Day to day life is better than activities.

Thanks Bismarck! Looking forward to some Luftwaffe pirates stories!

Is there a reason we havn't had you & Botime doing a podcast for a long time? they were fantastic!

@Sam Cooper what happened

@Sam Cooper what happened

WhiskeyTango Sierra My great grandpa was a gunner on a Ju 88G of Bf 110G in 1/NJG4. He served on the invasionfront for a few days, weeks. He died a few months later after intercepting british nightbombers over Germany. The aircraft got shot down...

My grandfather flew on operations in an RAF Typhoon over the invasion period after going through the Battle of Britain in a Hurricane and getting put on "rest" with Ferry Command in North Africa. Funny to think your dad might have heard my granddad going overhead.

@@davidian7787 You know whats funny too? My great grandpa could have seen your grandfather! My great grandpa served on a 110 in Staffel 4 Gruppe 2 Zerstörergeschwader 76 during the Battle of Britain

@@davidian7787 It certainly could have happened. The internet has made a small world smaller, and more in touch.

@@Entity282 At least they didn't kill each other. Otherwise we wouldn't be here. Much respect to your great grandpa and the loyalty he showed to his country and fellow airmen.

Dang...I just wrote this....and scrolled down a little bit........^^

😂

Hitler would have won if his TANKS HAD WINGS. He just didn't believe in the airforce.

@@bunzeebear2973 With Goering in charge, who could really blame him?

That's because the Luftwaffe had the underpainting of a sky blue hue.

Thank you very much for your article, it just goes to show that there is still far much more articles like yours about WWII that are waiting for some researcher to discover.

Johannes "Mackie"Steinhoff describes in his book "Straits of Messina" how mechanics were transported from Cap Bon, North Africa during the Luftwaffe retreat to Sicily in 1943. They too were flown in the rear fuselage of Bf109s. Had they not been evacuated in this manner they would have been taken prisoner by the Allies and who then would keep the aircraft operational in Sicily?

I wouldn't exactly call it a crew compartment. It was more like stuffing your mechanic in the trunk of your race car.

@@truthseeker9454 The maintenance guy must have been in hell. No way to tell what's going on and the plane looping, yawing, swaying around, and getting hit by bullets.

@@galatian5 You got that right!

@@galatian5 bring a couple of pillows.

Worst ride ever... but at least you never see it coming.

It's truly frightening thought.

I would imagine they were too rattled from the pilot trying to defend to do much. And of course the hatch they used was tiny, so I wonder if they even had a chute, and if they did I can't imagine trying to squeeze through mid or post dogfight. What a horrible way to go. I feel like banging your head and going unconscious or being killed by gunfire would be, in a dark way, lucky.

Just another of the many different and terrible ways to die during a war.

Reminds me of Normandie-Niemen. During one of their flights to the new airfield one of the planes was shot. Pilot, judging by the radio communication, was blinded, so he was advised to bail out. But he refused and tried to land the plane, because there was his russian mechanic behind the cabin. Both of them died. The man literally prefered to die rather than abandon his mechanic.

​@@markfryer9880 Sung to the tune of "Dumb Ways to Die" You can get frostbite and gangrene. You can jump from a plane and rupture your spleen. Terrible ways to die, so many terrible ways to die. (add your own lyrics!)

Lol! :-)

The section, in which the diary author says (equivocally) that High Command should allow Field (or on-sight) Command make the response decisions in regards to the enemy's actions/positions, because High Command is (more or less) clueless to the situation at hand; that section made me chuckle (respectfully, given the actual circumstances of the situation historically,) because, no matter what military force it is, no matter what time period it is in, ignorance and stubbornness at the top causes way more problems for those "in the trenches" whom are actually dealing with the situation.

@@jimmylarsson5667 well said

As in the P-38 lighting?

@@clevernamegotban1752 I was under the impression the p38 was a Pacific theater aircraft.

