War Thunder is genuinely one of my favorite games. It's free, and a lot of fun. Give it a shot! v2.xyz/WarThunderArmchairHistorian Our Patreon: www.patreon.com/armchairhistory Thanks for watching! Please leave corrections below this comment. Griff
My grandfather fought as a rear gunner during the battle of Britain. He was stationed at RAF Hornchurch and after the war a road was named in his honour - Robinson Close. He never spoke about his experiences but I think he was one of the bravest men who ever lived. Thank you Grandpa.
thats amazing man. my great grandmother worked in one of the spitfire factorys. didnt talk much about it i think she might have been a little secretive about it aha
He beat Brits! But didnt manage to conquer their island! Britain was destroyed and about to be finished but US came to rescue after Nazis got too brave and declared war on them
And that's when Napoleon Bonaparte decide to make a law which no country can trade with Britain but he find out Russia was still continue. So it gave Napoleon Bonaparte there reason to invade Russia now all his close friends and family told him not to go Russia it's not worth it but he went anyways and he was confident because he destroyed some of the strongest armies in Europe and it wasn't my brutal if it was all about skills and to out-think your opponent so he decides to invade Russia with 600,000 people now the Russian had a median sat to do a earth scorched tactic which means burn all the supplies they can use destroy livestock burn all your crops and corn everything so Napoleon had to really rely on his supplies now on the pole and went to Russia he did destroy a few Russian armies but they were very small until they reach a certain city right before maskow and that was the worst of all the polian's wars a lot of people died that day but when they reached the capital of Russia it was completely empty so you decided to rest his army there but during the night he woke up and you notice that the whole city was burning on fire the rations and once he got to last Scout a whole entire city was abandoned so he made that City headquarters in Russia he didn't realize there were few Russians who were hiding and to a certain place where you can't see them or hear them and you can't even get out the spot once you're in so a lot of Russians. willing to burn their lives and basically give up their life to burn most of the city showing to Napoleon that victory was not in there and they will not give up Napoleon had no choice basically and Fallas are me to go back to France but it's always in 1812 and here comes the Russian winter starve to death froze to death and out of the 600,000 people that left France on 27000 came back
@@simohayho8622 He hardly beat them then, if he didn't manage to get them out of the war. The US also didnt come to the rescure of Britain, the rest of Western Europe yes, because Britain couldn't liberate them all on her own
@@CoolNinja925 What? They were going to fight Russia in the winter either way then, there is no avoiding it, that makes your statement even more ridiculous.
It should be mentioned that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand provided aircrew to Britain during the battle. Canada provided a RCAF squadron and 87 aircrew. New Zealand had 100 aircrew and Australia provided 21. Poles numbered 135.
Why? the video was about how britain won the battle of britain and the combined total of foreign pilots who volunteered to fight in the battle of britain doesnt even come close to the number of british pilots who died fighting in the battle of britain never mind the amount who volunteered. Although their sacrfice was worth noting it was a drop in the ocean compared to how many british pilots fought and its their sacrifices that won the battle not foreign volunteers.
@@eraldorh excuse you but that's pretty fucking insulting they weren't "foreign." We fought in the air along side our brother's of the motherland not as the dominion of Canada. But as equals in its deffence no matter the cost every commonwealth soldier didn't fight as a foreign force of exiled nations like others. We have every right to be included along side them as equals especially in terms of sacrifice.
@@dankesteevee1937 Chill out snowflake, i dont care if you're offended and i care even less for your opinion. Although yes they were foreign, a pilot from poland or canada is not british and so while on british soil they are foreign pilots. Being foreign does not make them less equal now go and try and find something else to be offended about its all you snowflakes do.
@@eraldorh are you mental doesn't matter if they are Canadian they are part of the British empire and at this point and time equals. Don't need to read anything else as you have no respect for those who died when the motherland sounded the horn for war.
My granddad is 90 this year he was a 11/12 during the blitz in Liverpool he got evacuated but didn’t stay in the country long as he ran back to Liverpool to to look after his mum
Those Polish, Czech and Free French boys thought it was Christmas when the British gave them fighters and pointed them at the Germans and a fine part they played too. Those that went home to Soviet controlled Eastern Europe after the war were treated terribly by the Russians.
We couldn’t have gone to war again. We had plans for it but it would have killed millions and Britain would have fallen. As it was bankrupt and the US refused to help in any war with the USSR. WWII was a costly war started for Poland. At least they didn’t make peace and left Poland completely to the dust
I know thats not the point of your comment but saying "britain gave" is a little bit missleading since both Poland and Czechoslovakia had to actually pay for fuel, ammunition etc. their pilots used from their gold reserves
Although it’s an often told story, it was nice to hear from someone that’s not British. It sounds even more amazing when it’s told without bias. They were so brave at such a frightening time in history. Peace to all.
Hey to be fair guys, there was never a single chance that the Germans were ever going to get an invasion fleet across the Channel. The Royal Navy had some obsolete ships for sure. But they still had big guns. Plus, the Luftwaffe couldn’t hit a ship in a bathtub . . . just look at what happened at Dunkirk. The Stuka was especially dismal. The Germans had to stop using them about four weeks into the Battle of Britain. Just saying!!
@@HerewardWake Hi there. In 1940, the German Army and Panzer divisions were absolutely unstoppable, no question. But the real question is . . . could those divisions have successfully crossed 25-40 miles of open sea to invade Britain? To accomplish this type of operation, naval and air cover would have been crucial. The Germans had a plan, called Operation Sea Lion. The German Army and Panzer divisions were to be towed by tugs over the English Channel in wooden barges. Unlike the Americans and Japanese, the Germans had no landing craft. To protect the invasion fleet, the German navy had 10 destroyers (having already lost about half of their total fleet in the invasion of Norway!). The British navy had 67 destroyers and 6 cruisers immediately available, plus the larger ships of the Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow. Many of the British ships were admittedly old, but they didn’t need to be fast or sophisticated to defend the English coastline. The Germans would have laid mines, but the Royal Navy had scores of minesweepers and anyway, half a dozen ships sunk by mines would have made little difference to the overall British superiority. German U boats would also have been deployed, but attacking a flotilla of destroyers is a little more of a challenge than a convoy of merchant ships! The German air force had promised to destroy the British Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain. But as we now know, that particular plan didn’t go well. In any case, the German Luftwaffe had little chance of sinking British ships. The only dive bomber they possessed was the Ju87 Stuka. This had great success early in the war, but as soon as they came up against modern fighters in the Battle of Britain, the Spitfires and Hurricanes shot them down easily. Quite quickly the Luftwaffe withdrew the Stukas altogether as the losses were so high. Even when the British destroyers were at anchor and stationary in the Battle of Dunkirk, the Germans managed to sink only 5. In the open sea, the Luftwaffe had practically no chance of sinking anything much at all! So the chances of the invincible German divisions making it across the English Channel were very small. But don’t take my word for it. The Germans themselves realised that Operation Sea Lion was a bad idea. It was finally cancelled in January 1941. Field Marshal Rundstedt later recalled: "The military reasons for its cancellation were various. The German Navy would have had to control the North Sea as well as the Channel, and was not strong enough to do so. The German Air Force was not sufficient to protect the sea crossing on its own. While the leading part of the forces might have landed, there was the danger that they might be cut off from supplies and reinforcements."
I remember that summer well, although I was only a child in 1940. On looking back it is surprising how tranquil the summer was with just a few planes visible from out in the suburbs where we lived. Few were aware on what was going on up at 20 or 30K feet.
Hi Michael, I have been able to talk to quite a few of The Few before they passed on. They spoke of flying initially around 15000 to 20000 feet against the bomber formations but as the Battle of Britain went on, the fighting got higher, especially by the fighter bomber phase of later September, October and in the forgotten months of November and December 1940 when air combats over London and elsewhere carried on by day. One pilot, Bob Foster, had lived in London and after combat over the city, told me he used to fly low over his mother`s house to see it was still there and to let her know he was okay, if she was around. The fighting went up to around 30000 to 34000 feet by October 1940. Paul Davies Battle of Britain historian.
My Great Uncle worked for the LFB in WW2 and was one of the Firemen ordered to St Pauls Cathedral on the longest night. To save St Paul's at any cost was the order given by Churchill. My Uncle said it was petrifying everywhere around where he was stationed had incendiary bombs dropping and starting signal fires for bigger bombs to be dropped a bit later. My Uncle and his colleagues were tasked to extinguish the fires, then came the 500lb high explosive bombs all around him again he had to remain there and fight the fires all around the Cathedral. All around due to the heat of the fires whole brick buildings were collapsing. The constant dropping of the 500Ib bombs caused more devastation. Eventually It stopped due to cloud cover over the UK and Channel and the firemen could get a grip of the fires because the last wave of bombers never got across the Channel. The longest night as it was called was chosen by Hitler because the tide in the Thames was out that night. Hitler knew that the Thames would play a vital part for the LFB in extinguishing that amount of fires in the city to protect London. So he used it to his advantage, My Uncle and his collegues had to use fire engine water tanks and hand pumps to extinguish the fires that night. He said it was Hell on Earth! But the following day St Paul's Cathedral was left standing proud above the London skyline. All My Uncle had to defeat German might was a hose pipe a hard hat and water. No guns no weapons while Hitler and Germany threw their best at him. Yet on Rememberance day no one remembers the fireman of the LFB. I personally think they were some of the bravest men on the front line! So it may seem like a game to everyone on here that subscribed to this channel but please remember this is history not a game that can be switched on and off at a whim. The men and women that were in this war were real men and women who had real families and many lost their lives in one way or another. Whether they were in the planes or on the ground fighting to save Britain with or without guns!
My mum who was 97 when she passed away in 2020 was a young woman on fire watch duty that night just a mile south of the river when St Pauls nearly burnt down. She said the fires in the streets below crept closer until the whole Cathedral was ringed by flames and looked like it would also soon start to burn and fall.When she had finished her duty next morning she went "home" to a railway arch near Blackfriars station where she lived for the next 3 months until the Blitz was over. It wasn't a miracle that saved St Pauls that night it was a few hundred full and part time fire fighters pulling out all the stops to make sure it didn't happen.
