Operation Millennium: The RAF Mission That Terrified The Germans in WWII...
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
- 1942. Nazi tyranny has engulfed Europe, the western Soviet Union and North Africa. Against this backdrop, there seems to be only one force who can take the fight to the heart of Hitler’s Third Reich - RAF Bomber Command. But results have been poor, and the cost has been high. As a new commander takes charge, he brings with him a bold new plan that he believes will be the first knock out blow of the war, and to deliver it, he plans to send over 1000 bombers to hit a single German city. This is the story of Operation Millenium - the first 1,000 bomber raid. Welcome to Wars of the World.
00:00 Introduction
01:04 Arthur Harris
03:39 A Bold Plan
11:41 Operation Millenium
16:42 Results
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Narrated by: Will Earl
Written & Researched by: Tony Wilkins
Edited by: James Wade
History Should Never Be Forgotten...
My old man was there as a Sergeant Pilot in a Halifax, by my estimation during the course of his tour of 30 raids over Germany he dropped 180 tons of bombs. Bailed out once received the golden silk caterpillar brooch from Irwin which I still possess, ’pranged’ two aircraft in one landing due to fog. Me n mum lucky he survived, he finished his flying career with VC10’s. Am I proud? Too right I am.
Too right you should be. What a man.
@ingerlander Yes sir,you should walk with an extra twist in your step,I do.I had five uncles who fought in WW2.One in the pacific,two from north Africa to the german surrender,and one who was captured at Normandy on the 7th of june 44.He was sent to dresden and had to pull dead civilians out of the rubble them.One year after he returned home,he committed suicide.
I also served in the U.S. Army for 12 years in the tank corps from 1983 to 1995.
Bloody Oath
My dad won the brooch as well becoming a member of the caterpillar club like your dad, bailed out over France on his 29th op from a Halifax but captured , I have his brooch as well
can never give enough thanks and respect to each and every man,and women,that served our country with valour and determination in order to fight for the freedom and lives of people not even born then..
Freedom cost's an unbelievably heavy price but in reality doesn't exist yet again as the world is at war in 2024
We defeated the wrong enemy in WW2... Look at clown world now.
You NOSE rules you.
I just got sick in mouth from your defeatest brainwash
@@adambane1719 i assume u mean the pro plastacine idiot ?
A little tale about Arthur Harris.
Arthur Harris was a man who liked to get things done and didn’t appreciate many of the inventors who came to him with daft ideas, especially those he felt were trying to reinvent the wheel.
This stemmed from his experience in the First World War when in 1916, the then Major Arthur Harris was leading a squadron of fighters in England whose job it was to bring down German Zeppelins. An inventor was sent to him to try out a new idea. This was to dangle an explosive charge like a football on a long line under a fighter, which then flew over a Zeppelin so that the football grenade hit the Zeppelin, much to the mortification of the Germans.
Harris tried it out himself and found that the long clothesline dangling underneath was more of a menace to the plane than the bomb might be to the target.
‘So why not’, he said to the inventor, 'dispense with the clothesline and just drop the grenade?'
'Ah, that's a good idea,' said the inventor.'Let's try that'
'Just a minute, Harris said. 'If you're going to drop it by itself wouldn't it be better to streamline it so it'll fall faster and more accurately?'
‘Yes, yes,' the inventor said. 'Excellent. Let's do that.’
‘Just a minute’, said Harris once again and pointing to his plane standing nearby continued, 'What the hell d'you think those are under the wings?'
'Those' were little anti-Zeppelin bombs….
Harris was quite protective of his crews and knew full well the dreadful losses they suffered. He gets castigated for the bombing of Dresden especially, but it’s not often made clear that he didn’t order the attack on that target. Neither did Churchill.
It is important to remember that the request to bomb Dresden, and several other targets, was made by the Soviet high command, based on a Soviet intelligence report that there were one, possibly two German armoured divisions at Dresden, on their way to reinforce the Eastern Front. Deputy Prime Minister Attlee authorized the Dresden raid while Churchill was en route to Yalta in February 1945. Stalin’s first question to Churchill upon his arrival in Yalta was, “Why haven’t you bombed Dresden?”
So the raid went ahead. Unfortunately, the Soviet intelligence was wrong and the Soviets subsequently happily denounced the attack as an Anglo-American war crime. This wasn’t cleared up until the mid 1980’s when an elderly Russian General who in the war had been deputy to General Aleksei Antonov, the Soviet Chief of Staff confirmed the story.
