When Syrians Fought the British (Meteors vs Canberra, 06 November 1956)
Vložit
- čas přidán 17. 11. 2023
- During the 1956 Suez Crisis, British recon airplanes from Cyprus were regularly overflying Syria and Iraq, looking for a large number of MiG fighters that had supposedly been delivered by the USSR. Syria had no MiGs at the time but they had twelve Gloster Meteors purchased from Britain a few years earlier. The country had no early warning radars either but an Egyptian pilot instructor and a Syrian army officer came up with a plan to intercept British Canberra reconnaissance aircraft. A future president of Syria also participated in what would become the last RAF airplane shootdown by an enemy fighter.
Main source:
- Tom Cooper and David Nicolle - Wings Over Sinai: The Egyptian Air Force During The Sinai War, 1956
Support the channel on Patreon:
/ showtime112
Donate via Paypal:
www.paypal.com/paypalme/showt...
Join our Discord server:
/ discord
Mystery Bazaar by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
#militaryaviation #militaryaviationhistory #royalairforce - Věda a technologie
8:48 'air brakes' actually mean wheel brakes. Also, in reality the Meteor turned over but that proved extremely hard to replicate so the scene in the video is much less dramatic.
"Air brakes" on a Gloster Meteor are on top of the wing. It's an aerodynamic aid to help slow the plane as it has no drag from a propeller.
So many historical details in your reconstructions. Lots of research, and always shown without picking a side, this too is such a rare quality these days!! Thank you
I appreciate your positive comment, thank you!
I was on the squadron when the PR9 Canberra was shot down. It was kept very secret at the time
It was a PR7. PR9 not operational at the time.
I'm surprised the Canberra didn't take advantage of it's superior ceiling to stay out of reach of the Meteor fighters. There was an embarrassing Ex conducted over the North Sea in the 50's. Canberra's flying from Holland mounted a simulated attack on the east coast and Meteors were sent to intercept. In order for them to reach the Canberra's, the latter were instructed to reduce altitude- several times before the Meteors could reach them! A few years ago, I visited Croome Park, which had RAF Defford in it's grounds during WW2. The museum has many interesting exhibits, one of which is a Canberra cockpit. I met and spoke to a former Canberra pilot and spoke to him at length. He told me about the RAF training activity in Iran back in the 1950's and 60's. He was involved in exercises and told me an amusing anecdote about a conversation in the RAF officer's Mess post exercise with Iranian fighter pilots. One of them was boasting about how they would have shot down all the Canberra's in a real scenario, to which the chap I met replied, "You were only able to reach us in your Meteors because we flew far lower than out maximum ceiling. In reality, the only thing your could intercept would be thin air!!"
The Suez Crisis was a short-lived conflict, but many interesting types of aircraft were involved.
At least it kept us out of Vietnam
Oh yeah, I definitely need to cover it some more.
Was the end of the British Empire.
Congratuations. Another excellent video
Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it!
EXCELLENT....AS USUAL. Keep working on these aviation historical events. Take care and THANKS.
Thank you Pablo! More stuff coming up as usually.
Good video. The Meteor wasn't that outdated at the time, and was a contemporary of the Canberra. Having said that, this was still a tough mission to pull off. Both aircraft ended up being used for decades with different airforces in different roles.
The Suez crisis, well it humiliated the UK in the end, and as far as I know participated minimally if at all in the Vietnam war in response. This could have helped the US quite a bit in that war as the Brits were much better at counter insurgency operations that the Americans were.
The Brits and the French actually took Suez back and had pretty much defeated Egypt. But the Americans forced them to hand the Suez to Egypt and leave.
Thanks for the comment! Meteors were relatively outdated, that's true. But they needed to be well placed to intercept Canberras (without a proper GCI radar guidance).
Thanks for the vid 😊
Thank you for the comment!
Great video 👍!
Thanks!
Nice video! There is something special in this early jet era aircrafts.
Thanks! I agree this was an exciting era.
I recall the British politician Norman Tebbit's autobiography, "Upwardly Mobile". He'd been an RAF pilot on Meteors in the early 50s.
He wrote about interception exercises, with RAF Meteors versus RAF Canberras.
The Canberras were faster than the Meteors.
Canberras were generally quite fast but in this case, it seems that Meteors were well positioned and they could make at least one pass. Thank you for commenting!
I was quite surprised by this as well. The Canberra should have been able to pull out climb away from a Meteor without difficulty.
