There is a place, in the Hudson River Valley of New York State, a little town called Rhinebeck, where for the past 60 years, these planes are flown every weekend from April to October unless there's lightning and horizontal rain. Every Saturday is the Pioneer and Classic aircraft show, and every Sunday is the WWI show. Once you've smellt the castor oil burning, You'll never forget it. Put it on your bucket list, it's worth a long trip to see this live.
you can download this via a free app and then adjust the levels on your free video player. Turn down or off the left or right channel, or you can complain on here and literally nothing happens.
This has always bothered me,why the need for a loud music background making it so hard to hear what is being said,common with many docos,one or the other please.
I was reminded of film footage ca. 1933 in which the German pilot Ernst Udet was in a biplane a lot like this one. He killed the engine mid-flight, looped twice and dead-sticked to a soft landing. No one else ever attempted it before or since.
In over 50 years of study on this era in aerial warfare I have never heard the story of Albert Ball landing and playing dead. He DID like to stalk an opponent, get underneath him, crank his Lewis gun down and rake him with gunfire at point blank range.
3:03; Lt.Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davies& Captain(shown here)Major James Thomas Byford McCudden 2 of 56's greatest pilots! R.I.P. lads as you deserve all the best Heaven IS. Thank you,I have not forgotten you☮💜💜🖖
I agree. I wonder sometimes if creators actually watch and listen to their rendered videos because this is an increasing issue. I was thinking it was my old battered ears so I'm pleased I'm not the only one!
I do take exception to the idea that high command didn’t allow parachutes because they would encourage pilots to jump. Their main concern - shared by many pilots - was the parachute would add weight to the craft that would impact the handling.
The German plane is a Pete Bowers designed "Fly Baby" home built plane designed around 1961 or '63. They fly like a Piper J-3 Cub..I know because I built one...LOL
Very well researched and shot - IF YOU COULD HERE THE COMMENTARY !!!! The "background" sound effects are so loud - I could not hear most of the facts and information - such a shame
I just started watching this documentary but in the red Baron dairy he grew to hate the war and after every flight he refused to speak to anyone so he was not as cold blooded as the doc makes him out so far he was actually a happy jocky guy
His narrated diary conflicts this. His hunting passion is satisfied for 15 minutes after downing an Englishmen. Speaks about them as if game not a fellow pilot.
It’s sad cause I agree that you are right yet there are people like Joachim Castan who have made an entire mission out of convincing people he was nothing but a cold blooded killer. I find that to be very unjust.
48:30 not allowing parachutes was criminal and an insult to the pilots...presuming they would jump prematurely. Imagine the number of skilled pilots that would have flown and fought again
At the very least, the'Donkeys' should have regarded their pilots as a recyclable asset at the very least. They had spent money on their training after all, and the men had accrued valuable experience which would have been invaluable had they not been sacrificed to a pig-headed policy.
A somewhat inglorious ending for the Baron to be shot down by an infantryman. At least he was able to make an emergency landing with his plane injured.
That sounds like a rather unfair slur on those magnificent Aussie infantrymen who had halted the German advance of spring 1918. And one of their number succeeded where the allied aviators failed.
The pilot who never gets mentioned anywhere is Rene Fonck 75 kills. Frenchman. Top allied ace of both world wars. He flew Spad-7-13,s of course. Expert shot. He passed away 1953. During WW-2 top 31 allied aces were all Soviet. Top Allied ace was Ivan Kozedub 62 kills. He survived. This rarely gets mentioned.
And still Manfred von Richthofen shot down 86 planes. The other advantage of the FOKKER DR-1 was that the gun being synchronised with the propellor, so the pilot shot through the filed of the propellor which gave the pilot the opportunity to aim precisely. Non such as Dutch.
It's to be expected with this 'reality TV star historian,' Alexandra Churchill as presenter. Lots of "smart" moronic comments and tugging the heart strings doesn't leave much room for essential and monumental Historical Facts like Dicta Boelcke. But I guess that's the standard of university degrees these days… SMH
54:14;If I recall correctly Lt.John Leach of A-Flight(Ball commander)lost his leg and South African C-Flight Commander Captain Henry 'Duke' Meintjes was shot through the wrist.Meintjes was an experienced pilot who was with 60 Squadron the year previously in 1916. 60 squadron was initially flying Morane Saulnier type N french monoplane fighters,then the french built Nieuport 17 and eventually the SE5/A.
We are very lucky in NZ to be home to Sir Peter Jackson's collection of WW1 aircraft! He as an entire Richthofen squadron of triplanes as well as Camels, SE5s and Bristol fighters - they fly regularly and he backs the Classic Fighters show at Omaka aerodrome near Blenheim, NZ every 2 years!