I’ll tell you another little tale about Harris. The raid on Nuremberg in 1944. The most costliest raid in terms of crew and craft, flown in a full moon against a head wind. It has been revealed that he ordered the raid to test the accuracy of radio intercept and code reading of the Luftwaffe communications by Bletchley park. Part of the lead up to operations Overlord.
Cared for his crews? Bollocks.
Yours is among the very best comments I've ever read in ten years on CZcams.
Liked.
@@barker262 The raid was a disaster because -
a.) The strong headwinds hadn't been anticipated.
b.) There was no means for a master bomber to direct the other bombers to ignore the schedule.
Unanticipated headwinds also caused problems for B29s over Japan.
Harris said in a TV documentary, "Bomber Command fought a thousand battles. You can't expect to win all of them".
Keith Park cared for his aircrews, having served as a private in Gallipoli in WW1. He is rightly praised for his leadership during the Battle of Britain and other campaigns. Even Park himself made errors, as with assigning BP Defiants to 11 Group.
Hindsight makes us all smart.
@@raypurchase801 Thank-you. Most kind. And as you say, hindsight makes us all smart.
It’s also not often noted that Harris effectively had Bomber Command target decisions taken away from him in the months in the run up to D-Day ~ as had Spaatz, USAAF commander of strategic bombing in Europe. Both men felt their existing methodologies to be more beneficial to winning the war and they both certainly resented being placed under the command of Leigh-Mallory ~ understandably so in my opinion as he was a difficult man who came from a solely fighter background and had precisely zero experience of bombing operations, clashing with both Bomber Command and all of the Americans ~ and despite the fact they were supported in their objections by several other senior Allied commanders, Harris and Spaatz had to be whipped into line, being placed under SHAEF, particularly ACM Tedder, whom Harris did at least have great respect for.
Both Spaatz and Harris believed the targets they were given would be far better suited to the Tactical Air Force medium bombers, Harris in particular being fearful of French civilian casualties at the hands of the heavy bombers. There were 72 transportation targets given to the heavy bombers ~ rail locomotive depots, repair depots and marshalling yards. Surprisingly, Bomber Command’s unescorted night attacks proved to be more accurate than the USAAF escorted day strikes. The 37 RAF targets were totally destroyed, 2 rail yards near Paris requiring just one raid each and with little overall collateral damage. Harris wasn’t slow in crowing about this, although these pre invasion raids in total cost the RAF 198 bombers, a loss rate deemed as ‘acceptable’ by the War Office although certainly not by the families of the lost crews or their squadron mates. War is never pretty, total war even less so.
I’ve read that it’s been said tongue-in-cheek that the RAF carried out precision attacks on area targets whilst the USAAF carried out area attacks on precision targets ~ and I believe there’s a kernel of truth in there.
@@davidpope3943 Videos like this tend to attract three types of person: Nerds like us, numpties and super-numpties who wish the other side had won.
Was there another way? Yes there was. To give in, to give up. To put our morality before survival. That gives the world to those who are tyrannical militaristic fascists. Being a soldier, I'd do anything, literally anything to save my country. Be thankful there has been many like me.
My mother was in the waaf in ww2 operating barage baloons,but she saw a 1000 bomber raid leaving for germany.She said the whole sky was filled with bombers and it was an hour before they had all passed.
My father told me he witnessed the same.
My mother was also a WAAF and she remembered a later raid setting off in 1944 when she was based in Chicksands Priory in Bedfordshire, She said that evening the whole sky appeared to filled with aircraft. My Father who was in RAF ground crew remembered bombers taking part in the 1,000 bomber raid setting off from his base in Lincolnshire. When they returned he said one of bomb aimers upset the Padre when he said he used the Cathedral as his aiming point [ apparently that actually did not mean he was targetting the cathedral].
I was flying in Lancasters in 1953 at RAF Lichfield, 6 ANS (Air Navigation School). The engine noise was so loud conversation was impossible. How our crews were able to do such near perfect aiming is difficult to understand. I helped flood victims in 1953 at Canvey Island whilst on air crew selection tests.
thanks for your service Barry. Semper fi @@barryslaney9713
I used to know a guy who was a rear gunner of a Lancaster and he said they would dread going on these 1000 bomber raids. The squadrons would all converge over Essex and at night time they had no navigation lights, all blacked out and when they approached the area to gather the crews would have to look out for other aircraft. My friend said he witnessed a number of collisions and they would lose quite a number of planes at these meet up points! Not something that is mentioned in the history books. The aire crews would nickname Harris as Butcher Harris for this reason, ordering planes to merge together at a single point.
