Gloster Gladiator: A Faith, Hope and Charity Story

The Gladiator was the last of a long line of British biplane fighters designed by the Gloster Aircraft Company, and the last biplane fighter to serve with the Royal Air Force.
The biplane was, however, an importat aircraft in the rapid expansión of the RAF during the late 1930s. Many squadrons flew them, and many pilots learned their trader on the Gladiator during that period. The aircraft remained on the front line order of battle until 1941, though its pilots often fought against the odds, and against far superior aircraft. That the Gladiator squadrons achieved the success they did is a testament as much to its superb flying qualities as well their pilots’ courage.
#GlosterGladiator #aircraft #worldwar2
Thanks for watching!
Music:
"November", by Kai Engel (licensed under CC BY 4.0).
*I used Voicemaker to convert text to speech.

[@user-mw6cw8xm4e]

my father was one of the merchanics who kept the planes going and told us many stories of the hard times in malta and how they had to make do and mend so they had at least one plane to fly . he was also in eygpt and was awarded the british empire medal i just wish id paid more attention to him recalling a major historical event. but i was only a young girl

[@tim7052]

The last Gladiator victory was over a Soviet Polikarpov R-5 shot down by Finnish Air Force pilot Lt Haken Stromberg, of LLv 16, on the 15 Feb 1943!! IMHO the Gloster Gladiator is STILL one of the most beautiful bi-planes ever to fly!!

[@warhawk4494]

Love the Gladiator. It's a great fighter built just a little to late but did a heck of a job.

[@stephenwarhurst6615]

Gloster enter WW2 with biplane fighter The Gladiator and ended WW2 with the Jet fighter The Meteor

[@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188]

As a common guest to Malta, from Denmark, I know of the story and one Gladiator is preserved in the War Museum in Valetta, sadly now without it wings, in a tunnel. Of the 6 planes found, only three were flown at one time and always with the same code names: Faith, Hope and Charity.

[@lw4268]

Excellent assessment of one of History's under-appreciated, but greatly admired military aircraft.

[@urashimatarou9575]

From Roald Dahl's short story 'A Piece of Cake' - based on the unenviable experience of having himself been trapped in a burning Gladiator: "...because those old Gladiators aren't made of stressed steel like a Hurricane or a Spit. They have taut canvas wings, covered with magnificently flammable dope, and underneath there are hundreds of small thin sticks, the kind you put under the logs for kindling, only these are drier and thinner.If a clever man said 'I am going to build a big thing that will burn better and quicker than anything else in the world,' and if he applied himself diligently to his task, he would probably end up by building something very like a Gladiator..."

[@urashimatarou9575]

Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, etc.) survived the crash of a Gladiator in N. Africa in WWII and went on to fly Hurricanes in the battles for Greece. His collection of semi-autobiographical short stories about flying in WWII - including one based on his crash - is entitled 'Over to You' and well worth the read. Some elements of those stories were incorporated into Miazaki Hayao's 1992 animated film (about flying boats in the Adriatic) The Crimson Pig. (hint: great movie, but the voice acting for the English version is lame - far better with the Japanese-language audio and English subtitles)

[@coling3957]

Gladiators were the fighter defence for Devon and Cornwall in early 1940.. while Spitfires and Hurricanes were engaged in Battle of Britain, Devonport dockyard and the towns and cities of SW England were protected by biplanes.

[@patrickporter1864]

Their max speed was slower than that of some of German bombers. Faith hope and charity was just a newspaper story. Propaganda as we would say today.

[@daniel-m]

Superb presentation on this legendary biplane. THANKS !

[@grahamthebaronhesketh.]

It was a wicked little kite indeed.

[@capnpete1154]

Very interesting & informative. Very well presented. Thanks for posting.

[@noahwail2444]

Beeing the last of its kind, it was a goodbyeplane... ;o)

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Great video...👍

[@williamkoppos7039]

Well done. An accurate video-wow.

[@steveshoemaker6347]

Amazing video....Thanks very much.....Shoe🇺🇸

[@Andrew-xq7ni]

You make great videos man looks really high effort hope you get more subs

[@mikemyers8064]

Mystique not myth !

[@user-rn8wu5iy5d]

Drop the metric measurements - the aircraft was built in feet and inches

[@buttslane4491]

Fairey Gordons at 9:48.

[@buttslane4491]

That's a Fairey Seal at 9:22.

[@jessehamm3573]

8:22 Uh..that screenshot depicts an Heinkel He51 float variant, not a Heinkel He 115.

[@dovetonsturdee7033]

True. the He115 was a much bigger, twin engined, beast, used for dropping parachute mines and making torpedo attacks on merchantmen.

[@nicholasavasthi9879]

What kind of tankette was that at 1:48?

[@rudidedog243]

That is a Universal Carrier also known as a Bren Gun Carrier, it was a British multi role tracked vehicle.

[@1stpogo]

Good.video but please.drop the computer voice,. Personally I'd rather listen to a real person than a machine.

[@speleocycle773]

The music sounds like it's been ripped off of one of the Hearts of Iron games. Possibly HOI3?

[@doankhang9496]

First

[@doankhang9496]

thanks to who ever give me a like

[@tomwaltermayer2702]

You're talking about an airplane. Aviation, with few exceptions, is not metric. Knots or miles per hour. Feet, not meters, for rate of climb and ceiling. Pounds or gallons for fuel. Give us the data in the correct aviation format and put the metric translation in parenthesis. And it would be nice if you'd give more specs, stuff like Vso, Vne, critical altitude for the Mercury, max rate of roll. This is lousy coverage of a very interesting warbird.

[@mikepette4422]

can't you call those machine guns by their proper designation... .303 ??? pffft 7.7mm indeed also you'd be surprised how good your voice sounds instead of this computer generated nonsense.

[@towgod7985]

Very good video RUINED by RoboVoice!

[@geordiedog1749]

The AI voice is awful. Just saying….. There were - I think - GG versus GG dogfights over Iraq in 1942. The Brownings had a very good cyclic rate which made up for its rifle calibre rounds lack of efficacy. At least against the unarmored bits of enemy planes. However, the two bow guns of the GG we’re synchronous with the prop and this slowed them right down, cutting the effectiveness considerably. One GG at Hal-Far somehow had six guns fitted. I’m guessing that they were an extra pair under the wings. If @anyone knows please share. The loss of the Glorious was an A1, top notch, top of the class cluster f%-k of the highest order. Records still not being released concerning the incident - thought to be due to the Norwegian royals being on a ship nearby that could have helped. Just appallingly tragic. Awful.

[@alannetherclift678]

Voiced by Software. Hate these vids.

[@80AFT]

Better than Dark Skies machinegun narrating

[@doankhang9496]

@@80AFT very true

[@mikepette4422]

@@80AFT he got better

[@marianovaliente2103]

Muy buenos cazas estos biplanos de fórmula anticuada.nacidos demasiado tarde cuando ya eran superados por los modernos monoplanos. No obstante en los primeros años de la guerra aún tuvieron que luchar contra los cazas italianos (una mierda) muchos de ellos aún biplanos también.y también tuvieron que vérselas con los cazas alemanes Messermitch BF-109 😱😱😱😳😳 y derribaron muchos en la batalla de Inglaterra en África y en la defensa de Malta. Unos pilotos muy valientes en unos buenos cazas pero ya desgraciadamente anticuados.aun no había suficientes Hurricanes y aún menos Spitfires y había que apañarse con lo que había.felicidades a sus valientes pilotos.