Nothing new to me, but why let Richthofen fly a Fokker Dr 1 in 1916 agaiunst Hawker flying an SE 5a? In reality, it was an Albatros for Richthofen and an Airco DH2 for Lanoe Hawker. And there are more errors. Such as an SE 5 with a Morse mach e, whereas these were only used in Corps airplanes such as the BE2, FE2 and RE8. Or assuming that the Avro 504 K was the end of the line, whereas its offspring was used until the end of the thirties.
You have to remember outside the big cities where the car become common I have seen photos of Horse and wagon still being used up to the 1930's. Mechanics were still a foreign idea
But a wonderful look into very brave pilots in one of the hardest jobs in the hardest war, respect to the soldiers sailors and pilots of both sides. War is hell and generally caused by stupid politicians for even more stupid reasons and waste the lives of the youngest and fittest of their generations as well as the resources that could build a much better world. If only people especially the politicians could learn to solve problems without this needless slaughter and waste. The troops themselves are blameless, heroes every one, they follow the orders given and do the best they can, the lucky and skilled live to tell the tale, though most would rather keep silent out of horror and also out of respect for fallen friends and often their foes, as a sensible soldier knows they didn't chose to be there either. Raise a glass and think of the poor warriors that lost their lives in both the great war and the second world war, and all the ones that made it back alive. True heroes one and all.
They were talking about them modifying the SE5's. The airframes were built on site in shops. I'm guessing the engines and that limited how many planes they could build. Uncomfirmed kills Red Baron might have had 100+ unconfirmed/ unable to verify. Another reason why he might have had tag's and parts from planes as souvenirs. French ace landed and took stuff off the plane because he was so mad he never got credit for any kills.
The Germans typically had more of their kills confirmed than the Allies did, because most of the air fighting was on the German side of the trench lines, due to the Allies being on the offensive more often. Also, the prevailing wind was from the west, so it blew fights that way no matter where they started.
One of the facts of aviation in those days you have not seen in the movies is that before the days of pressurized fuel lines, doing maneuvers of any kind ran a risk of running the engine dry temporarily and the engine would stall out. Castor oil was added to the fuel and this helped keep the fuel flowing but the fumes from the castor oil blew back into the pilots face and often caused uncontrollable diarrhea!. many pilots therefore had "trapdoors" installed in their planes...and they would try to "hold it" until over enemy lines...but this was not always possible I learned to fly a vintage Piper J3 "Cub" when I was a kid, and with a very light weight and a 65 HP Continental engine, the plane had many of the same flying characteristics as the early WW1 fighters. A small wind would blow your plane all over the sky and crossing paved areas and towns on a warm day might throw your plane hundreds of feet into the air as sudden as if you had just hit a whole 'nuther envelope! The guns on those planes all had recoil and recoil, like turning will decrease the speed of a plane and edge it closer to a stall speed, so unless you were in a controlled decline of altitude, it was near impossible to fire your guns in a turn...so the smarter pilots flew in straight lines to avoid the stall. When looking at the numbers of "victories" certain pilots had, it is important to check how many of those planes were actually sitting duck observation planes...as opposed to fighter planes which had more of a "chance", (in theory anyway).. German ace Werner Voss was a much more skilled ace IMHO as most of his victories were fighter aircraft, whereas near half of Richthofen's were "sitting ducks"... Voss would later be forgotten in Germany in spite of his lofty ace status...because Voss was a Jew.
True about Voss Bob,quite rightly once the Nazis had lost their power the German Republic reinstated Werner Voss,Wilhelm Frankl(KIA flying an Albatros DIII 8/4/1917 at Jasta 4), Ludwig Hanstein,Rudolph Windisch(disappeared believed murdered by French troops after he'd surrendered following being shot down in 1918),Hans Klein-in short there's a few of 'em.
Actually many WWI aircraft did have pressurized fuel systems. Camel, S.E.5, Albatros, DV.II and so on. Castor oil was not added to the fuel. It had a separate tank and line. It was a "total loss" lubrication system and did nothing to aid in fuel flow. Also, this system was for aircraft with rotary engines, not the water-cooled in-lines and Vee's. The effects of castor oil on the pilots is grossly exaggerated and if you can show me a picture of a WWI aircraft with a "trapdoor", as you put it, I will give you $5.
Funny how noone ever mentions that they used caster oil back then. The engines would constantly spray a little bit of oil and pilots would inevitably get it in their mouths and nose. So every time pilots would fly , they would get horrible diarrhea.
Would have been a great documentary. The over powering "music" ? The long tones and beeps and the like in the combat scenes, like nails on a chalkboard. Way to loud. Hear almost nothing of the narration. It's never to late for some sound editing. Ruined an otherwise awesome production.
Albert Ball was more like an assassin who would sneak up on the enemy pilot from below and shoot at his opponent's planes belly without giving him the opportunity to fire back. One understands from his memoirs that he himself realized that he was more of a killer than a warrior. Albert Ball tested the S.E.5 but rejected it as too clumsy and instead flew the nimble little Nieuport 17 throughout his career.
What a great series of videos! My only complaint is the aucion on the music, guns is louder than the narrator's audion and he can barely be heard and at times what he says is lost.