The 147 Polish pilots claimed 201 aircraft shot down. "It was the highest scoring of the Hurricane squadrons during the Battle of Britain and had the highest ratio of enemy aircraft destroyed to their own lost (safest)." (Wikipedia). And guess what? The Poles were not even invited to the victory parade after the war because Stalin said "no" and the British did not want to make him angry. The Poles were sold by their allies in 1945 to Stalin just like they were sold by their allies in September 1939 to Hitler. As if one time was not enough...
But that Polish-British and Polish-French alliances were entered into to help each other in case of war, weren't they? What's the purpose of making alliances with the West if they refuse to help every time it's inconvenient? The Polish soldiers fulfilled their obligation and physically came to the UK and France to fight when Poland was already taken over. Seems like keeping a given word does not mean the same for everyone.
We all know that Poland was treated poorly by the allies. Their story is tragic. Unfortunately there was NOTHING that could be done to save them at any point in the war, save for re-igniting WW3 in 1945 and going to war with Russia, which would be utterly stupid. 1. France and Britain gave Poland a guarantee of help if Germany invaded. This was supposed to deter Hitler from invading Poland. The belief was that he would not risk invading Poland when two of the strongest empires in the world had pledged to oppose him. Obviously France and Britain underestimated Hitler's obsession with conquering the east and he invaded Poland anyway. 2. Britain and France honoured their pledge to support Poland, and on September 3rd began mobilizing their armies. Here's where the problems for defending Poland begin. Poland is too far away to support with aircraft, the water between Britain and Poland is infested with German submarines and navy so navy support is off the table. The only way to support Poland is by getting their armies to Poland... but Germany stands in the way. 3. It takes a hell of a long time to prepare for offensive war. French generals estimated that the French army would be ready for offensive warfare in 1941 at the earliest, but more likely in 1942. After only 14 days the Polish army was crushed, and Britain and France hadn't even finished moving all of their armies to the border with Germany yet. France hadn't even moved most of its equipment, artillery and so forth to the border, and they didn't have enormous stockpiles of shells ready to begin an immediate offensive. 4. Although the best of the German army was in Poland and the border with France was only lightly defended, the Germans still had the Westwall (fortifications built parallel to the Maginot line). Britain and France would have to attack Germany at the Westwall fortifications. Belgium refused to let British and French troops march to Germany through their land because they were still holding out hope that they could remain neutral in the war, and they knew Germany would declare war on them if they let France and Britain use their land for marching troops to Germany. 5. In 1945 every nation is exhausted after 6 years of warfare on a scale never seen in human history before or since WW2. Nobody was willing to now declare war on Russia for the sake of liberating Poland because Russia had a ridiculously huge army and was actually capable of holding back Britain, America and the rest of the allies almost indefinitely. Such a war would last another 5 years and cost many more tens of millions of casualties (including possibly the use of nukes in Europe/Russia). The cost would outweigh the reward. It's a shitty situation, we all know it, but Poland was doomed from the start due to their location sandwiched between two extremely powerful and extremely murderous totalitarian regimes.
@buchner funnel Nope. Poles do not hate the British. I believe, they would like, rather hear Britain accept historical facts how undoing of Brits and French allowed what happened. Please check how many poles died defending the UK, and compare it to the number of Brits died during 1939 fighting in accordance to promises made to Poles.
One of the factors overlooked by many that contributed to the R.A.F.’s victory during the Battle of Britain was the aircraft repair facility set up just before the war, it’s estimated that as many as 30% of the R.A.F. fighters shot down over the south of England during the battle were repaired and returned to service, that coupled with the production of new aircraft helped ensure the R.A.F. had a constant supply of replacement aircraft for its squadrons.
this video was actually a stunning masterpice that explained years of history with a clear visual image and explanation to so much. the voice over was like a perfectly crafted prompt response and this helped me enormously for my school project, thank you!
My great grandfather fought in the battle of Britain as a squadron leader his plane was shot down and he hit his head on a rock and was knocked unconscious but was found and was saved
Fun fact: the famous 'we shall never surrender' speech by Churchill was unknown to most of the British public until after the war. It was not live-recorded (since in Britain recordings of parliament sessions were forbidden at the time) but rather the famous recording that everyone hears was a recreation after the war. The public got much of its wartime inspiration from the live-broadcast speeches of King George VI instead.
7:29 as an American I unfortunately don't hear about how fucking bad ass those British civilians were. There's so many photos of them in the sewers and shelters and train tunnels, but everyone is smiling and laughing. The kids are playing, there's adults reading books and magazines and just straight chillin on cots. It's so epic. I'm sure it wasn't always like that, but God damn did they have balls of steel either way. That's something I don't hear many Americans talk about unfortunately, but it really should be mentioned more because it's damn impressive. The American people were tricked into being scared of weapons of mass destruction that the government knew did not exist in any way whatsoever, but they were on their back foot, France has fallen, they evacuated via Dunkirk, and now the nazis are bombing their capital cities and are damn close to being conquered by Germany, that's a scary ass fucking place to be in for real. and still those mfn brits laugh and relax and play and sleep. Truly amazing and impressive. Lmao
Famous college football coach Woody Hayes called the battle of Britain "the greatest goal line stand in history"! God bless the British and their fortitude. The war would have ended very differently if the Brits had folded.
When the Battle of Britain started I was six years old. I lived in Hampstead London and used to watch the dog fighting from Parliament Hill. We had "aircraft recognition books" which gave the specs of most of the aeroplanes on both sides (British and German).
The book in the middle, 50 Battles that Changed the World, is excellent. It was recommended reading in the early 2000s for junior officers in the U.S. Army. I was a lower enlisted man but picked it up as our recommendations were basically children's books. Really good read. Great channel.
As much fear as the battle of Britton stirs up, and as long as it lasts, in just about a decade more people were killed in London in just a few days during the London smog incident. 10,000-12,000 people died.
this is absolutely wrong. It was never a 1:3 hahaha. in 1939 Germany produced slightly more. in 1940, UK produced more at the ratio of 1:1.5 which is understandable since Germany had to produce a lot more land equipment to reinforce her land army. In 1941, Britain indeed produced more than Germany at the ratio of 1:2 but operation barbarossa required constant reinforcement of land equipment. In 1942, britain produced more at 1:1.3 ratio. in 1943 it was equal and in 1944 Germany PRODUCED MORE than UK at the ratio of 1:1.5
@@msreviews5576 only one year did Germany produce more aircraft than the U.K. and the U.K. ended up producing more aircraft than Germany and lost less aircraft than Germany who was always short of aircraft v the U.K. who could mount eaid after raid on Germany
Great video as usual Grif! When I see a young lad like you using technology to spread knowledge and quality content it really makes me happy. Channels like yours are beacons in a sea of idiocy full web.
Where's that same fight now? You have been taken over by the Communist controlled E.U.. The British people have no sovereignty over there own nation. Your being breed out of your own country.
Idk man...britain basically took over the world before... Dont think anyone thought they were punks. Hitler actually tried to ally himself with britain. Britain declared war on germany over them invading other countries. Hitler didnt want to fight britain if he could avoid it
Gareth Wren “Americans will always do the right thing.... once all Other options are exhausted” You can always count on us to be late in these wars, but hey, better late then never
@@wilsthelimit you say that but due to the fear of war in the beginning Germany was able to occupy many small nations and build up its military and industry all due to the allies holding out in hopes for a better option. If 0 tolerance was taken the war would've been a lot easier on the French and British. Without the time to build up their military nazi Germany would have been the ones getting strangled. Sadly declaring war over 0 tolerance is a risky thing resulting in the escalations that occurred and shall remain in history.
If Germany had won the battle of Britain, I question whether Hitler would have actually invaded England. The British had superior naval power and a channel crossing and invasion may not be achievable. That being the case, the Battle of Britain had a lesser impact on the outcome of the war?
The Mk1 Hurricane and Mk1 Spitfire that fought in the Battle had the same armament - 8 rifle-calibre .303 Browning machine guns with about 30 seconds' firing time overall before ammunition was exhausted. That meant RAF pilots were not only heavily outnumbered, they had to make every shot count with fairly tiny bullets. On the other hand, the Bf109 carried a pair of 20mm cannon that could rip a Spitfire apart with a single hit. The Hurricane was mainly constructed of wood and fabric (everything aft of the cockpit, wings, etc) meaning that a cannon shell was more likely to pass straight through without exploding. It also meant Hurricanes were easier to repair and quicker to return to action after damage than the monocoque-contruction Spitfire.
The British (and Americans) measured the diameter of the bullets using inches in those days. The 303 bullet was 0.303 inches in diameter. The 20 millimeter (20 mm) auto-cannon shell was 0.7874 inches in diameter.
@Matthew Smith Don't be so sure of that. Had the Germans managed to capture the entire French surface fleet, things would have suddenly looked very different. British victory wasn't as sure as you think.
@Matthew Smith You got the wisdom of hindsight. But it could have played out easily very differently. And yes, I know they didn't have enough landing craft or expertise to pull it off.
Lol Canadians always make sure their mentioned in British history we get it you provided 3% of support towards us I'm sure we would of totally lost if you didn't provide that little bit help 😂😂😂
The opening shot shows a cannon carrying Spitfire, no such Spitfires took part in the battle. Also the reason that the RAF bombed Berlin on the 26 July 1940 is that the Luftwaffe bombed London on the 24 July 1940.
Fighter pilots in exile fly over foreign land Let their story be heard, tell of 303rd Fighter pilots from Poland in the battle of Britain Guarding the skies of the isle
Yep and some Poles stayed on in Britain after the war as long as the Russians and Communists ruled the country but some returned home after the fall of communism. There will be a new film coming out this month called "Hurricanes" about polish pilots serving during the Battle of Britain and beyond. A Polish pilot now still living in Britain aged around 90 recently interviewed on British ITV News said British government in 1945 did not invite them to the victory parade because of fear that Stalin might criticise the British for allowing the Polish to do victory parade cos they are not communists. It was a Labour government at the time after being elected soon after VE Day.
