An interesting fact that was not mentioned was that before the war Australia had begun to make Bristol Beauforts. Not far into the war, the Beaufort production line was converted into a Beaufighter production line. Australia made hundreds of Beaufighters for the war against Japan.

One of the most underestimated planes of WW2.

The Honey Badger of the air the incomparable Bristol Beaufighter.

Amazing all the stories connected to this amazing airplane. Everyone talks about the Spitfire and the Mosquito but the Hurricane and the Beaufighter did so much too and so much unsung

Whispering death. A formidable aircraft that excelled in all it did . Vastly underrated.

Until the P61 was ready, the Beaufighter was the USAAF's first effective radar equipped night fighter serving with the 414th, 415th, 416th and 417th Night Fighter Squadrons which used the plane in both night fighting and long range convoy escort roles. They continued to serve until the end of the war.

My grandfather was a navigator in these in India in WWII. 177 Squadron. When he passed away, he left us (my brothers and I) a huge case of photographs. Some were of their airbase and clubhouse (one with an elephant pulling a roller over the cricket pitch in the background), others were before-and-after aerials shots of various Japanese targets in the Burmese jungle.

My dad was an aircraft mechanic in the RAAF stationed in Borneo, the only recollection I ever got from him was the Beauies would return from a mission, the maintenance crews would patch the bullet holes, service the engines, reload the ammunition then out they'd go again.

The Beaufighter packed a serious punch when used in the anti-shipping role, it was also a formidable night fighter

This one is absolutely superb. I've got a lump in my throat typing this.... my pc is sat on a desk from the Filton plant. What a superb plane the Beau was. Thank you for this. Your channel is always excellent.

Have a nice print....big one too...Showing a Beaufighter straffing a ship. I look at it almost every day. Beauty!!!!

Aussie Beaufighters were a nightmare the the Japanese, A great plane and glad we had them to help with the war in the far east.

Arguably my favorite WW2 era plane at Wright-Patterson. From the ground, you are looking down the barrels of those cannon, and it just carries this beefy tenacious grimace like an angry pitbull.

Perhaps the most devastating attack involving Beaufighters was the Battle of the Bizmark sea which devistated the convey reinforcing Lae in 1943. Turning into the Beaufighters the escort destroyers were strafed from stem to strem destroying the bridge crews and all on deck.

The UK genuinely had some incredible aircraft designers who created so many iconic planes.

While my favourite WWII plane is the thoroughbred Mosquito, the Beaufighter comes in a close 2nd. It's the burly, bruiser of a brawler to the Mosquitoes clean lines. The wings & forward position of the engines look like a heavyweight boxer advancing on an opponent. It's role also seemed to be the A-10 Warthog of its day, able to take & give out punishment in large amounts. My grandfather was in the 8th Army & didn't often talk about his time in war. But he did say that the Beau was something to see when on an attack run, making the ground ahead of it writhe & boil.

Whispering Death, came from the engine having sleeve valves. These slid open to let in the fuel/air mix another sliding open to let out the exhaust gas. This removed the popping from conventional valves, making the engine incredibly quiet.

There is only one Blenheim (not a Beaufighter) in flying condition. The major issue is the engine as there are only 6 of these engines operating worldwide. A recent air show had the one flying alongside 3 single engine aircraft that had the same engine. 5 of the 6 engines flying in consort. Once a common engine now rarer than the planes that used it. The Beaufighter actually replaced the Mosquito in tropical climates as the resins holding the “wooden wonder” together wasn’t up to the heat and humidity of these climates. I was mistaken, a Blenheim is flyable, but no Beaufighters.

I find it Beau-tiful in its own way.

Magnificent aircraft. So well designed and built.

Love the menacing look of this awesome machine .

A customer of mine was an observer/gunner in a RAAF squadron in the UK doing anti ship patrpls over the North Sea. He told of the effort to change the 20 mm cannon ammo drums in a moving plane at night. Also about releasing the messenger pigeons they carried for emergencies. They would regularly release them on return leg of patrols to give the birds "practise" at homing from a moving plane over water.

Proud to be a Bristolian where these came from. Of course, the aircraft factory is part of Airbus now, making wings; and the engine factory is part of Rolls Royce, making F-35 engines

In the Pacific, the Beaufighter was one of the 'Holy trinity" (Or unholy if you were Japanese) of the three most excellent strafing bombers of the war, the other two members being the Douglas A-20 and the North American B-25.

