Oh thank god!! you re still active . We badly need the second part of V2 turbopump video. Plz continue this valuble work .Your videos are incomparable with other videos abt this subject.
As a german I was aweare of the V2 but never thought there would be sooooo much to know about that! The Video about the turbo pump was unbelivable and brought my attention to your work. I love how you took apart those comon known pictures and show how they are all connected in your forensic way and its amazing! Cant wait to learn more from you! Thats how technical stuff should be teached in universitys!
Watched the entire video in one sitting, so much better than the rubbish that’s on television. Outstanding presentation thank you for taking us back to some snippets of time during the ioperational life of the weapon .
I thoroughly enjoyed this new format. Very informative and captivating. I thought before I started watching that it might be a skip through video being 2 hours long, but I couldn't take my eyes from the screen. Please keep up the excellent work and it is great to have you back.
Mr. Dalby Congratulations here from Brazil! Your return to RU-vid is very welcome! Your videos on A4/V2 technology are invaluable! The turbopump video alone I must have watched four times! Thanks for more of these videos and hope for more!!!!
I grew up in Huntsville, one of my friends used to carpool with von Braun's children and I've learned more from this channel than talking to the old timers.
Robert, this video is simply AMAZING. As a enthusiast of everything Apollo, I have recently turned my attention to Operation Paperclip. This is how I stumbled on to your channel. Your analysis and explanations are incredible. Thank you for sharing this slice of history with us.
I don’t how long it took you to research and put these videos together but I just want to say thank you. I’ve learned more about how the V2’s were built and fired from these video’s. You attention to detail is insane in a good way. Thank you sir!
That was very interesting! I live close to Serooskerke and the former launch site is now ironically called Vrederust (translates to Peacecalm). There were an estimated total of 6 V2's fired at London from Walcheren in September 1944. The rockets were stored in Middelburg and later on, during the night, shipped to Serooskerke. Supposedly 2 rockets failed to launch. One of the transport vehicles took a wrong turn and ended up in front of a blacksmith, where they tried to turn around. The daughter of the blacksmith (Jos de Ligny) was fortunate enough to take a photograph of the vehicle and rocket with her Agfabox from her bedroom window and another from her neighbour's house. The Dutch Resistance sent the 2 photos to England. The rocket she photographed was fired on the 17th of September 1944.
These presentations give the right level of engineering and technical details that I am interested in. Why are these parts designed this way, what materials was used, how it was put together. I would love to say that I have learned a lot about rocket design and function from the videos but I must admit the Robert’s voice is so calm and relaxing that I drift in and out of consciousness while watching them only to wake myself from the sound of my own snoring and to realise that 15 minutes of the video has played while I was deep in slumber. It takes me a number of tries to get through one video, not from the lack of enthusiasm or indeed from a lack of understanding, but simply because once the voice track starts the lullaby voice inevitably send my curious mind down the soft comfy road to slumberland.
Absolutely fantastic video and analysis. One minor suggestion; this rocket impact may be more accurately described as an in-flight breakup. The term air burst implies that it was intentionally detonated in the air in the same manner as an air burst artillery shell.
I was going to ask a similar thing. He implied that the rocket broke up in the air although the warhead didn't explode until it hit the buildings. Is this what his final assessment was?
Mr. Dalby, I have been watching these for years- multiple times. These videos are an absolute treasure and I’m sure are going to be viewed for many decades if not centuries. This series is important to the understanding of multiple important aspects of our history as human beings. Highest acclaim from me.
Very impressive on the info in photos. I just saw photo and you showed me how they can get so much info out of a photo. I now understand how the can figure out crashes of planes , space shuttle accidents etc. Thank you. I learned alot.
