LUFTWAFFE FW-190 and BF-110 FIGHTER KILLS GUN CAMERA FILMS 1944 43724

[@ChuckS117]

WW1/WW2 footage will always be mind-blowing to me. It's not a movie or anything, those are real people dying or about to. Insane.

[@lemonator8813]

It's i.possible to imagine the scale of that war even after consuming media about it my entire life.

[@alwayscoca-cola6487]

Correct and in a previous comment I was accused of being a jerk when in reality I was bringing the same level of shock that yes this is disrespectful to watch this here

[@thomastiedtke8121]

the same real people dies at the ground from the bombs

[@user-wf2lm3vi7o]

Yeah, that head on run in the first couple minutes on that B-24 is just ghastly.

[@ipodman1910]

@@thomastiedtke8121 exactly! That is why German criminals shouldn’t have started wwii hand in hand with their soviet allies!

[@chapiit08]

The Boeing at the end of the video took so many hits it makes you wonder the drama that unfolded inside that machine.

[@captainnutsack8151]

Honestly, I'd rather not wonder. The ball turret gunner was probably reduced to ground meat, after that cannon stream. Tail gunner too. Gruesome. RIP to these brave heroes.

[@dsmith8984]

I recall hearing that often enough when the plane came back they had to just hose out what remains of the tail gunner. I always wondered how true that was but the last scene certainly looks like that was the case. Very sad to see regardless of what country the crews were.

[@japekto2138]

Grisly carnage. I'd probably puke my guts out and scared as hell if I was there to witness it.

[@tune7333]

@@dsmith8984 a docu i saw years ago showed a pile of casings behind an overgrown building on an old bomber field in England.....mixed in with casings was a complete skeletal arm.....just brushed out with the shell casings and dumped....true.

[@cameronalexander359]

Braver men than I.

[@mememaster147]

Amateur translations of the title cards, if anybody's wondering- 0:10 Fighters,* attack! 0:15 Collated from the Luftwaffe Gunnery School, June 1944 0:20 The extracts/clips show attacks on combat aircraft, such as dogfights between fighters. The numbers in brackets show the estimated ranges given by the pilots. 0:33 1st Attack Attack run: from the front Attack range: 600m (300m) Attack run ended: 150m (near miss**) 0:55 2nd Attack Attack run: from front right quarter Attack range: 1000m Attack run ended: 400m 1:14 3rd Attack 1st attack run: from abeam Attack range: 2000m Attack run ended: 1500m 2nd attack run: from behind above Attack range: 250m Attack run ended: 50m 2:17 4th Attack Attack run: from behind Attack range: 1000m Attack run ended: 150m 3:18 5th Attack Attack run: from behind Attack range: 4000m (600m) Attack run ended: 1400m (50m) 4:47 6th Attack Attack run: turning fight Attack range: 100m Attack run ended: 70m 5:34 7th Attack Attack run: from behind Attack range: 700m (200m) Attack run ended: 150m (20m) 6:09 8th Attack Attack run: from the front Attack range: 1000m Attack run ended: 700m 6:45 9th Attack Attack run: from the front Attack range: 800m (300m) Attack run ended: 400m (50m) 7:07 10th Attack Attack run: from behind Attack range: 600m Attack run ended: 30m *literally 'hunters' ** lit. 'ramming distance'

[@abmo32]

*Fighter are attacking

[@karlachristman1838]

Ikon d

[@willykrupp441]

The fans, they seem to be boeings...

[@xfirehurican]

Danke!

[@rogg92]

I`m German. In late 1944 one B-17 bomber came down just outside my village in a small forest. As far as I know it got shot down by german fighters. Only the pilot died in the crash, the crew could save themselves with parachutes. They got arrested by german troops. I don`t know what happened to them. You can tell by standing in front of the hill where it crashed because the trees are younger in that area. When you go directly to the point where it crashed you can tell by the craters where the 3 engines came down (one engine broke off and crashed into another forest nearby).

[@MrPHAELAN]

Wie heißt der Ort?

[@jacobowongdroco1728]

that is awesome some intersteing stories to read, i'd like to go to germany one day

[@aceklankb]

Really? How old are you?

[@PhrogNZ]

He isn't saying he was around when the plane went down, he's just saying that a plane came down in his town some time ago

[@aceklankb]

@@PhrogNZ I simply asked really for an elaboration..But i would like to know how old he is also

[@wotan58]

Those who had the biggest balls in late 1944 and in 1945 was the Luftwaffe guys who daily engaged 1000 bombers escorted by 1200 fighters, with only 70-90 planes, and got kills and even survived

[@MrPHAELAN]

80% of our losses happened in the east! It's no surprise as 80% of the Luftwaffe fought there. The western allies only had to face a fraction of that. So forget that shit.....

[@Rickusty]

ask the italian pilots in 1943...

[@perkunas8651]

Richard L But note Richard: Golden rule no 1 is, that US cowboys are always and regardless best, most beautiful and shiny teeth cracks by default. Even if they actually screwed up. Their big mouths make up for it after all. Golden rule no 2: If US repeatedly screws up, golden rule no 1 immediately applies.

[@mikek4610]

Richard L barely

[@matthewwong3237]

Perkunas where were you in the war?

[@ericscottstevens]

Real head shot at 0:48 probably killing the co-pilot and top turret gunner instantly, pilot also was probably seriously hurt. Not many Luftwaffe pilots would perfect this type of attack approach, it made sense with the majority of defensive armaments towards the rear of the bombers. Yet it reduced reaction time, a real marksman got these shots into that deadly grouping.