@@FelixstoweFoamForge There's a new thing...it's called CGI. They use it a lot in air combat movies now. They could have portrayed the action as it occured. The people that are watching these videos are people that are interested in and knowledgeable about this era in history. They cringe when the storytellers get it so wrong. They could have stuck to the facts here....and by the way, Richthofen was flying an Albatros when he shot down Hawker, not a Fokker Triplane (so they got it wrong TWICE). It was the Baron's 11th victory.
Richthofen received the order from the German high command to paint the airplanes of the Jagdgeschwader 1 in protective mimicry. For that purpose some buckets of paint in red, blue, yellow and green color had been sent (in order to mix them to achieve the desired mimicry effect). Because early aviators saw "mimicry" as a form of cowardice, they interpreted the order: "Airplanes have to be colored with these paints" to their own "advantage": painting one airplane in red, another one yellow, one in green, one in blue and many variations of that. One detail however was avoided: mixing those colors (which was not explicitely demanded in the order). This way they received the label "Flying Circus" by their enemies.
The German squadrons were highly mobile, regularly moving, at short notice, aircraft, tented hangers and setting up their airfields from one sector to another as needed, hence like a ‘flying circus.’ The colourful paint schemes on individual aircraft added to the ‘circus’ look.
Why not do a video on the great French ace, Rene Fonk : est. 120 kills, at least two by causing them to collide into each other when his guns were out of ammo . ?
This video is spoiled due to the background noise overpowering the dialog. Such an obvious error that seems to happen constantly! It's clear that the videograpghers are not reviewing their final product.
Wow, not much changed with artillery, only now with drones, and real time coms instead of a few seconds delay... The bones of artillery spotting in ww1 still played out today...
Had any aircraft ever been used in battle in 1914? or were us British the last to use aircraft in combat?, I think that the answer is nobody had, so why not just say that instead of making us British to be behind the curve, and even if we did slightly lag it wasn’t for long. One of the worst things to have been thought in WW1 was the fact that the provision of parachutes for the aircrew was frowned upon by many of the top brass, it was widely believed that it was a inducement for them to chicken out of a fight, more commonly referred to as LMF (Lack of Moral Fibre) in even more plain terms “cowardice”, and that meant that many brave young pilots and observers died unnecessarily, just being prepared to fly in the aircraft in the first place was courageous in itself, but throwing lives away in the First World War, at sea, on the ground or in the air was of no concern to the military hierarchy on either side, thousands of lives could have been saved if the likes of Haig had not been so bloodthirsty and unconcerned about the men actually doing the dying.
George Ridgewell was the third guy I alluded to before mentioned in bringing down Manfred Von Richthofen. It is possible that it was just a bullet from an Australian or English rifleman.That is something that will never be known here as Lewis Machine guns fired a .303 bullet just the same as a Lee-Enfield rifle.
He may have been a gentleman but it did seem that he considered it an extension of his hunting hobby. Germany knew its actions would trigger war in 1914 and 1939. Britain's top ace overthought it and said he was beginning to feel like a murderer.
He wasn't married although he had a sweet heart who he met in 1917 when 56 Squadron returned to London Corney as protection from German bomber raids on London. You might be thinking of the constable-maxwell Brothers. The eldest served in The First World war. His younger brother Michael served in The Battle of Britain. Both survived. There's a book about them.
Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, 25/27 confirmed victories,was with 56 squadron in WW1. He was an original member on active duty with the fresh 56 Sq and their SE5 fighters from April 1917 and survived being shot down by Kurt Wolff(33 victories of Richthofen's Jasta 11)in the same action that Captain Albert Ball was killed in(44 victories&aged 20) on 7/5/1917 during the battle of Arras.This also was Arthur's first experience of combat. Also was James McCudden's wingman in B-Flight(McCudden was B-Flight leader and joined 56 himself in July 1917). Arthur was an Etonian,of Welsh extract and was born and raised in Forest Hill South London. He was killed by Karl Gallwitz of Jasta 2'Boelcke'(probably against numerous opponents as was his wont-a la Captain Ball)on 27 October 1917 whilst leading B-Flight during McCudden's leave absence. 'R.D.',was his monicker to his contemporaries in 56. He 'hung out' alot with Maxwell Henry Coote& Keith Knox-Muspratt and as a triumvirate were known by their peers colloquially as 'the children' as they were the youngest members. Muspratt was 15 and still at secondary school when he began to learn how to fly! Love you lads. R.I.P,God bless you eternal and thank you for fighting for our futures at that time.🏴🏴🏴🇬🇬🇮🇪 A damnable shame most people are ignorant of these facts but I won't forget you.
@@stevejauncey3086 That 'sweetheart' was the daughter,IF I recall correctly,of an officer called Marsden who was the Technical/Gunnery Officer of 56.She was around 10 years old or so not a sweetheat in that sense.Not like Albert Ball and Flora 'Bobs' Young who were 20&18 years old respectively. I think she just reminded him of his younger sister who he was very close to and missing.