I would like to say that Britain appreciates the Polish pilots. (Of course everyone is in agreement that the Polish pilots didn’t do everything in the battle of Britain.)
Thank you for doing this episode it means a lot to me because I want everybody to get the credit and I really enjoy your videos and I hope it grows thank you for the opportunity
The one inaccuracy - Hurricane RF-E was the plane of Sqn. Ldr. Witold Urbanowicz of 303 squadron - who reputedly never picked up as much of a bullet hole...
Doubtful that anyone will ever read this, but one of the best books on this subject I've found is With Wings, Like Eagles by Michael Korda. And it's a genuinely good read too, as you can almost read it like a novel.
Read it a few months ago after a previous recommendation by another commenter. VERY well written and readable, easily picked up second hand on your favourite auction website.
If you go to Fulton, MO there is the Winston Churchill Memorial and Museum. There you will find a chunk of The Berlin Wall and above the Museum is a Chaple, that was damaged by the Bliz and you can still see that damage, it was brought over piece by piece and put together. They hold services in that chapel every Sunday It's well worth the time to stop. The British were able to win because they made better use of the forces they could bring to the fight, better Command, and Control, better Intel, Aircraft that had longer endurance, fewer pilots killed or becoming pows. It takes a considerable amount of time to take and train a 19-year-old to be a pilot, then train him up for fighters and then bring him along to where he is going to be useful as a fighter pilot. The German was behind the eight ball going in, aircraft had to short of endurance, the factories could not keep up with the losses, and Fuel. Oil was Germany's main problem, they didn't have much. and it would only get worse as the war dragged on. All the While Britain and later on the Soviet Union would be swimming in fuel from the United States, we had and provided the Crude on refined fuels for the War. It all came down to that. Germany relied on horses, the Allies relied on Trucks. They needed the war to end in 1941, it didn't and from Mid-1943 there would be no doubt about it, Germany would not only lose the war but will be crushed.
😳 Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding had an excellent deputy in Air Vice Marshal Keith Park, who was from New Zealand. Together they made a formidable command that held firm under immense pressure. One decision they took was to give separate duties to Hurricanes and Spitfires. Hurricanes mainly attacked slower bombers, while Spitfires attacked faster fighter aircraft. Dowding and Park also resisted attempts to create a ‘Big Wing’ situation, when a number of RAF squadrons would combine then attack the enemy. One of the loudest voices in favour was Douglas Bader, but he as overruled on one ground of the time needed to bring squadrons together.
Historians always fail to mention the basic Luftwaffe strategy at the beginning of the Eagle offensive. Although Goering was an inept leader, he did allow his command staff to conduct the destruction of the Royal Air Force. Luftwaffe commanders realized the best way to destroy the RAF was to use their bombers as bait, with the ME-109s flying high altitude escort to save transit fuel and use their advantage of dive and climb to pounce on British fighters. Also because of the ME-109s limited fuel range they wanted the RAF to attack their formations as quickly as possible so the escorts had more time to engage and destroy as many RAF fighters before they had to turn back and the Radar towers were used to the Luftwaffe’s advantage, not the other way around. The Luftwaffe did not destroy the Radar towers because they wanted RAF fighters to meet them when Spitfires and Hurricanes were hard climbing for altitude while the 109's were diving on them. This opening tactic was working and gave the Luftwaffe fighters 30 minutes flying time over England and the Radar towers allowed those precious 30 minutes for attacking British fighters. Hitler and Goering noticed the high bomber loss rate and instead of consulting his commanders, ordered the fighters to fly close air support and they lost their climb and dive advantage engaging in maneuver dogfights where the spitfires clearly had the edge. On top of that they expended more fuel flying at slower and lower altitudes to directly escort the bombers, shorting the flight time to 20 minutes over targets. Switching to these formations made the RAF Radar network effective now that the bombers and fighters were all mixed together. This was the major factor in the Luftwaffe’s failure combined with bombing London instead of airfields. The USAAF used the same bomber bait tactic to cripple the Luftwaffe in preparation for operation overlord, and it was a success at the cost of 30-40% bomber losses.
Neither approach was about to win them the battle though and some of the Luftwaffe's most successful days of air fighting occurred after they had switched tactics , whatever approach they took they were not successful enough often enough to make the necessary breakthrough over fighter command .
If the Luftwaffe would have stuck with the Bomber Bait Strategy they could have destroyed twice the amount of RAF fighters as they did when Goering order his Air Marshals to switch from high altitude escort to direct close bomber escort formations. I don't know the exact total numbers to that point, but the German Airforce did destroy half as many RAF fighters after this change of tactics. But as we know this is a difficult conclusion as kill scores were over reported on both sides, but it works out this way if you use the same formula to estimate the actual kill rate before and after the change. Rather the Luftwaffe would have won the Air Battle of Britain this way is almost impossible to determine, as many other factors would have changed also.
@@seneca983 30-40% or more of them, but they would have crippled RAF Fighter Command and dominated the airspace over the English Channel. A high tactical loss for a massive strategic advantage.
This channels interests could not align more closely to mine even if it tried. I get butterflies in my stomach feeling when I see a new upload. I eat, breathe, sleep and shower all that is WW2 and it’s nice to see “How the Battle of Britain was won” in the middle of Vlog(gone wrong ) or Lil Tay did this! Or prank (gone sexual!). My Grandpa served in WW2. He was sent to Guam. He passed away a few years ago and I’m 24 now. As a kid I was never interested in his stories much or his uniform but now I would do anything to sit and ask him questions for hours and listen to his stories but Ill never get the chance. Thank you for your videos and great animation.
Yeah I am a gluten for ww2 history content, but only developed my interest in history over the last few years. I'm British and had great grand father's who fought in ww2. Sadly the last one died before I could meet him. His daughter (my grandmother) has loads of his letters. He was a Chindit in the Liverpool Royal Kings, and was in Burma 1943. I haven't even looked at his letters yet, but I am soon. Apparently they were limited as to what they could say due to high secrecy. But they'll be interesting non the less
8:11 - Any reference to Hugh Dowing earns a gold star for integrity and accuracy. Quite possibly more significant than Montgomery and Patton combined, and one of the greatest military strategists this world has ever known. Without his wisdom, Great Britten may have been lost, and with it, WW2.
@@PeriodDrama Operation Market Garden was 90% successful. It took 100km of German held ground in 3 days. This was the fastest allied advance against German opposition in the entire September 1944 to February 1945 period. Patton in the Lorraine, Hodges in the Hurtgen Forest and the whole Ardennes debacle were far bigger disasters with a lot more casualties. Montgomery was the most successful Western Allied ground commander of WW2 by some way. He took more ground through more countries while facing more quality German opposition than any other Western Allied ground commander in WW2. This is fact not opinion. Cheers.
My nan and grand were in the outskirts of London when the blitz happend and the Luftwaffes would drop the bombs they didn't use on London around where they lived so the would go out as kids and look for the biggest piece of sharpnel as a competition RIP Paul Towers 1930-2020
0:27 Absolutely, entirely false. Britain was fighting a downhill battle. The german luftwaffe had little to no ability to replace their losses AND most importantly the RAF pilots we're far more effective with foresight as you mentioned. What in the helloyello makes u think britain was "at its' knees"? Lol thats like "ThE ruSSIAn WiNTEr caUSEd GrmnY tO loZe tHe WaR"
How many people outside of those brave RAF airmen, can say "I saved my country." No Russian, Frenchman, Canadian, nor any American I can think of can. President Lincoln maybe... Such an inspiring thought. I hope the British never stop honoring those men.. 🇬🇧
The RAF Roll of Honour recognises 574 pilots, from countries other than the United Kingdom, as flying at least one authorized, operational sortie with an eligible unit during the period between 10 July to 31 October 1940, alongside 2,353 British pilots. The numbers differ slightly from the participants whose names are engraved on the Battle of Britain Monument in London, unveiled on 18 September 2005. Polish pilots were among the most experienced in the Battle; most had hundreds of hours of pre-war flying experience and had fought in the 1939 Defensive War and/or the Battle of France. The Polish pilots had been well trained in formation flying and had learned from combat experience to fire from close range. By comparison, one Polish pilot referred to the close formation flying and set-piece attacks practiced in the RAF as "simply suicidal". Hope that clarify something to you. Its about quality not quantity.Also many Great Britain pilots were recent recruts beacuse until 40 they lost many experienced pilots.
Those were not just the pilots, 8000 polish staff assisted during Battle of Britain. Noone is saying "without the polish pilots britain would have fallen", it was a joint effort, it was what was needed to be done, and it worked.
According to the RAF commander Dowing, the RAF was on a breaking point because of the airfield bombings. It was critical that the luftwaffe changed tactic. How can you keep getting these key facts wrong?
Yes, when you think that during the BoB England was capable of producing more aircrafts than the whole Nazireich, despite the fact that they had to ship all recources around the globe it shows how incompetend the nazis were.
@Emil Well, just check the numbers. It is like I said, the british industry produced more planes during the BoB than the Nazireich. And the air-industry was even the better organised part of the german-war machine.
@D No, they geared up so that they could make a war of agression in 1939. With a lot of weapons but a badly managed industry. While the french and the british only really began to react to the german armament after the violation of the munich agreement.
tightlypackedcoil But Germany outproduced Britain in everything in 1944.Germany produced 40.593 aircraft and 18.956 tank/spg this year.Britain outproduced Germany during early years of the War because Germans never mobilized their economy to war until 1943.
my great nan had to stand on a bridge here in wales and she had to watch out for german planes, she was very young during ww2 and shes still alive today
The 1st RAF bombing raid on Berlin was in response to the bombs that fell on the east end of London. Granted we now know that the Germans were lost and had jettisoned their bombs; however, they did this over London instead of over the sea, as the RAF and USAAF did. Hilter then ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb British cities in revenge. This would escalate until the war's end. Please, if you want to be taken seriously don't leave out such major details.