[@sirbader1]

Actually the head on attack was their specialty. It was developed by Egon Meyer of JG2 "Richthofen". Several instances of rammings did occur, and was always inherently dangerous - you never knew if the bomber would pitch up or down after you killed the cockpit crew, which was definitely the case with that Liberator

[@nickmitsialis]

I think that was the ONLY time I've seen a head on attack on gun camera done 'successfully';

[@Clone_of_Darth_Revan]

RIP I hope the gunners made it out alive.

[@bilbobigbollix7318]

@@sirbader1 - Head on attacks occurred well before this. Peter Townsend used to do it in the BoB (he said it was hair-raising) and I think Ginger Lacey did as well. The Poles certainly enjoyed it too. Heinkels and JU88s were all perspex at the front so the head on attack was terrifying for the crews.

[@sirbader1]

@@bilbobigbollix7318 Pretty sure any attack was terrifying.

[@GodsChosen69]

0:44 holy shit.

[@stormtroopercommander7947]

War Thunder: Pilot unconscious

[@captainnutsack8151]

perfect hit though, looks like he knocked out the entire cockpit

[@hansgruber650]

Cannon shells slamming the cockpit.

[@hellcatdave1]

That's how the Luftwaffe attacked bombers in 42 and on.

[@Big1_]

RIGHT IN THE COCKPIT MUAHHAHA!!!

[@kolbpilot]

The last Me-110 attack is superb for its clarity. Around 7:27 one can see the ball turret gunner and then the tail gunner firing (smoke), presumably at the 110. Attacking Germans often concentrated their fire on the gunners first, eliminating the threat so they could concentrate worry free on the bomber. It looks like the tail gunner gets it first around 8:08. The ball turret guns still appear to be pointing backwards but at 8:33, after the smoke clears, the guns are hanging straight down. The ball turret gets clobbered some more for good measure. The 110 winds up so close to the rear of the B-17 that one can look in to the window of the tail gunner although, I see nothing inside. Interesting that one can see the starboard waist gunner still moving his gun around at the very end as the 110 moves off.

[@fanATIc666x]

in 8:33 u can see one round goes directly to ball gunner throw smoke ;) that was the finish him one i think and in ;) in 9:06 u can see demaged tail gunner window

[@briang6516]

I noticed the one waist gunner's barrel moving also, wonder if the front ball turret was moving towards the end, from right to front?

[@Trikipum]

Bullshit, they didnt focus on anything, they had enough just hitting it...I dont get where you get that idea, but no, if you are at 500 kmh, you just aim to hit the damn thing, that is like saying soldiers aim at the head when fighting from 400 meters.. they just aim to hit ...

[@JimHabash]

kolbpilot, good observations. This footage is the closest I've ever seen, there was another B17 gun camera clip, where the pilot had excellent gunfire skills concentrating on the engines, even though he could have raked the whole fuselage. You can almost see the waist gunner wishing he had a rifle to get the angle on the attacker at the end, he couldn't swivel the single .50 that far back. I get real sad watching this, it said it was a 110 G2, as if 20mm cannon wasn't enough, I believe the G2 had 2 30 mm cannon. These men would be obliterated by a 20, let alone a 30mm shell. Its just tough to watch. They said the 8th air force took horrendous losses. I think of all the people who got bombed out in Hamburg and Dresden firestorms, the whole thing is unimaginable. But it is part of our history. An entire ethnicity/religion was tried to be put to death. Russians, Germans, Poles Japanese, the list goes on. I have seen people die in cath labs and come back- some were complete miracles. They tell us we are all connected. I think earth is grade school, we keep coming back until we learn what we were supposed to learn. Earth is almost perfectly made for it. We need to collectively change our reality, so the fearful animal in us doesn't win.

[@JimHabash]

Richard Kuklinski - you think the waist gunners were alive? ie..the 1 on ea. side 50's

[@ZorlacSkater]

The good old GoPro v1944

[@silvereagle90000]

Awesome footage. That's the most brutal aircraft to aircraft footage I've seen at the end.

[@RCBuildaholic001]

I still find it amazing that the b-17 in the final scene could just keep taking punishment like that and still make it home. Amazing aircraft and pilots came from both sides. Thanks for sharing this !

[@captainnutsack8151]

I doubt that B-17 made it home lol

[@methylene5]

"still make it home". lol I rather doubt it dude!

[@seppheinzl9378]

that thing went down 100%

[@SymbolicLogic24]

Honestly it very well could have. That luftwaffe pilot was laughably terrible. He didnt start hitting vital areas until the end when he swept the two engines on the left and those engines were lightly armored as well. Even then there was no consistent smoke being generated to indicate a critical or impending failure. The only part of the aircraft that got hit hard was the belly, probably killed all the gunners but thats about it. I'd be willing to bet if they didn't land, they at least made it to friendly territory for a crash landing.

[@wntu4]

It could very well have but I wouldn't assume it. 17's were VERY tough critters though. Boeing made made/makes amazing planes. But if they did make it then they were minus at least 2 gunners.

[@stuka97]

My uncle was a B-17 pilot and was shot down in late “44” he and his whole crew spent the rest of the war in a POW camp,our family are German American with a German surname this was not lost on the Germans who captured him my Uncle said however they were treated fairly by the Germans. He also spoke fluent German.

[@stuka97]

Thank You for your comment I believe he was also one of the first American pilots to encounter German jet fighters the Me- 262.@@josephpapilson7224

[@bigblockjalopy]

My father (German) was captured in 44 by the Americans, he said the same thing about American soldiers. He even said the custody was heaven on earth after what he went thru. He was treated very fairly. He spoke English, guess that helped.

[@hajoos.8360]

@@bigblockjalopy The behaviour in Amrican prisonership of war was different, relating to the commanding officer. My grandfathers were imprisoned in Marseille, one in french custody, one in US. Both guys had usually a weight around 85 KG. They both came back with 55 KG. They starved during the prisonership of war.

