Ok---go on then

Graham is a superb guide at IWM Duxford. A true asset

You his missus?

He is absolutely brilliant. Encountered him when I visited the museum a long time ago, amazing narrator!

No, no one's going to mention it.

It really did not. The full bomb load out for a b-17 was 8,000 pounds and not 4,000. The b-17 also had wing pods which could carry even more. The full truth is, for a b-17 to fly the same range as a Mosquito it could only carry half the bomb load of 4,00 pounds.

That's a bit misleading actually. At maximum range the B17 was capable of 4000lbs (but routinely overloaded) but for shorter missions it could carry over 16000 lbs.

That's actually not really true...they are sort of picking certain parameters and comparing a mission "to Berlin". On a mission less than 400 miles it is said a B-17 could carry around 8,200 pounds..and on a short mission could be loaded to almost 18,000...

And stealth!

That bit blew my mind. A true game changing design. The scramble to find more and more roles for it was inevitable at that point.

That is a remarkable history...thank you for sharing with us. (Regards from Steve, in Chile.)

Not surprised he loved the mosquitoes

RIP to your late Dad -- thank you too for his war service. Best wishes.

Thankyou to your Father...., God Bless Him.

You must be, quite rightly, very proud. Have you read Night Fighter by C F Rawnsley (Nav to Johnnie Johnson- later sir) and Robert Wright? I read it as a teenager (LONG time ago) and isa great account of the rapport between the pilot and nav, and also the development and use of the radar technology and night fighting

Well done your Mum.

I heard they'd requisitioned furniture makers for the plane. The industrial might of the British and Americans in WW2 was astounding

God bless your mum, Jeff

@@arthas640 made them in high Wycombe

🌹

Most combatants of WW1 & 2, were reluctant to talk about their personal experiences; quite understandable, but many people of today, now regret, not asking. I do.

🌹🌹🌹🌹🙏

We need some like your dad today. A salute from America for those brave men!

One of our family friends was a Lancaster Bombardier. He shared a little about his time but he was also very haunted by it. He was one of those on the Dresden run that resulted in massive civilian casualties and that kind of carnage was hard to carry on his conscience. He also ended up doing more that the normal amount of missions because towards the latter stages of the war, the decision was made to keep some personnel longer rather than bring in new crews. He was a very brave man but he would have been the last to believe that. He said he was mostly scared and fully expected that each mission was likely going to be his last. Part of him died over there and while he was proud that he did his part, it changed him too. Mental health struggles, alcoholism were his burdens. I have never forgotten how much he gave up. But he never had a cross word for me despite his demons and I miss him to this day. Just like you no doubt miss your Dad. Bless them all.

Sympathies - as a very wee boy there was an elderly man, old George, who was semi retired at my dad's then workplace. George was the classic gentle, wee old man, he and his wife doted on me as a little lad. Turned out George, in his youth, had been a Commando. I often wish I had been old enough to talk to him about it and record his memories for posterity, but then again, most of those lads never talked much about what they did, they just considered it their duty and doing their bit..God knows what that gentle old soul I knew as a kid did when he was a young man, but it was part of what shaped our world for us.

for how long were they together

Great Story.

@@oliviersavard8676,

I've never been to Duxford. But I'm not sure I could take all those aircraft sitting there _not_ flying. Something wrong about that

@@MostlyPennyCat If they all flew then they wouldn't be original anymore, most flying spits are replicas built only from a dataplate

Hello again, you're here too aswell, my Grandad built these too, if I remember correctly I think he said he built them in burnt oak, in the UK of course, he said everyone used Yankee screwdrivers and if you slipped and scratched or splintered the wood you would have to redo it, it had to be perfect....he also described the smell of the "pitch" (I think he called it) that they painted over the material covering