I think you're thinking of William Rhodes-Moorhouse VC who's son William Jr was KIA during the Battle of Britain flying Hurricanes with 19 sq(?) defending London m8. I've had a pretty bad head injury(2002)and my memory fluctuates somewhat.
Like how prior they need step ladder to lean into cockpit & fix up the boiling-over engine, Then these guys walk around and can see their shoulders above cockpit. No doubt traded out the H-S V-8 liquid cooled engine for an Continental opposing 4-cyl air cooled. Bet it needed airworthy cert before allowed to let any other pilots take it up. It's the same color, has the same roundy thingies, so no big changes.
There is a place, in the Hudson River Valley of New York State, a little town called Rhinebeck, where for the past 60 years, these planes are flown every weekend from April to October unless there's lightning and horizontal rain. Every Saturday is the Pioneer and Classic aircraft show, and every Sunday is the WWI show. Once you've smellt the castor oil burning, You'll never forget it. Put it on your bucket list, it's worth a long trip to see this live.
Sound effects are way too loud making a lot of the commentary hard to make out
you can download this via a free app and then adjust the levels on your free video player. Turn down or off the left or right channel, or you can complain on here and literally nothing happens.
@@Oscuros Sheesh they're only giving criticism, that's also pretty inconvenient
Exactly the comment I was about to make. I actually had to stop watching half way because it was to much of a strain to listen!
@@Oscuros Lols shots fired 😂😂
I was gonna say that. Tried closed captions but non. Excellent docu drama though.
Can you increase the music and sound effects. You almost made it loud enough to drown out the narrator but I can still hear him
This has always bothered me,why the need for a loud music background making it so hard to hear what is being said,common with many docos,one or the other please.
Great documentary !
I have always been fascinated by this period in history, and especially WWI air campaigns.
THIS DOCUMENTARY ON WORLD WAR 1 COMBAT PILOTS IS EXCELLENT ! THANK YOU !
I was reminded of film footage ca. 1933 in which the German pilot Ernst Udet was in a biplane a lot like this one. He killed the engine mid-flight, looped twice and dead-sticked to a soft landing. No one else ever attempted it before or since.
In over 50 years of study on this era in aerial warfare I have never heard the story of Albert Ball landing and playing dead. He DID like to stalk an opponent, get underneath him, crank his Lewis gun down and rake him with gunfire at point blank range.
I have 25 and have read and heard of it a few times. Wasit true? Who knows.
The music is too loud making what would have been a really interesting history lesson unwatchable.
Really wanted to see this one, but gave up... It's literally impossible to hear the narration half of the time because of the sound effects :/
Exactly
Also gave up. Pity.
Alexandra Churchill is a very smart and knowledgeable young lady..... always enjoy any programme she's involved with...
Must be related
Is that your hormones talking? Seems like it
3:03;
Lt.Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davies& Captain(shown here)Major James Thomas Byford McCudden 2 of 56's greatest pilots!
R.I.P. lads as you deserve all the best Heaven IS.
Thank you,I have not forgotten you☮💜💜🖖
I can almost hear what they are saying, turn the music up another notch and I don't have to worry about what they are saying.
I could hear what they're saying just fine.
Great video. I wish they would consider the music and sound effects when doing the voice over, sometimes you cannot hear what they're are saying.
I agree. I wonder sometimes if creators actually watch and listen to their rendered videos because this is an increasing issue. I was thinking it was my old battered ears so I'm pleased I'm not the only one!
I do take exception to the idea that high command didn’t allow parachutes because they would encourage pilots to jump. Their main concern - shared by many pilots - was the parachute would add weight to the craft that would impact the handling.
Several comments about the sound. I have bad (and old) hearing but when I turned off the subwoofer it was clear enough for to not have to backtrack.
The German plane is a Pete Bowers designed "Fly Baby" home built plane designed around 1961 or '63. They fly like a Piper J-3 Cub..I know because I built one...LOL
Did you really tho
Very well researched and shot - IF YOU COULD HERE THE COMMENTARY !!!! The "background" sound effects are so loud - I could not hear most of the facts and information - such a shame
I just started watching this documentary but in the red Baron dairy he grew to hate the war and after every flight he refused to speak to anyone so he was not as cold blooded as the doc makes him out so far he was actually a happy jocky guy
..and a martyr.
His narrated diary conflicts this. His hunting passion is satisfied for 15 minutes after downing an Englishmen. Speaks about them as if game not a fellow pilot.
It’s sad cause I agree that you are right yet there are people like Joachim Castan who have made an entire mission out of convincing people he was nothing but a cold blooded killer. I find that to be very unjust.
48:30 not allowing parachutes was criminal and an insult to the pilots...presuming they would jump prematurely. Imagine the number of skilled pilots that would have flown and fought again
Basically an engine worth more than a human life. Rest made of cloth wood and cables.