Very interesting and sobering investigative video without the jingoism. Thank you for that. One point you made at the end regarding the air tank has me wondering. If indeed the vehicle broke up in it's decent to the ground, wouldn't one expect a bit more of a trail of debris along it's flight path, especially those lighter or less aerodynamic parts that would decelerate faster due to air resistance and fall short of the final impact site. I appreciate that debris of all sorts in the streets was common so could have been ignored, apart from the tank that was bomb-like. However given the involvement of the military and no doubt intelligence services at the scene, it seems odd that no more was found in the wider search. Their findings may have been kept secret of course so we shall never know.
Very disappointed that I'm just discovering this channel. I can't express how informative and important these videos are for public consumption. Truly an exhilarating time to be alive. Thanks for the hard work!
Well done to you and the team. This must have been hundreds of hours work and you pulled out some magnificent detail. And you prove time travel is never invented! The way you find and expose the clues had me riveted, brilliant work, well presented and a charm to watch and listen too. I am about to binge watch everything else V2 related on your channel.
Thank you, I was born 3 years later in Barking. V2 (Big Ben) Incident No. 755 Tuesday 13th February 1945 18:52 - In its fifth major incident in two weeks, West Ham was struck again, in Queen Street, Stratford where 28 died . * * * * * * * * * Noted :- Because Queen Street is no longer there (destroyed), and was yards away from my Gran's corner Cafe on Windmill Lane, Stratford, West Ham, London. (now/was a Community Centre and in audio range of the Pub) (This backs up a family story and memories of the 1/2 mile square bombsite wasteland resulting the attempted destruction of Stratford Rail Work (were my father worked))
Using Google Maps to put it in current day perspective, was fascinating, if a little chilling. The reason why there are more recent buildings in the road. Washington Road, the reason for the orange roof tiles. My grandparents house was affected by the shockwave of one of these missiles. Interesting to see the photos, and what you manage to get out of them. I remember as a youngster, the many "bombsites" in SE London during the 50's and 60's. "Gone for a Burton"! :) Air burst, the tank, could it have fallen off on approach? Causing a failure.
There were even other highly innovative rocket scientists working at Skoda Pribram plant for the SS, they developed the huge solid fuel V101 Skoda designed Rocket that was tested at 16.03.1945 in Rudisleben Arnstadt from Polte 2 plant, this one was flying radio guided over North Norway to come down near the North Pole region. it only missed its projected target by 6 Meters! That was quite something back in 1945, It was designed by a Dr.Büdewadt and Dr. Teichmann. V-101 was a solid fuel rocket, with THRUST 100 tons (not the amount of fuel). Range more than 1800 km, altitude 200 km. Designed by Dr. Büdewald and Dr. Teichmann at Skoda together with the SS group led by Hans Kammler. Length 30,26 m, width 2,82 m, weight 146 tons.
Thoroughly enjoyed that. Thankyou. Awoke at 4am with toothache and watching this took my mind off it as it was fascinating from start to finish. As indeed all your videos are.
Please, please, do not chop these investigations, or anything else you do, into smaller parts. This has been totally enthralling all the way through and saves a lot of searching around for this part and that part which never seem to connect up. Thank you.
I have a few A4/V2 pieces in my collection (probably the biggest or the only collection in Brazil!). And I learned from your video about the turbopump, the value of the “pressure contact piece” (druckkontakt) of the gas generator, which I have a copy!
This kind of analysis (both the target site and the weapon) is exactly what I have wanted to see. Excellent! Please let's have more of these. Thank you.
The blast damage would actually be higher if the V2 broke up in flight - because an intact V2 would bury its warhead deeper in the ground (up to 10 m). The tumbling warhead would be more likely to be subsonic when it detonated much higher in the house structure than the Mach 2 of an intact rocket. Similar effects were seen with the Gulf war SCUD’s (a very direct descendant of the V2) breaking up over Israel.
I was thinking the exact same thing. If the warhead buries itself into the ground just before it detonates would attenuate the shockwave due to the cratering and mostly upward direction of the explosion.