When I was 12 (which was about 1967), my dad and I joined a target shooting club - Every saturday we would convene at their indoor range in an old building overlooking the Don Valley (home of the Don Valley Expressway now) to target shoot indoors with single shot .22s. My two instructors were cool. One was a huge jovial Pole, who had a bullet crease on the back of his head - he was part of the Polish forces resisting the German invasion in 1939 and was invalided out because of the wound. The second, Canadian, was dwarfed by the Pole, who worked at the Dehavilland factory in Downsview during WWII. His job was preparing the Mosquitoes coming off the line for their first test flights. One thing he mentioned was that for the first tests, given the aircraft weren't fully fuelled, let alone armed, they had to put about 500 pounds of weight in the tail to get the balance right. Hearing this later, my mom chimed in. At the time she was about 14, and she spent many hours riding her bicycle with a group of boys she knew from school. One of their favourite spots to stop was outside the fence at Downsview to watch what was going on. At the time the Mosquito wasn't publicly announced, and they saw the very first coming off the line for their test flights. My mom remembers that the boys she rode with were airplane mad, and knew all of the allied aircraft at the time. They had never seen these before, and were totally freaked out by the Mosquito "It can do things NO OTHER aircraft can do!". Interesting how somethings converged - she saw the aircraft tests just after my shooting instructor prepped them. They're all gone now. The target shooting building was demolished quite a while ago, and while Downsview airport's runways are still there, and Dehavilland build aircraft there until 2021, it was permanently closed in a plan to move all its manufacturing to Alberta. DeHavilland Canada built 1,134 Mosquitos, the last in 1951. This is about 1/6th the total Mosquito production by DeHavilland world wide. DeHavilland plans to restart Q400 (Dash-8) manufacturing in 2025. [I refer to Dehavilland specifically, but it's changed hands several times and its parent is currently Longview Aviation Capital Corp.]

​​​@@fromagefrizzbizz9377 Cool. For many decades I knew a man named George Blanchard who was prominent in the Toronto sailing community but it was only after he passed away in 2011 that I found out that he had been a manager on the production line for Mosquito planes during WW2. Not entirely surprising as a number of the sailors at our club were employed at De Havilland though I think that George was the only one old enough to have been at the company during WW2. One story I heard was that George was a real "get things done" sort of guy and if there was a problem with a supplier for the plant not providing supplies on time George would take the bull by the horns and go to the supplier's shop to see what the problem was. Don't know if that is true but it wouldn't surprise me as George was always full of energy and the sort of guy who was not easily deterred and got things done if they needed to be done even into his 90s. And in WW2 when things needed to be done significant delays were simply not acceptable. No allowance for projects being done 5 years overdue as often happens in peace time.

'VISIONARIES'--ADD GENIUSES AND RISK TAKING PATRIOTS.

de Havilland

agree 100%

True, but that was not the reason, it was that De Havilland reasoned they could use a workforce not currently employed in war work and that wood gave a more streamlined finish.

In accounts concerning the Bristol Blenheim a similar performance advance was seen until the officials insisted on installing defensive armament and drag inducing turrets on the craft. This reduced the speed so much that the Blenheims were vulnerable to enemy fighter interception. The defensive armament was more a hindrance than a help. Making a bomber a pure bomber, fast enough not to need guns, was pure genius.

Very cool memories!

I knew John very well as a young man 10 years before he died...the man was a legend and I loved having a pint with him....John got me into flying I became a BA Captain retiring on the 777...He was a real hero

@@johnburke1479 I do envy you. I was old enough to have a pint.. Now that dad is gone, I realize all the the people I would have liked to have met. That he met or knew. John passed away less then a year before my dad. One from the "knew list" is Hanna Reitsch, two from the "had meeting with list" are Prof Messerschmitt and Hans-Ulrich Rudel. Ok, for the two latter I was to young.

De Havilland is a terrible company.

@@laurencethornblade8357 omg. -= Insert critical race theory here -=

Many had 4 .303 machine guns and 4 20mm cannon in the nose

Depends on the variant. Variants for different roles we armed accordingly.

Awesome story!!!

G'day!! Great story. Thanks for sharing.

Against all odds you managed to overcome this handicap “As American” good on you mate.

@@ezeeusb that is one of the most respectful mickey takes I have ever come across 😁

*TrEaSoN*

I am too an American, this was in my opinion the most underrated plain in ww2.

No need to be ashamed---we all do. but I have to pretend not to when the wifes about

Well said....my thoughts exactly.

When visiting my sister, who lived in Cambridge, we often visited this air museum; but sadly ,before this beauty was on show.