Another thing that started happening, it was also to relieve tension and remember many of these crews were young lads, my friend told me that when flying to a target often they would see something on the way and I think he said a crew might save a bomb to drop on it on their way back. This soon caught on and soon nearly 1000 bombers would all save a bomb for the same thing. A village might get blasted out of existance for instance. The Germans would complain that the British/Allies were bombing innocent targets and of course British high command would deny it. But then they didn`t know. I was told all this by someone who was actually there.
'Butch' not Butcher
During their briefing, the crews were alarmed at the risk of collision over the target.
Crews were told the high command had considered this possibility.
They had worked out the only collision would be between a Tiger Moth and an Anson.
Lots of laughter ensued.
I have a little book written by my Mother-in-law’s friend Ursula Sherratt. Ursula’s mother was Jewish, her gentile father left them before the war. She grew up in Hamburg and loved her city. As the war ended she met a friendly British Sargent whom she married and came to live here in Yorkshire England. Ursula’s Mother was sent to a concentration camp, whilst Ursula was put to work on a farm and treated as a slave. She witnessed the destruction of her much loved city with mixed emotions. She felt that such bombings were shortening the war, but at the cost of people she knew. Not all Germans were cruel to her, she did receive kindness from some. Ursula was of course just one out of millions suffering under the Nazis. When discussing the shortening of the war by the destruction of German Cities the plight of people like Ursula needs to be considered.
As every WW ll history buff already knows, it took the combination of British night time bombing and American daylight bombing to bring Germany to her knees.
This was before US ramped up ,so they didn't plan for day night ops, then
My mum told me about the 1000 bomber raids, she was German and lived in Hamburg throughout the war. In war you have to do anything to win. My mother didn't hold any malice against the bomb raid,neither did I. But some people, even later born relatives say some things should not have happened. But when Britain knew the tide was turning things changed. In the end more lives were probably saved. Hamburg surrendered to the British 2nd army. There was no fight left in them. Ironically Hamburg was the first German city to get back on their feet. German courts up and running law and order was implemented with German police working again. The British in charge knew that the quicker they got the local government up and running the better.
Thanks for a real good documentation. It's interesting because i live in Cologne and
the grandpa of my wife was a plummer/technican for one of the big air raid shelters in cologne. Being on the receiving end of the countless bombings marked him for his life.
His air raid shelter was the only one that had electricity and running water up to March 6th 1945, when the Spearhead Division took Cologne.
I'm British. I am sorry that it was deemed necessary for your grandfather to endure such hardships, I hope he survived the war and lived long enough to see Europe at peace.
War is war, you fight it with any means possible, only the victor can have a conscience.
@andrewbullivant8936 As Reynaud tried to explain to Petain. "You think you are facing the old Kaiser when you are actually facing the Hun."
I was born in Cologne in april 1961. My father being in the occupying military. I lived there for 11 years between 1961 and 1978. And saw rhe opening of the new Romisch Germanisch museum in the seventies.
One advantage of these bomber raids; a lot of roman archeological objects were found amidst the debris. Let’s not forget cologne means Colony, a roman colony 2000 years old 😊😊
I accompanied my father on a
business trip there in early 83
One of the best museums I've
visited unfortunately at the time
nothing was in English which in
the pre-internet times was a problem
We camped at Cologne on the Rhine just over the bridge in 1983 site we stayed on had 6'x4' photos of cologne after this raid it looked like it was Hiroshima but "Bomber Harris" apparently questioned the logic behind the mass destruction maybe a sort of moral compass moment after the damage was done?
@@user-wl4cl1ph3b
A famous quote from Bomber Harris
on witnessing the Blitz is that
'they'll (the Germans) reap the whirlwind'
I guess he meant business
I was born in 1936 in Cologne and quite remember that raid. My mother and I went walking through the city as was customary after every bombing raid to see the damage and saw what I thought were wooden posts/poles stacked up but which were actually burned bodies.
