The REAL Masters of the Air - Big Week, Day 1 - The USAAF and RAF Hit Leipzig - Animated

[@TheOperationsRoom]

Play War Thunder now with my link, and get a massive, free bonus pack including vehicles, boosters and more: playwt.link/theoperationsroom2023

[@Crazy-pl1lo]

When you upload on both channels, is there a order in which you recommend watching them in?

[@gattlinggun9881]

REQUEST AB0UT K0REA WAR PLEASE...🙏🙏🙏

[@sharkk127]

You know, after getting review bombed im really starting to wonder just how desperate gaijin is

[@miroslan007]

It actually isn't that bad anymore

[@Aztek_scrambler]

It already has my soul o7

[@genesisguadalupe7425]

The number of aircraft being deployed back in WW2 is just unimaginable in modern war. And your visualization on the video does the amount justice to how it would look much like a literal swarm

[@Skorpychan]

Yeah, but the B-52 can carry an entire B-17 squadron's worth of bombs, and has only a few crewmen and no defensive guns.

[@trentk268]

How many girls would join this throw down? I'll bet it's a number close to zero.

[@failtolawl]

@@Skorpychan ok.

[@danielgiusti6649]

New Operations Room and Intel Report?! Well, I know what I’m doing tonight!

[@SoloRenegade]

planes were cheaper, technology simpler, and a single fighter jet can carry 2x as many bombs as a single B-17.

[@hdjono3351]

Ops room is one of the most consistently quality KZbinrs I’ve found.

[@DanielloDD86]

Kurzegast also has really good consistent quality

[@kingjulian420]

@@DanielloDD86 Its a bot

[@axel04_]

​@@kingjulian420nah a bot would copy the whole username and not say ops room

[@kingjulian420]

@@axel04_ The bots are getting good...

[@snowbie.]

@@kingjulian420 meds

[@0xdeadbeef444]

The sheer scale of these raids is crazy.

[@SoloRenegade]

until you realize the US dropped more bomb tonnage in Vietnam than all the bombs in WW2...

[@justinblin]

I think he means the number of planes, not the bomb tonnage

[@SoloRenegade]

@@justinblin I know, but when you look at the bomb tonnage, the sheer scale of the air war in Vietnam is stunning as well.

[@reecedignan8365]

@@SoloRenegadeyup it’s surprising, until you note that the jets used could usually load up a pretty decent payload and that their return trips were much reduced to those conducted in WW2. I.e. in WW2 a bomber would usually do 1 raid a day. In Vietnam a fighter could do upwards of 100 sorties a day dropping bombs. You start to notice that said fighters quickly catch up with most WW2 bombers due to this.

[@UsuallyTrolling]

@@SoloRenegade52s and jets can carry a lot more bombs and it lasted longer

[@crashburn3292]

Imagine trying to fly a damaged B-17 over the English Channel at night, on your last running engine, with only one arm, knowing you'll have to belly land the plane still fully loaded with bombs. What a well-deserved Medal of Honor.

[@vash42165]

its a day raid

[@crashburn3292]

@@vash42165 Pardon my egregious mistake.

[@afoster1621]

These stories deserves the honour of a featured film if there isn't one already - with care and attention to the precise facts during filming rather than embellished incorrectly. Perhaps filmed by Nolan or someone equally capable. Got to be better than IndiJ dialtone of dumbness or whatever putrid nonsense they are throwing out of Hollywood nowadays.

[@alexsis1778]

@@crashburn3292 I doubt he knew the landing gear would fail until the last minute. At that point between the injuries and the focus required i doubt he was thinking of anything but putting her on the ground in one piece.

[@lubpost4014]

definition of being a chad

[@JamesThomas-gg6il]

I had not heard of the "cabin in the sky III" and I am glad you put it out there. He could have easily just shoved everybody out and took their chances. But to fly wounded, in and out of consciousness, no maps, no help, full load of bombs and no landing gear...no sweat... Biggest pair of balls in the air that day.

[@blaise1016]

While getting slapped back to consciousness by one of your crew members 😂

[@JamesThomas-gg6il]

@@blaise1016 yeah that's dedication

[@NLTops]

@@blaise1016 To be fair, not a lot of time to gently wake someone up when you're flying around in a shared metal coffin. But I doubt there are many people as grateful to be slapped as him. I get where the OP is coming from when he says "no help", but it isn't entirely true. They were slaps that helped save everyone on board.