@@robertl.fallin7062 the p-38 was used in Europe, but more successful in the Pacific. The Lightning had oil-lubrication problems in European cold weather, at high altitudes. However, it was used with deadly success against German troops in 1944, as a result of the D-day landings. Thanks.

@@darrellborland119 The Germans had a name for the Lightning, Fork Tailed Devil. Sure seems appropriate.

@@robertl.fallin7062 Jimmy Doolittle personally flew a reconnaissance variant of it over the beaches to avoid friendly fire due to its unique silhuoette. They were still active as fighter-bombers in Europe as well.

Hindenburgers?

I fixed your spelling errors, Ve had some nice sandvicthes Your welcome

It’s far safer

Thanks

How did you get that emoji? I NEED IT.

@@bozo5982 Through sponsorship

@@MilitaryAviationHistory Now I know where Lucas got the idea for the R2 unit - German Luftwaffe onboard mechanic.

I always felt that France was a middle approach. Invading Germany would be the most aggressive and Spain would be the easiest. Franco was a Fascist anyways.

Exactly!!

@@Jordan-Ramses why invade Spain? Spain was mostly neutral. Also the distance to spain is much longer and strategical objectives like Paris farther away.

Poor Luftwaffles... Oh my

@@Jordan-Ramses At the time; the main supply hub for the Allies was the UK, what makes more sense, invading France, where your supplies have to only cross the channel (min width 34km, max 240km) or Invading Spain; a country you might not agree with politically but one you're not at war with and poses no threat to you. Your supply lines at best are now 1664km; that's as the crow flies from the UK to Spain, you can't fly as the crow flies because that's over occupied France. And the first thing Germany will do is reinforce France with more aircraft and start assaulting your supply lines.

Yeah hate to say it but there's almost certainly no copyright on the primary source.

Germany does not have copyright as it is understood in the English-speaking world. Germany has author's rights. The right to reproduce an original work resides exclusively with the author.

It sadly is how it is. I can access these documents for free, photograph them etc and the service at the Archive is very good. However, the rules are that should I print one of the pictures into a book, or show it in a visual medium, currently some fees apply.

@@MilitaryAviationHistory These days you can't make a move without seeing somebody in front of you with their hand out waiting for a fee or payment. Disgusting.

@@MilitaryAviationHistory using the font / colour / background combo you have going , they'd never know 😂. ..Jus sayin ...

Or American English with limited German, und no France. Aging is Hell.....

I agree, and KZfaq's video compression algorithm is definitely making it even worse.

I ain’t even old and I’m having a hard time with it

I had trouble too.

Yeah, stop video. Read. Resume video. Repeat and repeat.

That's not historically true or accurate. German OKW / OB West High Command did know invasion was imminent. The question was when (specific date and time) where (which beaches) and total strength of each wave (units). Hitler's direct interference as to the number of Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht units and assignments was staggering. His decision to prioritize support of the eastern front was a classic no win scenario for all German commanders. The beaches were heavily defended and capable of holding on longer than they did, if there was a 1:1 air defense. Of course, this was impossible as the Luftwaffe fought on three fronts to the east in Russia, the south in Italy and southern France and Normandy. Between 1942 and early 1944, 60% of all Luftwaffe squadrons were assigned to Western Europe (France, The Netherlands, Belgium, etc). The majority of the losses occurred during long range bombing of Germany by allied air forces that had fighter escort to and from the targets. These two preceeding years took its toll before D-Day. There were less than 960 Luftwaffe aircraft of all types by June 1944. The Allies had 12,500 assigned to the invasion alone. The only success the Luftwaffe would have was during Operation Market Garden that came at a heavy price with 190 aircraft lost. In fact, it's clear from historical records, even if the Luftwaffe pulled every fighter from the other two fronts and redeployed all AA guns to the Normandy invasion force, they still would have lost due to lower numerical numbers of equipment and spare parts, let alone personnel and fuel. The Germans knew the Allies were coming. High Command also knew its reserves were limited and scattered across every sector in France. Fuel and spare parts logistics were in absolute chaos because there were a limited number of trucks available. It was felt if an invasion was too be repelled, the Panzer Corps would need most of them. They themselves were intentionally held back from a number of potential front line invasion points to prepare for the counter attack. The only surprise to the Germans was how poorly they easily outgunned in every capacity.