As 12-13 kid in Narromine N.S.W. Australia I and my friends used to play in the remains of a P.R. version a 100 yards away from my home. Ex 618 Sqn. based at Narromine and modified to carry 2 smaller versions of the Barnes Wallis bouncing bomb to be used against the Japanese fleet, but weren't used owing to our naval victory at the battle of the Coral Sea. Bill Cheal

I worked for a few years with a man who was a child in Mynammar (Burma) during WW2. He once claimed that the British bombers were more careful to be accurate with their bombing whereas the Americans just used vast amounts of bombs hoping that one of them would hit the target (given the immense industrial capacity the Americans had to produce bombs and other military supplies). Though I am dubious of the recollections of someone who was a child or youth at the time and a civilian not involved in fighting the war. Very possibly he was just repeating what he had heard from adults during WW2 and he did grow up under British rule and might have been influenced by that.

And half or more of a balsa forest in Ecuador was downed too during the war fir a mosquito production. Birch ply, spruce spars and stringers and balsa sandwich filler (end grain oriented)

Great comment, I was going to comment on the Canadian effort that people forget about both world wars. Most Americans think the war was done before they entered it. Great job Canada 🇨🇦 🍁

Many people thought it a backward step to make a plane from wood, one of the few failures of the wood I believe was in Canada. The Mosquito had been stored on the edge of the runway near some trees. I don't know how long for, but when they later went to move it. The bits of the tail started to off. They found that some termites had made a nest and been eating the wood. I heard about this from my late grandfather was an expert on glue and wood veneer his job was to inspect any damaged Mosquitos to check it was not a failure of the glue.

@@batman1169 Absolutely! And India too, which included Pakistan and Bangladesh in those days.

@@computertechnician4896 Would you store a grand piano near some trees, outdoors??

Not maybe, , , DEFINITELY! absolutely beautiful!

Is there REALLY any doubt ?

Completely agree... many WW2 birds look good, but this plane is something else altogether... it's stunning...

Not remotely close

@@FDSixtyNine Don't say the P38, that is not remotely close to a Mossie!

Thank you.

It's the Royal Canadian Air force. Aka RCAF.

If something looks right, it usually is.

And just to be entirely clear, molded wood components were not *remotely* new, Lockheed started out doing this molded wood with concrete forms and building the component in half-shells exactly like this, much earlier. The Lockheed Vega, Sirius, Altair were all built like this. They were noted for their strength and for the speed, since they were very well-streamlined and needed no bracing (unlike most airplanes at the time).

Also the first real stealth bomber and fighter

Yeh an undersung hero of ww2 could b described (with the big cannon ) as the first warthog not as powerful ( obviously) but better looking for me

Love the wordplay and the aircraft!

@@rayb241 Not true. Stealth was an unknown concept at the time.

Hadn't ever realised they were initially totally unarmed. Amazingly brave.

It is mutual, friend.

@Raymond Cyst It is, NASA still use 2 of them I think

@@asriellian3058 I believe NASA/CIA have 3.

@Raymond Cyst They most certainly are. NASA uses them for high altitude experiments and observation, most recently using them to chase down the 2019 North American eclipse to facilitate a airborne telescope study of the Sun's Corona.

Don't forget the DeHavilla ARROW. A jet that blew the pants off anything in the world. The Amrican, military, industrial complex saw to it that the entire rpogram was shut down. Canada had some 6 flying, and they were all cut up for scrap. Britian desperately tried to buy one or two,, to no avail. The US of A was the new superpower and with nukes, who was going to argue. And so, with the same bad actors selling us off to China in the last 2 decades, we are toast.

@@sandervanderkammen9230 are you saying, we are bloody liar's ? choose your weapons.

I belive there were mosquito in usaf service, poss photo recon units.

@@sandervanderkammen9230 Hollywood has rewritten history

@@MrDaiseymay Hey Philip, by chance in any video's on "mossies", do you recall reading anything about i think it was U.S GEN. "Hap" Arnold, he did not permit the P-38's from going on "ops" with Mosquito's ? ( for some reasoning ) I've read this in a couple of threads, are you able to link me up or any ref ? If so, greatly appreciated.

@@davidbarrass5210 Correct, there were scores of them in use by the USAAF, especially as the allies were heading accross Germany

Neither did Goering

The Germans also began using wooden construction in aircraft but progress was hampered by the R.A.F. bombing of a key glue factory (still in business today) and the substitute glues were unsafe to use.

😂 👍

Ouch, that's pretty harsh on his own lads, shows his admiration for the Gestapo thrasher though !!

He only had himself to blame. To impress Hitler, he wanted large numbers of planes for show, so they cranked out cheap, quick to produce craft that were inadequate against a modern airforce.