I love your V2 videos, they are wonderfully informative on this amazing (for it's time) technology! I’m not sure I see the pipe damage being caused by vacuum created by a closing fuel valve at a height of 30 km as mentioned at 1:05:38. It’s not vacuum that crushes pipes, it’s outside pressure. At 30 km altitude, the outside atmospheric pressure (the force that would be available to crush the pipe) is very low, less than 50hPa, and maybe more like 25 hPa. That is just 2-5% of sea level pressure assuming a perfect vacuum inside the pipe. One would imagine that the pipe temperature would have to be well into its softening range for it to be this soft.
Fascinating detective work, every thing but the PC's name in the picture. My mother and family lived in East Ham though out the war and must have witness the rocket strike but as is so common of the time it was never mentioned.
Just recently discovered the channel. The V2 stuff is first class. I particularly enjoyed this video. So much research and informed opinion. Thanks so much. I can't wait for the next set of photos.
Hi Tony and thanks for posting, glad to hear you liked it. if you haven't already done so, please don't forget to subscribe - it helps us more than you might think and ensures you won't miss our next upload on the A4/V2 missile. KR A&NTV
I was so glad to see some new content. I should have been in bed hours ago, but your content is so good and compelling, I'm still here having been glued for the whole duration. I'm sick and tired of watching 10 minute videos that don't have time to get into detail about stuff, so seeing your two hour time line only increased my interest. As usual your quality content kept me watching. No doubt the two survivors were well glad it was an air burst though they would never have known. Shouldn't it be possible to put a name to the two identified policemen ? The one in the photo and the other that chalked his ID on the found cylinder ? Just a bit more detail behind the story - it wasn't the same police man was it ? Wasn't the first K12 and the other K24 ? I'm sure you probably know but didn't use for other reasons, Google Earth the app has an adjustable 'time line' so giving you access to previous years photos. I don't know if it covers East London, but the whole of the South East of England was photographed by air recon, and this has been integrated into Google Earth giving access to that air recon project, for 1940. It was done for the most up to date information pending the expected Invasion of England. The quality often isn't all that great, but it is there and freely available.
Congratulations on producing one of the most interesting videos I have ever seen on You Tube. Superb detective work. Excellent clear presentation. Loved the comparisons between the photos and real debris/relics. Well done! :-)
Thank you for all of these very good videos. You startet my interest in space and astronomy as well as rocket science. I love your didactical approach and it is allways a pleasure to listen to your voice. Please continue your videos. You do have a real fan from Berlin, Germany.
Regarding the vacuum damaged pipework. If the V2 is re-entering at supersonic speed the tail end around the engine would be in a low pressure area / vacuum. This would get inside any pipework which has an open end over a period of time. Then when the V2 suddenly stops / breaks up, the outside of the pipes would be exposed to atmospheric pressure, and any thin wall pipes which are unable to instantly equalise pressure due to only being fed through restricted small holes would be crushed.
Fortunately, before watching this video I had already seen the others in which you very clearly explain how the V2 works, so I loved watching this video because I understood all the forensic work perfectly. Thanks and congratulations.
Wonderful video - thank you so much. I recently read Michael J. Neufeld's biography of von Braun. In the biography, Neufeld mentions an incident which took place sometime in 1945 in which von Braun was being driven by an RAF driver from his lodgings in Wimbledon to central London during his debriefing by British authorities, presumably as part of Operation Backfire. One morning on the journey the RAF driver stopped at a V2 impact site to allow von Braun some time to inspect the site. No mention is made if this was at the instigation of the driver or von Braun or what conclusions von Braun drew from his inspection, if any. Anyway, the details of the incident are most likely lost to history but perhaps there are more details to be uncovered? And again thanks for your wonderful A4/V2 videos.
A superb video, the very "aircraft crash investigation" of one of the first ballistic missile attacks; well researched and presented in a scientific way. Good to hear your original A4 air tank is still in tune, as the cost of re-tuning has skyrocketed nowadays.