At the very least, the'Donkeys' should have regarded their pilots as a recyclable asset at the very least. They had spent money on their training after all, and the men had accrued valuable experience which would have been invaluable had they not been sacrificed to a pig-headed policy.
A somewhat inglorious ending for the Baron to be shot down by an infantryman. At least he was able to make an emergency landing with his plane injured.
That sounds like a rather unfair slur on those magnificent Aussie infantrymen who had halted the German advance of spring 1918. And one of their number succeeded where the allied aviators failed.
He Was given a full military funeral...a different time of gentlemen pilots
Then most pilots had a somewhat 'inglorious' end since most were killed by flak or accidents(training or combat).
Equipment cannot get injured only living things. Equipment gets damaged.
Shot down by a Canadian Roy Brown.
Great video -- but, again, nobody seems to mention Billy Bishop in these videos (72 victories / VC)). I guess because he survived?
...no, because he was Canadian
@@Jigger2361 William Bishop, VC, CB, DSO & Bar, MC, DFC, ED fought alongside 25 other aces in 60 Squadron RAF. He deserves a mention.
@@bobblehat6603 Thank you
The pilot who never gets mentioned anywhere is Rene Fonck 75 kills. Frenchman. Top allied ace of both world wars. He flew Spad-7-13,s of course. Expert shot. He passed away 1953. During WW-2 top 31 allied aces were all Soviet. Top Allied ace was Ivan Kozedub 62 kills. He survived. This rarely gets mentioned.
@@puffandpass1364 ...
But the question is what these guys had going for them. Was it skill? -- was it luck? -- or some combination of the two?
Amazing how fragile these machines were.
Canvas over wood frame.
bad sound had to turn it off
The Folker DR-1 Triplane could fly slower and turn tighter than it’s adversaries. A huge advantage over the “state of the art” aircraft of the day.
The ability to fly slow is nice, but the inability to fly fast is a huge disadvantage. The DR.1 was slow.
@@johntischler1634 light and kite-like, the DR-1’s climbing ability was unsurpassed.
And still Manfred von Richthofen shot down 86 planes.
The other advantage of the FOKKER DR-1 was that the gun being synchronised with the propellor, so the pilot shot through the filed of the propellor which gave the pilot the opportunity to aim precisely. Non such as Dutch.
@@47rintin1 He only got credit for 80, so he shot down 80.
The Sopwith Camel was a better plane.
No mention of oswald boelcke the man who invented modern air combat tactics and inspired the baron.
It's to be expected with this 'reality TV star historian,' Alexandra Churchill as presenter. Lots of "smart" moronic comments and tugging the heart strings doesn't leave much room for essential and monumental Historical Facts like Dicta Boelcke. But I guess that's the standard of university degrees these days… SMH
@@NorwayT Thank you.
That looks like shuttleworth hangers and cardington hangers are those huge ones...
54:14;If I recall correctly Lt.John Leach of A-Flight(Ball commander)lost his leg and South African C-Flight Commander Captain Henry 'Duke' Meintjes was shot through the wrist.Meintjes was an experienced pilot who was with 60 Squadron the year previously in 1916.
60 squadron was initially flying Morane Saulnier type N french monoplane fighters,then the french built Nieuport 17 and eventually the SE5/A.
Excellent documentary! Brilliant.
Voss fragged like 4 of them or some such before they got him. He was turning head on into planes on his 6.
We are very lucky in NZ to be home to Sir Peter Jackson's collection of WW1 aircraft! He as an entire Richthofen squadron of triplanes as well as Camels, SE5s and Bristol fighters - they fly regularly and he backs the Classic Fighters show at Omaka aerodrome near Blenheim, NZ every 2 years!
Turn the background music down , I can't hear the narrator
Nothing new to me, but why let Richthofen fly a Fokker Dr 1 in 1916 agaiunst Hawker flying an SE 5a? In reality, it was an Albatros for Richthofen and an Airco DH2 for Lanoe Hawker. And there are more errors. Such as an SE 5 with a Morse mach e, whereas these were only used in Corps airplanes such as the BE2, FE2 and RE8. Or assuming that the Avro 504 K was the end of the line, whereas its offspring was used until the end of the thirties.
This is a great perspective from the British point of view.
You have to remember outside the big cities where the car become common I have seen photos of Horse and wagon still being used up to the 1930's. Mechanics were still a foreign idea
Yep amazing film, to bad film makers post 2000 make the sound and music so loud you can't hear the dialogue
Aerial photos of the Cardington sheds. Lovely!
Nice documentary, but the sound mixing is off; sometimes you can’t hear the narrator well enough, with the added engine, weapons, and music.
The background sound is very loud so that I can't hear the commentary.
The blasted sound effects down out the narration
But a wonderful look into very brave pilots in one of the hardest jobs in the hardest war, respect to the soldiers sailors and pilots of both sides.
