How Did Britain Survive The Blitz? | Battle of Britain | War Stories
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- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2024
- In September 1940 Hitler targeted London and Britain’s industrial heartlands. Giving the order to Goring to launch what he saw as his final assault on Britain, he sent thousands of German bombers over the capital, catching the outnumbered British off guard. But how would Britain respond to this Blitz? Would they give in or muster up the courage to fight back?
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Makes me proud to be British that all those other country's pilots came to help us out. Thank you for helping in our hour of need. My God father was one of those people, George Polisky from Poland. Thank you uncle George. I am now 71 years old.
It does for me as well, but when I heard the story of the Polish Pilots and other branches I felt nothing but shame for them for the way they were treated at the end of the war. They should have received the same accolades and benefits others received, but especially they should have been represented in the Victory Parade in London at the end of the War. A belated but heartfelt Thank You to all the Polish who served in the British forces during this time. As one Pilot is believed to have said "The Polish were the only country to have won the War and lost the War". If I have the comment wrong I apologize and ask somebody to correct it.
@@sandykent978
The Victory parade you talk of was JUST for British Military personnel ONLY, as far as i am aware other countries had their own Victory parades, However The British Government INVITED every country that fought alongside Britain to send a Flag party so that the people could see the flags of all the allies, Every country accepted the offer, apart from THREE, the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and, ANY GUESSES?, POLAND?, yes they refused the invitation.
MPs in Parliament then asked the Government to contact Polish Ex service mens organisations in the UK, to ask them if they would like to attend, THEY said they would attend if they could have a bigger representation than any other country, quite rightly Britain said no, it would be unfair on all the other countries attending, (which i am sure, you would agree with) the invitation was not cancelled, it was not withdrawn, it was still open, it was still on the table, the Polish ex service men CHOSE NOT TO ATTEND. THEY CHOSE NOT TO ATTEND. STILL FEEL SHAME?.
At the end of the war The British Government offered 250,000 Polish Military personnel AND their families British Citizenship.
Read about it, The Polish Resettlement Act, 1946/1947. STILL FEEL SHAME?.
Polish Pilots won 342 BRITISH Gallantry awards including 19 DSOs, and 191 DFCs, STILL FEEL SHAME?
Perhaps you should feel shame, shame for yourself, for not bothering to find out the truth about what went on. Shame on you.
Yeah the Poles were very motivated to destroy the Nazi's they had experienced having their own country occupied and destroyed they were a beacon of defiance .
The UK and the Poles started WW2 . The Poles in particular treated ethnic Germans viciously.
If you ever travel to London I recommend going to Northolt, where there’s a war memorial for the Polish pilots that fought in the RAF
He forgot to mention the Czech Pilots..so here's to you! I am reminded by the brilliant Czech movie Dark Blue World; all about their Pilots. Most never got home and many of those who did ended up imprisoned by the Russians who were scared they would be rebellious as war heroes; what a bloody waste! My whole family was in both wars and thanks to these guys I was born into a free country after it. We will never forget you.....
You can be sure they were not forgotten. At the end of the Battle of Britain movie the pilots are listed by each country, how many from that country and how many gave their lives. There were 86 Czech pilots and 8 died in the conflict. (edit) I have just reviewed this video, Czechoslovakia was mentioned at 44:15
At the end of the war the victory parades omitted the poles as it would have upset Stalin he was still upset by them when they returned home from fighting tyranny so he had them killed.
Brave new world.
I have watched The Battle of Britain several times and watch every special I can about that momentous time. The bravery and perseverance of the men and women involved in that stand is inspiring, even today. Thanks for posting this show!
Might be weird me saying this but i assume your name has meaning. Congratulations. Im trying to get to that point myself. Keep on keeping on friend!
The film was garbage.
Thankyou to all the pilot’s from all different countries for protecting Britain we are all proud of you all ,you came in our hour of need
I thought I'd create a simple "visual aid" in order to assist people learning about the history of the battle of Britain. There is much ongoing debate about the nationalities and proportions of RAF fighter pilots who took part in the battle, with a furtive aspect which attempts to portray the battle as a victory of "mostly Foreign pilots". Below is an accurate graphical representation of the proportion of pilot nationalities serving within RAF Fighter Command during the summer of 1940.