[@taylorc2542]

We fought on the wrong side. The American media/political class was even more corrupt back then.

[@world1914]

Жаль, что к пленным из СССР фашисты относились не столь гуманно.

[@francisbrideau3649]

If you look at 2:16, you can clearly see one of the cannon shells (from the BF-110) explode in the distance after missing right wing. These cannon shells were equipped with a "self destruct" fuse (approximately 3 seconds after firing).

[@ritfloyd]

Painful to watch as it was someone's son/brother/father in the american planes just as it was someone's son/brother/father in the german aircraft putting it all on the line to defend their home. This is the reality of war isn't it? as opposed to jingoistic sentiments fed by politicians who have nothing to lose personally.

[@controllerhead47]

I wouldn't be sad about the loss of the person but how they'd look inside the plane, stills irks me.

[@ImranKhan-wr6iz]

Sad but true. War is not a solution for anything. Innocent people suffer for nothing .

[@HadzabadZa]

@@ImranKhan-wr6iz Are ultimate survival and prosperity of those same people nothing to you? Have you heard anything of Weimar Republic?

[@eviv8010]

oh come people enjoy serve the country or die for it. For some even life is scarier. Its completely normal for them.

[@bsc4344]

Ritesh The film clearly indicates june 1944 at the beginning. You surmise they are defending Germany in this footage when the Allies just barely landed on the content to save it at that time? Based on what? Perhaps you should've written defending the territories and countries Germany tyrannically invaded and conquered instead of "homeland"... Way more honest an assumption to make. Unless of course you are into the whole "germany owns Europe " thing. Cant tell i hate unclear obfuscating history revising in any form, accidental or otherwise, can u?

[@mattsteffey9959]

In order to show you the power of flex tape. I sawed this B-17 in half.

[@eddiechina5981]

Finally some memes below this kind of videos 😂

[@dontcomply5008]

😂😂👌

[@sidefx996]

Matt Steffey Hysterical. I take it you never lost any loved ones in a war, jackass.

[@50shadesofcerakote]

@@sidefx996 vets are the biggest type of person to make a joke about something like this, pull your first outta your ass.

[@roarkedunn2688]

@@50shadesofcerakote you mean the ones that lived? Lol maybe we should all collectively pull our fists from our asses, ya dig?

[@janko4620]

If this was war thunder Fires 6 50' cal bullets *Enemy goes on fire* Aircraft destroyed 3716🦁 867💡

[@onurcoskun3778]

or instantly pilot got shot

[@buchenwaldprisonersgrandso613]

Or they just touch you with their wing and your tail falls off and they fly and fight on. Yah right.

[@mylifeonthepeninsula9521]

Facts

[@emogirl89allup]

or the bomber gunners ignore getting shot up so they can unrelentingly fire upon you...

[@celticfox]

YOU'VE GOT A HOLE IN YOUR LEFT WING!

[@Cola64]

I just picture a bunch of teenage boys stuffed in those turrets

[@chpman2013]

Ball turret is the worst...

[@Clone_of_Darth_Revan]

Well the ages were 17 (at least) and 30 (at most) if I’m correct. A lot joined the army including the Air Force.

[@timuren6422]

i know this makes me so sad

[@yoshiegg95]

Dane Ta Tua Tonka nope, the teenagers were in those german fighter cockpits, the youngest of which being 14

[@paulsawczyc5019]

I bet they called for their mama like the lambs do at the slaughter house.

[@rumpstatefiasco]

The last clip reveals a mighty level of determination as befits someone defending their homeland

[@t6finch]

They should have defended their homeland from the Nazis, not the people trying to shut the Nazis down.

[@rumpstatefiasco]

@@t6finch under that logic we in the USA shroud fight Washington DC, which is infested with warmongers. I prefer to live in peace.

[@jeffreyb8770]

In today's political climate, these Luftwaffe guncam videos are strangely satisfying.

[@freeroamer9146]

That last one was just relentless. Authentic, no fake photoshop!👍👍

[@alijasim-f16]

My grandfather was a Luftwaffe pilot and his plane was marked with 7 air targets and 32 ground targets. Then my father said that his plane went down in 1945. To both sides, rest in peace 🙏

[@55chh]

At around 4:30 it looks like the fighter pilot is flying into the flak barrage to stay on the Liberator....pretty gutsy!

[@fatdad64able]

ben dunn: ikr

[@erickent3557]

Not flak. Those are the attacker's own 20mm shells self-destructing (I recall the mechanism was if rotational speed fell too low, the shell explodes). The exploding shells highlight that the pilot has drastically misjudged distance and is attacking too far away. I believe that's the "object lesson" for this clip. In the distance, other twin-engine planes are visible pressing close attacks, queuing up for multiple runs on the same target, and setting their targets on fire. So interesting how this "failure" clip yields a super important document...

[@captainnutsack8151]

The one at the very end was amazing. He freaking tore that B-17 to shreds.

[@USN1985dos]

In the end, they had their revenge. Even if he survived the war, the man almost certainly lost a mother, father, brother or sister to those bombers. Maybe even a wife or child. If he was lucky, his family was in the western part of the country, if not, they were trapped in east Germany and would become communists and grow to hate him for the Nazi he was. As for him, he would have become a POW and then would have gone on to live under American, British or French occupation for years while his nation's pride was destroyed and it was transformed into the hollow shell that it is today. He failed.

[@renovatiovr]

@@USN1985dos Funny how you simplified something so childishly. Goes to show how limited your understanding is. And really? Of all the flavours in this world, you had to choose salt?

