEST, THE WAY THE WORLDS GOING AT PRESENT.

@@MrDaiseymay yep to true

@MrDaiseymay They can test us all they like , despite what you may read in the popular press us Brits will not go down without a fooking good fight.

Churchill may have had many flaws, he drank way too much, and believed in "empire" among many other problems but man he could string the right words together and he certainly was no coward. Only mentioned briefly were the overseas pilots. Famously the Polish Squadron earnt a reputation for being not just good pilots extremely aggressive. Having watched their homes ripped apart by the Russian / German alliance, when they finally got aircraft good enough to do the job, and airbases to fly from, these few certainly went out for revenge.

It's very true. Even now I bet we would never give up . I think most, even today would hate to be occupied.

Darkest Hour. Great movie 👍

We fought the wrong lot

North Africa, and Burma, horrible conditions.

My grandfather fought in both world wars, my father and uncles all fought in the 2nd world war, thankfully my father made it home safely but many others didn’t, my mother volunteered for the WAF, many years later I asked my mother why she had an indentation in her thumbs and she said she used to load the bullets into the belt feed for the spitfire guns and the brass casing had ingrained itself into her thumb and at the time they just opened the thumb and cut it out, never once complained.

My Grandfather served in The Irish Guards during WW1. My Father served in The British Merchant Navy, he took part in The North Atlantic Convoys going to Murmansk in Russia. I am so proud of Both of them.

My father fought in north Africa. and we were and still are so proud not only of him but to all who fought and died during WW11.

@@carolwilson6948Amen to that Carol 🙏🥲

The truth.

Gives me goosebumps.

wow what a lovely age and to live through 2 world wars is amazing' I would love to here some of her stories😃

She was born in Dublin in 1921 so only one world war. But of course she was born into the Irish Civil war.

God bless her.

We can't really imagine what folk went through back then, my late mother was born just before the war in 1936 and lived 20 miles north of London's northern edge so was lucky because only 3 bombs were known to fall on the town, two V1s and one discovered under a derelict steel factory in 1989 that was producing shell casings in WW2, it was probably a discarded ditched bomb from a lost or retreating plane as the factory (and town) was otherwise never attacked. I was working across the road from the factory the late afternoon it was discovered by the demolition crews that were taking the factory down, the police came and informed us (didn't evacuate us though, different times I suppose). They informed us that the bomb disposal unit weren't going to attempt to diffuse it but to perform a controlled detonation. I took me aback by the force of said explosion and made me wonder just how people got through thousands of these a day then night, day after day. I couldn't, and still can't, contemplate or comprehend that experience. As a child my mother saw the aircraft overhead and during the night blitz saw the southern horizon ablaze, and she had the most common of childhood nightmares for years, the one of Hitler hiding behind the blackout curtains. Love to your mum mate.

@MarkFrankUK polish hated them that much they flow the planes at 100 meters instead of the normal 250 meters

Father-in-law said he was 18 (actually 16), joined the RAF, I still have his flight logbook, it's chilling, as his friends didn't come back.

Beat me to it! Good stuff!

Most including polish don’t realise many uk pilots died defending mainland Europe .before the Battle of Britain began. So any help was needed . Occupied countries pilots often shoot to kill pilots where many commonwealth pilots shot the aircraft and not the pilot generally. Understandable if your family has been killed or under threats daily . All brave throughout the war. Thou the polish distain the British for allowing Russia to then occupy them . Uk was broke as America cut aid and demanded payment with conditions .like giving up scientific achievements, this left the uk unable to stop what Churchill called the advance of the iron curtain..

@@hugh-hoof-hearts4360 those 303 pilots are a huge reasons why we are not speaking german in the uk. i really hate that they were not saved after the war ended seeing as we went to war,it was to have freedom for the west. biggest crime our side did was not going to free them from inslavement. long live the polish people. us common folks know and respect you.

most of the RAF in the Battle of Britain was British 80%

@@matspurs1629 yes. I lived in ruislip gardens which is right next RAF Northolt, hurricane base. North west end of the London underground map. There's a polish war memorial at the junction of the A40. So many polish names on it. I used to play in the old bomb craters that were outside the base when I was a kid.