Just found your channel again after all my channels suddenly had no subscription. Anyway totally fascinating video . Don't know how else to describe it. Thank you. Will look forward to seeing more.
Incredible documentary . I've had a deep interest in the whole of the space program since I was a child in the Sixties. My Mum lived through the the Blitz on Belfast.In her last year's of her life, she recounted very graphically what she saw as a 14 yr old .It was really horrible. Also when living in London during the early Eighties, I was shown around Clapton Common , by a local, lines of houses that had been taken out by German sticks of bombs. These homes where replaced with newer but ugly buildings.Street after street we walked following the fall of the bombs. It was in Pitcairn Street to begin with. But it's all gone now. Thank you for you work.
First one I have seen but absolutely fascinating/riveting and I want more! Can’t comment on changed format as haven’t seen previous ones but loved this one. Excellent history and amazing forensic technical explanation. Off to share with friends I know will feel the same!
Interesting analysis of the pics of the first hit - both pics look to be taken within minutes/hours of each other by the same photographer - same quality of photograph, same truck, same crane, and the relationship between the two is the same. Once you realize that the row of rubble isn't in the middle of the road but all on the left hand side it all makes sense. The first pic taken from the right hand side of the road, the second picture from the left hand side. The stretcher is what gives it away plus that distinctive broken tree branch. Love the detailed analysis of the photos - brilliant!
Having read some of the preceeding comments might I add some clarification? The cause of the collapse of the piping was given as water hammer effect. This is correct, Wasserschlag often has this effect. Overpressures due to thrust termination were minimised by using a two stage reduction of fuel flow in fully controlled termination but some fault conditions, such as activation of termination by the turbo overpeed switch when, for instance, oxidant depletes before fuel, could result in sudden, full fuel supply termination leading to sudden, severe Wasserschlag underpressures. There were always problems with in-flight failures; these were never resolved. During vertical recovery firings the severe re-entry motions were analysed. This led to two modifications. Rock-wool filling was placed between the warhead and its aero-shell to reduce heat sensitisation of the warhead by aerodynamic heating. Reinforcement panels were fixed to the missile body to stiffen it against the stresses of re-entry flexing. These measures did help to some extent but failures continue to the end of the use of the A4. The early in-flight failures can be left for another day. The post-apogee, in-flight failures can be categorised as premature warhead event, aerodynamic break-up and aerodynamic break-up followed by premature warhead event. Opinions vary but probably at least 30% of firings came into these categories. In these early days of ballistic missiles it was assumed that following thrust termination the missile would fly like an arrow. This was an error. An arrow has a heavy pile at one end and draggy fletchings at the other. The A4 had a heavy warhead at one end and a heavy engine assembly at the other; more of a dumbell than an arrow. At thrust termination the roll-controlled missile was not given a set roll nor a set attitude profile. Roll was not controlled nor induced. upon realignment to the flight direction when experiening a post apogee increase in dynamic pressure it was liable to fall into a roll-yaw resonant flight regime. This would result in a small area of the warhead being subject to aerodynamic heating as the same part of the structure would always be aligned to the airflow. It would also lead to very severe flexing of the structure. Once entering the roll-resonant regime it would usually become locked into it until failure. Successful missiles were sensitively fuzed; designed to detonate at height that might be thought of as very low air-burst. This was to maximise blast damage and to prevent all the explosive energy being wasted below ground. The firing examined showed none of these characteristics. The fall of the air bottle along the flight path is good evidence of an aerodynamic breakup. It would have a high ballistic coefficient. Low Beta debris may have drifted further from the flight path. The video did not show enough evidence to determine whether the warhead detonated following impact but it did not appear to detonate at roof height. It is worth noting that because of the territory gained by Market Garden after 17th November no A4 was ever fired at London from such a short range. The incresed range of further firings would have led to an increase in the failure rate. Talk of the effect of the jet stream must await another day.
