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Oddly satisfying to see B-29s with a coat of olive drab.

This guy has the best documentary voice I've ever heard. I could listen to him talk about anything.

"...including the American 22,000-pound 'Amazon bomb'...." Prime Delivery?

Hi I am nearly 82 now but when I was a lad of 14 at school I was in the RAF section of the cadet force. We had a summer camp week at RAF Marham when the B1 Washingtons were there. Their main task was to fly for I believe about 10 hours around the north of Scotland to check for any Russian aircraft incursions. This was before the radar early warning chain was up and running. Being lads interested in aircraft we had full rein to climb in the a/c chat with the crew etc. I almost flew in the long overnight flight around the UK. We were prepped up with all our warm clothes and greatcoats under which was a Mae West life jacket. I crawled through the tube above the wing which was all padded and was told by a crew member that if the a/c depressurised I would come out like a bullet from a gun. I was issued with 2 meals to keep us going, also we had a self heating tin of soup! Sweets etc soon went. I had a seat to the rear looking out through plexiglass where I strapped in. I was told I could go where ever I liked during the flight as it was a long and boring flight and I suppose I was light hearted entertainment. On other visits to RAF stations we were usually allowed to sit in a pilot's seat and fly the aircraft, which I was hoping to do again. The a/c engines were started up but then the sortie was called off due to bad weather up north. Always a great regret that I never flew in a B29. I later joined the RAF as an air radar fitter working on Canberras and before we were allowed to fly we had to get checked out in a decompression chamber, I still have the certificate. No Health and safety back in 1953. Roy

"It Was Scrapped" this word always send a shudder down my spine.

This guy makes every WWII buff feel like a total casual.

I enlisted in the USAF in 1960 and served at a base in Germany with several WWII veterans in my unit. I began reading the history of the war at that time and never stopped. Mark Felton's videos make me feel like an American high school student who cannot find Germany on a map.

The B-29 is surprisingly fast for a piston-engine bomber of its size. In a lot of airshows, it sometimes needs to fly a display circuit and stay at a slower speed with B-17s, DC-3s, and the like, but when it can make a pass all on its own, it's pretty impressive.

My uncle flew the Hump during the war as a flight engineer, then later flew out of Chengdu on bombing raids to Japan. After the war he became a civilian instructor of flight engineers at a Texas air base. So this episode has particular interest to me.

The B-29 was far more sophisticated than most people realize, and even had a true "fly-by-wire" control system. Except it wasn't the flight controls, but the gun laying system. The gunner aimed his sight head to track and range the target and the central fire control computer, about the size of a small refrigerator, used that data as an aiming command, provided electronically through electronic synchros at the sight head. It wasn't just remote control as in pointing a sight and the system points the guns in the same direction remotely, The gunner was telling the computer the target's azimuth, elevation and range relative to the sight as an electronic command, and the computer figured out where to point the guns, allowing for parallax error, true airspeed, pressure altitude, temperature, 50 cal ballistics, and target lead angle, and drove the turrets to where it calculated they needed to point.

The B-29 project cost more then the Manhattan project! The streamline engine nacelles on the B-29 worked fine at low altitudes but at higher elevations the engines overheated. Later B-29s had larger openings, plus some extra vents. But flying fast at 32,000ft taxed the engines and used a lot of fuel, so General Lemay ordered the flights to fly lower and slower, and later to increase accuracy, even lower. A lot of people thought that flying such an expensive high altitude bomber at low altitudes was a waste of time and money. But improved lubricants, better fuel systems and much better aiming using radar eventually made them more effective. Note in one of the photos a B-29 has the experimental quad 50cal.

Every time I think that Dr Felton can’t possibly come up with more WW2 info I’ve not heard of , he proves me wrong

Ah yes nothing as good as Mark Felton history channel

Taking a break during my “essential” work. And I received a notification from the best KZfaq history channel. This video has made my break even better. Thank you Dr Felton.

My dad was stationed at RAF St Mawgan, working on the crash crews during the latter part of the war and I remember him telling me about this aircraft. Cheers Mark, yet another fascinating video.

My dad was stationed in La Rochelle in the 50s. He had a Navy buddy who operated a fire boat out of the sub pens. The allies had bombed the hell out of those sub pens and through all that effort my dad said the roof of the pens only sported little divots where the bombs landed. He said the Germans must have gotten a few laughs about that!

You find the most interesting operations about WWII. I have bookcases full of history books but you continue to surprise me, Mr. Felton. Don’t stop.