The ordinary people of the US and UK stand together, but its the corporations and their fully bought and paid for politicians who continue to shit over ALL or us BOTH.

When I lived in England 50 years ago, I received similar abuse. I do not know were Brits get their information on Lend Lease debt, but I assure you it is incorrect. The debt paid off in 2006 was for 3.75 billion USD loaned in 1945 plus 586 million for Lend Lease. "Over the whole period from March 1941 to September 1945, the balance in favour of the United States in the mutual aid books24 was in round terms about $21,000 millions. But by the settlement of 1945 Britain was required to pay no more than $650 millions, or £162 millions sterling." page 547 British War Economy

Yes because Americans are brainwashed into thinking they're the best at literally anything and they'll happily go along with that.

Yep, and if we hadn't defeated the Germans in the Battle of Britain it would have all been over long before the USA even contemplated joining in

@nickdanger3802 And how much should we have billed the U.S for, for the briefcase full of technological secrets e.g radar, sonar(asdic), advanced jet propulsion(courtesy of Frank Whittle), countless engineering advancements, prototype missile plans, not forgetting advanced research into Atomic weapons. Allegedly the U.S scientists collectively shit themselves when they realised how far behind Britain & Germany they were. So we more than paid for Lend lease.

@@themoderntemplar1567 Nothing was given, tech the US did not already have was traded for production. First US patent for radar was granted in 1934, Wattson Watt began experiments in 1935 following a MoD request on the feasibility of a "death ray". Sonar was invented in France. Whittles patent expired in 1934 and neither MoD nor RAF thought it worth £5 to renew it. FDR authorized research on nuclear fission October 1939. There was no formal cooperation on A bombs until after the Quebec Agreement, August 1943. Cavity magnetron had been developed a few months before and all they had were a few hand made prototypes, it fell to Bell Labs to redesign for mass production and to MIT Rad Lab, with input from a few Brits, for designs to make use of it. Proxemity fuse was being used in bombs because Brits did not have the know how to put it into artillery shells, the most significant use. Britain has owed the USA 4.4 billion USD in WWI debt since 1934. Britain received 2.7 billion USD in Marshall Plan aid (ERP) 1948-1952. The klystron was the first significantly powerful source of radio waves in the microwave range; before its invention the only sources were the Barkhausen-Kurz tube and split-anode magnetron, which were limited to very low power. It was invented by the brothers Russell and Sigurd Varian at Stanford University. Their prototype was completed and demonstrated successfully on August 30, 1937.[5] Upon publication in 1939,[3] news of the klystron immediately influenced the work of US and UK researchers working on radar equipment.

@KeithChastney Lets be honest here, although the U.S joined yet another World War albeit belatedly again. It was the Soviet Union who broke the Nazi's. Both Britain and the U.S played significant roles in doing so, it wouldn't have been possible without the Soviets steam rolling them back from eastern Europe and tying up hundreds of divisions who would have made a huge difference in the western war.

@@themoderntemplar1567 agreed, but without the British victory in the Battle of Britain, the full might of Nazi Germany would have been thrown at the USSR, not to mention the aid given to the Russians from the UK and the USA via the UK. I do not think that Russia could have survived the full and unrestrained military of Nazi Germany without the help and time that British victory in the Battle of Britain gave them.

Valid points Keith which I totally agree with but purely Russia's enormous geographical size and the fact that Stalin had already dismantled entire essential war production factories to the far flung interior. I think when the winter rolled in the German defeat in the East was all but an eventual formality regardless of the Arctic convoys. Stalin himself believed that they were shedding the blood, sweat and tears whilst the Western allies let the Soviets do the actual fighting and were not sending anywhere near the munitions or material in great enough quantities. It does up Hitler's demise, absolutely no doubt, but it was on the cards by 1942 with or without our help.