@@bernhardbruening7546 well you’re the age of my parents . luckily you survived just as my mother survived the multiple Stuka attacks in 1940 and my father the 3 bombings of Merelbeke station in ‘43
Talk about seeing the entire World change, Sir Arthur Harris lived during an incredible amount of progress and development. Born in 1892 and dying in 1984 he witnessed the dawn of fight, the dawn of communication, the dawn of space exploration, and the dawn nuclear power just to name a few. The way the World changed during his lifetime was absolutely incredible. While his planned bombings of civilian population's of German cities remains controversial today it was a mission wholeheartedly supported and demanded by Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
And the blitzed civilians who had survived!
I lived in Düsseldorf in the mid 1960s and knew cologne quite well but never knew it was the victim of the first 1000 bomber raid.
The scene: a portwine house in Oporto, Portugal, summer 1990. I was part of a Royal Naval Minecountermeasures Squadron enroute to France for NATO exercises. Having completed the tour and consumed huge, nay, vast amounts of port, a large number of attractive German students from Cologne Uni arrived. They didnt like port, so we drank theirs. One asked me if I had ever been to Cologne. Said no, but my dad went there several times in 1942, but only at night and was not allowed to stay. She didnt understand the significance and had no clue as to why all the navy guys were laughing. I blame the port.
Loving this new narrator because he pulls me into the video and gets me interested in whatever the topic may be just like the old narrator!
Was there another way? The simple fact is that the NAZIs were not going to be defeated without the massive application of Britain's and America's massive industrial power to destroy NAZI Germany's ability to make War. I am amazed that the narrator would bemoan the destruction of German historic buildings. Is he not aware of the number of historic buildings that the NAZIs destroyed, beginning with the invasion of Poland starting the War and plans to destroy more after they won the War. The only thing that stopped this was the Allied victory.
This is, however, an excellent presentation on the bombing campaign and the thousand bomber raid. Both accurate and comprehensive.
The only problem is the final minute or so. The narrator 1) underestimates the impact of the bombing on NAZI war production and 2) does not understand the relationship between the bombing and ground campaign. For example the Luftwaffe was destroyed in the skies over the Reich by the bomber gunners and he American P-51 Mustangs. The German fighters had to come up to defend their cities and were shot out of the skies by American air power. Have you never asked yourself where was the Luftwaffe on D-Day?. The Allied ground campaign in northern Europe could not have been launched with the Luftwaffe in tact. It was the bombing campaign that made D-Dat possible, both by destroying the Luftwaffe and by cutting the rail connections between the German war plants and the Atlantic Wall.
My great uncle, a Wellington navigator, was lost on his way back from this raid. He was ordered to bail out over the north sea and was never seen again. The piolt managed to get the plane back however.
I would have been crippled with guilt if I was the pilot 💔😢😣
Was he ordered to bail out, so he could take the secret bomb sight with him?
Then if the Navigator bailed out , then its likely that other crew members done the same . Five men averaging 150 lbs at least equals 750 lbs . Enough weight being removed that enabled control to be regained . Not the pilots fault , just bad luck.
@@jameswebb4593 yes but apparently it wasn't the first time for that pilot
@@seanoconnor8843 Do you know the pilots name and rank. To offload your crew into the North Sea twice would in all probability result in a court of inquiry and a charge of LMF.
Until a few days ago I didn't know that USAAF 8th aircrew could just say thats it , i'm not flying anymore. Well that is the inference I got from watching Raymond McFalone interviews of Aircrew.
These massive bombing raids hampered both Germany & Japan in replenishing their war supplies. Enabling the Allies to win the battle as they advanced.
No it just destroyed civilian homes. When Albert Speer took over German production actually increased!
@@iamgermane from D-Day onwards German divisions complained bitterly about the resupply of arms.
As did the Japanese who were unable to build ships, aircraft & munitions.
So, yes, these massive bombing raids effectively strangled the Axis war machine.
I'm just so grateful for those who fought against the evil Germany Nazis. As sad that so many died etc during this raid, we have to remember that these very people voted for Hitler and carried out his evil deeds.