@@Chilly_Billy To intercept a bomber, ground control must vector the fighter so that it's slightly ahead of the bomber. No good arriving a little too late and chasing the bomber for 20 minutes. I recall from Bob Stanford Tuck's biography how difficult it was for his Hurricanes to pursue fleeing Ju 88s. The Luftwaffe had the same problem when intercepting Mosquitos.
Thanks!
I appreciate your donation!
Topp Work 👍👍👍 greetings Ringo from Berlin Germany
Thank you for the comment and for another donation!
This a great video. Were there any other dog fights in the Suez Crisis of 1956? If yes do you plan on making a series about it?
Thanks! There was plenty of air combat between Israeli and Egyptian aircraft. I plan to cover most of it in the future.
Muito obrigado pelo vídeo! Parabéns 👏👏👏👍🙏🇧🇷
Thank you for watching and commenting!
New Showtime 112 !!
Released 52 minutes ago !!
I can't watch it right now but I promise to later.
I have a feeling it's going to kick a**.
Edit 2 day later: it did !!
Didn't know about this. Must be pretty scary flying over enemy territory with no defensive weapons.
Quite probably. Escape is good but being able to fight back is reassuring.
The last RAF aircraft shot was Tornado, on January 19, 1991 by Iraqi MiG-29 piloted by Jameel Sayhoud with a R-60 missile.
That's not officially confirmed as a loss to an enemy fighter.
Interesting, especially facts about Assad. And probably you will probably prepare movie about Canberras during the Falklands War
Thanks! Yes, this is planned for some future video as soon as I gather detailed information.
Please make a video about the air combat in Argentina between a Gloster Meteor and a Texan in 1955, there is a detailed account of the confrontation in the book "La Revolucion del 55" by Isidoro Ruiz.
Another excellent video. I wonder what happened to the officer who reprimanded Assad when the later became president. 😂
Thanks! You know, that idea crossed my mind too :)
Could you make a video on the Vichy French air attacks on Gibraltar in 1940?
Perhaps, I need to do some research. In fact, I really need to do a video about the French Air Force in WW2. There was plenty of action in the 1940 campaign and there are proper airplanes available in WT.
@@showtime112 i tried doing some research online and i found some dates and apparently the french used the Leo 451 bombers to attack Gibraltar, but probably some other types aswell.
I understood at the time that the Canberra had been at a high level but was returning from a flight close to the Russian border. However it was all hush hush then. The aeroplanes would often return with ice on the belly fuel tanks when they returned from High altitude flight into the moist Cyprus air.
you should make a the battle of Britain video
I agree.
Very nice, but be careful with your subtitles: "The flights ceased" not "seized. " Very interesting, from a historical pint of view. Thanks.
Thanks for the correction! I use automatically generated subs and then I correct what needs to be corrected (usually, a lot). I miss a thing or two sometimes.
@@showtime112 I understand. Good work anyway.
Fantastic story, two british aircraft became enemy, like during the Faklands war when a english Harrier GR3 shot down a argentine Canberra. Thank you very much for speaking about the Suez crisis on 1956 which is a forgotten conflict nowadays. At this time Irak was under british influence and the Lebanon under french influence. During this period, the english thought that they have an aerial superiority with the Canberra, no one plane could shot down it. There were special operations where the Canberra flew over USSR to take picture and no one mig could reach it.
On 1958 the F-8 CRUSADER could easely intercept it, the aerial superiority of this bomber was over.
Thanks for another comment! I intend to talk a lot more about the Suez Crisis of 1956 in the future. I have some more grinding left in War Thunder to do in order to unlock the airplanes I need 😁
Bonsoir je vois cette vidéo demain. T'as fait une erreur, le canberra argentin a été abattu par un Sea Harrier avec Aim9.
Le canberra construit sous licence était Martin B57. La version recco c'est B57F avec 2 petit réacteurs en plus en.pod sous ailes . Plafond 22800 m
@@dominiqueroudier9401
Ok c'est enregistré.
@@jeannezehner9450
Good point 👍
GR3 was ground attack although
fitted with sidewinders for self-defence
@@jeannezehner9450 Canberra B110 abattu par Lt Curtis Penfold FAA sq801.