@@themoderntemplar1567 maybe, but I still think that Nazi innovations in a variety of areas, unmolested by British, or British based efforts across Europe (from Telemark to Penamunda - forgive my spelling), would have been enough to hold back the Soviets. An undamaged industrial and scientific base in Germany would have seen an array of advanced weapons all pointing East. An interesting debate that might benefit from some advanced war-gaming computer program, and your words have made me think. Thank you, but to be honest, my original arguments stem from my frustration when Americans say that they saved the world in WW2. They, like many, forget the decisive actions of the USSR, and no-one recognises the crucial role that British survival played. Again, thank you, modern Templar. (I went to a school named after the Templars, in a town founded by them in the 1170's).

​@@KeithChastneyThere was a war game at Sandhurst in 1974. Sea Lion failed even with air superiority. There's your answer.

He started civilian bombing unlike what weve been led to believe

from what you see online nowadays we're full of haters and fifth columnists who would happily all turn at once on our native population at the stroke of midnight to fulfil their goal just as the muslim croat soldiers in the Serbian Armies murdered all 2,000 of their Serbian Officers at the stroke of midnight so as to allow Hiltler a clear run through the Balkans ...........the carrot that was dangled was the promise of an independent Croatia........................nope, never trust a desert globalist.

Still are m8 , we punch well above our weight

I always think of we Brits on our small island, as small terrier dogs who when threatened by bigger dogs are not afraid, but snappy and refuse to back down.😂

Was also a very evil person at heart.

​@matthewmcclure5218 grow up , he was not evil.

​@@matthewmcclure5218idiot

@@matthewmcclure5218 if it wasn't for him you'd be speaking fucking German

​@matthewmcclure5218 I just looked at your other comments, and you seem to have a problem with maturity.

Your country contributed alot to the efforts in ww2 aswell as a brit I also acknowledge and massively respect New Zealand for what you have done for us.

@Alex-sw6sh we all did our bit, and that should be acknowledged. Every country hurt. But without the 2 leaders UK and USA, we couldn't have achieved victory without the Huge effort from them.

@@pshane4444 very true and nicely said, Without New Zealand and Australia El Alamein wouldn't have been successful in my opinion. so you are just as much an integral part of that success. Not forgetting the pilots from all countries during the battle of Britain. We should all be grateful.

@@Alex-sw6sh thank you 😊

Very true. Going back over 1000 years the British Army has excelled, and mainly at backs to the wall fighting and repelling a larger force et cetera. The thin red line. In offensive tactics, imaginative manoeuvres, et cetera the British Army was usually not as great

SOME WERE 18, MY HALF-BROTHER WAS , IN 1940, ,WHEN HE JOINED BOMBER COMMAND, HE WAS ON REGULAR MISSIONS OVER GERMANY, TILL THE LAST ONE, AND WAS KILLED ON MAY 3RD 1945. 5 DAYS FROM WAR'S END.

Big thank you to all nations that helped. Especially the Commonwealth & Poland.

The same guy that asked for concessions with the nazis. Lord Halifax, if he had his way we would have surrendered our sovereignty immediately. Thank God he turned down being prime minister.

I thought I'd create a simple "visual aid" in order to assist people learning about the history of the battle of Britain. There is much ongoing debate about the nationalities and proportions of RAF fighter pilots who took part in the battle, with occasionally a furtive aspect which attempts to portray the battle as a victory of "mostly Foreign pilots". Below is an accurate graphical representation of the proportion of pilot nationalities serving within RAF Fighter Command during the summer of 1940. Each flag is roughly equivalent to 30 pilots, The numbers after each nation are the actual number of pilots from that country, and the approximate percentage of RAF Fighter Command's establishment in the summer of 1940 that they represented. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 UK (2342) (80%) 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱 Poland (145) (5%) 🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿 New Zealand (127) (4%) 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Canada (112) (4%) (1940 flag emoji not available) 🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿 Czechoslovakia (88) (3%) 🇦🇺 Australia (32) (1%) 🇧🇪 Belgium (28) (1%) 🇿🇦 S. Africa (25) (1%) (1940 flag emoji not available) 🇺🇳 Other nations (France (13), R o Ireland (10), USA (9), Rhodesia (3), Newfoundland (1), Jamaica (1), Barbados (1)) (1%) (And just to preempt any wandering idiot lefty "Identity warriors" from protesting about "The lack of credit given to the black pilots who fought in the battle of Britain"... the pilots from South Africa, Rhodesia & the Caribbean were all of white descent).