I thought they were only in the Pacific theater thats awesome

Had refractive surgery for eyes so was difficult to read / watch anything so I listened Mark Felton videos and audio books during these difficult days afterwards. Thank you Mark so much for excellent content you create.

My father was a mechanic on the Dyin Duck, a weather B29 that flew into hurricanes and sent the info to the Allies.

Once again, every time you think you have heard every WWII story, I'm hit with something completely unknown, like a bomb from a B29

That intro music is always music to my ears, you know you're in for a real treat.

I have always been in love with the 29, think it started about 12 years old with the polished finish and pin up style nose art. I got to take a ride on one about 15 years ago in Colorado as a birthday surprise from my wife......BEST 70 MINUTES OF MY LIFE. Just a beautiful piece of history.

What a fantastic video. I was actually stationed at RAF St Mawgan whilst serving in the US Marine Corps! These are unusual times we live in, to put it mildly. Thank you so much for keeping a sense of normalcy in my day-to-day life. I am an airline pilot now and these last few weeks have been anything but normal.

YES!!! More quarantine material!

What about the four B-29s that had to land in the Soviet Far East after bombing missions in the Pacific? That would make a great video. Fantastic work as usual! Keeps us from going stir crazy in these dangerous times.

Twenty-five videos ago, I thought, "No way can Mark Keep this up." DJNaija wrote : "This guy makes every WWII buff feel like a total casual." Yes. He's keeping it up.

The research on your videos is just astounding, thank you so much ! With the matched historic footage this my favorite educational video format on KZfaq.

One Documentary cited that an Arado Ar-234 jet recon/bomber got A picture of the B-29 as it just landed in britain...

As a recent subscriber & WW2 history buff, i must say how pleased i am to have found this channel. Mark's unbiased & smooth narration make it a joy to watch. Gratitude for ur posts. There well received. The good thing about being a late sub, is that i get to binge on loads of previous posts.

Cheers for the vids Mark, I love these little overlooked story’s that you tell

Leave it Mark to bring us more history than we could ordinarily never hear of....Three Cheers!

Your stories never cease to amaze! Keep them coming.

Your videos have been such a fascinating way to keep our minds occupied during this wretched covid quarantine. The amount of work you do in not only researching, but finding this old film footage is remarkable. Informative and entertaining. Keep up the great work!!

Mark, thanks for another outstanding documentary. I remember hearing about the "Hobo Queen" as a youngster in 1970 when I lived with my parents in a house on the edge of RAF Little Walden. There was a chap living nearby who told me about the "Hobo Queen" and said it had landed at RAF Little Walden at some time. He used to be a farm worker in the area and knew a lot of the base personnel during the war. I was never able to verify what he told me until now!

Hobo Queen, god damn plane names were so great.

Every time I hear this channel's theme I feel like "Oh yeah, bring it on!"😂😂

I think we intended to fly B-29's over Germany only in final missions planned for August, 1945 if the war lasted that long (which it didn't). That way the Luftwaffe wouldn't have had a chance to practice shooting them down ahead of the mission in which one B-29 was to be from Colonel Tibbetts' 509th Bomb Delivery Group. (If I had been planning that final mission, I would have hidden his B-29 amongst a group of other B-29's and have those drop bombs on Berlin but be ready to scatter back home the moment Little Boy was released.) If this sounds like Alternate History, it isn't. Colonel Tibbetts and the 509th Bomb Delivery group were initially going to go to England and were sent to Tinian instead only when it was evident they wouldn't be needed in Europe.

Cool, video Dr. Felton, that's why I love this channel, it tells me the obscure stories that I've never heard about, please keep the videos coming, Cheers.

The intro... The voice.. The content... AWESOME.Simply awesome.Thank you Dr.Felton.

Interesting story of the B-29s in Europe. Found the maps n archival films ENHANCED the ultra interesting narrative. Kudos for this video. Looking forward to ur next one.

Great Video , I met a B-29 Pilot years ago in Fort Lauderdale Florida I was in awe of him & very proud as well . I've watched many videos on B-29's flying operations over Japan over 300 crews was lost over Japan .

This channel is fascinating! I always see something new. I have been subscribed over a year and still keep finding things I didn’t know. Great channel!

Well i am an astute militay historian... you sir are a treasure providing new information into my already large knowledge base... have a great day thumbs up stay awesome military history buffs/nerds.

*sees no negative comments* “Now this does put a smile on my face”

I continues to be amazed by the extraordinary research skills and knowledge this channel possess. 👍

I’m glad there are now two flying B-29’s now with “Doc” coming online a couple years ago. Another amazing story from Mark Felton! So very enjoyable.