[@USN1985dos]

@@renovatiovr I stated the most basic facts that there are. You can't refute any of it so instead you called it childish and that I'm salty. No, as I said, we had our revenge, and he paid far more of a price than the bomber crews he was hunting.

[@renovatiovr]

@@USN1985dos They are not facts, because you don't know the guy's life. There is nothing to refute, because nothing you proposed is of any weight. Germany did lose the war, however it did not end there. The soviet union who participated in the beginning of the war with the Germans and which actually invented the concentration camps and blitz strategy was immensely rewarded, a lot of the nazis, especially the influential cultural and science people, were rewarded with amazing jobs, fame and glory in the winning countries. Some of them, such as Hanna Reitsch and Otto Skorzeny proudly wore their iron crosses, SS uniforms post war during their meetings with politicians and presidents and continued to promote the nazi legacy. UK went bancrupt thanks to the war and lost its superpower status to the US. It is funny how you disregard the unimaginable amount of lives lost in the war, including those of the allies, that resulted in many lives destroyed for those who fought and for those who waited for them to return home. So your little story of sadness, defeatism, depression, loss can be applied everywhere and anywhere. "We had our revenge" - what kind of revenge? The Germans caused significant losses on all fronts, that were increasingly high due to their unwilligness to surrender. Those that came to Normandy were met by an extremely ruthless, experienced and skilled army that was prepared by the horrors of the Eastern Front, years of experience ahead of anyone else that fought there. In the end, it was the Eastern front where the war was fought and it was the soviets that ended all. Finally, even defeated, Germany was so indispensable in its tech and research that it kept on going in those fields and sparked a lot of the post war industries and branches.

[@Ved000000]

@@USN1985dos Burger cope

[@3chel3]

Seen it before but the footage at 9:00 is the one thats most gut wrenching for me. I can't see how anybody could have survived with the German firing down the length of the fuselage with machine gun and 20mm cannon. The bravery of these guys at 35000 feet flying in glorified tin cans compared with today is just jaw dropping.

[@floriandeutsch388]

Bf110 also had 30mm guns installed for bomber intercepts.

[@AKUJIVALDO]

Bravery to kill children, women and elderly. Yes, they were brave.../s Scumbags, that is what they were.

[@johns1625]

That final one was insane. How horrific it must have been for the crew in that gunship. Getting shot 60+ times by a plane following you for multiple minutes and there's basically nothing you can do.

[@Wolf-hh4rv]

gunship? It’s a bomber

[@aaaht3810]

The final clip of the B-17 vs Bf-110 is very well known and is almost always shown to demonstrate the effect German fighters could have on bombers. However, usually only a few seconds of this film is shown. Seeing the entire intercept makes it more powerful.

[@aaaht3810]

@Han Lockhart Good point. He was close indeed!

[@davidtsw]

Holy shit, that Bf 110 vs B-17 footage right at the end of the video is some of the best I've seen from WW2. Just aiming carefully to cause maximum damage, coming in closer and closer. Those Luftwaffe pilots really knew what they were doing. And it's good to see my Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition is pretty much spot on when it comes to what sort of damage can be done when shooting up a bomber from his six.

[@Crashed131963]

But The B-17 look like it was still flying OK with all 4 engines.

[@Fritztoons]

most of the well trained experts of our luftwaffe where dead by this time and most where very young ond poorly trained pilots then. The last ME 110 crew clearly looks like old grunts.

[@Маминсибиряк-х1ф]

@@Fritztoons всегда ненавидел " крепости". Они убийцы городов. Гамбург, Дрезден были сожжены ими дотла. У Б-17 крепкий планер, мессеру не хватает калибра оружия.

[@oitzingerpeter]

OMG, that last attack was simply insane. Devastating. That German pilot was something else. The accuracy and control. That bomber would have been an absolute nightmare internally.

[@hajoos.8360]

But it took a lot of time to see a decisive hit at the right inner engine. In consideration of Me-110 heavy guns the result was relatively poor.

[@diomic]

@@hajoos.8360 I think the G2 actually had 30mm right?

[@hajoos.8360]

@@diomic Since 1943 there were different versions, beside the nightfighter versions. Standard were 2 30mm MK 108 and 2 20mm MG 151/20. There were different options possible, 2 MG below the hull & 2 spots for 500KG bombs or alternatively 1 cannon 370 mm BK 3,7 without MGs and bombs.

[@diomic]

@@hajoos.8360 that's really interesting thank you for sharing it

[@Fritztoons]

@@hajoos.8360 allways nice to listen to an expert like you.

[@LeotheOrangeCat]

supposedly the Luftwaffe had a huge amount of gun camera footage but it was destroyed in the Battle of Berlin

[@bill0127]

Makes Me sad

[@emilio4769]

@EF and mericans love to control the media. Wich is the same as erasing history;D

[@emilio4769]

@EF aka CIA

[@flyboy8364]

I'd love to see all of them, even though it's allies they are shooting I just love to see warbirds in action

[@argh1989]

@EF Ah, the inevitable right-wing tryhard. Can't have anything history related without them surfacing to spread their hatred.

[@surat4895]

i just couldn’t imagine the terror that these crews faced while carrying out their duties. It is gut wrenching to watch the turrets just moving lifeless in the last clip knowing that the crews are suffering inside of that plane. it took a brave soul to fly these bombers, rest in peace to all of them and kudos to the skill that these german pilots had!

[@AKUJIVALDO]

Brave souls to kill children, women and elderly. Fk scums, that is what they were.

[@johnwright3110]

As a small boy i watched our fighters shoot down a Heinlel 111.It hit the field and blew up with its bombs on board in a great orange ball. My mother said "They were some mothers sons". That pretty much summed it up. Theres no glory in a war, only heartache.