Agreed. It would also have been more accurate to include some Hurricanes in the animations as they were more numerous in the battle than Spitfires and were flown by the squadron with most kills in the battle (303 Squadron).
Yes, the German pilots bombed the wrong targets, so easy to do in those days. In fact one German bomber crew, after bombing Belfast (Northern Ireland) landed their plane intact on an RAF airfield because they had mistaken the Bristol Channel for the English channel. The RAF was delighted to add a Junkers Ju88G to their fleet, complete with German secret night radar!
Hitler didn't order the bombing of cities for two weeks after the RAF bombed Berlin so it was hardly revenge. In the meantime the Luftwaffe carried out a systematic two week bombing campaign of the RAF airfields. This totally failed. In frustration at this failure Hitler ordered the bombing of the cities because nothing else was working.
The great Sir Hugh Dowding was not the head of the RAF. He was the head of Fighter Command, till he was 'kicked upstairs (really sideways) in late 1940, after winning the Battle of Britain -- the only time during the Second World War that the winning general of a major battle was canned. The Chief of the Air Staff of the whole RAF (the professional head of the Royal Air Force) during most of WW2 was Marshal of the Royal Air Force, (Lord) Charles Frederick Algernon Portal. He had been head of Bomber Command and was promoted in 1940 (Harris followed him at Bomber Command).
As an Englishman, I want to thank you for mentioning the pilots of other countries that helped in the battle.Little is mentioned of their sacrifice and as my nations heads for bexit, maybe if we knew more of our history we would not be so ready to leave.
Even Winston Churchill called for a "United States of Europe" in his 1946 Zurich speech and would surely have been an advocate for the EU. I feel sorry for all the Brits that voted to remain, but that's democracy for you, I guess. Best from Germany.
@@generalripper7528 considering how the campaign was fed with lies, with xenophobic rhetoric, and with targeted ads (in an admittedly highly succesful propaganda move), the word 'democracy' is to be used veeeery carefully when it comes to Brexit - or Trump, for that matter. Democracy is more than mere exit polls.
@@tv9049 I agree. The referendum shouldn't have taken place and the hurdle rate should have been that Brexit occurs only if 60% of voters vote leave (and not 51%).
“Three factors contributed to British aerial victory,” declared Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder of the Royal Air Force shortly after the battle ended. “The skill and bravery of the pilots, the Rolls‐Royce Merlin engine and the availability of suitable fuel.” The American contributions to fuel production were irreplaceable, Palucka asserted, because as war clouds formed over Europe during the 1930s, American companies were extracting about 60 per cent of the world’s petroleum, with the Soviet Union accounting for 17 per cent and Britain and the Netherlands most of the rest. gassed-up-the-juice-that-fuelled-victory-in-the-battle-of-britain page
Americans desperate to be seen as responsible for the BRITISH victory in the battle of Britain. Laughable. Akin to Romanians claiming responsibility for the nazi's conquests because of their supplying fuel to feed the nazi war machine.
Hi Larry! Thanks for the kind words. We were originally planning on dedicating July to American History, but we ended up revising much of our schedule. Unfortunately, we won't have time to cover the War of 1812 any time soon. We will however, be making videos on the Civil War, and Westward Expansion. Griff
My great grandfather brother fought in that battle, he was just 27 when he join the Luftwaffe. He shot down 5 hurricane and 2 spitfire on that battle. But was shot by a spitfire but survive and Successfully emergency landing on France soil. He fought in many battle on the war and it last action is above sky of Hamburg 1944, before he was shot down again and wounded. He spend all day on the medical facility until he was captured by the American when he driving toward the air base. He scored 26 air kill at the entire war and died 8 year ago.
@@andreasbonaparte8171 Sod off YT... removing posts for no reason. 2nd time of posting Heinz. 1. There's no shortage of deluded kids posting "My grandad was Hermann Göring" and other assorted nonsense? 2. It's interesting to look into the lives of the "footsoldiers" at the coalface of war, much more so than the Grandiose burblings of Generals and politcal "leaders".
You could have used the in-game footage instead, for story narration, that would have in turn served your sponsorship! Any how, a nice video as always! Thanks!
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
War Thunder is genuinely one of my favorite games. It's free, and a lot of fun. Give it a shot! v2.xyz/WarThunderArmchairHistorian
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Thanks for watching! Please leave corrections below this comment.
Griff
The Armchair Historian wasn’t “eagle day” (adlertag ) the second phase of the German second air phase against the British?
Why did you draw the bf-109 with open canopies?
It depends how many phases you count. Based off of the information we got, Eagle Day was phase 3 of 5.
Griff
The Armchair Historian The only time I have fun playing War Thunder is using big planes and making them lift and land on the airfield in the Test map
I live warthunder as Well! But that code is for new accounts only, isn't it? Ah well, go sign up people!
My grandfather fought as a rear gunner during the battle of Britain. He was stationed at RAF Hornchurch and after the war a road was named in his honour - Robinson Close. He never spoke about his experiences but I think he was one of the bravest men who ever lived. Thank you Grandpa.
I Thank grandfather Thomson for his service🙏🏻🙏🏻
i thank your grandfather for his service.
him and many others are what won WW2, in a win for humanity.
thats amazing man. my great grandmother worked in one of the spitfire factorys. didnt talk much about it i think she might have been a little secretive about it aha
why ya'll gramps fought for the good guys? One of mine fought for Romania the other for Russia
did you say, robinson close? I swear ive been on that road
I was in London during the blitz. I was only six at the time, but I remember it as though it was yesterday.
You know who the real losers in war are? The civilians
John
You should write a book!
Thank the Lord you survived .
I can look at your username and already believe you.
My condolences that you went through that.
Hitler: "Where Napolean failed, I shall succeed."
Oh sweet summer child
Napoleon never really planned to invade Britain. Just cripple them economically
He beat Brits! But didnt manage to conquer their island! Britain was destroyed and about to be finished but US came to rescue after Nazis got too brave and declared war on them
@@Hdusiekwbshsjs
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon%27s_planned_invasion_of_the_United_Kingdom
And that's when Napoleon Bonaparte decide to make a law which no country can trade with Britain but he find out Russia was still continue. So it gave Napoleon Bonaparte there reason to invade Russia now all his close friends and family told him not to go Russia it's not worth it but he went anyways and he was confident because he destroyed some of the strongest armies in Europe and it wasn't my brutal if it was all about skills and to out-think your opponent so he decides to invade Russia with 600,000 people now the Russian had a median sat to do a earth scorched tactic which means burn all the supplies they can use destroy livestock burn all your crops and corn everything so Napoleon had to really rely on his supplies now on the pole and went to Russia he did destroy a few Russian armies but they were very small until they reach a certain city right before maskow and that was the worst of all the polian's wars a lot of people died that day but when they reached the capital of Russia it was completely empty so you decided to rest his army there but during the night he woke up and you notice that the whole city was burning on fire the rations and once he got to last Scout a whole entire city was abandoned so he made that City headquarters in Russia he didn't realize there were few Russians who were hiding and to a certain place where you can't see them or hear them and you can't even get out the spot once you're in so a lot of Russians. willing to burn their lives and basically give up their life to burn most of the city showing to Napoleon that victory was not in there and they will not give up Napoleon had no choice basically and Fallas are me to go back to France but it's always in 1812 and here comes the Russian winter starve to death froze to death and out of the 600,000 people that left France on 27000 came back
@@simohayho8622 He hardly beat them then, if he didn't manage to get them out of the war. The US also didnt come to the rescure of Britain, the rest of Western Europe yes, because Britain couldn't liberate them all on her own
"Where Napoleon failed, I shall succeed. I shall land on the shores of Britain."
Angry moustache man
(Proceeds to lose in Russia)
Against another Angry moustach man...
Moglos: Am I a joke to you?
Carolus Rex: I warned you all!
@@CoolNinja925 they start the war in the summer, so that's factually incorrect.
@@CoolNinja925 What? They were going to fight Russia in the winter either way then, there is no avoiding it, that makes your statement even more ridiculous.
It should be mentioned that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand provided aircrew to Britain during the battle. Canada provided a RCAF squadron and 87 aircrew. New Zealand had 100 aircrew and Australia provided 21. Poles numbered 135.
Why? the video was about how britain won the battle of britain and the combined total of foreign pilots who volunteered to fight in the battle of britain doesnt even come close to the number of british pilots who died fighting in the battle of britain never mind the amount who volunteered. Although their sacrfice was worth noting it was a drop in the ocean compared to how many british pilots fought and its their sacrifices that won the battle not foreign volunteers.
Don't forget about South African pilots too!
@@eraldorh excuse you but that's pretty fucking insulting they weren't "foreign." We fought in the air along side our brother's of the motherland not as the dominion of Canada. But as equals in its deffence no matter the cost every commonwealth soldier didn't fight as a foreign force of exiled nations like others. We have every right to be included along side them as equals especially in terms of sacrifice.
@@dankesteevee1937 Chill out snowflake, i dont care if you're offended and i care even less for your opinion. Although yes they were foreign, a pilot from poland or canada is not british and so while on british soil they are foreign pilots. Being foreign does not make them less equal now go and try and find something else to be offended about its all you snowflakes do.
@@eraldorh are you mental doesn't matter if they are Canadian they are part of the British empire and at this point and time equals. Don't need to read anything else as you have no respect for those who died when the motherland sounded the horn for war.
My granddad is 90 this year he was a 11/12 during the blitz in Liverpool he got evacuated but didn’t stay in the country long as he ran back to Liverpool to to look after his mum
Callum EFC1878 And did his mum survived??
KillSwitch yeah mate also his step dad was in the British Army be got captured during ww2 but managed to survive and get home
Callum EFC1878 Glad to hear that man! :)
KillSwitch Thank you lad!