Each flag is roughly equivalent to 30 pilots, The numbers after each nation are the actual number of pilots from that country, and the approximate percentage of RAF Fighter Command's establishment in the summer of 1940 that they represented.
🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧 UK (2342) (80%)
🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱🇵🇱 Poland (145) (5%)
🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿 New Zealand (127) (4%)
🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Canada (112) (4%) (1940 flag emoji not available)
🇨🇿🇨🇿🇨🇿 Czechoslovakia (88) (3%)
🇦🇺 Australia (32) (1%)
🇧🇪 Belgium (28) (1%)
🇿🇦 S. Africa (25) (1%) (1940 flag emoji not available)
🇺🇳 Other nations (France (13), R o Ireland (10), USA (9), Rhodesia (3), Newfoundland (1), Jamaica (1), Barbados (1)) (1%)
(And just to preempt any wandering idiot lefty "Identity warriors" from protesting about "The lack of credit given to the black pilots who fought in the battle of Britain"... the pilots from Rhodesia & the Caribbean were all of white British descent).
"Representing those who died."
Beautiful comment...
At the right place, the right age... Amen...
I found myself in Coventry on a quiet Sunday afternoon in February 2006. I wandered around and came across a lane where every house except one was post WW2. Unless I was mistaken, it was the one house in that lane that survived the bombing of Coventry. I'll never forget the sight.
"We shall fight with ever growing confidence in the air. We shall never surrender."
"We shall launch thousands artillery shells at the planes and kill just as many civilians as the germans when all those shells rain down on the streets of london."
I Love WW2 Stories. Thank you.
Their bravery and courage at the time of odds are truly admirable. Thanks for the upload.
Watched this whole thing so surreal to be watching this during peacetime August 2021........
Peacetime? Wake up..fer fooks sake
WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER!
I'll never do that, even though the cowardly attacks that those keep coming towards me I shall never surrender, Invictus
Agreed
The biggest difference was the loss in trained aircrew. British who bailed out could be back in the air in a day or two, Germans who bailed out were out of the war for good.
Not only the pilots were heroes, but having and using radar was the key to success.
Be safe and be 😎
People were just stronger in those days. We could definitely learn a lot from that generation.
PP.
Mentally stronger the world wasn't trying to break them like this generation, alot of things have changed and it's up to us to step it up and stop relying on the government!
So they say, but it wasn’t this generation that fell to the depravity of imperialism and Fascism that culminated in the most bloody conflict of human history.
I firmly believe that every generation faces their own testing just in a different situation and a different way. Plus if needed they would step up and take responsibility for themselves and their country as the Ukrainians have. There will always be the naysayers but they become a lot less public when their own country is threatened by terrorists or terrorist countries.
Better get started! They’re dying by the hundreds every day. I lost my father and two uncles in the last two years; not Covid, from old age. A neighbor recently passed as well. All fought in the war.
It saddens me a little that the REAL heroes of the BoB, the Hurricanes, don't seem to get the credit they really deserve. The Spits were, of course, highly effective but the Hurricanes did most of the heavy lifting. Germany lost almost 1200 aircraft to the RAF, more than half of those claimed by Hurricanes. Yes, the Hurricanes outnumbered the Spits by almost 2 to 1, but the "new kid' always seems to get most of the glory.
They are well appreciated by me.
I lived near Northolt airfield. 303 Squadron. polish Pilots.
@@hurricane7950 "Repeat, please!"
Winston Churchill: "WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER!!!"
according to the movie 300, and quoting the king, we will fight in the shade, and that they did.
as a post office engineer on cable maintenance all my bosses had been in WW2 they spent 3 years laying cables from all the RDF (not called Radar at that time ) sites the ROC posts the airfields , and command posts completely separate from the switched telephone Network the DTN ( defence teleprinter network was also perfected , nowhere else in the world had anything like this the Americans didnt have system anything like it until Jaytids in the 1960s i was still responsible for the DTN until the 1970s i feel all these documentaries neglect the GPOs contribution
Thank you for the information... I knew of Dowding's insistence on the laying of seperate telecoms cables to the individual stations, but that was as far as my knowledge extended, you've initiated some further reading topcs for myself, thank you again.