The Beaufighter is one of my all time favourite aircraft and it is such a pity that there are none still in flying condition just like the Typhoon, Tempest and Hornet, which were also iconic planes from that era. Thankfully some dedicated souls are working to return the Typhoon and Tempest to the skies but that seems to be an unlikely prospect for the Beau and Hornet sadly

Always interested in a show about Beaufighters. My grandad served in Coastal Command as a crewman in one, mostly anti submarine patrols or escorting convoys I think. Disappeared in the North Atlantic on patrol, engine failure according to records.

I love how strange they look, especially for a fighter

Thanks for the good show & for featuring the Bristol Beaufighter.

Robert "Moose" Fumerton flew Beaufighters with my dad in 89 Sqdn RAF - both pilots were RCAF Flying Officers, and both participated in the very early trials of AI (Airborne Intercept, or Radar) from the beginning of 89 Sqdn. The AI Mk. 1 sets were hand-built and quite prone to go "u/s" or "unserviceable" in flight. Dad's navigator had been selected partly because he'd been a ham radio operator as a teenager pre-war - although repair in flight was not really an option. But it was the best they had at the time, and soon better sets, Mk II, Mk. III etc. came along. In many wartime photos of Beau night fighters, the nose antenna was hidden by 'editing' the photo negatives since its size and shape would give the enemy several important clues about the equipment. 89 squadron was a "composite" RAF squadron with Brits, Canadians, New Zealanders among others. One of the first squadron commanders was George Stainforth, a career RAF officer widely known for flying R.J. Mitchell's Supermarine float planes in air races during the 1930's, and winning the Schneider Trophy permanently for Britain. It was on display in the RAF Club lobby when I stayed there on one visit. (Oddly enough, so was a picture of my dad and his navigator with Stainforth and a number of other crews, holding up an aircraft skin panel bearing Luftwaffe insignia. Seeing the two of them, looking impossibly young, as I walked in the front entrance off Piccadilly was a rather odd experience). After the war, "Moose" Fumerton went on to be the head of RCAF fighter command and remarked in a speech (sorry, I have not got it verbatim) "The Beaufighter was a difficult aircraft to fly, and an extraordinarily difficult one to fly well." The two Hercules radial engines, 1700 HP each, couldn't just be 'firewalled' on take-off. The throttles, and power had to be advanced more on one side, so that torque from the two huge engines was offset. If not handled with 'a bit of care' they would cause the aircraft to ground-loop during take-off. 89 Sqdn were doing radar night-fighter work, then were temporarily rushed to Egypt to help stop Rommel's advance on Cairo. The Germans were not pleased by this, and the Luftwaffe took a bit of damage once the Beaus were on scene - flying both night and day sorties. During that period, 5 crews were detached and flew their aircraft to New Delhi, where they formed the nucleus of 176 Sqdn RAF, which did both night-fighter work as well as "beating up" the advancing Japanese, particularly the Japanese railroad trains full of troops and ammunition. "Blew up a treat" was how my dad's navigator/radar operator described them. The original crews then returned to England to do both night-fighter and "intruder" sorties almost non-stop. They were heavily involved in striking German night-fighters and other targets prior to D-Day. I have my dad's logbooks as well as his personal journals, and although rated "exceptional" as a night-fighter pilot, the Beau could be a bad tempered cow, especially with icing/foggy conditions. This led to some hard landings, but the Beau airframe was tough. My dad died quite young, but his navigator lived to be 106, and we had many interesting trans-Atlantic phone conversations. I wish now that I'd recorded those; my dad rarely spoke of his wartime flying. Just before D-Day, white stripes were applied to the aircraft in a big hurry by an "erk" with a paint roller. The stripes were 'not pretty' - there had been no masking or attempt to keep them straight or even - 'just slopped on' was the kindest description. My dad and his navigator were both very offended; they took great pains to ensure their aircraft was as invisible as possible in the night sky, and would 'black out' even shiny rivet heads or the window edging with small brushes and black paint - in their spare time, and with paint bought with their own money from a bicycle shop ! The white stripes definitely were not invisible - more like an invitation to the Luftwaffe!

Thank you for this video and the breadth of cover of the Beaufighter. I still can't decide which is my favourite twin-engine Allied fighter - Mosquito, Beaufighter and the P38 Lightning. Each with such valuable contributions and all, beautiful aircraft in its own way.

I just remember these from Commando comics. These had the best stories by far.

