Proximity Fuze - The 3rd Most Crucial Development of WW2

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It was considered so secret that in the beginning it was only allowed to be used over the open sea just in case any failed they would be lost and not fall into enemy hands.
The proximity fuze has since the end of the war been considered the 3rd most influential technological development of WW2 with its effect in battle both in the Pacific and Europe as greater than atomic bomb which was only used twice compared to the over 20 million proximity fuzes which were produced.
This is the story of how they worked and how they change the course of the war.
This video is sponsored by Morning Brew cen.yt/mbcuriousdroid
Written, Researched and Presented by Paul Shillito
Images and Footage : JHAPL, US Navy, US Army
A big thank you also goes to all our Patreons :-)
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[@AnonymousFreakYT]

That "battery completed during firing" is, to me, the most brilliant part of the design. (The glass ampule that breaks, releasing the acid for the battery, with the centrifugal force pushing it outward to complete the battery.)

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Right up there with rollerons...

[@dragonsword7370]

And it makes it shelf stable for probably Years.

[@pyrotechnicxPanda]

This is the same way old contact fuzed sea mines worked, IIRC they were made of lead and the spikes/horns contained acid ampules which ruptured inside when hit by a ship, creating a battery and detonating the mine.

[@SilvaDreams]

@@dragonsword7370 It makes them have a near infinite shelf life, the only issue then becomes the stability of the explosive over time since they can either grow weaker or stronger which can cause a miss fire or the round can blow up in the barrel from over pressure

[@Chris_at_Home]

@@pyrotechnicxPanda Sono buoys dropped from P3s and P8s have salt water activated batteries.

[@richardmattocks]

Using the problems (G forces and spin) as active parts of the design’s safety features.... total genius!

[@partygrove5321]

agreed

[@laurancecarter4517]

Good info

[@SVIMAZfromD5]

Mainly all artillery shells and mortar bombs fuses have safety mechanisms which work on forces which appear during shooting or flying :)

[@partygrove5321]

@@SVIMAZfromD5 Of course, to prevent handling and barrel bursts

[@SVIMAZfromD5]

@@partygrove5321 yes... But not only.... Sometimes mortar bomb leaves the barrel but propulsion charge fail and it falls few meters from mortar.... It wont detonate... Cuz inertia safety mechanisms didn't have enough distance and time to switch fuse to armed position....

[@Ruiluth]

One of the most amazing things to me that no one seems to be talking about is how they were able to pump out tens of thousands of miniaturized radar sets cheaply enough for them to be expendable.

[@wayando]

Maybe they were not all the way cheap, but their effectiveness made them worth it.

[@Hierax415]

@@wayando Underrated comment, yeah they were cheaper than 20,000 dumb shells. Nothing about ww2 was cheap, we are literally still paying for it in 2022.

[@tensevo]

they weren't cheap at the time

[@johndor7793]

@@Hierax415 How is the US still paying?

[@Hierax415]

@@johndor7793 Adjusted for inflation the US spent over 4 trillion dollars during ww2. Not including the marshall plan, the underlying debt was never fully repaid. To this day we are still paying interest on that debt. (You could argue that the debt ratio equalized around 1962 but the massive hike in income taxes resulting from ww2 spending never went away.

[@killercrabman]

The breaking of the ampule of acid to complete the battery - as a safety feature - is such simple genius.

[@ErikB605]

The mechanism was also used in contact-bombs. Difference is that the ampulle would only burst by the landing impact exploding the bomb with a delay. If the bomb didn't land correctly only small quantities may have hit the cap making these somewhat of a wildcard. There are still randomly exploding bombs in germany.

[@SimonBauer7]

@@ErikB605 yea. this makes these bombs scary

[@keithweiss7899]

Excellent! My mother was a final inspector of the VT proximity fuse at McQuay Norris in St. Louis during WWII. She talked very little about it, due to her swearing secrecy. People who remember WWII might recall that you couldn’t purchase small Christmas type lamp bulbs during that time. The reason was that they were being used to house the acid for the batteries of VT fuses! They were meant to break upon firing so the acid would activate the battery. The VT fuse is probably the most overlooked important weapon of WWII. You did it justice. Thank you!

[@richardbrayshaw570]

That is very interesting! Thank you.

[@Bacopa68]

She did as much to win the war as anyone. If you want to hear song written by the son of a woman who served in the war I recommend "Surrender" by Cheap Trick. It's the most wholesome family values song I have heard.

[@pjeverly]

Your mother was a hero like many back home during the war. My grandmother talked about packing special ball bearings that were sent to the pacific for something. Nowhere near as exciting as VT fuses, but everyone did their part. Amazing generation. God bless.

[@ashcarrier6606]

Ah! Beat me to it on the Christmas lights trivia!

[@barryaiello3127]

He was talking about proximity fuze's not VT which is variable time fuze,not the same thing.

[@jkvdv4447]

As an electronic engineer i am astounded what they could do back then with basic components. Cool stuff

[@mat5267]

It also shows how stagnated are.

[@ZPositive]

JK VDV absolutely. Multiple safeties, and even a self destruct mechanism, capable of withstanding such abuse, and produced by the tens of millions. It's mind boggling.

[@martinultimatevw3779]

And those delicate electronics that could survive those harsh environments in a shell wow 👌👌👏👏

[@WhichDoctor1]

@@ZPositive I do love the ingenuity of those purely mechanical safeties. Especially the battery. Solving the problem of battery life and making the shell safe at the same time with literally no moving parts or electronics. Genius!

[@coronalight77]

Lol so you are an electronic one as opposed to an organic one?

[@douglasparkinson4123]

"and when the german heavy bombers came out, we brought the big anti aircraft guns. we never hit anything with them, but the civilians in the shelters liked the sound of them, found the booms reassuring" a quote from an anti aircraft gunner who operated in london, about pre-proximity fuse AA guns, taken for The World At War.

[@RENO_K]

Well i guess in a fight to the death, morale is everything

[@billsnothere4499]

that gives me goosebumps

[@Dr_Steal_Computer]

it might have scared the bombers so that is a dumb quote

[@blendpinexus1416]

yeah, morale would be important. i would be enjoying the boom of the big guns as well

[@douglasparkinson4123]

@@Dr_Steal_Computer isn't my quote. It's from someone who was actually there. From arguably one of the best documentaries on the war.

