After the war exploded in Europe with the invasion of Poland, both Britain and France declared war on Germany, and the very first raids were about to begin.
At the time, the 4 Group of the Royal Air Force was the only trained night bomber force in the entire world, and the reliable Armstrong Whitworth Whitley would have to bear the brunt of the first aerial missions over Germany, Italy, and the rest of occupied-Europe until more advanced aircraft came around.
On the first night of the war, the Whitley had the critical task of bombing several German cities, making it the first Royal Air Force Bomber Command to penetrate the enemy nation.
But when the squadron approached its target and the Whitleys released their bombload, it wasn’t precisely explosives that fell on top of the German population…
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Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.
All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.
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Why, under segment " Older Brother", are you showing American B-24's?
So much footage of American B24 Liberators is bloody confusing, irritating and and appears very sloppy.
Awful lot of b24 stock footage
Enjoy all your programs. Thanks for your efforts.
At 5.07 was it beneath you to find a ventral turret picture?
It seems that you can always be trusted to keep it to the point. Good going! VERY focused. Very professional. The cadence of your dialogue delivery leads one to lend their ear.
Typically, you couldn't find very many videos of the correct aircraft. May I suggest using stills or three views instead of videos using the wrong aircraft.
You could really make these videos great if you only concentrated on just the subject.
I never heard of the Whitley before.
it had an underbite too…
They were based near where I live and the losses even in training and work up were pretty bad. They had no navigation aids at all so it was all plot and bash by the navs with maps and visual and sextant. On ops they were a sitting duck.
Ah, the Wellington did not exist? 115 Squadron of Wellingtons conducted the first bombing raid of the RAF during WW11 on German targets at Stavanger. Best, Pete.
What a strange video. 90% of the aircraft shown were anything but Whitleys. Lots of Liberators , Beaufighters and Blenheims.
I don’t own any compressor blades of the Whitley but I do have a blade from the B52 and The Hurricane. The engineering is an incredible feat which changed flight. And personally with reference to the preparation of WW2 in Britain as early as 1934 I’ve always thought that WW2 started when Hitler was made chancellor of Germany in 1933.
Yet another very interesting and informative video, thanks so much for this and RIP to the souls who were lost.
When living in my former home in Denmark, we had a stream to the south with Europes, by then longest, English built bridge from 1937 (Dorman, Long & Co.) going over: "Storstroems Broen"! Close by, an old 1th World War Fort, which the invading German troops honored with the first ever "parachute attack" (Besides Antwerpen and Rotterdam, the day before!) to secure the bridge not being destoyed!
At a time a Whitley had to land in the water, being damaged and its full crew got away from the plane, which sank in the deep, fast moving water! Local divers have seen the wreck in the water, so it is still there!!
When the narrator speaks of a Whitley and the screen shows a Blenheim, and when more advanced machinery is mentioned and a Fairey Battle appears, it's time to switch this lazy ill-researched garbage off. It doesn't reinforce accurate historical facts. All it does is add to the garbage on the internet.
How many times can you use the same clip in one short video? And that's without all the ridiculous added aircraft. Unwatchable I'm afraid.
Thanks for your great video – didn't know much about this plane until now
Leonard Cheshire, famous as one of the 'Dambusters' – was fond of the Whitley which he said was a very good aircraft, just very dated by the start of the war. It did have a reasonable range – and a remarkable bomb load!
A truly excellent article and informative comments below. Unbelievable a 15 year old Canadian flew these on ops……why the B24s tho ? 😳
If you ask the RAF archives I'm sure they could give you more than 11 minutes of film for the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. Just sain' eh…
Britain"s B-25 Mitchel?
Dark Skies film of Avro Lancaster, Blenheim, He-111, Ju-88, Halifax, Pe-2 etc. always contains 70% clips of B-24. A tribute to the B-24s large production run.
When I first saw the title, I thought this was going to be about the BUFF.
If only it had a 30mm gau gun !
The folks at the back wouldn't get a look-in of the drinks trolley.
😂
Why so many Liberators?
Interesting, but why did you include so much footage of Liberators, Blenheims & Fairey Battles?
5:15 "while the mark 4 had different more powerful radial engines of the Rolls Royce variety." Narrator has no clue about aircraft engines or that B24s weren't produced by Armstrong Whitworth, especially with US markings. Earned a dislike
So that explais it, the angle of attack of the wing to th efuselage is 8.5 deg, a colossal angle, the Short Stirling was 7degrees.
So to get the right angle of attack, you had to point the nose down to compensate for the massive angle of attack, with there being no flaps, you had to use the elevator, it could have done with 'performance flaps, and set them in negative to allow the fuse to be aligned into the airflow!
The style of the narration and content is very good. I really enjoy these videos.
Sorry Dark Skies……
…….normally informative and good videos…..
This is just gibberish accompanied by mostly utterly irrelivent pictures…..