If he could see BMW and Mercedes now....plus they OWN Rolls Royce...for shame gentlemen, shame.

the me 109 had a more advanced power unit than the spitfire

PHANTOM--my favourite JET design

Totally agree. Perfect presentation.

Totally agree, makes my effort look rubbish!

11m53s, since I have to be that guy to point out the single flaw.

I found a few... for instance, aircraft's are not invented, they are developed.

@@matsv201 Thankyou The Wright Brothers for inventing the Mosquito. That wasn't totally meant as a quip, I have often said - to whoever was listening - "No one designed a Jumbo Jet", with that same logic in mind.

My late mother worked in a furniture factory during the war and helped make the Mosquito. My favourite aircraft obviously.

I used to work in then Hawker Siddeley Chester in the early 70's, In the same Hanger that housed HTE. One of the last air worthy Mosquitoes. It was a fantastic aircraft and was invited into the cockpit many times by the Chief Engineer Harry Robbins, ex RAF. What a character !. Unfortunately it crashed in an air display in Barton Aerodrome in the 80's. Fond memories of such a fantastic aircraft. !

injubitably !

And it's looks, a work of art.

@@concise707 Oh, it was absolutely beautiful, a beautiful killer like a flying femme fatale.

Is a shame there r not a few still capable of being flown

You Have wonderful taste

jeremy ~ The Mosquito was made of composite materials instead of metal - plywood and epoxy resins.

JUST THE ONE ?????

It now appears that Gibson was shot down in error by an RAF plane.

@@Coltnz1 Considering Gibsons personal reputation i doubt anyone in the RAF lost any sleep over that one. Good combat leader but not someone you wanted to share a mess with!

Did he was as pathfinder during that mission?

makes me wonder what the lads would think of our governments barcoding everyone like cattle now? We've lost our way

LOVE IT yes thank you very much!

Had the pleasure of meeting and talking to several Brits in my lifetime. Wonderful warm-hearted people. Could not have wanted a better allie during ww2

The other signal from hard pressed target tug pilots was " We aim to please, You aim too please! "

Exactly the same with me!

THE best plane of WW2! if you were a German pilot, you were awarded 2 kills, for shooting one down, if you could catch it!

Thanks for that - I did a double take when I saw that.

I saw that, I figured they were testing its capabilities flying on only one engine, it looks like the prop is feathered.

Hmm, would they actually shut down an engine in a turn like that? I would have thought it would just be reduced to idle. Also - the prop looks feathered which would decrease the asymmetric thrust since it would decrease the drag on that engine side, I wonder why that is?

I'd just like to point out that it is "its engines" and not "it's engines" as the possessive pronoun its doesn't have an apostrophe, unlike the contraction it's, which does.

Good spot. And it's not until he points it out, that one realises how stonkingly big the props are...

They weren’t used in the Battle of Britain. The Lancaster, Spitfire & Hurricane make up the Battle of Britain flight (BBMF).

@@peterking2651 Neither was the Lancaster Sir.

Here's a KZfaq video of a Mosquito, Lancaster, Spitfire, and two Hurricanes flying in formation over Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 2013: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fpeDbJOcrMywiI0.html Nine Merlin engines in total. Enjoy!

The problem was the glue used in construction started to break down as the aeroplane aged. There was concern they would breakup in flight so were scrapped. Some are being or have been restored.

@@peterking2651 I heard a rumor that the TIII that crashed in the 90s was supposed to go to the BBMF

How cool is it to learn from some that had such a part in history

link to the document? I'm gonna give this a shot.

That would be awesome.

@@brooxeyyy About 15 years ago? On a bike trip, my friends and I Spied a Dragon Rapide under an open barn like structure on a farm. Of course, we investigated. We found several aircraft, some in pieces, some functional. We found one guy tinkering with a homebuilt aircraft, and while chatting he mentioned "The Comet" that the owner of the barn was building. "Comet? You mean Comet racer?" Sure enough, he took us inside to look at a De Haviland Comet racer copy that was about 80% complete. When I say "Copy" it was exactly that, somehow this guy had either a copy of the plans, or had spent a long time viewing them. It was an actual copy, not a replica. I heard that since then the farm owner had died, and the collection sold off. I wonder what happened to it?

There are 2 planned for the UK and under construction. Look up " the peoples mosquito" and the pathfinder trust

Brad, I thought the same when we visited last year.. so we are going again this year.