[@diGritz1]

Can we just stop and appreciate the sacrifice made by the fly. Gentlemen, I'm not going to sugar coat it. This is a suicide mission. Are there any volunteers? Fly On The Wall: Did someone say sugar coat?

[@JTA1961]

At least it illuded the S:W:A:T team...

[@ariesleo7396]

@@JTA1961 😂

[@carlschroeder6811]

That is very clever and hilarious!

[@marckyle5895]

Thank you for your sacrifice, Jeff Goldblum!

[@thetruthexperiment]

Damn fine joke. Mighty mighty fine sir.

[@metalchicken413]

I was about to go to bed. But i have to learn about proximity fuses first.

[@TobiasStevens137]

goodnight!

[@greatcanadianmoose3965]

Priorities

[@cosmicbro1973]

@Muhlessin YoCheelren wtf

[@cyberherbalist]

Don't we all!

[@sloppydog4831]

Always!

[@kalewintermute28]

Paul Shillito really is one of the best presenters' of infomation, regardless of the subject.

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

His shirts go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! 😂😂😂

[@fooo2241]

Agreed, tone and meter are excellent! And its not the accent (although here in the US a good British accent does provide a tone of authority 😅)! Hope the channel gets to a million subs soon!!

[@JMDinOKC]

He sounds exactly like Michael Caine. I wonder if he's also from Elephant and Castle.

[@paulhaynes8045]

He used to mention where the shirts came from at the start of each episode, but no longer does. Some shirt maker somewhere is missing a hell of a lot of free advertising!

[@Capitan1nsan0]

100% agree

[@josephstevens9888]

I was a munitions specialist in the U.S. Air Force for years and worked with a wide-range of proximity fuzes. Thank you Paul for giving a very detailed historical insight to the development of this device.

[@johncothren603]

I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S.!

[@josephstevens9888]

@@johncothren603 If You Ain't Ammo, You Ain't Sh**!

[@Dylan_Sterling]

If you ain’t AMMO, you probably did good on your ASVAB. I say with love.

[@felkinsr1]

461 here, 3098th and 400MMS

[@josephstevens9888]

@@felkinsr1 I was in the 400th MMS as well. I worked 20MM, then the Missile Shop.

[@shadowkiller123]

When the proxy fuze was first developed, production was extremely slow because the long thin cylinder had to be machined by hand on a lathe. The allies struggled with this for awhile until one of the developers on the project got an idea from seeing a stack of pennies when he was at the store. It gave them the idea to segment the tube into many slices that could be stamped out by a press and then assembled together after. The is what allowed the allies to scale production up enough to be widely used in shells.

[@TzarBomb]

6:41 R.I.P. Fly - Your sacrifice will never be forgotten.

[@johnladuke6475]

It's a myth that most flies were drafted during the war. In fact, like many, this fly was a volunteer who gave his life for the greater good.

[@googiegress7459]

"Buzz" Aldrin's nickname is actually in honor of a valiant fly soldier.

[@mincos_outon]

@@johnladuke6475 For anyone interested in the the life, training and service of flies in US military during WW2, i must fervently recomend the book "The lord of the flies" by William Golding, or watching any of its film adaptations...

[@hagerty1952]

Could have used some Starfleet inertia dampeners.

[@RCAvhstape]

Jeff Goldblum remembers.

[@squished1879]

It was such a well-kept secret that I had never heard about this until today. Thanks for this incredibly informative video.

[@SirDeanosity]

Surprise.....BOOM!

[@GuntherRommel]

I'm an old M101 Gunner (RCA 97-04). I was only able to see a single VT barrage from a single 24 gun regiment, and.. It was terrifying. I understood at that moment that I could never grasp the horrors of Bastogne without having been there.

[@RENO_K]

😀 must've been glad you weren't on the other side of that barrel

[@jimmarburger611]

An awesome accomplishment for the time. It boggles the mind to think of the forces that those fuses went through at firing. I'm an US Air Force vet from the 70's - 90s and worked on aircraft electronics, some of which still had vacuum tubes. Knowing how tubes were perhaps the biggest single point of failure highlights the genius of the design. Once again, England was shown to have been in the elite when it came to innovation. It was a true game changer.

[@porks8318]

British and American teamwork. The best!

[@KainedbutAble123]

The genius of invention necessitated by WWII is truly something to behold.

[@reggierendert6494]

Yes, along with the proximity fuse, we had the first dependable semi-auto battle rifle with the M-1 Garand.

[@jakev4191]

Imagine ww3.

[@minervszombies]

You said it!

[@elijazfrazelsassafraz3100]

It's unfortunate that such horrible circumstances can drive scientific progress so much. If we could have the rapid advancement WITHOUT all of the death and suffering, that would be a perfect world. Too bad it's not that simple.

[@The1sert1]

@@elijazfrazelsassafraz3100 The single greatest leap in technological ability occured during the spacecrace. The money spent on NASA was then used to research and develop thousands of spinoff technologies that we take for granted today while adding trillions to the global economy. With an 800% return on investment, NASA is the single greatest source of government funded innovation.

[@utubejdaniel8888]

The VT fuze developed at the John's Hopkins Applied Physics Lab lead by Merle Tuve was THE best kept secret of WWII. Thanks for the video!

[@Bialy_1]

Nope, THE best kept secret of WWII is radio antenna which enabled effective high frequency (HF) radio direction finding systems to be installed on Royal Navy convoy escort ships. Polish electronics engineer Wacław Struszyński designed it and only because of him German u-boats failed to starve the Britain. Germans to the end was not believing that building antena like that is posible and to this day noone in Britain is ready to talk about it... contrary to the VT fuze. Second best kept secret was enigma, for 20 years after the war British was hiding fact that know-how and copy of Enigma was provided to them by the Polish and that 3 Polish mathematicians cracked enigma in Dec 1932, but long after the war book was published with this history and Polish achivments were in it... so now movies like Intimidation Game are created to fix the "not a secret anymore" debunkle.

