OK, upfront, I’m really sorry about the sound, I think I have now fixed it, but having re-recorded this no less than five times, I couldn’t face a sixth so it is what it is, and I now own a lovely Cherry UM 9 RGB mic that I’ll use from here on out, and I can also kind of use Audacity now so that’ll help. Bear with, I’m still learning that bit of the craft.
If you want to see Nazis fed into a metaphorical woodchipper, you know what, this is how it starts. We’re going to discuss the Dowding System, why Keith Park should’ve been bullied more at school and how the long suffering OKL continued to fail at failing.
I’ll publish a full series bibliography with the next one but if people want to get the gist of it then look at Stephen Bungay’s brilliant “The Most Dangerous Enemy”, Helen Doe’s “Figher Pilot”, and Geoffrey Wellum’s superb “First Light”
If you would like to ge tin touch look me up on Discord or Reddit or email me at [email protected]
source
People forget how pants-shittingly dysfunctional the dog-eat-dog fascist command structure often is and in the case of Nazi Germany definitely was. Cooperation and good-will is not just objectively good, it *works*. It is the more effective way to do things.
Thank you for reminding people.
You'd think that all those British Destroyers would make short work of the schnell boats?
I want you to know I legitimately got a wood chipper ad below this video, no im not joking
I guess we were pretty lucky that radar works easily over water then.
Being a small island, that definitely have us a leg up.
We would have had to develop over-land radar first and that may have delayed it for a while, maybe even critically.
What is pip-squeak and how does it work?
From Wikipedia:
"Pip-squeak used an aircraft's voice radio set to periodically send out a 1 kHz tone which was picked up by ground-based high-frequency direction finding (HFDF, "huff-duff") receivers. Using three HFDF measurements, observers could determine the location of friendly aircraft using triangulation.
Pip-squeak was used by fighter aircraft during the Battle of Britain as part of the Dowding system, where it provided the primary means of locating friendly forces, and indirectly providing identification friend or foe (IFF). At the time, radar systems were sited on the shore and did not provide coverage over the inland areas, so IFF systems that produced unique radar images were not always useful for directing interceptions. Pip-squeak was added to provide coverage in these areas. As more radar stations were added and over-land areas became widely covered, pip-squeak was replaced by IFF systems of increasing sophistication."
Good stuff. I didn't realize how complicated the whole RAF system was. What was amazing was that it was put together before the war. I mean Hugh Dowding must have been clairvoyant to anticipate the need to cover the entire southern part of England prior to the war. I can't think that anyone would have thought that France would have fallen, and fallen that quickly. I can understand, to a degree why German leadership would have underestimated the ability of Chain Home.
I'm not sure why you would think Americans would be upset over the Spitfire drop tank thing. It would have been great to have Spits capable of escorting bombers farther into France and Germany as early as 1942. I mean the US did have the P-38 which should have, theoretically, been capable of doing more in the high altitude bomber escort role but it never flourished in that role, at least in Europe. I suspect that, even if a long range escort version of the Spitfire was available in 1942 the USAAF leadership probably would have poo pooed the idea.
There was some real arrogance and entrenchment in mentality at the time which really didn't change much until the harrowing losses in bomber units in 1943. That idea of 'The Bomber will always get through' was a pre WW2 idea and should have been reassessed after the initial failed attacks by both the RAF and Luftwaffe in 1939-1941 but the thought that more guns would equalize things prevailed. It cost a lot of men their lives.
Came fron lazerpig stuck around for the quality content. Like legit dude you make some of the best history content on this platform and it's really appreciated
That's where you're going to end it?!?!
You Bastard!! 😂
Amazing video. Had no idea about the long-range Spitfires. Those would have been a real gamechanger so early on.
Question: wich country had the best planes throughout ww2 and why were they the best? I am most interested in fighters but other plane types would be good too.
i have recentlly subscribed i like it keep it up cheers 🙂
Well thrashed good Sir! Really enjoying your rambunctious dissection of the history here. Top top-chap points for going into the importance and sacrifice of the WAAFs 👍
Also, no issues with your audio for me.
When I was in school (in England mind you) we were told that Mallory was a genius – All this and more in my collection of rants: "Why I Homeschool my kids"
another fantastic video cant wait for part four, you do an excellent job of keeping things light i really hope to see you join the nafo podcast 🙂
Humorous and educational, with obligatory poking at those weirdos in upside down land. What more could one ask for?
Woodchippers and dangly bits. Always a good combination! Just think how many lives could have been saved if Mallory had experienced a RUD long before the war.