Never give up yet ye be tired, and you may ache the battle continues and never surrender
When I was a youngster growing up in the 1950s & 60s I remember them testing the sirens every month. Even though we knew when the test was to be, my mother and others of her age and older, particularly the women, would run out to the street to check the sky and confirm that there were no bombers over us. She never spoke of the war years until I was packing to go and join the Royal Navy, my father never did speak of his experience.
I remember the overhead filming of the Battle of Britain and running out to watch the Spitfires and Hurricanes jumping the German planes. By the end of filming all the local Boys knew every aircraft as well as any war kid. But for the women and girls who lived through it it was a horror repeated only 25 years later. My mother used to spend those days in the kitchen cooking with tears just rolling down her cheeks, I think that was the saddest I ever saw her until the day she found out my father had signed off on me joining Royal Navy as a boy sailor.
My father an RAF officer was visiting his ancient aunts in primrose
hill London.
During tea bombs started falling pretty close by and the rack back opened up tremendous racket tea cups rattling and all that.
My my father dove under the table for cover.
These old dears carried on drinking tea as if nothing was happening.
He remembers them exclaiming " our brave boys!"
An often overlooked British key to the success the RAF realized, was radar, Chain Home Station. Combined with the Observer Corps, fighters weren’t blindly groping all over the sky. Dowding was able to direct attacks exactly where they were needed the most, instead of burning petrol in endless patrols.
Germany had radar.
In the early 1940's when the blitz was on I can still remember mother grabbing hold of my younger brother and taking us to the air-raid shelter.
My Great Grandmother was bombed out of her Digs in London. My Grandfather went to London from Bournemouth to fetch his mother. She refused to go with him. She said she was a Londoner and there she would stay. He went back to Bournemouth. When he git to the station, the family were there waiting for him. They told him to go back to London and fetch his mother she had been bombed out & was left only in her night clothes. Grandad fetch her and she lived in Bournemouth for the rest of her life. She died in 1958 at the age of 103 years.
Bless their memory, Ann. Thank you for that thread of real social history.
My neighbour a clippy ( bus conductor) lived in Southampton which was heavily bombed , was dug out of rubble three times!
She was one of those people who would say " well you've got to laugh don't you"?
Always happy real salt of the earth.
I spoke to soldiers based on the coast in open pill boxes... like flowerpots they said. If the Germans had come we wouldn't have lasted days. Fortunately the Germans wanted minimum cost of their mens lives .
Thank God for Radar.
"If the German's had come...." What? Across the choppy channel in their Rhine river barges, contending with the world's strongest navy? The British army were safe on their "flowerpots".
If Germany had crossed the channel in their Rhine River Barges, then we'd just arrest the few that manage to make in onshore without drowning.
I remember seeing the movie Battle of Britain on tv as a kid.
If you ever get the chance to see it a theatre/cinema take the opportunity as television doesn't do it justice.
I’m a Yankee, and I apologize for my country not getting into the fight at this point.
It’s shameful.
Wasn't your war Many respects from 🇬🇧
The US should have joined the Axis.
Thanks for saving my grandmum boys
Spitfires went after the enemy fighters/ Hurricanes after the enemy bombers
They’re called the *Greatest Generation* for a reason. Wow.
Exceptional night vision story to cover radar in the aircraft😆👍🇬🇧
My mom always encouraged me to eat my carrots so I could become a spitfire pilot!
The Blitz was in response to the RAF bombing cities and towns in Germany, as Spaight confirmed in his 1944 book "Bombing Vindicated".
First RAF bombs on Germany Mar 1940
First German bombs on Britain Oct 1939.
You're WRONG again Mark.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 The RAF began bombing Germany on 4 September 1939.