[@William-Morey-Baker]

@@Bialy_1 enigma wasn't cracked in 1932... The polish mathematician only cracked it in concept, as in he understood the cypher... But without the key it was still impossible to decipher actual messages. It wasn't until allied intelligence radio operators overheard a lazy German radio operator who only changed 3 of the 4 wheels in the machine thus rendering his messages only partially encrypted allowing them to reverse engineer the positions of the other 3 and then it still wasn't really a viable strategy to manually do that for all incoming messagesuntil Alan Turing and his team made their computer to expedite the process. At least that's my likely flawed memory of the story

[@barryaiello3127]

@@Bialy_1 With Enigma you had a code book that told where to place settings on the machine on any given day, the big break the British got was recovering a code book from a German weather ship intact without the Germans knowing about it. High-frequency radio direction or "huff-duff" as it was known did play a part in detecting U-boats, but I'd say that ship-borne and aircraft-borne radar played a much bigger part, U-boats could no longer casually surface at night to re-charge batteries unmolested.

[@TheConspirateWarrior]

@@William-Morey-Baker Pretty flawed yes, you frequently leave out of history all the Poles, French and Spanish criptographic teams who stayed behind enemy lines for most of the war, ended up executed or in concentration camps but played a very important and significant role

[@randomblogger2835]

@@William-Morey-Baker Untrue! The Poles knew how to determine the key from the cyphertext. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba_(cryptography)

[@jasonaris5316]

Industrialisation of penicillin was probably as important as the actual weapons (the war in the Far East would have been impossible to fight for European troops without it)

[@avenaoat]

The syntetic antimalaria medicines too

[@Bruski1988]

Very true, and I probably wouldn't be here without penicillin. My father-to-be suffered severe shrapnel wounds on Peleliu and only survived because of it.

[@shrimmirhs292]

As a bomb technician, learning the history, development and overall importance of these fuzes means the world to me. Thank you for the astounding content and tight accuracy.

[@ralphwallace2223]

My father was an intelligence officer in the artillery during the Battle of the Bulge. He shared his experiences on this and how proximity fuses made a difference during the Bulge and elsewhere. Good video.

[@Dave-hu5hr]

Henry Tizard and Bernard Montgomery eh.. ? 🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@markharmon4963]

Good afternoon Ralph. Did your father mention whether the gunners had been sworn to secrecy regarding the proximity sensors. Was there so much discipline that nobody talked about this weapon? The enemy said they had no idea. Hard to imagine that not a single round was taken on the field, or in the factory given the millions they made.

[@mikkel066h]

Yep American artillery was the biggest force multiplier on the western front. At the battle of the bulge you kinda receive air burst shells as well. The German shells detonated when they hit the tree tops resulting in similar damage. Issue is when the trees where blown up it just turned into a conventional artillery barrage.

[@todiathink8864]

@@markharmon4963 the military saw no need to explain the operation of the proximity fuse to the troops. So, they didn't. The sailors and marines in the Pacific had no idea because there wasn't any reason to tell them. The Pacific fleet used these fuses for the duration of the war without knowing anything about their internal secrets.

[@Roberto-REME]

You're an outstanding narrator. Well done.

[@CuriousDroid]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@joeherrjr]

I was trained as an artilleryman in the US Army in the 1970s. We were trained on different fuse types, the proximity fuse still being referred to as a VT fuse. The drill instructors described the operation using radio waves as you say. As I recall the height above ground could be adjusted with a wrench. As a 19 year I remember thinking to myself, “wow, that sounds devastating”. To the drill instructors it was just another type of fuse. Little did I know the history.

[@rogerbarton497]

Fascinating. My grandfather had one of those types hearing aid. The amplifier was in one waistcoat pocket, and the battery in another. He was so deaf he ran it at maximum gain but still couldn't hear the positive feedback whistle, while everyone else in the room could.

[@1977Yakko]

Definitely a war winner. I often wondered how the USN would've fared without the proximity fuse against the Kamikaze but it's interesting that those attacks were in part a result of the fuse.

[@hphp31416]

Kamikaze attacks had lower loses per sunk ship than standard airstrikes because of the proximity fuse

[@Dave-hu5hr]

It wouldn't have - especially without radar too but "Woooohoo buddy!" 🥔

[@MyKharli]

Do wars get won ? it always looks like lose lose to me apart from the manufacturers of killing equipment . Imagine all that effort manpower and money going into preventing wars ! , wont happen less money if stuff doesn't blow up .

[@DEEZ_N4T]

peter lewis well a lot of modern technologies commercial equipment were built because a country wanted a more effective way of waging wars: commercial headsets, microwaves(probably), all terrain vehicles, jet powered aircraft, helicopters, night visions or IR lens/goggles, rangefinders and etc.

[@MyKharli]

@@DEEZ_N4T Oh worth it then ! It still seems very inefficient way of getting a microwave 100m or so deaths and who know what got blown up , let alone the criminal negligence of wildlife , because were so special .

[@eugenerowland1262]

WW2 history and technology has been my hobby since 1958. I visited a museum, saw a Stuka & Spitfire and my lifelong hobby began. Today, at age 68, I'm still learning more almost daily. CONCLUSION: This video about PROXIMITY FUSES is one of the most important I've ever seen- easily ranking with self sealing fuel tanks and the Atomic Bomb in critical war-winning importantance. Special thanks for the Japanese & German reactions after the war. 😃👍

[@SodiumSyndicate]

It was your hobby since you were 4 years old?

[@umenhuman7573]

really is amazing the tech developments from the "battle of the beams" through to command controlled glide bombs like the hencshel hs 293... tommy flowers and his "colossus" machine used to decipher the enigma code i find the intelligence aspects, reading declassified documents very enlightening, especially wrt post war operations like operation beehive, aerodynamic and qrplumb, or the gehlen organisation, the latter being run by the head of german intelligence for the eastern theatre, who surrendered to the US forces with his files and spy networks intact have you ever heard of the "oslo report" (if not look it up) .. basically a german scientist (hans mayer) sent reports to the british embassy in oslo with information about german technical developments in 1939, just as germany invaded poland, including info on proximity fuses ...

[@1793912]

I have seen five videos on the PF fuses and their application during WW2. This was hands down the most informative (by a factor of 10) over the rest of those presentations. Well done. Excellent analysis and commentary.