My grandfather fought in the Philippines
Those Polish, Czech and Free French boys thought it was Christmas when the British gave them fighters and pointed them at the Germans and a fine part they played too. Those that went home to Soviet controlled Eastern Europe after the war were treated terribly by the Russians.
@D the obligatory anti-British comment. Thank you....
@D yeah I definitely said all that stuff... What a demon debater you are. A master debater, in fact!
We couldn’t have gone to war again. We had plans for it but it would have killed millions and Britain would have fallen. As it was bankrupt and the US refused to help in any war with the USSR. WWII was a costly war started for Poland. At least they didn’t make peace and left Poland completely to the dust
I'm sorry by every definition of the word they weren't "boys"
I know thats not the point of your comment but saying "britain gave" is a little bit missleading since both Poland and Czechoslovakia had to actually pay for fuel, ammunition etc. their pilots used from their gold reserves
Although it’s an often told story, it was nice to hear from someone that’s not British. It sounds even more amazing when it’s told without bias. They were so brave at such a frightening time in history. Peace to all.
You can bet your ass it was more frightening to Germans
@@simohayho8622 Yeah cause they lost. And so did Finland
@@gareginnzhdehhimself *sad white death noises*
Lloren No! No noises! It will give away his position...
(Scared Soviet Soldier Noises)
Yeah but americans accents pronounce things incorrectly. For example 'looooooftwaffe'
"Where Napoleon failed, I shall succeed. I shall land on the shores of Britain."
that didnt age well
Nor did he
Peppertree133 T damn 😂
Hey to be fair guys, there was never a single chance that the Germans were ever going to get an invasion fleet across the Channel. The Royal Navy had some obsolete ships for sure. But they still had big guns. Plus, the Luftwaffe couldn’t hit a ship in a bathtub . . . just look at what happened at Dunkirk. The Stuka was especially dismal. The Germans had to stop using them about four weeks into the Battle of Britain. Just saying!!
@@HerewardWake Hi there. In 1940, the German Army and Panzer divisions were absolutely unstoppable, no question. But the real question is . . . could those divisions have successfully crossed 25-40 miles of open sea to invade Britain? To accomplish this type of operation, naval and air cover would have been crucial. The Germans had a plan, called Operation Sea Lion. The German Army and Panzer divisions were to be towed by tugs over the English Channel in wooden barges. Unlike the Americans and Japanese, the Germans had no landing craft. To protect the invasion fleet, the German navy had 10 destroyers (having already lost about half of their total fleet in the invasion of Norway!). The British navy had 67 destroyers and 6 cruisers immediately available, plus the larger ships of the Home Fleet based at Scapa Flow. Many of the British ships were admittedly old, but they didn’t need to be fast or sophisticated to defend the English coastline. The Germans would have laid mines, but the Royal Navy had scores of minesweepers and anyway, half a dozen ships sunk by mines would have made little difference to the overall British superiority. German U boats would also have been deployed, but attacking a flotilla of destroyers is a little more of a challenge than a convoy of merchant ships! The German air force had promised to destroy the British Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain. But as we now know, that particular plan didn’t go well. In any case, the German Luftwaffe had little chance of sinking British ships. The only dive bomber they possessed was the Ju87 Stuka. This had great success early in the war, but as soon as they came up against modern fighters in the Battle of Britain, the Spitfires and Hurricanes shot them down easily. Quite quickly the Luftwaffe withdrew the Stukas altogether as the losses were so high. Even when the British destroyers were at anchor and stationary in the Battle of Dunkirk, the Germans managed to sink only 5. In the open sea, the Luftwaffe had practically no chance of sinking anything much at all! So the chances of the invincible German divisions making it across the English Channel were very small. But don’t take my word for it. The Germans themselves realised that Operation Sea Lion was a bad idea. It was finally cancelled in January 1941. Field Marshal Rundstedt later recalled: "The military reasons for its cancellation were various. The German Navy would have had to control the North Sea as well as the Channel, and was not strong enough to do so. The German Air Force was not sufficient to protect the sea crossing on its own. While the leading part of the forces might have landed, there was the danger that they might be cut off from supplies and reinforcements."
Did he forget the part when he lost in Russia?
The sacrifice and the skill of "the Few" should never be forgotten.
Hugh Dowding was the best and greatest Air Force General in history!! No one comes close considering his resources and what he was up against!!
On his own land
William Carey yeah!!
Yes and look how he was treated.
@@simohayho8622 There is no comparison between Chris Kyle and Simö Häyhä!! Simo Häyhä was by far a much better sniper!!
You've never seen Nien Nunb then ?
I remember that summer well, although I was only a child in 1940. On looking back it is surprising how tranquil the summer was with just a few planes visible from out in the suburbs where we lived. Few were aware on what was going on up at 20 or 30K feet.
Hi Michael, I have been able to talk to quite a few of The Few before they passed on. They spoke of flying initially around 15000 to 20000 feet against the bomber formations but as the Battle of Britain went on, the fighting got higher, especially by the fighter bomber phase of later September, October and in the forgotten months of November and December 1940 when air combats over London and elsewhere carried on by day. One pilot, Bob Foster, had lived in London and after combat over the city, told me he used to fly low over his mother`s house to see it was still there and to let her know he was okay, if she was around. The fighting went up to around 30000 to 34000 feet by October 1940. Paul Davies Battle of Britain historian.
6:24 "there had been reported cases of RAF pilots being shot down and rejoining the battle the same day" (!)
Respect.
gotta be playing Arcade mode or sumn
@@marvelwidjaya3712 We love those War Thunder references
My Great Uncle worked for the LFB in WW2 and was one of the Firemen ordered to St Pauls Cathedral on the longest night. To save St Paul's at any cost was the order given by Churchill.
My Uncle said it was petrifying everywhere around where he was stationed had incendiary bombs dropping and starting signal fires for bigger bombs to be dropped a bit later. My Uncle and his colleagues were tasked to extinguish the fires, then came the 500lb high explosive bombs all around him again he had to remain there and fight the fires all around the Cathedral.
All around due to the heat of the fires whole brick buildings were collapsing. The constant dropping of the 500Ib bombs caused more devastation.
Eventually It stopped due to cloud cover over the UK and Channel and the firemen could get a grip of the fires because the last wave of bombers never got across the Channel.
The longest night as it was called was chosen by Hitler because the tide in the Thames was out that night. Hitler knew that the Thames would play a vital part for the LFB in extinguishing that amount of fires in the city to protect London. So he used it to his advantage, My Uncle and his collegues had to use fire engine water tanks and hand pumps to extinguish the fires that night. He said it was Hell on Earth!
But the following day St Paul's Cathedral was left standing proud above the London skyline.
All My Uncle had to defeat German might was a hose pipe a hard hat and water. No guns no weapons while Hitler and Germany threw their best at him. Yet on Rememberance day no one remembers the fireman of the LFB. I personally think they were some of the bravest men on the front line!
So it may seem like a game to everyone on here that subscribed to this channel but please remember this is history not a game that can be switched on and off at a whim. The men and women that were in this war were real men and women who had real families and many lost their lives in one way or another. Whether they were in the planes or on the ground fighting to save Britain with or without guns!
Great comment, thanks for sharing.
Well said
My mum who was 97 when she passed away in 2020 was a young woman on fire watch duty that night just a mile south of the river when St Pauls nearly burnt down. She said the fires in the streets below crept closer until the whole Cathedral was ringed by flames and looked like it would also soon start to burn and fall.When she had finished her duty next morning she went "home" to a railway arch near Blackfriars station where she lived for the next 3 months until the Blitz was over. It wasn't a miracle that saved St Pauls that night it was a few hundred full and part time fire fighters pulling out all the stops to make sure it didn't happen.
Thank you for sharing your story and honoring your Great Uncle and the London Fire Brigade. All are owed a great deal of gratitude.
To this day if you buy a house in London the surveyor will pull out a map to see if any ww2 bombs exploded nearby..damaged to foundations I think.
Completely normal in Germany.
it’s the same in newcastle liverpool and manchester too, kinda wild.
The 147 Polish pilots claimed 201 aircraft shot down. "It was the highest scoring of the Hurricane squadrons during the Battle of Britain and had the highest ratio of enemy aircraft destroyed to their own lost (safest)." (Wikipedia). And guess what? The Poles were not even invited to the victory parade after the war because Stalin said "no" and the British did not want to make him angry. The Poles were sold by their allies in 1945 to Stalin just like they were sold by their allies in September 1939 to Hitler. As if one time was not enough...
Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of choice in the matter unless everyone fancied a other war
But that Polish-British and Polish-French alliances were entered into to help each other in case of war, weren't they? What's the purpose of making alliances with the West if they refuse to help every time it's inconvenient? The Polish soldiers fulfilled their obligation and physically came to the UK and France to fight when Poland was already taken over. Seems like keeping a given word does not mean the same for everyone.
We all know that Poland was treated poorly by the allies. Their story is tragic. Unfortunately there was NOTHING that could be done to save them at any point in the war, save for re-igniting WW3 in 1945 and going to war with Russia, which would be utterly stupid.
1. France and Britain gave Poland a guarantee of help if Germany invaded. This was supposed to deter Hitler from invading Poland. The belief was that he would not risk invading Poland when two of the strongest empires in the world had pledged to oppose him. Obviously France and Britain underestimated Hitler's obsession with conquering the east and he invaded Poland anyway.
2. Britain and France honoured their pledge to support Poland, and on September 3rd began mobilizing their armies. Here's where the problems for defending Poland begin. Poland is too far away to support with aircraft, the water between Britain and Poland is infested with German submarines and navy so navy support is off the table. The only way to support Poland is by getting their armies to Poland... but Germany stands in the way.
3. It takes a hell of a long time to prepare for offensive war. French generals estimated that the French army would be ready for offensive warfare in 1941 at the earliest, but more likely in 1942. After only 14 days the Polish army was crushed, and Britain and France hadn't even finished moving all of their armies to the border with Germany yet. France hadn't even moved most of its equipment, artillery and so forth to the border, and they didn't have enormous stockpiles of shells ready to begin an immediate offensive.