Please make your videos available in Nigeria as well, some videos aren’t available here. Thank you.
Its great that you consider the Blitz as part of the battle.
However,the mini Blitz should also be considered as part of the battle.To Britons then,it might as well be.
Sorry I was 6 months old in 1940 living in London with my brother aged 5 she was on her own dad was in the Army.
Now this was a good one.
Nice use of the Battle of Britain
Guts, determination and Winston Churchill.😊
Churchill was a traitor.
Never has so much been owed to so few
"Never has so much been owned by so many to so few". You are still correct anyway
I believe some time ago the Battle of Britain and invasion was played out on a German war game model. I think the view was that if needed the fighters would move out of range as would Navy vessels, should the Germans try crossing the Channel then they would come back and control the channel. Who knows but the truth is crossing a sea is more difficult than over land.
They would have been sitting ducks in the middle of the channel and perhaps that would have been a good strategy however London and the south still needed protection.
It seems they hadn't yet read the art of war yet.
When you consider how well the RAF handled the Luftwaffe during the evacuation of Dunkirk…flying out of England no less and not based in France…and considering radar wasn’t even a factor…
How could Goering possibly expect his guys to perform well close to the RAF’s home turf?
When ever, and whatever, Flew in that period of the War... It WAS.... on RADAR and was at the root of how Britain eventually survived. It probably saved MY life!
@@alanmiller8887 Radar wasn’t a factor with Dunkirk.
@@alanmiller8887 Germany had radar.
Radar was a German invention.
It did not save your life.
Rest on Peace you all,Heroes.
The thought of young lads going to war today god help us
The biggest problem face by the germans were the fact that they never had any heavy bombers during the battle for britain,by the time the air war had reached germany the british was sending 1000 bomber raid and dropping 11 thousand lbs bombs on germany and the german couldn't stop it,I don't understand why germany never had heavy bombers when everyone else had them.
That's a good point that I never thought of or hear mentioned. Feel like things would have been much different if Germany had the capability to really bomb something. Russia might have fallen in that case.
Germany modelled it's Airforce to support the Army, so it had no need of Heavy Bombers.
Germany was restricted by the Versailles treaty and surrender of 1918 with their armed forces, although they worked around many of treaty obligations this was one they couldn't. Some of the things they did manage; Submarines, Battleships, Aircraft Carrier, Tanks, light and medium Bombers which were all managed by calling them some thing else and the Europeans turning a blind eye.
Germans were lucky our fighters only had .303 guns, if they had cannons the kill rate would've been much higher,,,
Don't worry we won with the .303s.
81 years... 🤨
Outnumbered? more like a target rich environment..
Is The movie the footage is from any good? Acccurate?
The Battle of Britain, released in 1969? It is superb. Some of the special effects are cheesy, and some bombing effects are reused by the use of multiple camera angles, but it tells a good story and has great flying sequences - with real aircraft, none of today's crappy CGI. Not all of the footage in this video is from that movie, it is possibly from other documentary sources, and there is some CGI in this video. Watch The Battle of Britain and see for yourself.
Battle of Britain | War Stories i like the music the name soundtrunk? pls
British Edith Bunker in pink!
Rhodesian airmen all so served and died for Britian
Respects to the service, and in one case, sacrifice of the 3 Rhodesian pilots who took part in the battle.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 The UK betrayed Rhodesia.
@@JamesRichards-mj9kw Yawn.....
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 See what the Soviet agent Wilson did.
8:53
Not 1 mention of foreign fighter pilot squadrons
Did you miss 44:05 ?
no, i just found it entirely an inadequate cop out.
It was everyone's fight dont take offence.
No one can take Britian down
Globalists insinuate themselves in ALL national governments like a fungus taking over its host, including the puppet circus we now have "ruling" us from Westminster"at the moment. Rest assured if people don't wake up to it happening a nightmarish "one size fits nobody" one world government awaits....
Gherring: The British Air Force is on its last legs.
Royal Air Force: How many times do we need to teach you this lesson, old man?