Équipage éjecté mais disparu en mer. Sur cette vidéo,non signale quelques heures après un Canberra RAF s'est écrasé a atterrissage à Chypre, panne de moteur, le Canberra a des problème pour voler en dyssimetrique avec moteur HS. Pilote a tenter de poser alors qu'ils pouvaient s'éjecter. Décrochage en courte finale.. E
En début vidéo, certains mystère 4 utilises sont arrives avec cocarde française sur les qu'elles ont a peint... une étoile.. ils ont été rendu quelques temps plus tard !!!
Syrian early warning system of police stations, ground lookouts and telephones worked against RAF 😂
Lo-tech but effective :)
....where do you get all these plane models from?? Meteor and Canberra on DCS????
It's not DCS, it's War Thunder.
Ah, sorry....yes, i think I made that mistake before! Anyway, top stuff!
@@theymusthatetesla3186 Thanks!
tents are explosive in War Thunder
The start of the funeral procession of the British Empire. The fact that the US just gave the word and the UK had to back down showed how the world was no longer a place where we/the uk had much clout. Very interesting video, By the way.
The U.S. opposed imperialism and foreign occupation apart from Hawaii and The Philippines and the Pacific Islands and
@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935 and, and ,and :)
Thank you very much for the comment! I'm actually looking forward to covering this conflict some more in the future.
It started well before that .
@@johnnypickles5256 Well, yes it did. You are correct. But I remember in ‘Tinker Taylor’, I think it was, where the ‘spy’ talked of the Suez crisis as being the final death throes of the empire. That always stuck with me. It was an attempt to act all tough and it went all Pete tong.
Surprising given that the Canberra is faster than the Meteor and can fly higher. Complacency maybe?
If a slower airplane is well placed, it can still intercept a faster aircraft. It looks like the two Meteor flights each had a chance to make a single pass That second flight took their chance.
Curious how the Syrian aircraft were considered as “outdated” since they were not even 10 years old. f-15 Eagles are almost 50 years old. 🤔
Was a different time , obviously. Aviation tech was developing fast in those yrs… it kinda hit a plateau later
The pace of aircraft development was incredible back then. Today, you can update the avionics and missiles and your aircraft is relevant again.
@@showtime112 that’s what I’m saying
@@showtime112no 21C new a/c are stealthy that cant be an upgrade
A little bit older than that as a type, actually. Meteor was a late-WW2 aircraft, so roughly comparable to the Me-262 and the Shooting Star. Since those times, types like the F-86 Sabre and the Mig-15 had appeared and fought and were not actually even the top line of fighters anymore, with the Mig-19 for example being introduced the previous year and the F-104 just behind the corner. That said, the Meteor was still very much in use around the world, even Israel at the time still used it as a frontline fighter. So I think 112 referred to 'outdated' more in the sense that it probably couldn't hold it's own against modern top line fighters of the time and couldn't easily shoot down modern bombers and recon aircraft except in favourable circumstances, not that it was totally useless yet as a fighter.
This part of Suez crisis was unknow by me. Thé same day another RAF Canberra crash at landing in Cyprus following engine failure on approach. Canberra have issue with disymmetrical Lost of power. Each engine far from thé other and shape of wing
It's not strictly part of the Suez Crisis but it is very much connected. I really want to cover some more of it in the future. Thanks for watching and commenting like always!
In Britain, Canada and most other commonwealth countries, Lieutenant is pronounced as LEF-TEN-ANT. Something for your AI robot voice to learn:)
I am aware of that but I just can't make my R2D2 voice say that because if you wanted F to be pronounced, why didn't you just put it there?!? 😁😁😁
WHY MIDDLE EAST IS THE FOCAL POINT FOR SUPER POWERS SINCE LONG TIME AGO UNTIL NOWADAYS?
Various reasons. In the past, that's where goods from the Far East was coming through. More recently, it's things like the oil and Suez canal.
OIL IS NUMBER ONE...HAHA...TQ@@showtime112
9:17 and thus began Hafis all Assads "complicated" relationship with the Palestinians.
I never made that connection myself but there might be something to it 😁
Why put the silly 'celluloid film' scratches on it? Just looks silly.
The line of 'silliness' is very subjective. Many people think that simply using a 'game' to reenact historical events is silly and childish. In fact, they get deeply offended when they come across one of my videos. They want 'real' footage (as if such a thing actually existed).
Not exactly a fight, shooting down an unarmed recon aircraft at low altitude. Historically interesting anyway. Y
Information is deadly.
So why not a phonetic spelling?
👍
Hvala!