[@keithwhisman]

That last bomber was hard to watch as the fighter got in crazy close and unloaded on it and you can see the tail gunner position and ball turret take several direct hits and you know there were young men in those positions who were getting killed. So sad, it’s easy to just see the machines but in reality you’re looking at 10 or so young Americans getting killed or wounded in combat.

[@Juno58]

Remember, there are many people dying on the ground by the bombs from this B-17 too. All the people sadly died for nothing

[@keithwhisman]

@War Child hmm you do remember that the Nazis invaded Poland and started World War 2. The Nazis were also involved in a genocide that saw the starvation and murder of millions of Jews and numerous others who the Nazis decided were undesirables including homosexuals.

[@23GreyFox]

@@keithwhisman So? The civillians had nothing to do with it. Every bombercrew deserve to die.

[@captainnutsack8151]

Yeah I definitely noticed after that 110 lights up the B-17 the ball turret drops limp, pointing down. Tail gunner was definitely killed too. Very sad.

[@keithwhisman]

Bełżec Soap Company uh no Poland was taken as part of Germany but it was always its own country. So Germany and Russia had no right or claim to Polish lands.

[@ytho6448]

Being in a bomber in ww2 was a death sentence.

[@williamkillingsworth2619]

Life is a death sentence 😉

[@aliceakosota797]

@Roscoe Dogg so what? You live to where you can didn't know living long meant something

[@aliceakosota797]

@Roscoe Dogg uhm no that would be dying old

[@oldgitsknowstuff]

They were all volunteers, both US and RAF. To a man !

[@francissullivan6400]

You dont realise how many came back that were shot to ribbons

[@OmarSlloum]

NOW THAT'S A LOT OF DAMAGE!

[@igameidoresearchtoo6511]

@Delta X flex tape wasnt a thing!

[@devingraves8044]

Need to show that last clip to the Warthunder damage model team.

[@alamogordo280]

excellent image quality!

[@marcconyard5024]

10. Angriff, the last was the most chilling for me as the zerstörer pilot really pressed home his attack. I once read an account of a B17 crew that were repeatedly attacked by Bf110s over northern Germany where the heavy armament of these twin engined fighters devastated their aircraft, killing half the crew and literally chopping their aircraft to pieces. Most, if not all of these Bf110 G-2s were night fighters pressed into daylight operations by General Galland to bolster Luftwaffe striking power. The G-2 night fighters usually carried up to four 20mm cannon and two 13mm MG131s in the nose- a B17 stood little chance against them.

[@adamscott7354]

B17's did daylight raids, not night, and judging by actual combat footage by late 1943 more and more Luft 110s and others were getting their asses kicked trying to attack formations, as well as while bringing down say, 40 bombers, they were losing over 100 fighters in the process

[@adamscott7354]

@GreenWithers Ideally for what the war requires to win, each plane must at least kill more than one bomber each, and yes, it is bad, because Germany cannot afford the amount of planes and pilots lost bringing down a negligible amount of bombers for a unacceptable amount of planes.

[@slick4401]

I am as sad for the men on those planes as I am for the victims of the bombings of Dresden, Hamburg, London, Nagasaki... War is hell.

[@rafaeloda]

Curiously, both hell and war were created by men.

[@Hi-lb8cq]

@@rafaeloda you seem to forget..its all russia's fault!!!...the dems said so!!

[@trade1713]

Stalingrad where number of victims is bigger then all of the others combined.

[@napoleonblownapart8155]

Indeed war is simply one tragedy after another. There is no glory in war, no romantic notions, only death

[@IamScoHo]

The BEATING that 17 took at the end! The initial survivors felt every impact of those heavy guns. I'm so sorry anybody has to go through this.

[@Redbeastik]

idiot

[@IamScoHo]

@@Redbeastik Genius

[@bill0127]

Watching these videos gives good perspective on just the sheer number of bombers. It's almost unbelievable!

[@liamcarr8676]

It's cool but also sad to watch this. The sad part is obviously to young men in those bombers being killed may them rest in peace. But the cool/interesting part is seeing the German tactics and how they did air combat.

[@paulyg1741]

Were the forward guns still moving at the end?

[@olliefoxx7165]

Sobering videos. Had never before seen this footage. The German fighter on the tale of the P-51 was a wake up. The biggest eye opener was the Boeing at the end getting raked and shredded by the German fighter. Pieces literally blown off, hurtling away at hundreds miles per hour. Engines being blown and the body of the plane decimated by canon fire. At the end it was a flying sarcophagus, shrieking flames like a banshee, captained by death. Those men were brave warriors in the sky. May we never forget the bravery of both sides. They had good men just as we. Not all that fought were monsters.

[@owensthilaire8189]

Truth. None of us has much control over our governments. Not then and not now.

[@pieterdeliho1492]

Last clip was gold. Shows how skilled the pilot is, as he aims for engines and gunners gettinf good crits. B-17 in the other hand is an absolute tank

[@skydiverclassc2031]

I wish that they would show some of these at regular speed so we could get an idea of just how little time the fighters and the bombers actually engaged each other.

[@tune7333]

just increase the watch speed to 2

[@henrynenjamin3273]

Who was shooting at the beginning of the video all those white tracer bullets flying around

[@Samokopecky]

So precious footage.

[@lknanml]

The bomber hit in in the cockpit clip always makes me cringe.

[@uncleruckus9884]

LKNANML wat timestamp is that

[@lknanml]

First clip. 47ish.

[@SeanODea25]

Uncle Ruckus 0:44

[@jg7Momo]

Right next to my hometown crashed a P-51 Mustang on 13th july 1944. The pilot was hit by AA during an escord mission and survived due to his paracute. He landed right next to the place where my house was build later. His name was Lieutenant Wilson Edwards. I spoke to an older villager and he rember the day pretty good. He tried to explain where the crash side is, but since then the environment changed and there became a forest now. I grabed my metal detector and started searching for the crash side. I knew the pieces would be way to deep to find them but i did. I found some parts of it and were very proud. If the Pilot hasnt past away in 2009 i would contact him to tell him that i found his warbird :).

