Why This Unique World War Two Aircraft Terrified the Germans



This is the story of the Intruders, a group of airmen dubbed the `Bandits of the Air’ by the Nazis during the Second World War thanks to its members’ exploits in the skies above Europe’s battlefields.

This episode focuses on the ‘Mosquito’ – a seemingly innocuous and cheap fighter plane that terrorised the German Air Force. Made entirely out of wood, the Mosquito was initially dismissed by the British government, yet due to its remarkable speed and exceptional manoeuvrability, the bomber soon became a crucial part of the Royal Air Force during World War Two.

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20 thoughts on “Why This Unique World War Two Aircraft Terrified the Germans”

  1. The mosquito was a great plane. It had some issues with the wet weather as it was built with wood, but proved amazing at evading radars because it was made of wood, only the engines produced an echo and it was too small for those radars. Also several came back with holes, because the bullets went through them without bursting apart.

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  2. Thank God, that in our time of need, we had men of this calibre with a skill set and determination to pull off these astonishing acts of airmanship and courage. We owe them a never ending debt we can never repay. So many made the ultimate sacrifice. I salute you all.

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  3. There is an interesting side to the story about the V-1 terror campaign. The V-1 was designed to operate by running out of fuel at a designated time on its flight so that it would fall out of the sky in the greater London area and therefore, would fall into the target area. However, this relied on accurate fuel loads – too little fuel and the V-1 would fall short of London – too much fuel and it would fly on, by-passing London, falling harmlessly in the fields of rural England, northwest of London, in places such as Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire. British intelligence were able to get their network of German double-agents to falsely report where the V-1s were impacting. Even though the Germans had some rudimentary telemetry to tell them where their V1s should have fallen, they preferred the reports from what they thought were their spies in England, and started changing the aim-points and the fuel loads, resulting in many V-1 falling harmlessly.

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  4. I like all of this type of video, but I take offence at ‘random’ bits of WW2 video. From the start, the programme talks about bomber losses in 1941 and uses video clips of aircraft with invasion stripes, closely followed by footage of B17s being shot down.
    Instead of this, why not use time-proper clips as these random clips detract from reality…😡

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  5. Friends🐍😍when we see this,and compare it with nowadays'pussies who faint just seeing a shotgun or water pistol,and don't want to serve their Army ou Country,who just want to eat worms,become drug addicts,get overweight swallowing sh…,and get multi vaccined against any flus..,because they are"ecologists,pacifists",…or change easily their so called sex…we just want to puke!!!Love from France

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  6. 21 seems to be the average these Hero’s passed away. How brave and Heroic it’s beyond believable. My Father landed on Gold Beach with Five Commando, he said it was tough and hard, but his Dying words to me were never trust a Jap who he fought in Burma 🇬🇧👍🏻⚓️

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  7. Awesome history production especially for me born in 1939 and remembering search lights bombers and engines being run at Filton Aerodrome. I was evacuated to a coal miners family in the forest of dean during the war years with my two older sisters.

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  8. As a boy in South London I watched the mosquitos and many other types of aircraft flying over. And of course the V1 Doodlebug. But never the V2. You never saw that. Only the explosion and devastation when it struck. I watched a V1 fly over my house low enough to see the seams in the fuselage. When it struck, the air turned blue and knocked me down. A V2 landed in Panmure Rd. not far from my house and the debris came flying over where fortunately I was sheltering against a wall. Two near misses and I'm lucky to still be here at almost ninety.😉

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