When you wage „all out war“ civilians also become an integral part of the war machine. Whilst it is impossible to compare the likes of the Blitz and Coventry with Hamburg and Dresden in terms of those killed, it should remind all of us that the weapons and delivery mechanisms employed were mostly inadequate for the task that was required of them, hence the collateral damage was high. Also, remember that Dresden was not destroyed on the whim of Bomber Command, but as a direct result of a request to Churchill from Stalin to support the Red Army in order to shorten the war. Agreed, one can argue the use of force was disproportionate, but this can really only be determined after the fact. A comparison with more recent wars shows us that, even with with high accuracy missiles, civilian casualties still remain excessive, but in many cases intentionally so. I would argue that „War is a crime“ and those that forment it are the true criminals, those that conduct it do not necessarily have a choice. My father, an OTU Iinstructor, was shot down on one of these 1000 bomber raids and an acquaintance of mine was a pathfinder pilot on Dresden. They both talked with humility about what they volunteered to do, but also that they had no choice but to do it. This discussion started when Churchill turned his back on Bomber Command in 1945. The fire has been fanned by the claim by the Americans that they bombed only with precision whilst the RAF used area bombing tactics, when in reality there was nothing to distinguish between them. I would very much like to know what armchair critics of this campaign would have done if they were in the shoes of those in command and those who simply enacted the orders given them!
They’d have surrendered and put you in a Concentration Camp.....High Faluting, Holier than Thou, Do Gooders.....the first to argue the toss and the last to volunteer to assist.....absolute disdain for all of them.
Am sure if the germans had be able to muster this many aircraft they would have used the same tactics too.
'War' isn't, in itself, a crime.
War is merely the furtherance of politics by other means.!
@@501sqn3 nevertheless, crimes can still be committed in war…
As a public relations exercise it was a success , in other areas a failure . A high proportion of the aircraft lost were from training commands , which were raided to make up the numbers.
The lessons learned paved the way for the most successful bombing raid over Europe , operation Gomorrah in July 1943 , the RAF destroyed a third of Hamburgs large factories , half of the small facrories , half of the houses . The resultant fire bomb was not the raids intent , unlike the American raid on Tokyo when that was the motivation.
After Hamburg Hitler told his staff , a few more raids like that would stop Germany from continuing the war.
Thanks for this very interesting documentary. It's always fascinating when a doc gets more into the details of a story. Well done.
The medium bomber called 'Blenheim' is pronounced 'Blenem' not 'Blen-highm'. Also the navigational aid written as 'GEE' is simply pronounced as one word, 'G', like the letter, not G. E. E.
Do this really matter for christs sake
To the illiterate, probably not.
Its probably an AI voice
@@stevekay5486The correct English for your comment would be: 'Does this really matter, for Christ's sake?'. And yes it does, and it's a correction not a criticism.
Of course it matters. @@stevekay5486
When men where men not afraid to die for their country and fellow man
My great uncle was killed piloting a B17 over Germany in 1944. I've always been fascinated by bombers and the bombing missions in WW2
Allies: How many bombers do we need for this mission?
The Commander: Yes.
The Nazis sowed the wind and now reaped the whirlwind. Great quote. It had to be done
Sir Winston Churchill's paper on ‘The Munitions Situation’, dated 3 September 1940, set out in 8 points his road map for how Britain should regain the initiative. It began with the bold assertion that:
"The Navy can lose us the war, but only the air force can win it. Therefore our supreme effort must be to gain overwhelming mastery in the air. The Fighters are our salvation, but the Bombers alone provide the means of victory. We must therefore develop the power to carry an ever-increasing volume of explosives to Germany, so as to pulverize the entire industry and scientific structure on which the war effort and economic life of the enemy depends…In no other way at present visible can we hope to overcome the immense military power of Germany…"
Churchill therefore gave priority to the claims of the RAF over those of the army and navy. He had been a proponent of building up bomber forces since the 1930s.
Source: Churchill, The Second World War, Vol II, p.326.
Trouble with this war...the old guard, navy and army, were still coming to terms with this airforce thing, and their heads were still in the past. They should realize, they are all forces of one country and should be working together. Just nothing but fuddy duddies. My grandfather was a CPO in the Australian navy but said there were times the airforce saved a lot of ships. But then grandad, my father's dad, was a modern thinker. It took all three branches one way or another to win that war against Hitler, and also Hirohito, not just the senior service and the army.
The first virtually 1000 b0mber raid was over London in1940 with the nazi who ordered it being insufferably pleased with himself. London was bomber on 57 consecutive nights! My Grandmother was bombed out of 5 places she tried to survive in -which she did, bless her. A common story for Londoners. A rear gunner cousin was killed and his father never recovered from the loss: as with lots of other secondary victims.
Wow! And I thought my nan was lucky to survive two hits. She was out shopping both times the bombs fell.