4. Although the best of the German army was in Poland and the border with France was only lightly defended, the Germans still had the Westwall (fortifications built parallel to the Maginot line). Britain and France would have to attack Germany at the Westwall fortifications. Belgium refused to let British and French troops march to Germany through their land because they were still holding out hope that they could remain neutral in the war, and they knew Germany would declare war on them if they let France and Britain use their land for marching troops to Germany.
5. In 1945 every nation is exhausted after 6 years of warfare on a scale never seen in human history before or since WW2. Nobody was willing to now declare war on Russia for the sake of liberating Poland because Russia had a ridiculously huge army and was actually capable of holding back Britain, America and the rest of the allies almost indefinitely. Such a war would last another 5 years and cost many more tens of millions of casualties (including possibly the use of nukes in Europe/Russia). The cost would outweigh the reward.
It's a shitty situation, we all know it, but Poland was doomed from the start due to their location sandwiched between two extremely powerful and extremely murderous totalitarian regimes.
The whole reason we went to war was to defend you guys, is that not enough?
@buchner funnel Nope. Poles do not hate the British. I believe, they would like, rather hear Britain accept historical facts how undoing of Brits and French allowed what happened. Please check how many poles died defending the UK, and compare it to the number of Brits died during 1939 fighting in accordance to promises made to Poles.
"Give me a squadron of spitfires"
If i had one, I'd keep it. My own private air force.
Randy Cheow *_SPITFIRE_* *EUROBEAT INTENSIFE*
^^
@LeRoter Roter
Well he was wrong then wasn't he.
Herr Oberst, the squadron of Spitfires you ordered have arrived...and they are shooting at US!
The spitfire that invited my city was from my guy
Dude you are basicly the inventor of the spitfire
The guys who invented the freaking plane are from my city
The guy who invented my city is from my city
Jay Williams the guy who invented the city was from my plane
Señor Fluffy
The city that invented my guy is from my plane
Possibly one of the most important and impressive military victory’s every recorded
Battle of Britain, Stalingrad and Leyte Gulf. To me, those three are just about equal
@@jaymeister4850 Trafalgar
@@Genevasplaytime I meant in context of WW2.
But yeah, Trafalgar had a huge impact on how the world was shaped afterwards
One of the factors overlooked by many that contributed to the R.A.F.’s victory during the Battle of Britain was the aircraft repair facility set up just before the war, it’s estimated that as many as 30% of the R.A.F. fighters shot down over the south of England during the battle were repaired and returned to service, that coupled with the production of new aircraft helped ensure the R.A.F. had a constant supply of replacement aircraft for its squadrons.
this video was actually a stunning masterpice that explained years of history with a clear visual image and explanation to so much. the voice over was like a perfectly crafted prompt response and this helped me enormously for my school project, thank you!
0:01
Wow, update 1.79 graphics look amazing!
My great grandfather fought in the battle of Britain as a squadron leader his plane was shot down and he hit his head on a rock and was knocked unconscious but was found and was saved
What was his name?I would like to post a tribute to him on Battle of Britain site. Paul Davies. Battle of Britain Historian.
Fun fact: the famous 'we shall never surrender' speech by Churchill was unknown to most of the British public until after the war. It was not live-recorded (since in Britain recordings of parliament sessions were forbidden at the time) but rather the famous recording that everyone hears was a recreation after the war.
The public got much of its wartime inspiration from the live-broadcast speeches of King George VI instead.
7:29 as an American I unfortunately don't hear about how fucking bad ass those British civilians were. There's so many photos of them in the sewers and shelters and train tunnels, but everyone is smiling and laughing. The kids are playing, there's adults reading books and magazines and just straight chillin on cots. It's so epic. I'm sure it wasn't always like that, but God damn did they have balls of steel either way. That's something I don't hear many Americans talk about unfortunately, but it really should be mentioned more because it's damn impressive. The American people were tricked into being scared of weapons of mass destruction that the government knew did not exist in any way whatsoever, but they were on their back foot, France has fallen, they evacuated via Dunkirk, and now the nazis are bombing their capital cities and are damn close to being conquered by Germany, that's a scary ass fucking place to be in for real. and still those mfn brits laugh and relax and play and sleep. Truly amazing and impressive. Lmao
Such a cool comment. Nice of you think about the other side, which many dont.
Famous college football coach Woody Hayes called the battle of Britain "the greatest goal line stand in history"! God bless the British and their fortitude. The war would have ended very differently if the Brits had folded.
‘Never was so much owed by so many to so few’ - Sir Winston Churchill
@@HAL-zn6hd what
I can’t imagine the terror of hearing those air raid sirens as a civilian
It was horrible
When the Battle of Britain started I was six years old. I lived in Hampstead London and used to watch the dog fighting from Parliament Hill. We had "aircraft recognition books" which gave the specs of most of the aeroplanes on both sides (British and German).
Can’t imagine seeing the world change so much in one lifetime as you have.
I love your art style keep pushing out this great content!
Never underestimate the power of a nice cup of tea.
May the tea and Irn Bru bring us victory
Oncle Iroh
APPRUVED
The book in the middle, 50 Battles that Changed the World, is excellent. It was recommended reading in the early 2000s for junior officers in the U.S. Army. I was a lower enlisted man but picked it up as our recommendations were basically children's books. Really good read. Great channel.
As much fear as the battle of Britton stirs up, and as long as it lasts, in just about a decade more people were killed in London in just a few days during the London smog incident. 10,000-12,000 people died.
Also not sure if u mentioned it but also from 1940-44 the UK alone was outproducing Germany on aircraft by nearly a 1/3rd more
He said that the British production reached double Germany's
LedAvalon must have passed me by I’m glad he mentioned it because it’s an important fact that gets lost by a lot of people
this is absolutely wrong. It was never a 1:3 hahaha. in 1939 Germany produced slightly more. in 1940, UK produced more at the ratio of 1:1.5 which is understandable since Germany had to produce a lot more land equipment to reinforce her land army. In 1941, Britain indeed produced more than Germany at the ratio of 1:2 but operation barbarossa required constant reinforcement of land equipment. In 1942, britain produced more at 1:1.3 ratio. in 1943 it was equal and in 1944 Germany PRODUCED MORE than UK at the ratio of 1:1.5
@@msreviews5576 the U.K. produced 131k v 119k so yes not quite 30% but still out producing Germany on its own
@@msreviews5576 only one year did Germany produce more aircraft than the U.K. and the U.K. ended up producing more aircraft than Germany and lost less aircraft than Germany who was always short of aircraft v the U.K. who could mount eaid after raid on Germany
I think people forget that Britain was fighting in every single continent too
Every continent?
I'd say most continents
@@jeraadri nah they weren’t fighting in South America much but it did happen
@@Reyeoux yes
Ah yes, I do love the story of how Britain fought the Germans out of Antarctica.
Great video as usual Grif! When I see a young lad like you using technology to spread knowledge and quality content it really makes me happy. Channels like yours are beacons in a sea of idiocy full web.
We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. They had no idea what we are capible of when our backs are against the wall.
Where's that same fight now? You have been taken over by the Communist controlled E.U.. The British people have no sovereignty over there own nation. Your being breed out of your own country.
Bryan Farts they aren’t communist?
Idk man...britain basically took over the world before... Dont think anyone thought they were punks. Hitler actually tried to ally himself with britain. Britain declared war on germany over them invading other countries. Hitler didnt want to fight britain if he could avoid it
Gareth Wren “Americans will always do the right thing.... once all Other options are exhausted” You can always count on us to be late in these wars, but hey, better late then never
@@wilsthelimit you say that but due to the fear of war in the beginning Germany was able to occupy many small nations and build up its military and industry all due to the allies holding out in hopes for a better option. If 0 tolerance was taken the war would've been a lot easier on the French and British. Without the time to build up their military nazi Germany would have been the ones getting strangled. Sadly declaring war over 0 tolerance is a risky thing resulting in the escalations that occurred and shall remain in history.
My great grandfather was part of the team that developed the merlin engine (the engine in the spitfire and other planes)
"Until in God's good times the new world with all its power and might step forward to the rescue and the liberation of the old"
-W.churchill
In other words “Until America gets off its lazy ass and decides to help” JK
"America can always be depended on to do the right thing,...after it has exhausted all other possibilities"
-W. Churchill
I love the music that you use, it really influences the way we, as the sudience, feels and is memorable. Keep up the work!
"A significant impact "
If the battle of Britain was lost then so was the war
If Germany had won the battle of Britain, I question whether Hitler would have actually invaded England. The British had superior naval power and a channel crossing and invasion may not be achievable. That being the case, the Battle of Britain had a lesser impact on the outcome of the war?
This makes me want to listen to aces high by iron maiden.
The Mk1 Hurricane and Mk1 Spitfire that fought in the Battle had the same armament - 8 rifle-calibre .303 Browning machine guns with about 30 seconds' firing time overall before ammunition was exhausted. That meant RAF pilots were not only heavily outnumbered, they had to make every shot count with fairly tiny bullets. On the other hand, the Bf109 carried a pair of 20mm cannon that could rip a Spitfire apart with a single hit. The Hurricane was mainly constructed of wood and fabric (everything aft of the cockpit, wings, etc) meaning that a cannon shell was more likely to pass straight through without exploding. It also meant Hurricanes were easier to repair and quicker to return to action after damage than the monocoque-contruction Spitfire.
303 with .303
The British (and Americans) measured the diameter of the bullets using inches in those days. The 303 bullet was 0.303 inches in diameter.
The 20 millimeter (20 mm) auto-cannon shell was 0.7874 inches in diameter.
You got a hole in your right wing!
You've got a hole in your right wing? seriously? I've got no right wing anymore that's more than just a hole
The most memorable sound from war thunder
I know... that is why I am dead
“Tis just a scratch!”
i used to be a fighter like you then i took a bullet to the wing
Long story short: The Luftwaffe can't defeat the Royal Navy, so Team GB wins.