[@tysontuki1410]

A lot of personal accounts from pilots of the Luftwaffe can be read/heard from the book/Audiobook, German Aces Speak vol.1 & 2 A pilot talks about a method that was liked by some by trying to take down b17s head-on, trying to take out the cockpit. He said it was a very difficult attack for obvious reasons, but then was made more difficult by the introduction of the nose gun in some bombers. They talked about engaging bombers is a lot different than fighters in regards to the cross-hair/distance. He stated that when engaging fighters, a reference was letting the fighter aircrafts wingspan fill the cross hair from edge to edge before firing. When using this method on bombers, the rounds would fall short due to the greater wingspan. I found details like this fascinating, I hope these books do for this for those who are curious. The books include interviews with Erich Hartmann, Galland, Johannes Steinhoff, and many more experts.

[@Grahamgusbull]

You did your best boys....trouble is....they kept coming!

[@philjames6206]

The Allies set their flyers so many missions before they could transfer to training or something not so life threatening. The Luftwaffe did not do this. Just kept them flying until they had a bad day at the office.

[@Leon_der_Luftige]

DtC Go read a book. And go educate yourself on how war works. It's not a Hollywood "Good vs. Bad"- scenario, you toxic and hateful idiot.

[@chrisburn7178]

@@DamienTheCat So you think "German" = "Nazi"? Go and do some reading before spouting hate. The vast majority of combatants on both sides were just young men doing their duty to a cause which they weren't old enough to understand and which anyways, was indoctrinated in them from the start. There was evil on both sides, and although Hitler's regime was one of the worst at any historical time, the young pilots were just that, young pilots. The Luftwaffe was actually one of the forces least sympathetic to the Nazi cause - the old commanders had a value system based on honour and courage, of which they saw little in the idealism and greed of Nazi leaders.

[@rafaeloda]

@@chrisburn7178 Accomplices.

[@TikiShootah]

Should have been the ones to get nuked tbh

[@matthewstorer6923]

The B-17 at the end. Unbelievable how many hits this thing took. Its obvious the tail gunner and two turret gunners are dead. What I find most amazing is the damn thing is still flying and all 4 engines are still running. A testament to the construction and know how of the era.

[@Alexi7666]

Has a fatality ever occurred on the ground as a result of stray dogfight rounds? That's a lot of ammo flying through the air. Has to go somewhere.

[@t.g.5256]

German cities were plastered with posters warning to seek shelter when AA began firing. The risk of getting injured by a splint of one of the exploding flak shells was pretty high and I guess same goes for the MG bullets.

[@bencristofani3116]

It definitely did happen. Even today, 11 people die per year in mexico on average due to stray bullets/guns being fired upwards toward the sky. During war time there was lots of collateral damage.

[@dottorekaoz8679]

There is a document of a forced laborer that lived through an airfight on ground. Forced Laborer weren't always allowed in the cellars, and this particular group of workers had to stay in a small forest beside their digging camp. They used their food bowls out of metal to protect themselves from the splinters, but some got hit on the arms or legs.

[@PyroBlonde7777]

@bobbiebob575 bob found the liberal

[@lynixwolfyspade]

As they say, the B-17 was super accurate - The bombs always hit the ground!

[@MaxScooterfan]

8:40 Don't know. When I go into WarThunder like that, the bomber almost always knocks me down. How much slow-motion is this?

[@perfectcell1157]

Rest in peace for all those men who gave their lives for their country

[@painmt651]

The German gunner at 7:40 to the end, was a deadly son of a gun! Very patient and controlled.

[@username60671]

Bro that first clip is crazy, there is no way the pilots survived that

[@danhooper3819]

Some of the footage were definite kills, especially the last B-17, however some were just hits/strikes at formations. That long distance canon shooting was unbelievably good.

[@tazelator1]

I'd like to know if it's possible to find out who the pilot of the fighter at 0:44 is. Also I'dlike to know how that bomber looked after that attack. It takes amazing amounts of punishment.

[@stigerking9838]

The bomber in that head one definitely went down. Most of the front portion of crew were probably killed

[@966Mako]

That last one was epic flying & brutal. He tore her to pieces & the way he took out the gun emplacements… RIP young men.

[@franklucas5365]

I lived in Germany from 1979-1982. Lived in a tiny town called Hochspier for the first 6 months. Lived across from a church and graveyard that still showed all the damage from allied bombs. After moving to Munich in 80, I used to go explore the woods and farms in the area. My friend got a metal detector for Christmas and we would go all over with it. We found some really cool stuff to include a metal box with an SS Officers ID, Rank, Deathhead and metals. We went to the local farm to show the people what we found and they grabbed it and shut the door on us. Apparently that was their fathers and he was still alive living at that farm. Hey, we held no grudge, the past was the past but I guess I can understand now why they were worried.

[@SteveandLizDonaldson]

By this time, just the Willow Run Plant in Detroit alone was turning out a Liberator every 63 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No way the fading Luftwaffe could match those numbers, regardless of their skill.