@@DougHanchard Very true. That is why there was a plot to kill Hitler. A country run by a mad man is doomed from the start.Their problem was not spotting ( or ignoring) he was a mad man. early enough.

>In their own word: (coherent yet meaningless compound words)

Yea, pretty much. The whole might of two powerful nations.

I don't understand why the Luftwaffe had so many stationed at Leval. The 190s had like a 500 mile range and Leval is like 50 miles from the ocean. I can't believe they survived there for as long as they did.

The perspective of this channel is one of the primary reasons I like and appreciate this channel. Much "props" (snark) to Bismark for such fantastic efforts.

Also knowing that they're going to be giving you equally stupid orders to fly hopeless and useless missions in the hours ahead probably focuses the mind.

@@Akm72 I think that was the most polite way they could say 'Whos bloody side are you on?'

Particularly if your future career is measurable in hours or days at most.

Yeah, especially the poor bastards stuffed in the storage compartments in the FW-190's while they were being shot at...

@@mtnmist1 *muffled screaming*

I can imagine the point of gravity shifting inhibiting manouvrability...

Only the Germans could do this...The poor mechanics

@Maxwell Smart Would you believe, he missed it by that much 🤔😅🤣

@@douglasgreen437 99 points for this comment, you sure have CONTROL of your words, otherwise there would be KAOS. (Sorry about that Chief)

It is likely that having a fuel tank there would move the CG too far aft for the aircraft to be stable. The P-51 had a fuel tank around that location and with it full was dangerously close to the aft CG limit. Maneuvering was restricted until that tank was almost empty. As for ammo, it would probably be difficult to find a way to reliably route anything from there to the guns.

@@xeigen2 yes, I certainly bow to Kurt Tank when it comes to aircraft design.

Jesus was not involved.

I know right? That would be very fucked to have experienced that

@@peterrobertson2778 Good one peter pan

Is this based

Da gibt es ein Deutsches Sprichwort! ,,NOT'' macht Erfinderisch. There is a German saying! ,,Necessity is the mother of invention.

Yes, but compared to the Red Army the approach is very different... Just as an example: The problem with loose track pins on the T-34 was solved by welding on a piece of metal, that would push the loose pins back in when driving (and produce the famous rattling) - the german came up with for example the GM-1 on the Ta 152 and a three stage supercharger to work around the shortage of high octane fuel, so the character is way different (i don't think the german approach was necessarily better, even though quite impressive)

@@spokenbratze2361 ...that 'saying' is attributable to Plato who wuz not ein djermin

I can´t stop thinking about them, I´m shocked!

My reply from other thread: He also did not have any armor plate protection like the pilot. Imagine the pilot, hearing your passenger's screams of agony as bullets turn him into ground meat. Shortly before your own demise..

Ah don't feel bad for the mechanics. The planes don't come back most of the time anyways, and if they do, probably riddled with bullet holes that render the thing unrepairable.

@@absboodoo I think he meant the mechanics killed travelling in the rear of the aircraft. That has to be a scary way to die.

@@Davey-Boyd Ah yes, I heard about that. There is a small compartment behind the pilot where you can stow some backup supply, a rifle, or a mechanic in an emergency retreat.

If you can call being outnumbered around 4 to 1 "enough". As it turned out though it was but it was a close run thing!

When take into account the number of pilots in RAF fighter command, bomber command, coastal command, and the fleet air arm Britain had far more pilots that could or did participate in BoB than the Luftwaffe did

@Dick Fageroni Nice one x)