That's deaths not casualties.

@@martinwilson3617 I take it that you actually read my phrasing "The civilian DEATH toll"?

Spit was the product of an 8 year government subsidized float plane air racer program.

That's not true the first flight was in 1936 the chief designer died in 1937 and never saw it in action. That was 2 years before the start of the war. He actually designed the prototype in 1931 and it evolved from there.

@@Alex-sw6sh This is what was said on a British documentary I watched from the 60s.

While celebrating the bravery, skill and success of Polish "Kościuszko" 303 sqd, the top scoring RAF squadron of the battle of Britain, also remember the other nationalities who flew as part of the squadron during the battle and who contributed SO much to its success. Polish "Kościuszko" 303 Sqd total kill tally - 58.5 confirmed kills Squadron commander, Sqd Ldr Ronald Gustave Kellett (British) - 5 confirmed kills "A" Flight commander, Fl Lt John Alexander Kent (Canadian) - 6 confirmed kills "B" Flight commander, Fl Lt Athol Stanhope Forbes (British) - 7 confirmed kills. Sgt pilot Josef František (Czechoslovakian) - 17 confirmed Kills.

The Manchester didn't have Merlins, it had Vultures (which were crap) a short wingspan didn't help either.

@@gibson617ajg Yes, this is in both books my great grandfather is mentioned in. One is Test Pilots by Don Middleton, the other is called the Avro Manchester, authors name I do not recall.

My grandfather worked on the Spitfire. He'd been in the RFC, then RAF in WW1. He's not famous, though he was mentioned on the radio once.

grandfather on my mother's side of the family was a London fireman during the Blitz - not the safest of jobs, not just dealing with fires but with unexploded bombs as well (fireman would have called in army bomb disposal to deal with the bombs but they would be the ones finding the bombs initially)

2nd that, and ain’t there a film called Hurricane about the Polish fighters that took part in The Battle?

In that Battle of Britain movie, in one of the first scenes a fighter pilot is seen picking up a ground serviceman as the retreat was on. Proud to see the name of the country that the pilot had on his uniform

None of that changes the fact that the uk was not alone

It was very unique invention first country in the world it was a massive weapon

..........what you mean the troubles in N Ireland India/Pakistan Israel/Gaza etc etc...?

@@viclimited9081Yeah other countries fighting because they are slow to grow up

@@jackworsley2562 ......you patronising S.O.B. The empire has gone but the arrogance remains...

International slavery was actively fought against by the British and it was never tolerated in Britain! The British weren't going to be the slaves of the Nazis!

“Now at this very moment I knew that the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! ... How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end no man could tell, nor did I at this moment care ... We should not be wiped out. Our history would not come to an end ... Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to a powder. All the rest was merely the proper application of overwhelming force.” ― Winston S. Churchill

True, but the reason is because the Spitfires engaged German Fighters, while the Hurricanes shot down the bombers, as a rule. Curiously, one of the reasons the British didn’t accidentally shoot down its own was because it’s difficult to spitfire in a hurricane….

I got hella respect for the British pilots

But none of these people would have been able to put up that fight if Britain did not have the channel between it and continental Europe. Hence in a way the empire and Commonwealth as we know it stood alone.

Only 2 pilots were American in the Battle of Britain...144 out of the 3000 were Polish ...2500 were British and the rest of the 500 were made up of mainly Czech and New Zealanders with about 150 made from other countries than the above...