[@davidbuckley2435]

The crazy thing is that this wasn't the only time this happened. A Scottish pilot, William Reid, had an almost identical experience on November 3rd 1943. His Lancaster's cockpit got shot up by a night fighter and he was seriously wounded in the legs and hands. The oxygen system stopped working and he was buffeted by sub-zero winds through the shattered windscreen. However rather than turn back and run the risk of flying through the following bomber stream, he continued to the target, dropped his bombs and flew home. His decision extended their flight time by an hour and a half while blood kept dripping into his eyes from a head wound that he also received. Reid was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions (the British equivalent of the Medal of Honor). He was interviewed as part of the "World at War" documentary series in 1973 where he talks about this event. The craziness doesn't end there though. After recovering in hospital, Reid was transferred to 617 Squadron (the "Dambusters") who were an elite bomber squadron that were entrusted with the most important bombing missions (V-1/V-2 rocket sites, the Tirpitz raids, etc) and usually used "Tallboy" and "Grand Slam" deep penetration bombs. In July 1944, while bombing a V-weapon storage facility near Reims, his plane was hit by a Tallboy that had been dropped by the Lancasters flying in the section 9000 feet above his section. The bomb tore through the fuselage, severing the control cables and causing the plane to pitch nose down. Reid made sure that his crew was all out before he jumped, and not a moment too soon. He broke his arm on landing and he was captured by a German patrol an hour later. After the war, he returned to university and worked as an agricultural adviser until his retirement in 1981. He died in 2001 in Crieff (central Scotland) at the age of 79.

[@JamesThomas-gg6il]

@@davidbuckley2435 absolutely the best story of a pilot so far that ive heard. Thank you for sharing that.

[@goodshipkaraboudjan]

As a pilot I cant fathom how insane it must have been for the bomber stream at night. Essentially VFR, unescorted and blind to each other. Not to mention with such a heaviy bomb load. The navigators did incredible work.

[@teaser6089]

@sbfcapnj That's cause these days we have fancy tech that makes shit save, back than they didn't know any better and the job had to be done. If we would be in the same situation now a days, facing the same challenges and the same tasks with the same tech, people would still line up. It's just that it's hard to imagine such a scenario, cause the world has been in relative peace compared to before WW2.

[@AwakenedAvocado]

Would've been awesome

[@masterchief-vd1xs]

My city got bombed two times because they couldn't find their actual target and thought oh a small city, that's convenient... I mean yes it is impressive how they navigated most of the time, but there where so many mistakes don, too

[@teaser6089]

@@masterchief-vd1xs Yeah Rotterdam got bombed by the allies as well cause they thought they already reached Germany ffs

[@masterchief-vd1xs]

@@teaser6089 oh right. I totally forgot about that. Konstanz, a city in southern Germany got spared because they acted like they are a swiss city. All lights full on

[@jonny-b4954]

It would truly be terrifying (at least the first time) seeing hundreds and hundreds of bombers dropping bombs on your home city. The sound alone must be insane. I mean, sometimes they'd take an hour to overfly the city.

[@NovemberSky3]

It would be terrifying every single time. No one on the receiving end gets used to shock and awe.

[@CH-lc3yf]

People who experienced that as children were still terrified fifty years later.

[@SoloRenegade]

imagine how Vietnam felt.... the US dropped more tons of bombs on Vietnam than were dropped in all of WW2. Imagine all the bombs in the Battle of Britain, US strategic bombing of Europe (France, Germany, Italy, etc.), the US bombing campaign against Japan, the Naval bombs dropped on warships, the German and Russia bombs dropped in the Eastern front, and RAF bomber command, and more........all dropped on Vietnam.

[@jonny-b4954]

@@NovemberSky3 Well, I know for a fact in videos seen from people going to air raid shelters that is does eventually become totally normal and part of life. You grow numb to it like anything. I doubt it would truly be terrifying after the 10th time. You'd be worried for your kids, home and stuff, for sure, but eventually I really do think the fear would wear off quite a bit. You'd replace it with anger

[@NovemberSky3]

@@jonny-b4954 you’re seeing video, portraying events 80 years ago. People back then would be doing the same thing people do today. Put on a brave face, do what you gotta do and pray that one of those bombs doesn’t land on you. No one wants to be the first person to break down and set off a chain reaction. I can promise you that if you’re hearing hell raining down on Earth and not knowing if it’s your last day you’d be terrified, even if you’re not showing it. Just like the people in WW2. If the fear really wore off, then shell shock wouldn’t be a thing. Soldiers in foxholes experiencing hours of artillery barrages for days on end would not have said the worst thing was artillery. It’s why Stuka bombers had sirens, Katyusha rockets had Germans fleeing in terror. The psychological toll is immense and anyone who says they weren’t scared is lying.

[@terraincognita2221]

I live in Leipzig and do a lot of research on the air war and flak defenses over our area. Suprised to see that animation, well done! Of the USAAF force, four B-17s and one P-51 went down in our area. RAF losses were plenty. Pieces of Lancaster LL719 (whole crew of F/O Richter was killed) that went down in that raid can be found in our museum B134a-Luftschutzbunker Krumpa. By the way, there was no Messerschmitt factory in leipzig. The name was Erla Maschinenwerk, but they built Bf 109 fighter planes. More aircraft industry nearby including Junkers, ATG and Mitteldeutsche Motorenwerke.

[@eze8970]

Thank you for the information, looked it up on Google maps, very interesting.

[@nolianpazac8440]

Great info !

[@stefanebert7171]

Nicht schlecht! Hut ab und BG aus HH

[@charlesdarwin6224]

If the factory produced messerschmitts, wouldn't it still be considered a messerschmitt factory?

[@lurker-mq4fp]

Greetings from England! I want to go to Leipzig one day and see the museum, and drink good beer afterwards!