War is hell and generally caused by stupid politicians for even more stupid reasons and waste the lives of the youngest and fittest of their generations as well as the resources that could build a much better world.
If only people especially the politicians could learn to solve problems without this needless slaughter and waste.
The troops themselves are blameless, heroes every one, they follow the orders given and do the best they can, the lucky and skilled live to tell the tale, though most would rather keep silent out of horror and also out of respect for fallen friends and often their foes, as a sensible soldier knows they didn't chose to be there either.
Raise a glass and think of the poor warriors that lost their lives in both the great war and the second world war, and all the ones that made it back alive.
True heroes one and all.
UN Agendas.. and before that the League of Nations..
Hear hear Sir,couldn't have said it better 24 months and 'Covid 19' later
I hear a lot of politicians have stock in weapons manufacturers or their outdated city burns up.
They were talking about them modifying the SE5's. The airframes were built on site in shops. I'm guessing the engines and that limited how many planes they could build. Uncomfirmed kills Red Baron might have had 100+ unconfirmed/ unable to verify. Another reason why he might have had tag's and parts from planes as souvenirs. French ace landed and took stuff off the plane because he was so mad he never got credit for any kills.
The Germans typically had more of their kills confirmed than the Allies did, because most of the air fighting was on the German side of the trench lines, due to the Allies being on the offensive more often. Also, the prevailing wind was from the west, so it blew fights that way no matter where they started.
Shout out to the Australian gunner (Cedric Popkin I think) that shot down the Red Baron.
No I believe it was Canadian Roy Brown.
Lanoe Hawker was flying a pusher type aircraft in his dogfight with Richthofen - distinctly different from the aircraft used for his portrayal here.
One of the facts of aviation in those days you have not seen in the movies is that before the days of pressurized fuel lines, doing maneuvers of any kind ran a risk of running the engine dry temporarily and the engine would stall out.
Castor oil was added to the fuel and this helped keep the fuel flowing but the fumes from the castor oil blew back into the pilots face and often caused uncontrollable diarrhea!.
many pilots therefore had "trapdoors" installed in their planes...and they would try to "hold it" until over enemy lines...but this was not always possible
I learned to fly a vintage Piper J3 "Cub" when I was a kid, and with a very light weight and a 65 HP Continental engine, the plane had many of the same flying characteristics as the early WW1 fighters.
A small wind would blow your plane all over the sky and crossing paved areas and towns on a warm day might throw your plane hundreds of feet into the air as sudden as if you had just hit a whole 'nuther envelope!
The guns on those planes all had recoil and recoil, like turning will decrease the speed of a plane and edge it closer to a stall speed, so unless you were in a controlled decline of altitude, it was near impossible to fire your guns in a turn...so the smarter pilots flew in straight lines to avoid the stall.
When looking at the numbers of "victories" certain pilots had, it is important to check how many of those planes were actually sitting duck observation planes...as opposed to fighter planes which had more of a "chance", (in theory anyway)..
German ace Werner Voss was a much more skilled ace IMHO as most of his victories were fighter aircraft, whereas near half of Richthofen's were "sitting ducks"...
Voss would later be forgotten in Germany in spite of his lofty ace status...because Voss was a Jew.
True about Voss Bob,quite rightly once the Nazis had lost their power the German Republic reinstated Werner Voss,Wilhelm Frankl(KIA flying an Albatros DIII 8/4/1917 at Jasta 4), Ludwig Hanstein,Rudolph Windisch(disappeared believed murdered by French troops after he'd surrendered following being shot down in 1918),Hans Klein-in short there's a few of 'em.
Actually many WWI aircraft did have pressurized fuel systems. Camel, S.E.5, Albatros, DV.II and so on. Castor oil was not added to the fuel. It had a separate tank and line. It was a "total loss" lubrication system and did nothing to aid in fuel flow. Also, this system was for aircraft with rotary engines, not the water-cooled in-lines and Vee's. The effects of castor oil on the pilots is grossly exaggerated and if you can show me a picture of a WWI aircraft with a "trapdoor", as you put it, I will give you $5.
Voss was almost certainly not Jewish. Not that it matters.
Funny how noone ever mentions that they used caster oil back then. The engines would constantly spray a little bit of oil and pilots would inevitably get it in their mouths and nose. So every time pilots would fly , they would get horrible diarrhea.
They should create a video called “Fighting Billy Bishop, and the rest of those Canadian pilot hosers, eh?”
Billy bishop deserves respect. He was even air marshal in ww2
Would have been a great documentary. The over powering "music" ? The long tones and beeps and the like in the combat scenes, like nails on a chalkboard. Way to loud. Hear almost nothing of the narration. It's never to late for some sound editing. Ruined an otherwise awesome production.
Albert Ball was more like an assassin who would sneak up on the enemy pilot from below and shoot at his opponent's planes belly without giving him the opportunity to fire back. One understands from his memoirs that he himself realized that he was more of a killer than a warrior. Albert Ball tested the S.E.5 but rejected it as too clumsy and instead flew the nimble little Nieuport 17 throughout his career.