Sorry mate but everything you just said is totally wrong. London was a hub of transport, factories, docks and the war cabinet. Coventry had no real target and was destroyed fir no reason

London was definitely the focal point but there was way more than morale reasons to hit London. Transport, supply, military and political targets were plenty in the capital. Many other industrial cities were hit hard as well. Newcastle took a beating (lots of ship building on the Tyne in those days) and my grandma’s house was hit. They were all fine though, she was very young at the time.

Cold shower for Rona, I Think !!! :)

You neglected to menrion that Douglas Bader was a double amputee- having lost both legs in a flying accident BEFORE the war began.

I thought I'd create a simple "visual aid" in order to assist people learning about the history of the battle of Britain. There is much ongoing debate about the nationalities and proportions of RAF fighter pilots who took part in the battle, with occasionally a furtive aspect which attempts to portray the battle as a victory of "mostly Foreign pilots". Below is a graphical representation of the proportion of pilot nationalities serving within RAF Fighter Command during the summer of 1940. Each flag is roughly equivalent to 30 pilots, The numbers after each nation are the ACTUAL number of aircrew from that country, and the approximate percentage of RAF Fighter Command's establishment in the summer of 1940 that they represented. The figures are taken from the RAF records of the awards of the highly coveted "Battle of Britain clasp" to the British 1939-45 Campaign Star. Which was scrupulously ONLY awarded to aircrew who flew at least one active sortie in any RAF fighter aircraft between 10th July 1940 and 31st Oct 1940. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 UK (2342) (80%) 🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱 Poland (145) (5%) 🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿 New Zealand (127) (4%) 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Canada (112) (4%) (1940 flag emoji not available) 🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿 Czechoslovakia (88) (3%) 🇦🇺 Australia (32) (1%) 🇧🇪 Belgium (28) (1%) 🇿🇦 S. Africa (25) (1%) (1940 flag emoji not available) 🇺🇳 Other nations (France (13), R o Ireland (10), USA (9), Rhodesia (3), Newfoundland (1), Jamaica (1), Barbados (1)) (1%) (And just to preempt any wandering idiot lefty "Identity warriors" from protesting about "The lack of credit given to the black pilots who fought in the battle of Britain"... the pilots from South Africa, Rhodesia & the Caribbean were all of white descent). With regards to the ".303 debate". The differences between the German and British fighters are far more than the calibre of their weapons. The Me109E had 2x 7.92mm MG17s above the engine, each with 1000 rounds of ammo. The MG17 had a rate of fire of 1200rpm which gave 50 seconds of fire. They also had 2x 20mm MG FF cannon in the wings with just SIXTY rounds of ammo each. The MG FF, even with its relatively low rate of fire of 540rpm, gave just over SIX SECONDS of potent but low density fire (fire density being important for air to air combat). So after those 6 seconds of low density fire the 109E had 44 seconds of lightweight 2 x 7.92mm MG fire left, thereby making the average Me 109E a one (or occasionally two) punch wonder. The RAF fighter's 8 x .303 Brownings, each firing its 350 rounds at 1150rpm (giving just under 18 seconds of high density fire) looks a LOT less anaemic when viewed like that. With regards to dogfighting, the Me109E's MG FF cannons were far from an ideal aircraft weapon. As well as its low rate of fire, it's low muzzle velocity (1920 fps compared to the .303s 2660 fps) meant that when used in a "turning battle" or at high angles of deflection it was an incredibly difficult weapon to achieve hits with. It was best employed in "Boom and Zoom" tactics, where a diving 109 would fall on an unsuspecting British fighter from out of the sun, or from behind, and shred it before it had time to react.... Experienced 109 pilots were loath to get into a "turning fight" with a Spitfire or Hurricane. In defence of the 8 x .303s of the British fighters and their lack of outright destructive power, one RAF pilot (either Al Deere or Adolph Malan, I can't remember) voiced the opinion of many RAF pilots when they was recorded as saying they preferred to send a German bomber back to France, riddled with bullet holes, both engines smoking with its aircrew dead and dying rather than shooting it down outright. And finally if there's any doubt about the effectiveness of 8 x .303 machine guns, then take into account the 1700 aircraft lost by the Luftwaffe during the battle of Britain, the vast majority of which fell to 8 x .303 machine guns.