[@madmaximus2836]

In 1982 I was at Veld Skool ("School Camp") in the northern Natal Province of South Africa. I don't remember much of the camp, but do remember visiting a battlefield of a battle between the Boers and British during the 1st or 2nd Boer War around 1900. We walked the battlefield and even after 80+ years we picked up a couple of shell fragments. Our teacher discussed the fragments and mentioned that one of the pieces we picked up was from a canon or mortar shell. These type of shells exploded above the heads of the Boers and caused significant deaths. So even in 1900 there were fuses in shells. Based on this video it must have been time delayed fuses, since proximity fuses were not developed yet.

[@gon4455]

Way back in 1700s as well.

[@AttilaKattila]

i think altimeters or barometers have been used in fuses as well.

[@omidrastin3745]

Can we appreciate the fact the he always wears such unique shirts?

[@mattpeacock5208]

I shop for shirts not to wear by coming here. He has a link in the description. I go there and yep, sure enough, a shirt I aint gonna buy.

[@DrWongburger]

I'm actually here for the shirts.

[@louisebrillo06]

Yes, we do appreciate them

[@jamieimbusch]

The shirts are one of the main reasons we are here.

[@Otto45]

@@jamieimbusch No. But they're pretty cool!

[@dmcarpenter2470]

The mechanical time fuze is a Time Fuze. "Variable Time", or V/T fuze, was, and still is, another term for Proximity Fuze. Initially, V/T was used as a "cover" name, much the same as "tank" was used for Little Willie in WWI.

[@standupp2885]

Absolutely.

[@mustafababdullah2485]

My grandmother tooled the proximity fuses she worked at the Remington rand factory in upstate NY. After the war she brought one home makes for a great paper weight

[@awlonghurst]

My father was a design engineer, specifically naval guns and I remember him telling me about these. Thank you for another fascinating and informative video.

[@playgroundchooser]

I live in Helena, Montana USA. The Helena's bell and anchor are in a park here. 👍🏼 I didn't know it was the first to fire the proximity shell. Cool! Edit: I forgot; there's a propeller off the ship here as well. It makes a really cool sound when you knock on it. 😁

[@gregsiska8599]

BTW, the Helena's 15 6" guns fired so fast, the Japanese called her the "Machine Gun Cruiser."

[@Tuning3434]

Quite a famous ship: - caught a japanese torpedo at Pearl Harbour, repaired and modernized making her one of the earlier radar cruisers in the Pacific; - 1st battle at Guadalcanal (Cape Esperance) helped to sink a heavy Japanese Cruiser (Furutaka) and a destroyer (Fubuki) by being a little trigger happy. - 2nd battle (battle of Friday 13th) helped to overwhelm with her rapid fire power. Her role in the non-evacuation of USS Juneau an unfortunate, but human, error. Met her fate by an japanese torpedo ambush during the night battle of Kula gulf, when she was forced to use older flash producing smokeless powder, allowing Japanese destroyers the mark to hit her with three Long Lance's.

[@dragonsword7370]

Maybe someone should add the "funny fuse" info near the displays or close to inform more people. That is Hella Cool info.

[@erlienfrommars]

@@Tuning3434 and was resurrected as a Baltimore Class Heavy Cruiser

[@ElsinoreRacer]

Cleveland was first to use it in battle.

[@paulhaynes8045]

Fascinating. I knew nothing about this at all. You never know what Droid is going to come up with next!

[@TheEventHorizon909]

Axis: I’m reporting the US player he’s cheating

[@bagochips1208]

literally an aim assist

[@aprcuulestdude9076]

Since they made millions of these fuses does anyone know a way or a place to purchase a fuse like that. I’m guessing they are very expensive but I would love to get something this cool that’s part of history.

[@crackerjack3287]

Jc mlitaria in the uk sales inert ordnance ive seen fuzes there

[@crackerjack3287]

Just click on inert ordnance once u get there u may find one

[@aprcuulestdude9076]

@@crackerjack3287 thanks

[@chefandrewsmith]

I love this guy...the way he presents each topic is awesome, he really dives deep into the how/why of things instead of trying to dramatize all his videos the way some of the other similar channels do. He presents you with all the info, and doesn't inject his own opinion into it..."Here, this is what it is and I'm not gonna input my opinion so that you can make the decision to form your own!" Great job, Paul!!

[@CuriousDroid]

Glad you like them!

[@David-yo5ws]

The other 'dramatized' channels you talk of, are the people who have made a very successful living via the YT audience, with 'click bait' 'trolling comments' and generally wild stories, usually at the expense of some poor human being, in order to feed their big egos & love of money. But eventually, even the dim witted YT surfer wakes up to the 'con' and the subscriptions & 'fame' drops off, till after a few years, they no longer exist. Yeah, I guess they could say "It was good while it lasted." but how much 'collateral damage' was done in that time?

[@JTA1961]

Amen

[@noisyboy87]

Paul only needs 20,000 more subs. Let’s all pull together and get him to the 1 Million mark 💪💪

[@mumblbeebee6546]

Sooner or later most clips on YT start overlapping in content - but this topic was completely new to me and fascinating. Great presentation as always, and some cute (presumed) original animations, I enjoyed this one!

[@dennisstork2481]

As important as the proximity fuse artillery was, it still required the bravery of a forward observer to call in the coordinates. There were many heroic men who fought in that battle but none were braver than Chester Logan, my uncle. In that bitter cold winter, he burrowed into a snow bank in the middle of the night and called in artillery fire on 500 German soldiers in a heavily forested area. My uncle used the names of his mother and three sisters to identify the coordinates. This was the first large scale use of the proximity fuse on artillery shells in the European theater. The devastating impact of the proximity fuse bombs exploding 50 feet above the ground demoralized even the most battle-hardened German soldiers. The next day, his comrades found him, barely alive and suffering from hypothermia with only the antennae from his radio sticking through the falling snow. For his valor, he was awarded a Silver Star. For most of his life, my uncle never talked about his war experiences but thankfully toward the end of his life he shared his experiences with family and friends. If you called Central Casting and asked for a hero, they would not have sent you a bald, 5'4" man with one finger missing and a seventh grade education but that is what real heroes look like: ordinary men who do extraordinary things for their country and their comrades in arms. As a side note, the army lieutenant whose platoon had dug in near the forest survived and were able to capture over a hundred of the dazed and shocked German survivors who had witnessed the carnage in the now broken forest. He too received a Silver Star and went back to his home in Missouri where he fathered a son who grew up to be the attending physician when my uncle entered the University of Missouri hospital shortly before his death. An innocent question during rounds about my uncle's military history led the doctor to relate his father's action in the war and the Battle of the Bulge. As he described his father's miraculous survival, my jaw hit the floor and the doctor noticed the strange expression on my face. I explained that the man who called in the barrage and saved his father and his platoon was smiling wryly in a bed a few feet from where he was sitting.