Could you imagine the logistics of WW II it's mind boggling
Caution. Plenty of hurt snowflakes further down in the comments and replies.
The Germans considered that Guernica and Rotterdam worked well for them! Is it any surprise that Harris would consider that it would work for us? Many German factories producing war materials for them, were situated in built up areas! To destroy the factories meant bombing civilians which would cause many casualties. It could not be avoided but as in the UK, bombing of civilian homes did not massively break their morale. It made them angry and more determined to keep going! The true worth of such raids was that German resources had to be devoted to defence. Thus reducing the people and materials that were badly needed on the Eastern front and else where.
Very, very well done video.
RS. Canada
I'm sure that the question ( Was there another way ) never came up on either side at the time of the conflict. After learning Hitler's "other" ways, most things dreamt up during the war was considered. Millions died in Europe waiting for "another way" to be more destructive. When the population fed the war machine, it wasn't difficult to realize that area bombing had its place that included the civilians as part of the war machine. Hindsight and the lack of precision bombs seemed like the best solution at the time.
What, they weren't dropping aid and telling civilians to get out of the way beforehand? 🤨
A good informative video - thank you!
Great video again gentlemen.
Frenchman here: I am not too sure about the RAF being the first air force in the world by the end of WW1. The French air force started WW1 in 1914 with 22 squadrons of 6 planes each and finished WW1 with 358 squadrons of 10 to 15 planes each. In 1918, France alone produced 24,652 airplanes, fitting also the US forces. At the time (1918) France was, without any doubt, the first air power in the world. We had airplane factories everywhere (one 2km away from my home with a wind tunnel for aircraft development. The name was Hispano-Suiza (now Messier)
The meaning was as an independent force from the Army; not the first air power. The French air force was created in 1934. France was the innovator for much of WW1 and French aircraft were chosen by the US. Britain started slowly as usual but at the end had many more than France. Britain relied on the French 'air force' at the start of the war and then on French engines for its own planes. When the RAF was formed, the number of aircraft was huge at 22647. The only thing that mattered was France/Britain had more than the other side.
Utter rubbish 🤦. 99% of all manufacturing in France during both world wars, be it a condom or a cannon, was for the benefit of their perennial occupying forces......... The Germans!!
Thanks for this.. very interesting 👍
Germany had it coming, remember Rotterdam 1940.
Sir Arthur Harris *
We must not forget it was Germany who first targeted civilian targets in both WW1 and WW2 so don't start being sorry for them you get what you sow they didn't need to start the war
His family did not emigrate to Rhodesia, his father was a member of the Indian Civil Service. Harris went to Rhodesia after finishing his schooling in England.
If you sow the wind you'll reap the whirlwind !
based Bomber Harris
Sir Arthur Harris was not welcome much in Allied social circles after the war. But, he was a determined guy. If only both sides were aware that killing civilians does not advance a military cause.
RS. Canada
We get to the point at 11:42..
I hadn't heard of this. Then again, I have read that given the amazing stubborn endurance of the "blitzed" civilian Londoners, and their concurrent detestation of the enemy, can we really expect the morale of German folk to be weaker? But I'm only at the start of the presentation. Good stuff.
I refuse to pass judgement on the brave men and women who fought in WW2. Its easy for some to criticize what was done, sitting safely at home nearly 100 years later. The object of fighting any war to win as quickly as possible with minimum loss of life. Unfortunately, civilians usually bear the brunt of bombing cities.
The way to accelerate the defeat of a defiant enemy is to make it total war where the war is taken to the population and life is made difficult to carry on. This was achieved.
they made the best choice at that time
Don’t start what you can’t finish…
No, there was no other way…
Just caught a glimpse of a Handley-Page Harrow in this video, surely this would be scraping the bottom of the barrel if some of these were used!
Yes, they were scraping the barrel with their use of irrelevant and inappropriate stock footage.
They sent 1046 bombers flight leu mansell was awarded the VC on this raid
Total war is not pretty.
Was there another way……No.
Your picture of a Lancaster showed it with radial engines, not Merlins.
The Lancaster Mark ll had Bristol Hercules radial engines. There were fewer built than other models.
And not a lot of people know that👍
The Lancaster Mk II was faster than the Mk I/III, and had a slightly higher operational ceiling. The climb to height was also marginally better too.
17:00 savages!
We were not walking on eggs about innocent civilians. What changed now?
Oi!! Bomber! Let's get 'er!