Royal Navy: "You cant defeat me!"
Luftwaffe: "I know! But he can!"
Kriegsmarine with Donitz:
"*ROAAAAARR*"
Not the Royal Navy. It was the RAF
@@simohayho8622 Royal Navy: *flicks Kriegsmarine away* you where saying
@Matthew Smith Don't be so sure of that.
Had the Germans managed to capture the entire French surface fleet, things would have suddenly looked very different.
British victory wasn't as sure as you think.
@Matthew Smith You got the wisdom of hindsight. But it could have played out easily very differently.
And yes, I know they didn't have enough landing craft or expertise to pull it off.
Canadians were also present in the Battle of Britain!
Wherever there are Canadians, the Canadians will let you know. No matter how tenuous the connection.
Yh Ik but Canada was part of the British empire so
@@miz74th13 it happened during WWII, and Canada was her own Country at the end of WWI
Always a great friend.
Lol Canadians always make sure their mentioned in British history we get it you provided 3% of support towards us I'm sure we would of totally lost if you didn't provide that little bit help 😂😂😂
The opening shot shows a cannon carrying Spitfire, no such Spitfires took part in the battle. Also the reason that the RAF bombed Berlin on the 26 July 1940 is that the Luftwaffe bombed London on the 24 July 1940.
The bombing on croydon airport
I'd consider the forgotten bombings
Fighter pilots in exile fly over foreign land
Let their story be heard, tell of 303rd
Fighter pilots from Poland in the battle of Britain
Guarding the skies of the isle
Yep and some Poles stayed on in Britain after the war as long as the Russians and Communists ruled the country but some returned home after the fall of communism.
There will be a new film coming out this month called "Hurricanes" about polish pilots serving during the Battle of Britain and beyond.
A Polish pilot now still living in Britain aged around 90 recently interviewed on British ITV News said British government in 1945 did not invite them to the victory parade because of fear that Stalin might criticise the British for allowing the Polish to do victory parade cos they are not communists. It was a Labour government at the time after being elected soon after VE Day.
Nice Sabaton reference
I would like to say that Britain appreciates the Polish pilots. (Of course everyone is in agreement that the Polish pilots didn’t do everything in the battle of Britain.)
Why does everyone forget 302nd?
Jynexe what song?
When Hitler lost the Battle of Britain it was the beginning of the end. It was just a matter of time before Germany would lose WW2.
Thank you for doing this episode it means a lot to me because I want everybody to get the credit and I really enjoy your videos and I hope it grows thank you for the opportunity
Thank you Armchair Historian for bringing us good content keep up the good work
The one inaccuracy - Hurricane RF-E was the plane of Sqn. Ldr. Witold Urbanowicz of 303 squadron - who reputedly never picked up as much of a bullet hole...
This is the only history channel who mentioned the Polish and Czech pilots. All pilots from all countries were heroic.
This makes me proud to be British.
At 0:02, is it just me or is that Bf109’s canopy open?
6:44 "Hold my beer, watch this ;)" - Sir Arthur Harris.
Doubtful that anyone will ever read this, but one of the best books on this subject I've found is With Wings, Like Eagles by Michael Korda. And it's a genuinely good read too, as you can almost read it like a novel.
Read it a few months ago after a previous recommendation by another commenter. VERY well written and readable, easily picked up second hand on your favourite auction website.
As much as it sounds .britain was a bless to this world .we owe them the innovation the world had after their first agricultural revolution
jack breh europe ows them their freedom - without Britain, France Germany/Russia would have dominated the continent.
Refreshing to hear this sentiment since "Britain bad" has come into fashion
Great production quality. Keep it up my dude.
That opening was great! Nice job.
If you go to Fulton, MO there is the Winston Churchill Memorial and Museum. There you will find a chunk of The Berlin Wall and above the Museum is a Chaple, that was damaged by the Bliz and you can still see that damage, it was brought over piece by piece and put together. They hold services in that chapel every Sunday It's well worth the time to stop. The British were able to win because they made better use of the forces they could bring to the fight, better Command, and Control, better Intel, Aircraft that had longer endurance, fewer pilots killed or becoming pows. It takes a considerable amount of time to take and train a 19-year-old to be a pilot, then train him up for fighters and then bring him along to where he is going to be useful as a fighter pilot. The German was behind the eight ball going in, aircraft had to short of endurance, the factories could not keep up with the losses, and Fuel. Oil was Germany's main problem, they didn't have much. and it would only get worse as the war dragged on. All the While Britain and later on the Soviet Union would be swimming in fuel from the United States, we had and provided the Crude on refined fuels for the War. It all came down to that. Germany relied on horses, the Allies relied on Trucks. They needed the war to end in 1941, it didn't and from Mid-1943 there would be no doubt about it, Germany would not only lose the war but will be crushed.
“We will never sur-.....commercial break.” Damn you, RUclips!
😳 Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding had an excellent deputy in Air Vice Marshal Keith Park, who was from New Zealand. Together they made a formidable command that held firm under immense pressure. One decision they took was to give separate duties to Hurricanes and Spitfires. Hurricanes mainly attacked slower bombers, while Spitfires attacked faster fighter aircraft. Dowding and Park also resisted attempts to create a ‘Big Wing’ situation, when a number of RAF squadrons would combine then attack the enemy. One of the loudest voices in favour was Douglas Bader, but he as overruled on one ground of the time needed to bring squadrons together.
Historians always fail to mention the basic Luftwaffe strategy at the beginning of the Eagle offensive. Although Goering was an inept leader, he did allow his command staff to conduct the destruction of the Royal Air Force. Luftwaffe commanders realized the best way to destroy the RAF was to use their bombers as bait, with the ME-109s flying high altitude escort to save transit fuel and use their advantage of dive and climb to pounce on British fighters. Also because of the ME-109s limited fuel range they wanted the RAF to attack their formations as quickly as possible so the escorts had more time to engage and destroy as many RAF fighters before they had to turn back and the Radar towers were used to the Luftwaffe’s advantage, not the other way around. The Luftwaffe did not destroy the Radar towers because they wanted RAF fighters to meet them when Spitfires and Hurricanes were hard climbing for altitude while the 109's were diving on them. This opening tactic was working and gave the Luftwaffe fighters 30 minutes flying time over England and the Radar towers allowed those precious 30 minutes for attacking British fighters. Hitler and Goering noticed the high bomber loss rate and instead of consulting his commanders, ordered the fighters to fly close air support and they lost their climb and dive advantage engaging in maneuver dogfights where the spitfires clearly had the edge. On top of that they expended more fuel flying at slower and lower altitudes to directly escort the bombers, shorting the flight time to 20 minutes over targets. Switching to these formations made the RAF Radar network effective now that the bombers and fighters were all mixed together. This was the major factor in the Luftwaffe’s failure combined with bombing London instead of airfields. The USAAF used the same bomber bait tactic to cripple the Luftwaffe in preparation for operation overlord, and it was a success at the cost of 30-40% bomber losses.
Neither approach was about to win them the battle though and some of the Luftwaffe's most successful days of air fighting occurred after they had switched tactics , whatever approach they took they were not successful enough often enough to make the necessary breakthrough over fighter command .
If the Luftwaffe would have stuck with the Bomber Bait Strategy they could have destroyed twice the amount of RAF fighters as they did when Goering order his Air Marshals to switch from high altitude escort to direct close bomber escort formations. I don't know the exact total numbers to that point, but the German Airforce did destroy half as many RAF fighters after this change of tactics. But as we know this is a difficult conclusion as kill scores were over reported on both sides, but it works out this way if you use the same formula to estimate the actual kill rate before and after the change. Rather the Luftwaffe would have won the Air Battle of Britain this way is almost impossible to determine, as many other factors would have changed also.
@@jaywiegs1712: Wouldn't the Germans then have depleted their bombers instead?
@@seneca983 30-40% or more of them, but they would have crippled RAF Fighter Command and dominated the airspace over the English Channel. A high tactical loss for a massive strategic advantage.
This channels interests could not align more closely to mine even if it tried. I get butterflies in my stomach feeling when I see a new upload. I eat, breathe, sleep and shower all that is WW2 and it’s nice to see “How the Battle of Britain was won” in the middle of Vlog(gone wrong ) or Lil Tay did this! Or prank (gone sexual!). My Grandpa served in WW2. He was sent to Guam. He passed away a few years ago and I’m 24 now. As a kid I was never interested in his stories much or his uniform but now I would do anything to sit and ask him questions for hours and listen to his stories but Ill never get the chance. Thank you for your videos and great animation.
Yeah I am a gluten for ww2 history content, but only developed my interest in history over the last few years. I'm British and had great grand father's who fought in ww2. Sadly the last one died before I could meet him. His daughter (my grandmother) has loads of his letters. He was a Chindit in the Liverpool Royal Kings, and was in Burma 1943. I haven't even looked at his letters yet, but I am soon. Apparently they were limited as to what they could say due to high secrecy. But they'll be interesting non the less
Proxel Wow! I’m so jealous lol.
My great grandmother was in that school that was bombed.
8:11 - Any reference to Hugh Dowing earns a gold star for integrity and accuracy. Quite possibly more significant than Montgomery and Patton combined, and one of the greatest military strategists this world has ever known. Without his wisdom, Great Britten may have been lost, and with it, WW2.
At NO point in WW2 was Britain EVER likely to be invaded successfully.
Nobody did more to help win the ground war in the west than Bernard Montgomery. Nobody.
@@lyndoncmp5751 Operation Market Garden was a disaster.
@@PeriodDrama
Operation Market Garden was 90% successful. It took 100km of German held ground in 3 days. This was the fastest allied advance against German opposition in the entire September 1944 to February 1945 period.
Patton in the Lorraine, Hodges in the Hurtgen Forest and the whole Ardennes debacle were far bigger disasters with a lot more casualties.
Montgomery was the most successful Western Allied ground commander of WW2 by some way. He took more ground through more countries while facing more quality German opposition than any other Western Allied ground commander in WW2. This is fact not opinion.