[@Hbhnudeh743]

Thanks for sharing the story. Really interesting

[@leavoa]

"I hope you found the video interesting" ... Interesting?! that was fascinating! I was surprised I never heard of this, considering its amazing effect on the war. Thanks! also: "Barrage balloons"?!?

[@derrickstorm6976]

Barrage balloons are like small zeppelins that are set as collision protection against attacking aircraft (that aren't bombers). The balloons have metal wires dropping down from them, around the defended target in like a pyramid shape, which makes direct attacks against the protected asset technically impossible

[@Shinzon23]

The blimp things you can see in pictures of ports and cities during the war years,and above the landing fleet at Normandy

[@oremooremo5075]

There is a great 2min video about them. I forgot the channels name but he makes fantastic short animations about wwii tech

[@Shinzon23]

@@oremooremo5075 Military History In A Minute; here's his video on the VT fuze kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZeTl32PeaZ1ZpI

[@Jupiter__001_]

Gas balloons with a metal cable to tether them to the ground, protecting a target from air attack on pain of crashing into the cable and being destroyed.

[@waitwhat2143]

Color me informed. Didn't know about this topic. Paul is a national treasure.

[@atomicdeath10]

*Global treasure*

[@paul6925]

Thanks! .. oh

[@IrrationalCharm]

everybody in youtube is now a national treasure apparently

[@PenisMcWhirtar]

I agree, and I propose he be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Distinguished Honor Award for his services to public education. 👁 👁 👁️ 👁️ 👁 👁 👄 👄 👄 Makes me proud to be an American!!! Mr. P. McWhirtar (Area Manager, Optimal Copier Products Ltd.)

[@David-yo5ws]

@@PenisMcWhirtar I am sure that as soon as Paul can fly to your Head Office to personally receive the C.G.M & D.H.A decorations, he will advise you accordingly. I look forward to his video showing the recording of the ceremony take place. 🥇📜 🥂 Well deserved 👏

[@carrickrichards2457]

My Dad was a 2 inch rocket AA gunner at Battersea in WW2. He did that at night but during the day was an engineer working on engines and guns. He was proud of helping with the 3.7" AA batteries, 8 guns all mechanically slaved to one radar controller. With proximity fuses they got near 100% hits. The germans adapted their V1 to launch from vehicles allowing them to avoid british AA sites, which had covered the permanent trajectories used at first.

[@LegoDork]

Imagine if we could put this much effort and ingenuity into NOT killing each other.

[@Slim-Pickens]

Have you noticed how the more efficient we become at killing each other the fewer large scale wars we have with each other?

[@THESLlCK]

the entire reason you're alive is because of how much effort we put into war

[@David-yo5ws]

What do you think ALL Super Powers have been doing since 1945? Sitting on their laurels: absolutely NOT. They have been pouring research into computers, nuclear weapons, very deep water submarines (you know, the ones you never see or hear of: that people keep forgetting about) and SATELLITES, yeah, especially satellites and secret satellites, especially super secret, data collecting, satellites. So sophisticated, they could almost tell you when you last ate your dinner and where every person, animal and appliance is, in your house & if they wanted to, would have your facial recognition, your car registration plate details & from the temperature signature of your car engine, when you last drove it. Not that they would for the general public, but anyone who is a risk to 'the all encompassing National Security' will be well and truly filed by now. We are not privy to know, but it does not take much thought to understand the exponential capacity of today's technology to ensure that we DON'T go killing each other. The trouble is, some people get too much power & get 'too much pride' & abuse the technology they have & over exploit their neighbor. The common underlying problem, that goes back to the cave man who first made a spear. Man's endorphin feed back system (the feel good about yourself juice) is also man-kinds failure, especially when the 'man at the top' gets 'The Power Rush' & wants more!

[@JTA1961]

We'd be sittin on Mars eatin candy bars...

[@gregdaley2661]

They defeated the Nazis and fascists. Imagine if they hadn't used all their ingenuity and effort...

[@cyberherbalist]

This was fascinating! I knew about proximity shells (having been in the US Army artillery), but didn't know how much they had affected the outcome of WW2. Amazing that they were able to make tubes that could stand the force of being fired through a gun!

[@occiclean349]

I've had so many questions about exactly this topic so long. This explained EVERYTHING where multiple articles didn't. THANK YOU!.

[@hullinstruments]

I can’t stress enough how interesting and important videos like this are. I hope you make more in-depth videos diving deeper into the technology behind these, I’m sure a large part of your audience are either professional engineers and electronics techs, Or other professional/semiprofessional geeks who can understand and totally enjoy the deep dives into the technology. I would love to hear more about the development of the ruggedized components and tube miniaturization.

[@Pilot4prophet661]

My dad served as an officer in the USNavy during WWII. The proximity fuse and it's spectacular effectiveness was a frequent topic of discussion.

[@Alex-cw3rz]

11:59 Just a little correction here, fragnentation shells that exploded in the air, existed well before this and were extremely common, e.g. WW1 if you go to any battlefield, you'll always find 100,000s of pellets from them. The difference is they used a timer, not a proximity fuse.

[@dp-sr1fd]

Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel invented the shell that bore his name in the 1780's. It was originally called Spherical Case Shot, I think after his death the authorities renamed it Shrapnel shell in his memory.

[@TheHalo294]

@@dp-sr1fd a great honor and a great burden having one of the deadliest things ever created named after oneself.