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 hey dude, great break down for people to catch up with the Battle of Blighty being a Brit, we will often get told that we only ever giving British pilots the glory for a pretty close run battle, I just wanted to highlight people from all over the free world, and those wishing for their own countries to be free were also there. I believe the attitudes of the air ministry at the time may have helped shape some of this. At the end of the day, any person considered part of the "few" deserve every ounce of glory they get, without them history may be a lot darker. As for the aircraft, yup British fighters/interceptors had more a a turn fight philosophy, mainly thanks to the genius of RJ Mitchell, while the 109 was considered more of a boom and zoom, or energy fighter. With regards to my comment on the .303s, for me, I don't think it had a big enough punch. Don't get me wrong, hit something vital, it would still take out a Luftwaffe aircraft, but again, if I was a pilot at the time I would have proffered something with more of hitting power. I know the Hispano cannons originally fitted, to some Mk2s or 3s I would like to say, were notoriously unreliable to begin with, which is a shame. Although they did get that fixed and then the mix of both cannons and machine guns was the right way to go. I am suprised I have not triggered anyone with me saying the Spitfire was the greatest plane of WW2,, yet. Again my dude, great break down you wrote out!

@@CadarnTheMad1810 Thanks for the praise. I'm an inveterate "comments stalker" on various topics, hoping to spread some light and correct information to younger commenters to counteract the serious amount of nazi fanboi nonsense that passes for informed comment on YT. I've not been arguing that the .303 was one of the war's greatest aerial fighting weapons. It clearly was near the end of its "use by" date when the BoB took place, as testified to by the fact of the RAF already trying out Oerlikon 20mm cannons in the Spitfire Mk IIb, BUT I would say that rifle cailbre machine guns HAD through fighter evolution been a perfectly ADEQUATE weapon with ALL airforces from their earliest days up until the late 1930s, and EIGHT of them in a single fighter prior to the introduction of 20mm cannons late in the 1930s was a FANTASTIC number of guns to be carrying at that time. As for everyone's "greatest" fighters of WW2, NONE of us have any experience and only offer "tenth hand" opinion on the subject, but one person whose opinion I would rate would be Roy "Winkle" Brown, the British Fleet Air Arm test pilot who STILL holds the world record for the greatest number of different "types" flown by a single pilot (close to 500 I think), in his VERY respected opinion in his book "Duels in the sky" he states that he believed the joint overall best fighter aircraft in WW2 were the Spitfire & Fw190. The Me109 didn't even make his top 6 !!!! 1. Supermarine Spitfire / FW-190. 2. Grumman Hellcat. 3. North American Mustang IV. 4. Mitsubishi Zeke. 5. Hawker Tempest V. 6. Kawanishi N1K2 Shinden-Kai. All the best !!!

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 thank for the book recommendation, will have o check it out as I have heard of Roy Brown, and yeah, his opinion is probably THE opinion on the subject. If I remember rightly, he didn't like the canopy and rear view of the 109, which was then echoed in thr film Hurricane. One thing I would like to know, which Mustang he flew, was it the one with Alison engine which was notoriously underpowered until they fitted a Merlin I could be here all night if I carry on discussing WW2 and it's aircraft, so peace out and keep up the good work enlightening the masses

@@CadarnTheMad1810 Hahaha anytime Cadarn. As for which model of "Mustang" "Winkle" Brown flew, his book specifically states the "Mustang IV" which was the RAF name for the P-51D packard Merlin powered model, and not the slightly lacklustre Allinson engine P-51A. As for "Winkle" himself, there are plenty of videos about him here on YT, these two are good ones to begin with, watch at your leisure. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8sK0mZnBx94.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PSRAdZzRycc.html All the best.