[@NickVenture1]

Consider that for each plane will be needed a crew.So it is not only about producing aircraft in larger numbers.The trained pilots will be less and less experienced when their combat flight hours will be reduced to just a few missions before they are shot down.Of course a large nation can still find skilled and suitable individuals up to a certain point.. but once 20.000 are killed it becomes obvious that such special humans do not pop out each minute out of a mother's womb. There is a double curve.. the increasing production of equipment.. which will be going up and up.. and the curve of the human potential.. which can reach a maximum level (considering a set time limit) prior to the maximum of airplane output. There will be entire generations depleted.. and it takes years to regain the initial potential by rebirth of following generations.. And the time factor will set a limit.. when due to lack of able bodied young men will not be available any more to get into the air... and the war will end this crisis..... a few years later many able bodied men will be grown up... but in the case of germany the war was lost.. the army was disbanded and the output of aircraft down to zero. The peace allows the humans to regenerate.. etc... I hope my explanation was good enough to indicate this constellation.. Time,Human,Machine.

[@leighrussell6083]

Luftwaffe gun camera footage examples are a rare thing, given that the bulk of the films were stored in Dresden

[@nickmitsialis]

AND even more to the point, The Luftwaffe was very 'resource poor'--they could not afford to put gun cameras in too many aircraft, and during the last few months of the war, it was even hard to find film.

[@MeatVision]

From this perspective it seems like bombers back then had no chance against fighters, they were sitting ducks

[@judahboyd2107]

Despite the title most of the bombers probably survived. That's excluding the first and probably last bombers shown. The German titles to each clip call them attacks.

[@timothycampbell495]

Actually, statistically about 25% of Axis fighters shot down in WW2 were shot down by bomber gunners. Attacking a bomber formation was NOT a safe activity!

[@NickVenture1]

I think that for technical or optical reasons the tracer bullets of the aircraft with the gun connected camera which produced the films are easy visible.. but not the traces of the bullets flying towards the same aircraft which are fired from the enemy aircraft firing in the opposite direction. Because when such a fighter plane gets close to the bomber formation it encounters an enormous danger with a much higher fire power than its own few fix mounted machine guns. When 20 Bombers fly close enough to each other in a formation more than 20 machine guns with moving canons easy to rotate in nearly all directions will point at the "lonely" attacking fighter plane. Of course attacks can be conducted by several fighter planes at once.. but in the movies we see samples of attacks by only one aircraft with more or less 2 machine guns on packs of bombers with a tenfold higher fire power. This is indeed quite crazy.. to do this.. I guess that for the rear gunner in the back of a bomber the surface to hit of a FW190 approaching from the back is quite small. He must hit a target of just 4m2 maximum on a distance of 500m in some cases.. and this in a matter of seconds.. otherwise the attacker is already gone.. Of course from another angle the attacker can be more visible which allows gunners from bombers which are not the prime target to unleash thousands of bullets on the attacker. To me it looks as if each approach of a bomber formation by an attacking fighter plane is involving a chance factor.. to be hit or not by these thousands of bullets flying in the attackers direction. A probability factor.. And these many bullets do not seem to be visible on the old films.

[@BlackChaosDwarf]

Hi, do you know what was the camera use to take the footage please ?

[@bluelake07]

Zeiss Ikon ESK 2000B

[@BlackChaosDwarf]

@@bluelake07 Thank you very much !

[@Samokopecky]

4:57 thats one of the early mustangs, B or C variant.

[@TheCleansingx]

B and C are not early.. they came about '43 and the D model in '44

[@argh1989]

@@TheCleansingx So what's an early P-51 to you then? Did the Allison-engined variants even see any combat?

[@timothycampbell495]

@@argh1989 yes, they did! The Brits bought the first 620 Alison powered versions as the Mustang MK I and 50 P-51As (British Mustang MK II). The Brits started combat sorties with the Mustang in January of '42.

[@patrioticconstitutionalist735]

Audio was on point!👍

[@raemont1328]

Das freut doch einem das Herz :)

[@nekk2008]

WOW ! ! !... last one is #TRULLY #INCREDIBLE

[@tysoncott7402]

The poor pilots in the first B-24 couldnt of faired to well 😢

[@Tconcept]

Wow the 110 was super accurate, amazing precision and long range gunnery.

[@mcguire4162]

That last Bf-110 kill was awesome! Great skill.

[@Tinhamodic]

Bomber attrition was crazy but the amount of raids and bombers produced made a huge difference for the Allies in the war.

[@massaweed420]

Damn, the first and last one was rough to watch.

[@StreetLegit]

What I don't understand is in some of the videos the Bombers don't seem to be returning fire ...... In some there could be at least 5 50s answering but for some strange reason, they are silent

[@vforvendetta275]

Gunners are dead

[@marklorenfahey4942]

Holy shit! Wow! My uncle Buck Miller was a ball turret gunner who had his B17 shot down over France. He bailed out before his aircraft exploded. And the French underground rescued him and got him back home! He told me this story on several occasions. The unimaginable bravery of these men amazes me to this day! God Bless America and these heroes!

[@bsc4344]

Mark Loren Fahey Thank you for your forefathers service. One of my relatives on your side of the 49th went down in an A20 HAVOC (always bloody well mix it up with A10 my MODERN favorite) xmas day 1945 and is on the MIA memorial in Henri Chapelle cemetery. I keep forgetting to STOP reading comments on clips like this, where mostly juvenile pathetic miscreants are tugging in their pants over extreme details of how this part flies off, that guy must have died (instead of realizing they got shredded and liquified in real life/ color they forget WWII was lived in), and how neat cool awesome and amazing the destruction is on the planes in view. Gives me the impression they would enjoy it even more if it were in colour and they could pick out brains blood and guts colours.... I dont remember ever getting the urge to spurt in my pants watching German planes shot up on Mustang gun cameras ...or pretending I experienced the same thing in War Thunder gaming. Convinced now it takes only one generation of indoctrination or propaganda to warp minds. Sick and pathetic describes a gen that doesnt even consider those obviously minced b17 gunners in the last footage, are grandparents of many ppl alive today, and how gdmnFknOffensive and disgusting their comments are to viewers who dont see the person in the turret of the guncam footage, but still wonder if might Possibly be their relative being blown apart. Carrying or givingasht isnt trendy circa 2020.