The Beaufighter is often overshadowed by the Mosquito. When I was a young boy, I would draw aircraft and I drew a Beaufighter. Teachers and fellow students kept calling it a Mosquito. 😅

You gotta love the Beau! If the Mossie was an elegant rapier the Beaufighter was a snarling bulldog. 4x20mm cannons, 6x.303 mgs PLUS eight 20 pdr rockets, bombs, a torpedo - what on EARTH was a better strike fighter/anti-ship platform?

I believe the Beaufighter was the most heavily armed fighter operated by the RAF, in its initial configuration it was armed with 4 X 20mm cannon and 6 X .303” machine guns, later on they dropped the wing mounted machine guns, I believe it was in order to carry wing mounted rockets instead.

The story of Ken Gatward is very similar to that of the Belgian pilot Baron Jean de Selys Longchamps. Gatward dropped the French flag over the Arc de Triomphe in the spring and then shot at the "Minister de la Marine" on the Place de la Concorde. In the autumn of 1942, Jean de Selys Longchamps dropped a Belgian flag over the Royal Palace in Brussels with his Hawker Typhoon and then shot at the Gestapo headquarters, killing several high-ranking SS officers.

Finally - someone put out a video on this awesome aircraft. Nice work!!!

"Whispering Death" ...one of the great nicknames for a machine of war.

The Beaufighter was the honey badger of ground attack aircraft

Nice. Made in Old Mixon near Weston Super Mare as well as Filton, Fisherman's Bend, Australia too (?) What the Hurricane was to the Spitfire, I think of the Beaufighter is to the Mosquito. I need a USAAF model to sit on the shelf next to my RAF Coastal Command one. A great aeroplane. To see one flying again would be amazing.

Just as the Hurricane's contribution gets overshadowed by the Spitfire, I feel that the Beaufighter is similarly overlooked because of the Mosquito.

The more glamorous planes tended to overshadow these workhorses I think.

Thanks for posting this video on this great aircraft. Very well researched and narrated.

0nce described as, "Two bloody great engines, hotly pursued by an airframe".

Interesting to know some of the rolls and missions of the Beaufighter. Also great to know of a raid conducted from Langham, England, not too far from where I live. There is still an Astrodome there on the old airfield that you can visit. Great video, thank you.

I love the Beau. I have since I was a kid.

Good video! . amazing camera man! ......🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Thank you. Impressive

Those Beaus managed to disguise themselves like Wellingtons

One of my favorite air frames

My favourite aircraft of ww2 such a beautiful plane such a shame that there are none flying

One of the great aircraft of WW2. Huge hitting power and extremely rugged. It’s such a shame that there is no flying example anywhere in the world and due to the lack of engines the aircraft under restoration look unlikely to be completed.

WOW !! always loved the look of this plane, just didn't realise how effective it was, thanks for this excellent video

Amazing aircraft..great video. Thank you.

Love your vids especially chuffed as an Aussie that you gave good mention of the battle of the Bismarck sea. One of Australia’s most successful military engagements of all time and amazingly - hardly any Australians know about it. Go the whispering death.

Hey that's my favourite uncle, Ken Gatward taking that Beaufighter around Paris. He had some other war time adventures ... He was with brilliant navigator Flight Seargent Fern for Operation Squable to Paris and many other sorties. He led an RCAF squadron. The French really appreciated Operation Squable. He was a fun uncle for sure.

I recall at the time from the old 'RAF Flying Review', a photo of the last Beaufighter T10 taking off from Seletar. That was about the time the RAF did away with its Sunderlands, also, in the Far East.

Australia created and built some interesting Planes,the Plant at Fisherman's Bend Melbourne I suppose is long gone ? For a small Country still recovering from WW1 and the Depression we Designed and Produced some Very useful Planes ! The Battle of the Bismarck Sea is worth a look .

I like the Mosquito, but I love the Beaufighter. If I would have to choose in which one go into battle, I think I would go for the Beau. Not because the Mossie is not good, it is, but somehow I would feel more safe in this flying tank.

5:03 A real Bulldog!❤

A great example of the Beaufighter can be seen at The Museum of the United States Air Force at Dayton, Ohio. A great video on a great multi role aircraft.

imagine being on a small ship or in a truck in the desert and seeing one of these turning to unleash all that firepower on you, an early A10 in a way. good vid thank you.

Kokoda and PNG was Australia's Stalingrad......it was a horrific, nightmarish fight that turned the tide and was the beginning of the end for the Empire of Japan. The Beaufighter was definitely one of the true MVPs of the skies over the Pacific. It was the A-10 of its day.

it is a shame that such an important aircraft as the Beaufighter has so few existing examples left.