How did the Syrians have Meteors?
They ordered them from the British in 1950. Britain was friendly with most Arab countries until the 1956 Suez Crisis.
👍👍👍
Thank you for the comment!
Why the British have tenacity to send there recon planes unescorted and unarmed in a hostile Israel arab war 1949 and this Syria 1956, put the pilots at risk ?
Its more the altitude that shocked me, the Canberra was more than capable of flying high enough to render itself immune to interception from the fighters the Syrians had available. A Meteor shouldn't have been a threat.
@@FallenPhoenix86 true the Meteor fighter was weak fighter against MIG 15 in the Korean War ironic the same British design engine power plant was used by these fighters, the action in Syria seem to be a trap to get the Arab union at the time for an invasion by the French British alliance for action against Egypt and Syria government removal of a hostile anti western government why the over flights in Syria unescort, provoke the Syrian gov at the time and now present day conflict to remove the antiwestern Assad government.
They might have thought, there's no way they can intercept us with what crap we sold them 😁 But then again, they believed Syrians had MiG-15s.
This was partially defined by the weather (and that is hard to show in War Thunder since there are very few options to set is). There was a general overcast so the Canberra flew under it and it could easily climb into them if needed. Near Damascus, the clouds began to break. Overcast in War Thunder is very very low and it wouldn't look right.
I think it was just arrogance and a degree of contempt for those air forces. I believe a similar attitude prevailed pre WW2 with many Americans believing that the Japanese didn't make good combat pilots because they were carried on their mothers back as babies, which left them with a poor sense of balance. If that story is even true that is.
Love the Arab flute.
I'm glad to hear it, thanks!
Not the first Britains to experience getting some of our own back. I knew President Assad was a accomplished pilot and also think the King of Jordan was to.
Yeah, when you sell weapons you never know if they can be used against you someday. King Hussein of Jordan was a pilot too, that's true.
The complacency and arrogance of the RAF, flying predictable patterns, is shocking.
Yes, underestimating your opponent always has consequences.
Yeah, I thought that. I think it’s a bit of racism, to be honest. Same mentality that led us/UK getting our arses handed to us by the Japanese in ‘41 and ‘42.
No, it's just British.
They knew the Syrians didn’t have radar so assumed it wasn’t an issue
@@AB-uw3ossalty much
Allepo jerry seinfelds relatives home town 🤣
❤❤ 🇬🇧 🇬🇧 ❤❤
I believe the last RAF jet shot down in combat was a Tornado GR1 by an Iraqi Mig-29 during Desert Storm 1991
Claim and loss dates don't add up.
Not officially recognized by RAF.
@showtime112 well the downed pilot appeared as pow ,how much do you want the raf to admit ??
@@johnnypickles5256 could have been lost to SAM's or flack fire. Or even technical fault or pilot error not an actual aircraft kill. Either could result in a captured pilot.
@@showtime112 Original source turned out to be a guy who made things up!!
british😏
Video molto informativo, ottimo. Lavoro! 👍🍀👻👽😈🤖👾😊
Thank you very much for this positive comment!
The Recon Canberra should have been flying 10K feet higher than a Meteor was capable of, strange they were flying so low. 🤔🤔
I think there was a relatively low overcast and Canberra flew just under it so it could observe the targets but still be able to hide in the clouds if needed. But at one point, the clouds cleared.
On May 28, 1982, in the Malvinas War, a PUCARA aircraft under the command of Lieutenant Miguel Gimenez shot down a Westland Scout AH-1 helicopter, number XT626/DR ,making that shootdown the last air-to-air loss for the UK.
He said that this was the last time an RAF aircraft was shot down in air to aor combat. The Westland Scout was an ARMY helicopter not an RAF aircraft.
@@masaukochitsamba7808 who called you?? aircraft is generic, airplane have wings.
@@pirucho33 If you did not want a response then you should not have commented and my.point was that the helicopter belonged to the Army and he stated that the aircraft shot down by the Syrians was the last RAF aircraft. The RAF and the army are two different branches of the British military.
I'm not sure if you are trying to 'correct' me or are you just adding information. Anyway, the video said this was the last Royal Air Force aircraft shot down by an enemy fighter. The Scout helicopter in question belonged to Royal Army.
@@showtime112 I'm not trying to correct you, I just understand that RAF and RA have the same flag and the same boss
👍
Hvala na komentaru!
👍
Thanks Chups!