[@dp-sr1fd]

@@TheHalo294 Yes, but he was dead by then

[@David-yo5ws]

@@TheHalo294 I guess you could say the same thing about the Mills bomb. Sir William Mills (24 April 1856 - 7 January 1932) was an English engineer. Factory producer of the fragmentation Hand Grenade. (Firstly developed by the Belgians in WW1)

[@yestfmf]

They had air burst shell during the civil war too if memory serves.

[@adrielsebastian5216]

Apparently the fuzes were so sensitive they could detect if they're close to a seabird and detonate the shell, as was seen by AA gunners defending against the doodlebugs

[@chungusbooper]

The doodlebug was a US name for a particular IJ aircraft, I take it? Which one? I'm pretty rusty on this lingo.

[@dunneincrewgear]

James Peterson It was the German V1.

[@chungusbooper]

@@dunneincrewgear Ohhh yeah, I remember now. The engine!

[@Predator42ID]

Ah man, I thought you meant real birds. Imagine it, a single proximity fuze gun and a flock of geese.

[@noahwail2444]

I have seen a 155mm howizer with the fuze blow up a flock of seaguls, when I was in the artillery. So, yes it can! ;o)

[@NathanOkun]

A small note: Though obviously solved after WWII or missiles would not be able to use "VT" (US WWII secret code name for proximity fuzes) fuzes, it was found that the burning tracers in the base of many WWII gun projectile to assist in aiming would give off charged plasma particles in a trail behind the shell, so those with VT fuzes' tiny skin-mounted radio antenna would be partially shorted out and not function properly. Thus, when watching US or British AA or bombardment guns firing later in WWII using VT fuzes, the shells with tracers that you see are old-style timed fuzes spaced into the firing sequence to give at least some tracer benefits. Scaring enemy pilots using tracers was found to be useful, so these were added to the mix on purpose for that reason, too.

[@t.b.a.r.r.o.]

I retired from a company that made batteries for high g-load applications. Very technical work. High level of testing and quality control. Until a few years ago the glass ampule reserve batteries mention here were the bread and butter of that industry. They've started to move on to a different tech. But this old tech still has it's uses.

[@ashcarrier6606]

The book to read is "The Deadly Fuze", long out print. Found my copy at a Half Price Books. As I was a field artillery FDC man, I was familiar with the variable time VT fuze, and I immediately snatched that book up. The glass ampule used to create the temporary chemical battery was...a Cristmas tree light bulb glass. For that reason, you couldn't buy Christmas tree lights in America during WW2. Crosley Radios in Cincinnati was the leader in this development. Security there was as tight as it was at Oak Ridge.

[@reggierendert6494]

I was a motor-t mech attached to artillery in the Marines in Desert Storm. Good times!

[@_sky_3123]

Amazing peace of trivia. I will remember this for my whole life.

[@Neilistic1001]

I knew a bit about the VT fuse "story." But the amount of detail, and the presentation, here was (as usual) excellent. Thank you!

[@joannaatkins822]

I'm impressed, and I respect the engineering and how it was used. And why. But my god, that is horrifyingly effective, with emphasis on the horrifying

[@cageordie]

"Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won": Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Like he said, it may be horrifying, but it's better than being dead.

[@spikester]

Maybe Hitler did know but the war would had ended sooner had it set in that they lacked a realistic counterattack. The enemy obviously would have been reporting what they saw.

[@standupp2885]

And imagine it now, in modern times, with a 155mm howitzer battalion, that's 18 guns. All firing at the same target at the same time (FFE, fire for effect) using those proximity fuzes. Every living thing not under 18 inches of overhead cover is going to be ripped to shreds. And with that many guns firing, if every round went to its optimal place, up to 45,000 square meters could be covered. Burst radius per round is 50 meters, with 18 guns, so 18 X 50 = 900 meters in length. Then length times width is 900 X 50 = 45,000. Now they wouldn't be targeting it in a straight line like that, but in a rough circle or square around the target location. Extremely effective against unprepared troops.

[@spikester]

@@standupp2885 Frightening, apparently even if they had figured out the fuzes they didn't have the capability to produce them in the volume required to mount a realistic counteroffense in the time needed anyway. The U.S. was just so far ahead on both design & mass production (the hardest part). Thank you for your part keeping youtube comments knowledge based, I really love history and respect the modern tech we have today that we wouldn't have had if it weren't for such wartime development efforts.

[@spikester]

I sometimes wonder if the atomic bomb was just a glorified distraction to make the enemy misguide their resources on it instead of something practical like proximity fuzes on plain AA shells.

[@gordonaverageguy9556]

Our museum has one of the proximity fuses that the War Department turned into a presentation trophy, awarded to one of the engineers on the original project. The attached plaque also states that the fuse, along with Radar and the Atomic Bomb, were the three inventions that most helped to win the war. In the collection of the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

[@frank8534]

This channel brings me back to my history channel days but better.

[@gyozakeynsianism]

No ancient aliens, and no fixation with Hitler here. I'll take PS over History any day.

[@frank8534]

@@gyozakeynsianism it’s got crazy!!!! “Was hitler an alien????”

[@MBobLamy]

Wow, I never heard about any of this. Indeed a game changer

[@R.U.1.2.]

Welcome to the 21st century,

[@samuelzuleger5134]

In the Korean War, one of the first air-to-air kills can be credited to proximity fuzes. An US F4U Corsair on an attack mission was intercepted by a Chinese "volunteer" MiG-15. The US pilot, a WW II veteran, followed protocol and jettisoned his payload of bombs and rockets. The rockets accidentally fired, heading straight at the much faster MiG. An air-to-air kill with unguided rockets is unrealistic, but these had proximity fuzes for close air support, and exploded right in front of the MiG. The MiG crashed into the ground nearby, with the US pilot unsure of whether the shrapnel got the kill, or just the shock of a sudden explosion right in front of the jet forced the pilot to maneuver into the ground.

[@SweBeach2023]

The German not having spies either telling them about the fuses or even supplying them directly seems rather amazing considering they had to be supplied to a large number of places to be truly useful.

[@NealB123]

Germany didn't have any spies during the war. They tried but they were extraordinarily incompetent at it. Most German spies who went to the UK were captured quickly or turned themselves in to British authorities and acted as double agents sending false info to Germany.