I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your video on Big Ben 22. I think you have got it right that this incident was an airburst, but I don’t recall you explaining why there should be an airburst. Perhaps I can shed some light on this matter by quoting a couple of anecdotes. My good friend Ernie, just a bit older than me and now sadly deceased, told me that in the latter stages of WW11 he and his school friends used to lie on the grass in a park in Ilford and watch the A4/V2s coming over to London at night. I thought this a bit strange at the time, but when I learnt that the A4 had a stability problem after fuel cut off and, as a result they started tumbling, I realised what he had seen. The twinkling that he reported was the rocket tumbling and the flashes of light were the incandescent glow of the carbon veins. Who knows, one of these might have been Big Ben 22! Another example of a tumbling rocket was that which came down on it’s side in the mud of the Medway and stayed there until last year, with it’s warhead and detonator intact, surprisingly it was used by the local sailing club as a mooring point until somebody raised the alarm and it was removed by the Royal Navy. So, perhaps an airburst occurred when the rocket broke up and somehow detonated. By the way, as a child I can remember playing in a playground in Deptford that had a remarkably intact A4 combustion chamber in the corner of the park. I suspect this is long gone. Thanks once again for a fascinating video.
What a breath taking collection of information on that V2 technology. Amazing work. One question: didn´t Germany ever considered the use of a solid propellant as is usual today in Boosters ? Maybe not based on the present Amonnium perchlorate and Hydroxylated Rubber ( as is the case of modern Space |Shuttle boosters) but maybe some other chemical combination ? They would have no need of the turbopump and all these complicated pumps. Again, Congratulations from Brazil.
Fabulously detailed examination of details and painstaking detective work. Completely enthralling. However the first part of the story I found very depressing in that the area in question in 2021 now looks a squalid third world pit compared to it's leafy lined roads back in 1944. Did we REALLY win the war?
Brilliant job. May I ask what suite of tools you're using for these excellent videos? I recognize Photoshop, of course, and I think you're using the Hotkey Cursor Highlighter. I suspect you're using OBS? How are you using the mouse to pan around the image, and what effect are you using to fade your web cam into the lower left corner? Kudos in any event.
Excellent forensic examination of the pictures. Disastrous for the secrecy of the V2 program. Shows why the RAF was so reluctant to allow H2S radar sets to be used in bombing attacks in enemy territory. Cavity magnetrons also being rather robust items that may have survived a downing of the aircraft.
This is incredible. I just found your channel from the turbo pump part 1. You should get the software they use on TV where all you have to do is click enhance 3 times. Good work fine sir
Only just discovered this channel and I found this 'feature length' detailed analysis of Big Ben Incident 22 completely fascinating. I live in London and very interested in the Blitz, in fact it affected me personally as my grandfather only survived the explosion of a 'parachute mine' in Blackheath due to taking cover under a sturdy dining room table. Otherwise my mother (and me) wouldn't be here now. Quite amusing that Robert states at the start this is 'one of a series of short videos', so goodness knows how long the 'long videos' are :)
What a lovely bit of enthusiastic detective work. You are so much better with the V2 than the telescope adjusting video. I was expecting a message from a slave written in blood. Now I have seen some unlikely stuff that the first man in space was ad unwilling as that Laika dog. No wonder the photos were illegal because deprived of feedback rickets would continue with limited performance. Check out Pedley Street E1 WW2 because there's loads of good archive and Crossrail had to snake through possible UXB's all over. Only building left standing in 5 acres Weaver House built post WW1 2 foot thick walls concrete floors and massive water tanks in lofts.
I visited the Deutsche Museum many years ago. At the time they had a V2 standing up so that on four floors you could look into the rocket from openings in the side. A very interesting way to display an artifact like it.
Hello. Thanks for producing this video. I found it amazing to watch as you breakdown the various details in these pictures. A trip to England is on my bucket list from Canada and I hope to visit some of these museums and see first hand these horrific yet interesting pieces of history.