Rebels can be and are still best of friends. :)

I worked with an ex RAF man One of his jobs, just after the war, was wax polishing the Mozy to give it a few more MPH air speed !

your father is legendary, never forget that

My great uncle James Earl Hack was a P47 pilot in Germany. God bless

Go and find videos of Mosquito KA114. There are some awesome in cockpit videos of her on take off and in flight . Remember to hook up to a decent sound system or headphones for the awesome Merlins...

@@paulluce2557 I've been privileged enough to see and hear one in flight. Twin Merlin's - what a sound. My dad knew what it was before he even saw it, just the sound alone told him it was Mossie - he served in the RAF after the war.

@@paulluce2557 ABSOLUTELY KA114 has the greatest sound of all. A real Beaut.

Ah yes world war eleven

@@Prokerboss roman numerals

WHAT !! ? coming from the land of the P38, thats sacrilege surely ? but NO---you're RIGHT.

And thank YOU New Zealand, for being responsible for all the wonderful Mosquito's, you have restored and / or rebuilt, these last few years. A masterpiece ALL.

The Merlin's have an amazing and very distinctive sound :-)

@@diceman199 YEAH---it's called WHATCH-OUT !!

One aircraft per day but that the video said they had four sites so that is a total of just four per day.

4:05 I think he meant one aircraft per production line, per day? So four per day total.

Total production was around 7800 from " '40 to '50 " as per narrator, assuming twice as many were made during the war (?) would mean an average of about 1.78 per day, still an incredibly low number... too bad the Americans didn't get in on the action... especially given the feedback from the pilots, one has to wonder at the lack of support there (?)

But...they were also built in Canada. I think the narrator was talking abount one plant in the UK. Maybe?

@@sigma_six"....too bad the Americans didn't get in on the action... especially given the feedback from the pilots, one has to wonder at the lack of support there ." Why"wonder" ? The "Americans" (The ones from the U.S. I presume you mean.) would never acknowledge that Britain could actually build something better, for less $$$. Just not the "American Way"...... Is it?

Also, being a much smaller target, harder to hit with AAA.

Not to mention half the fuel, which was critical to the war effort.

What I can't get my head round is two 27 litre engines 8,000 lbs of surprises, how did it manage to carry fuel?

Never needed the USA could have won war with out us!

@@CakePrincessCelestia Smaller and faster.

They had problems in Ceylon with the airframe coming unglued in the tropical heat !

Yes, , shame they didn't have todays Chemical Glues

The XP-51 still survives in the EAA museum in Oshkosh. I've watched it fly in airshows years ago.

I need to correct you Brian. Avspecs a NZ company restores them. The company has the plans and drawings. We have rebuilt two with a third still yet to be completed. Down to the finest detail they are beautifully made. Sadly they are owned by wealthy Americans who own museums. The first one took 7 years to complete it should have gone to a Squadron in the UK. British aircraft designers like Sydney Camm and Geoffrey de Havilland were light years ahead of their German counterparts their creations were absolutely brilliant. The Mossie was the most versatile fighter bomber ever built. It would do all you asked of it. And best of all it would get you home. Congratulations to the IWM on this lovely video.

@@jimblake3574 Maybe I should have said original prototype. The XP51 was the fourth prototype. They only built one Mossie prototype.

@@tonyjennings1025 none of the ones in NZ or elsewhere are prototypes, they are restored. Even if a brand new one was built using the original plans it wouldn’t be the prototype. The one at London Colney is the very first ever built and it was built where it now lives. Last time I went there they had 3……….I think.

Also check out The Tank Museum. They are brilliant.

The B-17 was an older concept and built to a very different philosophy.

@@EricIrl And typically requiring much more room for fuel to fly long range strategic bombing missions

@@johnbeauchamp1743 the Lancaster carried 4 or 5 times the payload of the B17, and flew further too, so fuel was also required ... and with far fewer crew members to boot, yet its defences were comparative to the B17's

B-17's could carry more than 4000lb of bombs, so i don't know where they're getting that comparison from - the B-17G for carry 8000lb of bombs...

@@EricIrl True, as were Britains two engine Bomber's, as the man explained. The Germans made the same mistake, by not building 4 engine bomber's, but thousands of Two engines bomber's, because they had envisaged a short quick war, and ,not planned for a protracted long War of attrition.