Sir, your videos keep me very interested. It encourages me to dig deeper into history. Love your books as well. With Great Thanks, Allen (Former U.S.A.F.)

Thank you so much for continuing to provide us with content during these dark days.

I’ve always had an interest in US Heavy Bombers in Europe - my Grand-Uncle was the bombardier in the Lead Plane (Big Operator) on the first Ploiesti raid in ‘43 - he was a fascinating person to know, I’ll say that! What’s sticking with me from this video is the fact that the B-29 turrets were remote controlled - I knew the later B-52 was, but I never knew they’d developed the tech enough that early! Thanks for MORE new knowledge Mark!

Always fascinating and revealing, Mr. Felton. A friend of mine's uncle was General Charles Sweeney, who, when he was a mere major in the AAF, piloted the B-29 "Bock's Car" that dropped the A-bomb on Nagasaki. (Because of the weather and certain decisions Maj. Sweeney made, The Bomb wasn't dropped on its primary target, Kokura. Upon his return, during the debriefing, he was considered to have "screwed up." ) The course of my life once brought me to Ohio, were I visited the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton. There before me was Bock's Car! (I had a lengthy conversation with its erstwhile commander just a few years before at a wedding reception. He told me his favorite mission was leading a flight of fighters (1950s?) From the U.S., to Newfoundland, to Greenland, to Iceland, and hence to Great Britain. Great work if you can get it.

Hope your doing well Mike.. Be safe. Keep sharing more videos especially during these lockdown days. Cheers

Fascinating video. There's a B29 weather reconnaissance aircraft wreck up on the Peak District just outside of Glossop, it crashed in 1949 during its landing approach to Prestwick in bad weather and you can still see that it points directly at Manchester airport runway.

And again a fascinating story I had never heared of. Thanks, Mark!

Fascinating as always Mark. As I've commented before your ability to find such interesting, untold, stories of such well known machines and events is staggering! Hope you and yours are well, and stay safe!

My friend's grandfather used to tell us stories about some Giant planes they used to see in an airfield near our old house, Now I realise that it were the B24 and B29s that used to be there at Piardoba in West Bengal, India Thanks Mark

Dr. Felton never ceases to amaze us. Thank you.

Your docs are simply the best on youtube ...... simple and strait to the point ! Love it !

Absolutely fascinating. The B-29 Superfortress was my first ever Airfix bomber. When I lived in the US in 1995 and 1998; I took flying lessons and in 1998, two aircraft from the "Confederate Air Force" came to visit - a B-24 Liberator and a B-29 Superfortress. It was a dream come true. What was even better (for me), my favour fighter during WWII was the P51-D Mustang and at the same time the CAF visited Natrona County Airport, a private owner (from Canada) flew in to refuel with his P-51D! I'll have to dig up the photo I took of all three aircraft doing a flyby.

I'd love to see a video about the B-29 campaign mining the waters around Japan. Great video here, too!

I was fortunate enough to be able to see and go through 'Doc' at a heavy bomber show. From my understanding it's one of two flying example left. Highly, highly recommend to go see it!

You always bring information about WW2 I never knew. Thanks.

Some on the US B-29's shown at the start had tail symbol "Z". these were planes of the 500th Bomb Group. My father was a Radio Mechanic in the 338th Squadron. He used to think the flight crews had it easy. Flying around while he sweated it out in a tent, fixing radios that were corroding in the tropical weather of Saipan. The, when illness or injury made a need for replacement radio operators on the missions, the mechanics were "volunteered" to got out on them. Changed my dad's mind, especially when they flew through the very effective Japanese 105mm flak guns.

Fantastic content as always Mark. The 29's were also used in the covert recon over the soon to be dubbed "iron curtain' but you already knew that XD... I must say though that ever since the Downing Street Cats video, I can't not laugh and envision a brooding Larry the cat scheming to your introduction music!

Mark felton, greetings from argentina, you made very interesting content. You are a light!!!

Thank you for your effort, and the information.

I was wondering why those bombs were not destroying that Uboat Pen. Then he said it had a 23 foot thick concrete roof. I was like "oh".

Thank you Doctor Felton. I was always wondering about the B29s. Additionally, I have always wondered why I have never heard about the US Marines either being in the fight for Europe except for attached to ships. Anything about that in the future would be much appreciated too...

something i found out just recently the Australian RAAF also operated the B29 only two of them. two of the planes loaned to the British were loaned to Australia to do high level research, Would make an interesting model to take to shows a B29 with the kangaroo roundel of the RAAF on them.