[@bsc4344]

WERE grandparents, I mean. Not ARE. Freudian slip. Bad times.

[@LMTDDS]

At 2:13 and especially 9:09 they're so close they could've actually seen the crew if not already dead. Why are they pouring huge volumes of cannon fire when I thought it only took a few 20mm hits to bring a bomber down?

[@captainnutsack8151]

8:37 that ball turret gunner was probably reduced to a pile of ground meat after that

[@keithallver2450]

Beginning at 7:15 It was amazing the amount of battle damage a B-17 could take and keep flying.

[@riptoor2183]

"flying" Every soul in that thing is torn to shreds bar maybe the pilots....

[@MrMiko1983]

We have a good but very short hungarian book about the Royal Hungarian Air Force and his members in world war two. Great story"s in it. I try to translete a part from it in my own words for you, to see a different side of the war because its not very much talked about. Sorry about the not precise names etc. In 1944 june 16th according to American data the 15th Air Army were on a mission towards targets around Wien and Bratislava.They flew over Hungary to do so. There were 658 four engine bombers(B 17"s and Liberators) protected by 290 fighters ( Lightnings and Mustang"s). The Puma"s (Panther fighter command; still exists) part of the RHAF attacked parts of this airgroup in fairly big numbers( for our Air force of course) with 28! Messerschmitt Bf 109"s, around Simontornya-Tihany-Tapolca area(basically over lake Balaton) There are stories of a few dogfight in the book which i won"t write down now, but at the end twelve Messerschmitts downed by Americans, 4 pilots died, one of them killed after he bailed out hanging under his parachute. According to the American report on that day, they lost 6 fighters and 14 bombers over Hungary. This way maybe you can picture what was the difference in sheer numbers between the opposing sides, over this area of the war which is mostly forgotten in documentaries etc. The siege of Budapest for example was the third longest siege in the entire war after Leningrad and Stalingrad. ;)

[@nickmitsialis]

The 15th Airforce Mustang Groups found it quite amusing that one of the 8th AF Mustang groups found themselves getting kicked in the teeth by the Hungarian Pumas during those 'Frantic' shuttle missions from England to The Ukraine--often there is NO inter service 'respect'

[@justman77.21]

Probably the last video at 07:20, where a lone B 17, which came under fire from a Bf 110, corresponds to its name "Flying Fortress".

[@brainwashingdetergent4322]

I’m three generations removed from the men who fought in this war, but something about watching US pilots being shot down really invokes something hard to describe, disgust/anger/sorrow/revenge... it’s hard to say, but it is unpleasant. I’m sure the word I’m looking for which would describe how I’m feeling is a German word...

[@ironie5319]

8:00 what is that? something fall off the bomber?

[@heikoplotner9924]

Looks like a Bail Out of a Gunner or the Radio Operator, on this Side was a small Hatch and the open MG Hatch. The Gunner jumps most out of the MG Hatch, goes faster. Tail and Ball Turret Gunner must be death, got heavy Hits with 2 cm Ammo. P.S. The Me 110 Pilot was excellent. And look for the Smoke from the Tail an Ball Turret Gunner.

[@ironie5319]

@@heikoplotner9924 omg im realy happy to be born in a time with no world wars, many bomber pilots/gunners were 10 years younger than me or more (im 26)

[@drake0074]

That last one reminds me of the “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” poem by Randall Jarrell.

[@WilliamDoyle-rb6lt]

I actually thought of that.

[@RipperGand]

Why did theast bomber lower the landing gear?

[@Rael14]

Holy shit that ball gunner on bf-110 film got a really bad day.

[@The_Conspiracy_Analyst]

They won't be showing THIS one on the History Channel!

[@paulyb6458]

1.11 - you see the cannon hit take a chunk out of the tail.

[@KapitanPisoar1]

That first pass was absolutely devastating (great headon pass tho), the last one was just torture, cannot imagine how must it look from the inside of that B-17...

[@TransAmDrifter]

Those Luftwaffe boys surely had the motivation. Bombers could've been on a mission against cities in which their families lived... Or were killed in previous raids.

[@vornamenachname989]

For anyone wondern, the description at the beginning of ever clip says "Engagement: coming from..." "Engagement distance:..." "Disengagement distance:..."

[@dejomonylemon956]

The final one was awesome! The tail gunner would have been Swiss cheese and how the bomber pilots were still alive when the plane looked mangled up as they put the landing gear down. Most of the crew must have been toast before the end of that clip the amount of 30mm and 20mm going through the fuselage

[@p5parker]

Unsere tapferen Soldaten 🤩🤩🤩

[@Jackdaw5]

Idiote eins

[@Wardog_199]

Does anybody know why the 110s would start to fire so far out from their targets?

[@richardxaveriusworang3679]

those Bomber Crew really Man Of Steele.. flying thru barage of Flaks n fighters..

[@alamogordo280]

7:29 - this B-17 seems to be without the top of the rudder.

[@MrLongbow1415]

Copse near me here in England. HE111 crashed in it in 1941. Still bits of aircraft in the wood to this day. Human remains left in the tree tops for the crows to bring down...they did.

[@elmocotton3078]

If one could stabilize and colorize that last scene you would really have something

[@dave_sic1365]

Or the head on on the liberator.

[@lebaillidessavoies3889]

What an horrible period of space and time it was to be....

[@littleferrhis]

One thing I noticed was how loose the formation was on these B-17s and B-24s, I remember hearing a story once from a bomber pilot in WW2 and they said that if they kept their formation tight, they were never attacked.