The Blenheim Bomber is pronounced like the Palace BLENHIM!
This happened night and day against Berlin later in the war, P-52 fighters flew escort for the americans.
In 1945 Berlin was bombed every single night from late February to mid April.
There's a lesson hear: don't piss off the Pom's.
Please make a video about the Iraqi Revolt in 1920
"Was there another way?" A millennial question. Actually there was, all the nations of the world could have demanded a ceasefire and of course the Nazis, Italy and Japan would have just crumbled under the weight of international disapproval. Totes embarrassed at being caught engaging in politics by another means. But people were really 5tup1d back then compared to the outbreak of Dunning-Kruger genius we enjoy today.
There was no United Nations back then, and the League of Nations faltered and crumbled and went extinct as an organisation. International disapproval of Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan would have been seen as a joke by the militarist dictators. Even the Soviet Union under Stalin had cooperated with Nazi Germany over the invasion of Poland via a pact. It was a very different world 85 years ago with a lot of the Asian and Africian countries still under colonial rule. The United States took time to abandon its isolationism policy. Unfortunately there was no other way to strike the militarist in the German and Italian governments. SadIy civilians get caught in the destruction and crossfire and become collateral damage. Unfortunately in 1942 Bomber Command did not have the resources to continue the raids at such intensity and the effects of such large raids on German civilian moral that could have come close to breaking causing the Nazi government to fail and then surrender. Even Albert Speer stated the 1000 bomber raids if continued may have altered the course of the war. But by 1942 the Germans had embroiled themselves in the Eastern Front meat grinder which cost them dearly in the end with a overwhelming humiliating defeat. As to the towns and cities, Hitler gave destruction orders to leave a bare earth policy to the advancing allied armies. The Gernan cities and towns would have been reduced to rubble anyway with the obstinate defence of Germany the Nazis dictated.
@@damianousley8833your point being... they needed an umbrella organisation perhaps? How's that worked out? Disastrously.
@@charlesrousseau6837 Recognising which is the last essential punch is always hard. Dresden did have some strategic relevance, it was a transport hub. There were still reasons to cooperate with the Russians.
@peterclark6290 What you are missing is all the talks between the Western allies and the Soviet Union and the agreements as to areas of operations and interest to the parties. Stalin kept on about invasion of mainland Europe even after the Allies were in Italy in 1943 and knocked the existing Italian government out of office, causing the Nazis to step in and occupy Italy involving deployment of troops desperately needed on the Eastern front. The Bombing campaign tied up considerable manpower and equipment also as well as disrupting armament manufacture and transport. Stalin, I think, was only hoping that the Western allies would be mauled by the Germans such that he could get his forces all the way to the Atlantic. His original stance pre WW2 was that he hoped Western Europe would be weakened such that communist revolution would overpower the western democracies in the aftermath in a fifth column exercise. Unfortunately for Stalin, the Western Allies, and in particularly Churchill, was more cautious of his intentions and went into France when the forces were ready and not before. One also has to be aware that the main perpetrator of the first and second World Wars Germany left horrendous damage in Belguim and northern France in the first world war and also in the second world war in Poland, the Netherlands and eventually in Britian. Bombing was not like it is today with high accuracy. Unfortunately the German towns and cities and their inhabitants were stuck in a vicious vice of destruction of not only enemy action from the air but by ground forces also, as artillary can demolish cites and kill civilians almost as effectively as aerial bombing. German forces doing a Nazi instigated last ditch defence of towns and villages in Germany ended up with destruction of the urban infrastructure in complete disregard of historical or architectural significance. As far as Hitler was concerned if Nazi Germany failed, then there would no longer be any Germany including the German people. So quiping that the world could have demanded a cease fire or not engaged in carpet bombing of urban areas where Industry was located are just fantasies.
@@damianousley8833 The 'quip' was directed at the latest calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. That seems to have sailed over all some limited range minds.
The destruction has two goals, take away the enemy's will and capacity to stay in the fight. If some have to perish in the process so be it. War is mankind at its lowest, fact.
If you're truly interested look around at all the other available tech that didn't get used. SWATH hulls, or PT boats and Mother ships for convoy protection, or glued plywood in single sheets to hide from ground radar (flak). The list is long. Generals and Admirals were at their best in any previous conflict, and so it would seem are Commodores.
In the books I have read on bombing raids they maintain that the RAF and the Americans never actually achieved a 1,000 bomber raid.