Cheers.
My nan and grand were in the outskirts of London when the blitz happend and the Luftwaffes would drop the bombs they didn't use on London around where they lived so the would go out as kids and look for the biggest piece of sharpnel as a competition
RIP Paul Towers 1930-2020
That was the saddest dogfight ever in the beginning LOL
0:27 Absolutely, entirely false. Britain was fighting a downhill battle. The german luftwaffe had little to no ability to replace their losses AND most importantly the RAF pilots we're far more effective with foresight as you mentioned. What in the helloyello makes u think britain was "at its' knees"? Lol thats like "ThE ruSSIAn WiNTEr caUSEd GrmnY tO loZe tHe WaR"
Jacob Taylor also the British where about producing them so even if it lasted longer Britain would of won and there pilots where also better trained
How many people outside of those brave RAF airmen, can say "I saved my country." No Russian, Frenchman, Canadian, nor any American I can think of can. President Lincoln maybe...
Such an inspiring thought. I hope the British never stop honoring those men..
🇬🇧
Russians who fought at Stalingrad definitely can.
Who would win:
>German Luftwaffe with elite pilots?
Or?
>Some Polish Bois
ELITE pilots
Right because polish pilots made up the majority of the RAFs manpower yeah? Smh
The RAF Roll of Honour recognises 574 pilots, from countries other than the United Kingdom, as flying at least one authorized, operational sortie with an eligible unit during the period between 10 July to 31 October 1940, alongside 2,353 British pilots. The numbers differ slightly from the participants whose names are engraved on the Battle of Britain Monument in London, unveiled on 18 September 2005.
Polish pilots were among the most experienced in the Battle; most had hundreds of hours of pre-war flying experience and had fought in the 1939 Defensive War and/or the Battle of France. The Polish pilots had been well trained in formation flying and had learned from combat experience to fire from close range. By comparison, one Polish pilot referred to the close formation flying and set-piece attacks practiced in the RAF as "simply suicidal".
Hope that clarify something to you. Its about quality not quantity.Also many Great Britain pilots were recent recruts beacuse until 40 they lost many experienced pilots.
Those were not just the pilots, 8000 polish staff assisted during Battle of Britain. Noone is saying "without the polish pilots britain would have fallen", it was a joint effort, it was what was needed to be done, and it worked.
Yet the best pilot of the Battle of Britain remains to be a Czech pilot named Josef František with 17 kills.
According to the RAF commander Dowing, the RAF was on a breaking point because of the airfield bombings. It was critical that the luftwaffe changed tactic. How can you keep getting these key facts wrong?
Germany never had a chance. Germany's war economy was an absolute mess of inefficiency.
Yes, when you think that during the BoB England was capable of producing more aircrafts than the whole Nazireich, despite the fact that they had to ship all recources around the globe it shows how incompetend the nazis were.
@Emil Well, just check the numbers. It is like I said, the british industry produced more planes during the BoB than the Nazireich. And the air-industry was even the better organised part of the german-war machine.
@D Well, the germans had geared up for war since 1933. But it was like with every dictatorship: Too much inefectiveness and corruption.
@D No, they geared up so that they could make a war of agression in 1939. With a lot of weapons but a badly managed industry. While the french and the british only really began to react to the german armament after the violation of the munich agreement.
tightlypackedcoil But Germany outproduced Britain in everything in 1944.Germany produced 40.593 aircraft and 18.956 tank/spg this year.Britain outproduced Germany during early years of the War because Germans never mobilized their economy to war until 1943.
Hey man I absolutely love your content and channel!!!
Are you using the world conquerors 3 soundtrack?
Ethan Republic he has used it in other videos
Im so good that I can conquer the world with Germany without the use of any Generals in 150 rounds
my great nan had to stand on a bridge here in wales and she had to watch out for german planes, she was very young during ww2 and shes still alive today
“Where Napoleon failed, I shall succeed. I shall land on the shores of Britain.” Churchill be like “Come again.”
Haha that’s quite funny
wow, i like how his sponsor is my fav game, i love playing the spitfire mk 9
The 1st RAF bombing raid on Berlin was in response to the bombs that fell on the east end of London. Granted we now know that the Germans were lost and had jettisoned their bombs; however, they did this over London instead of over the sea, as the RAF and USAAF did. Hilter then ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb British cities in revenge. This would escalate until the war's end.
Please, if you want to be taken seriously don't leave out such major details.
They were going after fuel tankers i believe.
Agreed. It would also have been more accurate to include some Hurricanes in the animations as they were more numerous in the battle than Spitfires and were flown by the squadron with most kills in the battle (303 Squadron).
Yes, the German pilots bombed the wrong targets, so easy to do in those days. In fact one German bomber crew, after bombing Belfast (Northern Ireland) landed their plane intact on an RAF airfield because they had mistaken the Bristol Channel for the English channel.
The RAF was delighted to add a Junkers Ju88G to their fleet, complete with German secret night radar!
Hitler didn't order the bombing of cities for two weeks after the RAF bombed Berlin so it was hardly revenge. In the meantime the Luftwaffe carried out a systematic two week bombing campaign of the RAF airfields. This totally failed. In frustration at this failure Hitler ordered the bombing of the cities because nothing else was working.
@@ktipuss The RAF didn't add the Junker to their fleet at all, they were happy that they captured an intact German plane with night radar though.
I was expecting Aces High to start as soon as Churchill's speech ended.
I’ve never heard Churchill’s speech read with less enthusiasm
That was thee speach tho
That was Churchill speaking
That was Churchill speaking u melon
The great Sir Hugh Dowding was not the head of the RAF. He was the head of Fighter Command, till he was 'kicked upstairs (really sideways) in late 1940, after winning the Battle of Britain -- the only time during the Second World War that the winning general of a major battle was canned. The Chief of the Air Staff of the whole RAF (the professional head of the Royal Air Force) during most of WW2 was Marshal of the Royal Air Force, (Lord) Charles Frederick Algernon Portal. He had been head of Bomber Command and was promoted in 1940 (Harris followed him at Bomber Command).
at least keith park got a command in malta and saved it as well.
As an Englishman, I want to thank you for mentioning the pilots of other countries that helped in the battle.Little is mentioned of their sacrifice and as my nations heads for bexit, maybe if we knew more of our history we would not be so ready to leave.
Even Winston Churchill called for a "United States of Europe" in his 1946 Zurich speech and would surely have been an advocate for the EU. I feel sorry for all the Brits that voted to remain, but that's democracy for you, I guess. Best from Germany.
@@generalripper7528 considering how the campaign was fed with lies, with xenophobic rhetoric, and with targeted ads (in an admittedly highly succesful propaganda move), the word 'democracy' is to be used veeeery carefully when it comes to Brexit - or Trump, for that matter. Democracy is more than mere exit polls.
@@tv9049 I agree. The referendum shouldn't have taken place and the hurdle rate should have been that Brexit occurs only if 60% of voters vote leave (and not 51%).
@Britannia What are you brabbling about?
7:55 this music is from World Conqueror 3. That game is my guilty pleasure and I can recognize that music anywhere 👀
They didn’t create that music lmao
Canada played a big role in the Battle of Britain. We were sending pilots planes and supply’s
Theres a town called dover near where i live. The nickname that place has is hellfire corner, it was bomed heavily in the war
I play WT, but ships aren’t out for everyone, and I sure as hell know they don’t have millions of players.
Dowding's brilliant generalship.
Great Britain 🇬🇧
“Three factors contributed to British aerial victory,” declared Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder of the Royal Air Force shortly after the battle ended. “The skill and bravery of the pilots, the Rolls‐Royce Merlin engine and the availability of suitable fuel.” The American contributions to fuel production were irreplaceable, Palucka asserted, because as war clouds formed over Europe during the 1930s, American companies were extracting about 60 per cent of the world’s petroleum, with the Soviet Union accounting for 17 per cent and Britain and the Netherlands most of the rest.
gassed-up-the-juice-that-fuelled-victory-in-the-battle-of-britain page
Americans desperate to be seen as responsible for the BRITISH victory in the battle of Britain. Laughable. Akin to Romanians claiming responsibility for the nazi's conquests because of their supplying fuel to feed the nazi war machine.
All I need is twenty good Spitfire pilots.
That speech by Winston is just so incredible.
Can you do a video of the war of 1812. By the way you are great historian
Hi Larry! Thanks for the kind words. We were originally planning on dedicating July to American History, but we ended up revising much of our schedule. Unfortunately, we won't have time to cover the War of 1812 any time soon. We will however, be making videos on the Civil War, and Westward Expansion.
Griff
War of 1812 was a british win
John Jacob Astor Funny that they still lost the three biggest battles of the war.
RevengeOfTheKaizer funny that america was almost bankrupted and their invasion of canada failed
RevengeOfTheKaizer oh and their white house and capital city was burned sown
5:00 Bourjois House in croydon. thats close to where i live.
They tried to tame the lion...
My great grandfather brother fought in that battle, he was just 27 when he join the Luftwaffe. He shot down 5 hurricane and 2 spitfire on that battle. But was shot by a spitfire but survive and Successfully emergency landing on France soil. He fought in many battle on the war and it last action is above sky of Hamburg 1944, before he was shot down again and wounded. He spend all day on the medical facility until he was captured by the American when he driving toward the air base. He scored 26 air kill at the entire war and died 8 year ago.
Do you know your great grand uncle's name?
@@williambradley9419 Fritz Hügger, why?
@@andreasbonaparte8171 Sod off YT... removing posts for no reason. 2nd time of posting Heinz.
1. There's no shortage of deluded kids posting "My grandad was Hermann Göring" and other assorted nonsense?
2. It's interesting to look into the lives of the "footsoldiers" at the coalface of war, much more so than the Grandiose burblings of Generals and politcal "leaders".
We had carrots and tea
So we could stay up and see in the dark
I used to believe that as a kid
You could have used the in-game footage instead, for story narration, that would have in turn served your sponsorship! Any how, a nice video as always! Thanks!