My absolute favorite aircraft.

This aircraft makes me think of the modern A10 more than the Stuka, IL2 or any other.

Well deserved credit to an often bit overshadowed aircraft. To little corrections; the port the German ships came from is spelled Den Helder and was and is the home base of the Koninklijke Marine (the Royal Dutch Navy); if memory serves me well the torpedo carrying versions were named Torbeau, not Torbleau.

What a great plane!!!

" .. heavy fighters will always get through ... " Remus the Rem. :D

Great vid on a beautiful plane 👍

Fantastic war machine. Salute to the aircrew

It’s impressive that the manufacturer made both the airframe and engines, something that few manufacturers achieved….

My former Squadron - 410 Sqn RCAF - flew Beaufighter Mk II's (with the RR Merlin engines) during WW2. As a Night Fighter squadron, we adopted the name "Cougars" because of the Cougar's legendary nocturnal hunting ability. Our motto is "Noctivaga" - Latin for "Wandering by night" for our Night-Fighter role. They ended the war with 75+ Enemy A/C shot down. Currently, 410 flies CF-18 fighters as the RCAF's CF-18 Operational Training Unit.

These things were beasts

If I recall correctly, Catward dropped a second tricolour at La Place de la Concorde. He had practiced with weighted flags to get them to fall so they could be seen. I think he also hoped to shoot up the daily military parade down the Champs Elysee. Alas, he was on time, but the Nazis were late.

As a famous British Air Commodore replied on being asked about his personal response to his personal umpteenth bail-out - ‘You don’t appear to understand - we had become ‘Bird-men’ ‘ (quoted by Stephen Bungay in ‘The most dangerous enemy’.)

Ten gun terror. It had six .303 in the wings as well as the cannon (two one side with a nav light and four on the other wing).

A relative flew one with the RCAF. Right up until he got his hands on a Mosquito!

US Air Forces actually flew these. There is a great restored example at The Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Beautiful aircraft.

With at least 975 kills the Beaufighter is the third most successful British fighter in history, after the Hurricane and Spitfire.

An uncle of mine was a Beaufighter pilot.

Were these built at GAF?

Not only did only 1200 Japanese troops arrive in Lae, but the convoy was destroyed. They came by swimming, small life boats or rescued by patrols. Instead of bringing supplies and reinforcements to Lae they were largely without any equipment and with large numbersof wounded. This very much helped the subsequent amphibious and Airborne landings at Lae by Australian (Amphibious) (fighting their way inland supported by Matilda tanks)and American (Airbourne) troops(which helped secure a nearby runway to commence operations from).

Thnx for the shoutout to Damian Parer, (ww2 chronicles on film). Some of the photographers were fearless buggers, (and war doco's would be dull, without the pics, we have seen a hundred times or more?). Wilfred Burchett, is another war chronicle collector, more ppl should know of...look him up..

'..barely 335 mph'??? Barely? This is 1939. there's nothing 'barely' about a twin engine, ground attack aircraft that can do 335mph

This beautiful aircraft has been unfortunately overshadowed by the equally beautiful Mosquito.

Wow. Men of steel in a strong plane.

It's probably my all-time favourite aircraft of WW2

You forgot the mention the bow fighter sank the Italian cruise liner Rex.

never mind the Beaus, check the tank at 0:37. Looks like a few direct frontal hits bounced off. Imagine you are the gun team who pissed off the tankers .

Why did you show clips of a Bell Aerocomet fighter whilst talking about pre or early war fighters?

the 14 cylinder Bristol Sleeve Valve engines have a considerably softer exhaust note than standard poppet valve engines .Hence the monicker Silent Death !!!

The spiritual forefather of the A-10.

Feels like the solid-nose Mosquito got all the press, but the Beaufighter did more of the work

And then came the DH Mosquito.

Guy Gibson of Dam Busters fame did a stint as a Beaufighter pilot as a 'rest' from night bombing over Germany. Read his book.

Can you do a video on radars? The first radars from radio to mech scanned and electronically scanned

Not only did it have 4 x 20mm cannons, it also had 6 x .303 machine guns

The First Flying Tank.

An excellent video but there's just one small point I wish to make: You pronounced the name of the Bristol Blenheim incorrectly. It should be pronounced 'blennim' and the 'h' is silent. I know this because my father made wing and fuselage panels for Blenheims, Beauforts and Beaufighters during the war, and I have lived in Bristol for my whole life.

Is there a relationship between the Beaufighter an the modern A-10?