LOL – Mallory, the B-17 ball turret and the Fiat CR.42 Falco. LOL – if only, the twat had it coming to him.
Regardless of the COMBAT effectiveness of the Big Wing,
=======================================================
a Luftwaffe that had convinced itself the RAF was almost destroyed
was dumbstruck
by the ( occasional ) sight of 60 RAF fighters at one go.
Morale is key,
and just to see that,
on top of such high losses,
must have been devastating.
Precisely because the Luftwaffe lacked ground control,
and were unaware
that the RAF could economise effort DUE to control,
the Germans would assume
that the RAF functioned much as they did,
which means
random squadrons swanning around the landscape,
hoping to bump into an enemy.
So if there was ONE 60 strong Big Wing,
the Germans probably assumed there were more.
And with time before winter fast running out,
the window of oppurtunity for victory,
vacuously tenuous as it was,
firmly closed.
So while I fully agree
that Dowding and Park were the solid foundation to winning the battle,
Leigh-Mallory and Bader did their part too,
WITH 60 AIRCRAFT WRIT ACROSS THE SKY,
saying
'You Germans might think you are winning,
but this is concrete evidence that you are not!'
Sometimes things need to be said,
to galvanise things into action,
and I think it was the Big Wing's very existence,
seen in the sky,
that convinced the Luftwaffe to quit.
Life works that way!
People struggle on stubbornly,
then sometimes something flashes commonzense into brains,
and what seems do-able,
is suddenly seen as futile.
/
My family farm in South Devon,
and my mother was in First Aid Nursing Yeomanry from 1939
( later attached to SOE French SEction ),
but at home in 1940,
so helping with the harvest.
She told me that an ME 109 flew low over her,
and the pilot gave her a wave!
.
You might be talking rubbish, but you do so in the most delightfully entertaining fashion and are therefore worthy of our undivided, if short lived and fickle, atten
Question… When saying the Dowding System could handle 1 million bits of data a minute, what does that mean? How is that number found? Like, "A bit of information" can mean "A specific piece of information" or "A 0 or a 1". 13:40
I love this channel so much. Where else can you hear a man who sounds like an Oxbridge alumni dropping knowledge, interjected with smatterings of dank airhorn
Met Bader a few times. You were kind, I didn’t become a fan. He seemed to be a penis in human form.
Great job, your lordship!
I really, really REALLY hope that you will next cover allied bombing campaign against Germany to show by contrast how and why (aside from overwhelming numerical superiority) Allies were a bit more successful then Nazis.
I liked and subscribed. I can't think of a good reason why I did not do that immediately after watching the first episode of this series. I'll blame alcohol, which as the great philosopher Homer Simpson told us, is the cause and solution of all problems.
Great episode! Just popping in to bring to your attention that Greg's Planes and Automobiles has gone into some depth on the American side of the failure to use drop tanks, on the slight chance you aren't aware of it. He suggests the thunderbolt could easily have been escorting the bombers deeper and far sooner into Germany, and the story of the introduction of the Mustang and it's "longer range" was a way of covering the ass of the USAAF.
Absolutely loving your work, mate. Content is stellar and the only gripe I can say is a little work on your audio editing and the like would go a mile!
Sir, you MUST set up a Patreon! Your content is absolutely worth it. Plus, It's an excellent place to source video ideas.
So Douglas Badar was more of a C**t than I worked out when reading books, and watching his personal post war propergander film "Reach for the Sky".
Enjoyed the video a lot. Blinked and it was finished. Started reading some books on the battle of britain. Was curious if you have any book recommendations.
Thanks 😊
Another fine video although I think that my man cheddars blow lamp and mole grips liberally applied to a miscreants clackers is the way to go let me know if you need to borrow him , that being said as a young chap I was given a copy of reach for the sky and obviously thought that Mallory and Bader we jolly fine chaps and not the complete pair of w@#%ers that subsequent reading has helped me discover. Thanks again for the video and very much look forward to the next installment.
PS would like to hear a bit more about the Malaysian emergency if that is within your sphere of interest or perhaps the complete balls up that was Suez .
A shame that Leigh Mallory's parents didn't go for a post-natal abortion.
Thanks to LasePig i found this channel.
Very informative content in intentionally rough format what is like fresh wind in this politically correct era.
Thanks again from very nice video.
I really enjoyed your explanation of the planning and intelligence balls-up on both sides, you could do a similar thing for a move to modern history. Perhaps an examination of the Chilcot and Butler inquiries supercut with what was going on at the time these reports were referencing and how we got to that stage.
Oh hell yeah!