One does whats necessary. It's war.
The Canadian pilots were by far the best. They had many aces for a small country.
He did switch to the se5a later on.
Wow, look at the Rodax motors!
What a great series of videos!
My only complaint is the aucion on the music, guns is louder than the narrator's audion and he can barely be heard and at times what he says is lost.
put subtitles on
he was the best and nobody can take it from him (im a brit). skill has no country and the baron had it in spades
What is it with these WWI videos, horrible sound mixing?
A lot of the best Allied pilots in WW1 were Canadian. Not much mentioned in this video about that!
They have been and by far the most formidable pilots of ww1among all nations. This is not an opinion but an absolute fact.
Barker, Bishop, Collishaw, MacLaren - all superb warriors in the air!
Lanoe Hawker was flying a DH2 when he fought von Richthofen NOT an SE5a. That is a GLARING mistake that any aficionado would pick up on.
Because of course the producers have access to a DH2. C'mon buddy, cut the guys some slack.
@@FelixstoweFoamForge There's a new thing...it's called CGI. They use it a lot in air combat movies now. They could have portrayed the action as it occured. The people that are watching these videos are people that are interested in and knowledgeable about this era in history. They cringe when the storytellers get it so wrong. They could have stuck to the facts here....and by the way, Richthofen was flying an Albatros when he shot down Hawker, not a Fokker Triplane (so they got it wrong TWICE). It was the Baron's 11th victory.
@@stlrockn I take your point! But it's just so cool to watch the real stuff fly. (And, yes, I know, a DII, if im not mistaken).
On all side this very young lads, heroes and fighter pilots.
Albert Ball didn't have 67 victories. He is credited with 44.
Wonder how they managed that mistake
So ridiculous not to give them parachutes. High commands thinking was so seriously skewed.
3:02&3:04;Lt.Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids & Captain James Thomas Byford McCudden;B-Flight 56 Squadron!
Richthofen received the order from the German high command to paint the airplanes of the Jagdgeschwader 1 in protective mimicry. For that purpose some buckets of paint in red, blue, yellow and green color had been sent (in order to mix them to achieve the desired mimicry effect). Because early aviators saw "mimicry" as a form of cowardice, they interpreted the order: "Airplanes have to be colored with these paints" to their own "advantage": painting one airplane in red, another one yellow, one in green, one in blue and many variations of that. One detail however was avoided: mixing those colors (which was not explicitely demanded in the order). This way they received the label "Flying Circus" by their enemies.
The German squadrons were highly mobile, regularly moving, at short notice, aircraft, tented hangers and setting up their airfields from one sector to another as needed, hence like a ‘flying circus.’ The colourful paint schemes on individual aircraft added to the ‘circus’ look.
les avions sont reels! bravo!!
We desperately need Docs on Armee de la air in both world wars.
Overall sound 🤨
Cannot watch. Sound way too loud. Can't understand.
I could understand just fine
It's impossible to hear half of the commentary, the sound engineering is all messed up.
Sagittarius Rising is a classic.
Why not do a video on the great French ace, Rene Fonk : est. 120 kills, at least two by causing them to collide into each other when his guns were out of ammo . ?
120?
120 estimated. Most of his victories were over enemy lines. He is certainly an under-documented ace.
Fonck claimed 142 victories. His official count is 75. The rest were unconfirmed.
You never see much on him.
I had to put this in a video editor and turn down the sounds effects so i could hear the commentary
This video is spoiled due to the background noise overpowering the dialog. Such an obvious error that seems to happen constantly! It's clear that the videograpghers are not reviewing their final product.
@32:02 mark the helicopter skid ruined the shot
I think one of the reasons those pilots were so young (17 years old) is because they were lightweight.
my husband flew Red Arrow
I'm so tired of imagining this somehow I have done it since the beginning of time
Wow, not much changed with artillery, only now with drones, and real time coms instead of a few seconds delay... The bones of artillery spotting in ww1 still played out today...
It still seems impossible that machine guns can fire through a spinning propella just mind blowing.
Humans are so clever sometimes.
Hmm.....the human capacity for destruction seems almosr limitless...
Yeah, I liked this but I agree with the foist commenter
enjoyed
How many pictures did this camera box able to take while flying ?
The background music drowns out the dialogue.
21:38 Roland Garros plane please.
We shall see
Cut the music so we can hear you speak
nice but audio is completely wrong
Had any aircraft ever been used in battle in 1914? or were us British the last to use aircraft in combat?, I think that the answer is nobody had, so why not just say that instead of making us British to be behind the curve, and even if we did slightly lag it wasn’t for long. One of the worst things to have been thought in WW1 was the fact that the provision of parachutes for the aircrew was frowned upon by many of the top brass, it was widely believed that it was a inducement for them to chicken out of a fight, more commonly referred to as LMF (Lack of Moral Fibre) in even more plain terms “cowardice”, and that meant that many brave young pilots and observers died unnecessarily, just being prepared to fly in the aircraft in the first place was courageous in itself, but throwing lives away in the First World War, at sea, on the ground or in the air was of no concern to the military hierarchy on either side, thousands of lives could have been saved if the likes of Haig had not been so bloodthirsty and unconcerned about the men actually doing the dying.