The nazis estimated that as herrenvolk, nobody had the right to do to them what they
do to others.
Still less with that much interest.
New narrator?
Was there anothervway? No... not really... defeat evil by pain... enuff moms and grandpas bite it the fight weakens...
Though the strategy of carpet bombing a country into submission sounds plausible it allways has proven contradictory. England did not give in to the German bombing raids. Germany did not give in to the allied bombing raids. The same for Vietnam and to day the same for Ukraine. Mass attacs on civilian targets never paves the way to victory. It creates reziliance and hate.
Germany was the first country to ever attack another from the air...airships and bombers attacked Britain WW 1.
Very interesting programme and you put if over excellently but I am guessing you are English like myself and it is such a pity you chose to use the American way of pronouncing the name of the British bomber - the Blenheim. It is pronounced Blen HIM not Blen HYME. Just a point but people will start saying it that way and we don't want that.
RAF Bomber Command could have ended WW2 in 1943 by bombing the ball bearing plants. Albert Speer the german armaments chief says this in his memoirs.
Speer was wrong about that, then. After the war it was determined that the Germans had plenty of ball bearings and were also receiving more from other countries. And, the USAAF did bomb the plants in Schweinfurt and Regensburg, but that only slowed down the Nazis for a short time.
Good point. As well as ball bearings, especially with hindsight, other key targets might have included synthetic oil production facilities. No ball bearings, no fuel and the German war machine would have ground to a halt. These facilities were eventually targeted by the 8th Air Force and Bomber Command. However, what if more resources had been targeted against these "Achilles' heels" earlier?
I'm sorry I don't like this narrator as much as the old one, not his fault just the new guy has a slightly higher pitched voice
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Much of the RAF aircraft was manufactured in the USA.
Such as?
Lancasters were manufactured in the UK
@@Anakin_Sandy_High_Ground
And Canada
Britain alone produced over 131000 aircraft during WW2, that was more than Germany at 119000. Bombers such as Wellingtons, Halifaxs, Blenheims, Mosquitos, Lancasters,Stirlings,Hampdens, Beaufighters etc were certainly not US built.
😂😊😂😊😂😊😂
Whitley: No photos (we get Handley Page Harrows instead) & insults 2 the first service monoplane nightbomber, not 2B properly replaced until Wellingtons & the 4-engined super-dumptrucks came on line, a whole new technology being created on its way 2 the nuclear age
Without AMERICA there would be no england.
Ha ha ha ha, actually that's completely the other way around!!! 🤦😂
Rebel son (US) helping its elderly parent (UK)😂
Americans always say Germany would have invaded England but never how they would have invaded England
@@Anakin_Sandy_High_Ground Wake up...Stalin had no intention of stopping at Berlin, he knew that he could overrun all of Western Europe and he had the army poised to do it. The only obstacle in his way was American military might. He was not anything like Putin...Putin is an idiot.
@@Anakin_Sandy_High_Ground Germany was not the problem. Stalin was the problem. He had no intention of stopping at Berlin. He intended to take all of Western Europe. The only thing stopping him was American military might. England and the rest of Western Europe were on their knees and he had his military poised to take advantage of the situation. He was not anything like Putin...Putin is an idiot.
What a load of crap. Click bait title.
A War crime
War is a crime.
Bullshite.
Cry
It wasn’t a game of cricket or Football. There are no rules in war. Take a look at what Hitler had planned for Great Britain if he’d won (even though he respected the British) It was much worse than what happened in Poland!
Bollocks.
What happened to the guy that did the voice of such films as, THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD and the one about life aboard a German U-boat???
Englands always saved the world Tilly he end from start to finish
wow
Brain dead bot
As Arthur Harris once said "keep your eyes on the western sky"
Your nation can't even develop its own social media sites. You're dependent on your enemies. 😆
posthumously = ˈpɒstʃʊməsli
Harris was racing his Bentley at breakneck speed between his High Wycombe headquarters and the Air Ministry during World War II, Air Marshal Arthur Travers Harris was the bane of motorcycle policemen on the London roads.
Late one night, a constable stopped him and said reproachfully, “You might have killed somebody, sir.”
Snapped Harris, “Young man, I kill thousands of people every night!”
After the war there was brief talk of bringing him up on war crime charges for deliberately destroying many German cities. But there was a strong anti-German sentiment over Allied losses and such thinking was squelched.