[@eezy9872]

The Tizard Mission also included the jet engine, radar and a report on the feasibility of an atomic weapon.

[@buckhorncortez]

Both RCA and General Electric had been investigating radar in the early to mid-1930s. Alfred Loomis started working on radar at his Tuxedo Park private laboratory before WWII and then moved the research to MIT with Karl Compton. Radar was a known technology in the United States. However, the greatest British contribution was the invention of the cavity magnetron that allowed radars to be built with much higher transmitting power, higher frequencies, and smaller physical size.

[@spotthedod]

@@buckhorncortez ie how to make a RADAR

[@jamiemcaloon5548]

Report of feasibility, your selling us Brits alittle short buddy..we gave them a working prototype on paper and theoretical plausibility of enriching Uranium by extracting weapons grade from a gases form.

[@johncampbell2979]

@@jamiemcaloon5548 not only that but also the complete British centerefuges facility disassembled and shipped to America, plus the cavity magnetron, and much more that I will not bore you with, and in return the Americans gave us the war debt, and for Germany war debt forgiveness!!??

[@doug6500]

@@johncampbell2979 This. Britain was forced into a corner and clambered out by basically gifting the US priceless secrets, to which they then used to augment their own research or completely revolutionize it, e.g. cavity magnetron. In each case, they make great pains to try and disassociate any British innovation from their own. I call into question a lot of the "recollections" of their scientists. Can you imagine the ego's? Personal and national. WW2 was the absolute greatest thing that ever happened to the US. They could sit and watch the carnage for 3 years, stimulate their vast industrial work space and then jump in when all the hard lessons had been learnt. Who knows what else we shipped off to them that hasn't already been mentioned officially. Meh, we needed the tanks and were trying to fight 3 military dictatorships :-/

[@jerrymiller276]

I have to say that the 4th most important crucial development of WW2 was the codebreakers. When you can read your enemie's mail, it conveys a HUGE advantage.

[@mydogbrian4814]

- @Jerry Miller - I would say the B-29 was #4. It was half of the A-bomb system & its engines alone were a major technological breakthrough.

[@jerrymiller276]

@@mydogbrian4814 I'll give you the point but if not for breaking the Japanese code early on, we might not have gotten to the point of being able to use the B-29s effectively.

[@mydogbrian4814]

@@jerrymiller276 - True, & Admiral Yamamoto would also agree with you as he was ambushed & shot down by flight of P-38s knowing his secret flight plan. - But working along side Army Intelligence under combat conditions years ago I know one had to take code breaking with caution since much bogus & erratic information passed on by the enemy muddles the reliability of what you get. - Important, yes, but not in the top ten factors influencing WW-2. - Putting code breaking behind spying on the list.

[@David-yo5ws]

@@mydogbrian4814 I watched an interview that Kermit Weeks posted, from his past library, with Enola Gay pilot, the late Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. The test pilot of this advance bomber was killed in a crash and Col. Tibbets was 'thrown in the deep end'. So much so, that he did not even know how to start the engines & had to get one of the ground support engineers to start them for him. The more you learn, the more you realise how 'fragile' the life changes were, in the history of our world. There's a few more interesting aspects to that story too.

[@mydogbrian4814]

@@David-yo5ws - And your point beimg?

[@rabbotrabbotrabbot3875]

You do a fantastic job producing these videos and explaining the concepts in detail, thank you!

[@markkinsler4333]

My father and his colleagues helped develop the proximity fuze (that's how they spelled it) at the Army Proving Grounds in Aberdeen, Maryland. My older sister was born there.

[@mikeday5776]

Thanks, I had know idea that this was so effective

[@DerekBox]

Always interesting, great channel!

[@void870]

It amazing how far we've come since this development. These days, we have what's called the "Excalibur" round. It's a 155mm artillery round that is guided by GPS to reduce collateral damage. Basically, a forward observer can say "I want everyone in this one building dead," and the Fire/Direction/Control center guy would respond with "okay, which floor?" My old gun crew and I hardly ever used them, because of the lengthy process to get around to firing it (and the whopping price tag on the bitch), but it's really neat that they exist. It's like something straight out of my favorite Sci-Fi novels.

[@benjaminroberson1967]

My great grandpa commanded an artillery battery and was given proximity fused shells during the battle of the bulge. He had very strict orders as to when they could be used and to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. One day an officer he didn't recognize was asking suspiciously specific questions about how they were being used, the efficiency and so on. My great grandpa had him arrested (or at least detained) at least until he was identity was confirmed. The man was never introduced nor was any forewarning of his purpose given. My grandpa's unit had also been infiltrated by Germans one night (caught because they began speaking German) as walked through the camp.

[@Komagb]

Holy cow!!! I had NO IDEA about any of this! Thank you!

[@juice7136]

It must’ve been frustrating trying to shoot down enemy planes using time and impact fuses, still amazing how the German racked up kills with the 88 Flak despite using variable timed fuses.

[@harzzachseniorgamer5516]

This is because in the final phases of a bombing run the bombers had not much "wiggle" room. You had stay on course and height to precisely hit your target. And keep formation to maximize the effect of carpet bombing. So the germans concentrated flak directly around potential targets, leaving forward defense to the fighters.

[@nathanfisher6925]

"quantity has a quality all its own". That's why you see the sky peppered with black clouds. They'd calculate where the planes were going to be after the shell flight time, and then fire all their guns in a "box" around that area. If your plane went into that box at the predicted time, you were pretty much guaranteed to be hit. This was hard when it was just guys with optical sights, but more modern designs like the german flak towers used radar guidance to aim the guns into the box. Mk37 radar on ships was aiming the guns to shoot down the kamakazi in the same way.

[@diezphotography]

One of the most interesting videos I’ve watched in KZbin in a long time. Thank you! Keep them coming!

[@markhartgraves1880]

On a roll man your videos have been great lately even though there are plenty of other channels now talking about military history your videos still shine through. Keep it up

[@Chriss120]

i think ive never been so early to one of your videos. you always do a great job.

[@tonymurphy9112]

So interesting, thanks fo sharing

[@tossalot]

This channel has to be one of the top 10 channels on KZbin! An amazing upload once again.