Take a stick and give the jerry a damned good thrashing
NOW IN ENGLISH, WTF ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY ??????????
They gave them what for
why wasn't that man fighting in the war
we hid under the table or in the cellar.
Ahh yes; those fun loving Krauts at it again👹
The English Channel.
Great Britain can thank the following for its survival;
The United States
The Neutrality Acts
Harry L Hopkins
Anglo-French Purchasing Commission/Board
USA didn't get involved until Japan bombed pearl harbour so think again
I have posted all this information why isn't anyone person questioning the information posted!!!!
USA is slightly younger than Britain
USA is 247 years old Britain is 311 years old
@@WilliamEvans-xy5og The US was already at war in 1940, as Admiral King had confirmed at the time.
Bcz of India people and the loot from India
Haven't you got some washing up to be doing?
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 See why Gandhi opposed helping the Allies.
Too bad england dis not reward the brave Polish fighters from esquadron 301. Who help England to win the battle of britian
Or the French, South African, New Zealander or other foreign volunteers.
R Gemin
What are you talking about.
After the war Britain offered citizenship to over 250, 000 Polish service men and their families.
What else do you think Britain should have done?.
@@daneelolivaw602 Did.you see them in the great parade in England after world war 2. ??? Be honest ! They where NOT allowed to participatie in the parade from england after the war.. RIGHT ???
@@radioman-pz5jw this victory parade was JUST for BRITISH military men and women. the Polish Government ignored an invitation to send a Flag party, the British Government then invited Polish service men still in Britain if they would like to send a flag party, they demanded a bigger representation than any other flag party, the government said that would be unfair on all the other countries, but the invitation was, STILL there, it was not withdrawn, the decision not to parade was down to them, NOT THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. be honest RIGHT???
@@daneelolivaw602 please. Be honest. The brave polish fighter were not allowed
Do not confuse the blitz with the battle of britain.
If Britain had not declared war on Germany WW2 would not have got off the ground.
And extermination camps would have operated in Europe FAR after 1945.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 You may be correct, but how many German children would have survived if Churchill had not sent 1000's of bombers, with their incendiary bombs, over Germany
@@sextoncardew903 If you don't want to be carpet bombed, then you shouldn't attempt to do it to others first, as at Guernica (1937) Weilun & Warsaw (1939) Rotterdam, London and 50 other British cities (1940-41).
The first British air raid intentionally aimed at civilians was "operation Abigail" an attack on the German city of Mannheim on the night of 16-17th December 1940. This was as a direct reply to the German attack on the British city of Coventry on the night of 14th November 1940 (Operation moonlight sonata) where the Germans first attempted to create a "firestorm" on a civilian target by dropping first oil bombs, followed by incendiaries and then finishing off with 750 tons of high explosives.
@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 Evan in 2022 it is difficult to believe anything emanating from the British propaganda machine. The Brits have roamed around the world for 100's of years stealing and killing people. In 1940 Churchill went into overdrive invading and killing people. It has continued up to 2022. Unfortunately, western media is not very accurate, and most British people fall for the nonsese.
@@sextoncardew903 Another misinformed dupe of the left. Do you think before the rise of the British empire that the human race had existed for millenia in peaceful harmony? Ah bless, to be able to live in such uninformed simple naivete, do you also believe in unicorns and fairies too?...
It'd be interesting to hear your take on the use of black slaves for the construction of the pyramids, the enslavement of Europe, the middle east and northern Africa by the Romans, the constant murderous millenia long competition between the civilisations of central and southern Americas and the +100 million who died at the hands of 20th century socialism.... or were the British responsible for all that as well?
I feel this s getting a bit stale now
Actually no, but you certainly are.
You know what I do when I feel that about something? I go find something new and leave others to make their own choices.
I guessed that people going on about it might bore you however these were ordinary people doing extroninary things.
And while it done it shall not collect dust.
Who knows what the unmedalled bloke on the street did back then.
A neighbour of mine was a rear gunner on Lancaster's you would never have guessed that this old bugger mowing his lawn was a hero.