Once again the music and sound effects drowns out the narrator.
George Ridgewell was the third guy I alluded to before mentioned in bringing down Manfred Von Richthofen.
It is possible that it was just a bullet from an Australian or English rifleman.That is something that will never be known here as Lewis Machine guns fired a .303 bullet just the same as a Lee-Enfield rifle.
Yes it will never definitively be known who shot the red baron down
Albert Ball had 67 victories?!?
No,44 'official'.
That’s a strange mistake for this documentary to make.
They aren't really throwing those planes about though are they?
Hard to hear with all the sounds effects !
What difference to a war did it make 2 lone aeroplanes shooting at each other in the middle of no where NONE !
The background noise in this video makes the commentary unintelligible.
Yeah,just like yo mama
Whats up with the sound
British documentary. "Richtoffen: This man's a killer". British aces: Sweet homeboys loving peace.
He may have been a gentleman but it did seem that he considered it an extension of his hunting hobby. Germany knew its actions would trigger war in 1914 and 1939. Britain's top ace overthought it and said he was beginning to feel like a murderer.
British pilots not allowed parachutes (4000 killed in training alone). I don't know the figures for other nations.
Did not Rhys-Davis' son fly with No. 56 (F) Squadron in the Battle of Britain?
He wasn't married although he had a sweet heart who he met in 1917 when 56 Squadron returned to London Corney as protection from German bomber raids on London.
You might be thinking of the constable-maxwell Brothers. The eldest served in The First World war.
His younger brother Michael served in The Battle of Britain. Both survived.
There's a book about them.
Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, 25/27 confirmed victories,was with 56 squadron in WW1.
He was an original member on active duty with the fresh 56 Sq and their SE5 fighters from April 1917 and survived being shot down by Kurt Wolff(33 victories of Richthofen's Jasta 11)in the same action that Captain Albert Ball was killed in(44 victories&aged 20) on 7/5/1917 during the battle of Arras.This also was Arthur's first experience of combat.
Also was James McCudden's wingman in B-Flight(McCudden was B-Flight leader and joined 56 himself in July 1917).
Arthur was an Etonian,of Welsh extract and was born and raised in Forest Hill South London.
He was killed by Karl Gallwitz of Jasta 2'Boelcke'(probably against numerous opponents as was his wont-a la Captain Ball)on 27 October 1917 whilst leading B-Flight during McCudden's leave absence.
'R.D.',was his monicker to his contemporaries in 56.
He 'hung out' alot with Maxwell Henry Coote& Keith Knox-Muspratt and as a triumvirate were known by their peers colloquially as 'the children' as they were the youngest members.
Muspratt was 15 and still at secondary school when he began to learn how to fly!
Love you lads.
R.I.P,God bless you eternal and thank you for fighting for our futures at that time.🏴🏴🏴🇬🇬🇮🇪
A damnable shame most people are ignorant of these facts but I won't forget you.
@@stevejauncey3086 That 'sweetheart' was the daughter,IF I recall correctly,of an officer called Marsden who was the Technical/Gunnery Officer of 56.She was around 10 years old or so not a sweetheat in that sense.Not like Albert Ball and Flora 'Bobs' Young who were 20&18 years old respectively.
I think she just reminded him of his younger sister who he was very close to and missing.
I think you're thinking of William Rhodes-Moorhouse VC who's son William Jr was KIA during the Battle of Britain flying Hurricanes with 19 sq(?) defending London m8.
I've had a pretty bad head injury(2002)and my memory fluctuates somewhat.
@@medusashubby804 Thanks I named my son Rhys in his memory. I don't think my wife would have liked Arthur.
Great vid but the sound was Mickey Mouse. Id sort that out ASAP to eneble your channels' growth. Great content BTW.
Who narrated this? Also hi Dad :D
i rather be fighter pilot in ww1 one then live in the trenches at least when you not in the air you lived quite nicely
Shocking sound balance. Poor show.
Arthur Rhys-Davids was killed by Lt.Karl Gallwitz of Jasta 2.
It’s a little disingenuous to present a scaled down replica of an SE5a as the real thing. Quite different flying qualities.
Like how prior they need step ladder to lean into cockpit & fix up the boiling-over engine, Then these guys walk around and can see their shoulders above cockpit. No doubt traded out the H-S V-8 liquid cooled engine for an Continental opposing 4-cyl air cooled. Bet it needed airworthy cert before allowed to let any other pilots take it up. It's the same color, has the same roundy thingies, so no big changes.
Background noise is horrific cannot hear the narrator.