[@LawrenceBrennan]

An excellent video as always, Paul. You create the finest content.

[@paul8683]

I had always assumed that the proximity fuse was used by all sides during WW2 but now knowing it was not developed until later in the war and only by one side changes my view of air bombing completely. Cannon grapeshot gave me the impression this technology had been around a lot longer then it has.

[@richardvernon317]

US Navy first used them operationally in early 1943. The First major trial was in August 1942.

[@kristenburnout1]

Wow, that battery safety solution was extremely clever. (Well, the entire fuze was extremely clever, but still!) Great video as always, I liked this one especially good as it's something I knew nothing about!

[@warrenfrank5716]

I worked as a software engineer at JHU/APL for about 14 years starting in 1986. It was my privilege to have worked with some of the people who were there from the beginning of the laboratory. Including some ladies who worked on the "Wench Bench" building and testing prototype fuse assemblies during World War II. It always seemed to me that APL was a kind of "stealth" laboratory that few people knew much about. APL also helped create the first satellite navigation system called TRANSIT for the US Navy as well as launching a number of space probes like NEAR, MESSENGER and New Horizons that helped explore our solar system.

[@JuicyFruityify]

This is extraordinary. I've been an avid reader of all detail of WWII subject matter for decades and I'm still discovering incredible gems like this one. Indeed, this is critical knowledge in the understanding of how the allies actually won the war.

[@merky6004]

I read about this in a book about the beginning of “cyber” as a concept. What I recall was the number of rugged vacuum tubes USA manufactured. They were officially for old style, in your pocket, “hearing aids”. To hide the astounding numbers needed, they were subbed out to over forty different company for manufacturing. Forty different companies making thousand and thousands same tube every day. Also the fuses worked well against drones , like he said, and thus were the death knell of the V-1s. The Nazis sent a lot of them over and the fuse’s success so complete it really did confuse the Germans. Also firing over water was the rule for a while as it was so top secret.

[@bigginsd1]

Both sides had incredible innovations during WW2. But a fact I recently found astounding was that the V2 Rocket program cost twice that of the Manhattan Project. It is difficult to compare because V2 factories were bombed whilst the Manhattan Project facilities were impossible for the enemy to attack. But it does seem to me that most of Hitler’s miracle weapons were designed to win the next war, rather than the one he was fighting. That’s why you end up creating a weapon that kills more people in it’s production than when you use it on your enemy. Perhaps it is democracy vs. dictatorship, nobody wants to tell the Dictator that his idea is unworkable.

[@TyXoXX]

This is THE most interesting video I've seen on your channel. Loved it!

[@AtomicHaircuts]

Great job, Paul. Very informative and entertaining. I learned a lot.

[@billybitcoin]

WOw, awesome episode!

[@fobusas]

Sonar was the other underrated invention. German submarines were brutally effective in choking supplies.

[@jimtaylor294]

Ultimately the allies proved better at choking the Kriegsmarine, as the latter lost the vast majority of all U Boats sent out to sea.

[@andrewtaylor940]

@@jimtaylor294 While Sonar was instrumental in prosecuting the kill, advances in surface radar and electronic surveillance are really what ended the Kriegsmarine. The Allies started using patrol planes equipped with surface search radar. Which in turn were pointed to the general search area by Donitz’s insistence in Micromanaging U-Boats from Berlin. For some reason he never quite picked up on when the Allies started using the U boats radio transmissions to directly locate them.

[@dukecraig2402]

They weren't that effective, it's been overstated throughout the years, they actually sunk less than 1% of the Allied shipping that crossed the Atlantic.

[@andrewtaylor940]

@@dukecraig2402 That’s more a reflection of the shear volume of shipping crossing the Atlantic. Especially in late ‘43-45 as the Wolfpack’s were being hunted to near extinction. There were a few periods, especially in early ‘42 when they could actively hunt along the US coast, and before the US Navy started listening to the Brits hard learned lessons, where they were taking a shocking toll. It’s similar with the Kamikaze’s near the wars end. When looked at overall they didn’t have that great an impact, but over a fairly narrow period they were alarmingly effective.

[@dukecraig2402]

@@andrewtaylor940 Even early on they hardly sunk anything, it was just spectacular and was blown up in the press was all, try looking up the tonnage sank per year vs the tonnage that got through, prepare to be disappointed in what you've thought all these years.

[@GertTheFrog]

The first video of yours I watched was the sidewinder, and i just felt that you explain everything so good with your nice voice. So I find it very calming yet interesting to watch your videos.

[@MazdaratiMan69]

I always enjoy your videos. You meals it easy to understand each topic and give great descriptions

[@Zappyguy111]

Huh, wow, this totally changes my perspective of how WWII was fought...

[@BOBLAF88]

I feel like I am in the proximity of greatness on KZbin 🙂

[@David-yo5ws]

You just blew me away with that statement 😉

[@Tribecasoothsayer]

I love this video, presenting amazing information I was not previously aware of.

[@bobbinsgaming3028]

Another fascinating video from what is quickly becoming one of my favourite channels. Love your presentation style too.

[@gnexjeff]

Yet another fantastic video. It's always a great use of time to watch your productions. Thank you for all of your work.

[@alanhelton]

That launcher hasn’t changed much 10:30 We still use a similar launcher for the Shadow UAS, some 80 years later.

[@scythelord]

It, like a hammer, is not something that will ever change that much.

[@RCAvhstape]

It's really not that much different than the rail launcher the Wright Brothers used on their first flight.

[@kevindaniel7333]

I've been reading many WW2 history books, and had learned about the VT Fused shells the Allies developed and used to great effect. This video was excellent for me to learn about the development of the proximity shells. Thank you!!

[@andrewmclean6721]

Excellent presentation. Well paced. Laudably brief. Absolutely revelatory.

[@rodrigoborgneth]

Amazing video as usual. I didn’t know about that.

[@elitely6748]

Thanks Curious Droid, I do enjoy these videos of some of my most researched pieces of history. Lets get you 1million subscribers.

[@cdusen]

Thanks, Paul. I've been interested in war history for most of my 78 years, but never heard of this.

[@vernonjennings5921]

I knew very little about this. Awesome video. Thanks for sharing!