My uncle lost his life in the crash of a B29 at San Francisco on August 5th, 1950. The co-pilot was Gen. Travis for whom the base was later named.

My Dad flew 32 Missions in a B-17 where he EARNED 3 PURPLE HEARTS for gun shot wounds After the 3rd one He left the Hospital in the middle of the night because they were going to send him home A Special kind crazy ? LOYALTY TO HIS BUDDIES He didnt talk much about he went thru but was very Proud of returning to the fight.....

Thank you Mr Felton for posting more interesting material of little known history to keep us from insanity during quarantine. I wish you could come to the US and be my history professor

Thank you again Mark the voice Felton, great presentation👍

and i wonder how this amazing guy always gets new content for us to watch. He is the reason i know my ww2 history

absolutely fascinating! Utterly rare b-29 info, wow

Although this story isn’t about B29’s it is about bombers in WW2. I have a 96year old friend that was a bombardier in a B24 Liberator and is an absolute treasure to talk to. He was in the 450th Bombardment group, 721st squadron, stationed in Maduria, Italy. They were known as the Cottontails due to their twin tails being painted white; he thinks he’s the last one alive from his air crew. If any of you know otherwise, could you please contact me. One quick story he told me. He said he only dis-obeyed his Captain one time. Their mission was to bomb a bridge in northern Italy. The target was obscured from clouds and he wouldn’t drop his bombload; the Captain ordered him to. His reply to the Captain was that Captain you are free to circle this airplane back around at any time you like. The Captain did and the sky cleared up. Bill hit the bridge but when they got back he was bitched out because hit the wrong end of the bridge… SMH. His crewmates: Captain Charles E Gothe.Co-pilot 1st Lt William B Brown. Navigator 1st Lt Lennox R. Ransom. Radio man T/sgt Edward T MacFadden. Bombardier 1st LT William A Bauman. Ball gunner T/sgt Ralph H Haller. Nose gunner S/sgt Herber W Guinn. Waist gunner S/sgt George E Dillinger. Tailgunner S/sgt Clinton R Lyons. Engineer S/sgt Louie J Tyhurst. Crewchief S/sgt Daughton.

See my whole life, I thought they were just in the Pacific! Thanks so much for these videos Mark, you really do a great job!

This answered my long standing question. Thank you Sir.

I continue to be amazed at the excellece of Dr. Felton's videos....and the diversity of these vignettes.Another story I had never heard before. Les Griffiths

The B-29 manufacturing program was just an incredible feat of human effort.

I’ve always wondered why the B-29 wasn’t deployed in Europe. Thanks to Mark I wonder no longer.

Just finished up this most interesting bit of wartime history by an obvious history aficionado. Mark your passion shows and is very much appreciated.

Another great video from Mark Felton on a little-known story from WW2; well done.

"Hobo Queen survived the war... and was scrapped."

"Hobo Queen"- what a great name for a family- friendly fast food franchise. ☺

Great program. My father piloted B-17's and 24's with the 8th. I often wondered why we didn't use the 29's in Europe. Thanks!

My Father's best friend was the superintendent of Dodge Chicago where they made the B29 R3350 engines

I’ve always wondered why the b 29 was t used in Europe during the war. Now I know. Plus info I didn’t know to think about, well done Mark

As an aviation and history enthusiast; this video makes me very happy.

I have no idea where you come up with these obscure stories but they're always interesting.

Amazing video! The research involved with this! Thankyou so much

Slight correction, the forward top turret of the B-29 had four .50 caliber machineguns, not a pair. It also had a 20mm autocannon and a pair of .50 calibers in the tail. The fact that only a minor little quibble like that is the only problem I can find in a history video just shows how excellent these videos are! Thanks for making them!

Can you do a video specifically about tanks in the Allied invasion of Sicily? Love your videos!

Absolutely love these videos - keep up the good work!

Thank you for your vids, they are keeping me from going insane by boredom.

Thanks I learned something and never ever saw 29 in olive drab.

Thank you for your work Mr Felton! It would be great to know more about the U- boat base of Helgoland. There is not much known today.

Cheers Mark, your videos are single handedly getting me through self isolation

We used to live near RAF St Mawgan in the 1960s when it was an Avro Shackleton base. I had no idea B29s landed there in the war! Also my old man was in the British Army towards the end of the war and I’ve still got his army aircraft recognition manual from 1944 that says “Mention may only be made of the great new US Army bomber, the B29, which has been designated the Super Fortress”.