[@alexanderleach3365]

During the Normandy Landings, the Luftwaffe launched a single raid by two Fw 190s that came in and strafed Gold and Juno Beaches.

[@28pbtkh23]

There was also an FW190 which tried to bomb Pegasus Bridge.

[@alexanderleach3365]

@@28pbtkh23 I didn't know that. 😮

[@28pbtkh23]

@@alexanderleach3365 - yeah. I saw it on one of the many good documentaries about D-Day. According to one of the eye-witnesses, the FW’s bomb actually hit the bridge’s paved roadway and skimmed off, landing in the canal. I kid you not. Perhaps he went on to strafe one of the beaches?

[@alexanderleach3365]

@@28pbtkh23 He may have done that.

[@davidbuckley2435]

@@alexanderleach3365 There were a lot of Luftwaffe sorties during the Normandy invasion, but they were mostly hit-and-run raids. They weren't able to do anything more than harass the ground troops, but I doubt that was much consolation to the men on the receiving end. My mum's great-uncle was wounded on D-Day +3 and was being transported to the casualty station on Sword Beach when the jeep he was in was strafed by a German fighter. The driver dove for cover, but the three men on stretchers at the rear of the jeep were all killed. He always objected to the popular narrative that the Luftwaffe weren't around during Normandy.

[@corrinarobinson7078]

7:34 if the germans called the flairs 'christmas trees' would that make them... tannenbombs?...

[@CH-lc3yf]

1st, it's "flares" 2nd, it's "Christbäume"

[@__hjg__2123]

under-rated. +3 points

[@tdawg5742]

For those who didn't know. Back in the the day, each bomber had a navigator with them. The navigator was in charge of where the planes would fly, when to drop the bombs and how to get back home in the dark. He had nothing but a map, a compass and a watch. These guys where capable of knowing how to get from Britain, to Paris, to Berlin and then back to Britain in the damn DARK. These guys were some of the smartest people in the armed service and truly amazing. These guys were able to find a super carrier in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night because the USA and Japan were the only 2 nations who could conduct carrier strike runs in the middle of the night during WW2. Men were different back in the days. Edit - Navigators were taught how to use a technique called Celestial Navigation to use the stars to navigate in the night sky.

[@jude6963]

Built different

[@primmakinsofis614]

RAF aircraft also used H2S radar to help in navigation, although its usefulness as a navigation tool was limited. There were also electronic navigation aids: Gee, Oboe, and G-H. These were effective in getting aircraft to the correct place, but their range was limited to about 300 miles. Late in the war the U.S. developed LORAN, a long-range electronic navigation aid, but it arrived too late for use in Europe but did see use in the Pacific.

[@thethirdman225]

*_”Men were different back in the days.”_* No they weren’t. It wasn’t the men, it was the time.

[@jackbaker747]

Actually the first to conduct night time carrier missions was the Royal Navy

[@sfjuhispst8144]

"Men were different back in the day." Words of the ignorant. Go to Ukraine and you will find men and women like that TODAY.

[@hagalhagal9989]

My favourite military history channel :)

[@alexanderleach3365]

Mine too.

[@tacha5960]

Me 3

[@EchoObserver9]

What a sight this must have been looking up to all those planes.

[@CH-lc3yf]

Terrifying sight indeed. Or so I was told.

[@SMJ495]

There’s a great book by a German soldier called “the forgotten solder” and in it he recalls being on leave in Berlin and watching from a hilltop with his girlfriend as a massive daylight b-17 raid hit the city.

[@AudieHolland]

The most surprising thing I have ever seen was on a YT video about Remote Control (RC) model planes, were a group of Germans who flew B-17 bombers and other Allied planes. No German planes though. I guess to some Germans during WW2, the sight of ever more Allied bombers appearing in the skies was the sign that the days of the Third Reich were numbered and these Germans welcomed it. The German hobbyists in the video must have been small kids or they must have inherited their passion from their fathers and grandfathers. Just to repeat and make clear: however devastating and bloody the Allied strategic bombing raids over Germany during WW2 were, a few Germans actually (but silently) cheered them on. If you'd like to see those RC B-17s made and flown by Germans, look up 'RC B-17 Aluminum Overcast'

[@SgtMjr]

My old shop foreman was a kid in N Germany in '44-'45 and he said that they used to watch the RAF bombers flying home in the early morning and then watch the US bombers coming in shortly after. The kids' big adventure was to get to a crashed bomber before the police to scrounge one of the inflatable dinghies.

[@MM22966]

I always think of that one brief scene in the movie Fury now, where they are going the down and Brad Pitt points at the distant (massive) contrails of a bomber stream and a massive plume of black smoke on the horizon. "See that? That's a whole city on fire."

[@KomarBrolan]

Nice work!

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

Just as a sidenote: While the old city of Kiel is located on the western bank of the Firth of Kiel, the bombing raid's target, the naval yards, are located on the eastern bank (I know, i am being VERY nitpicky here, just thought i'd mention it)

[@neilwilson5785]

I enjoy comments with interesting facts in them.

[@thecheezybleezy7036]

The bombing raid target was the airforce assembly, not the naval yards. At least at first

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

@@thecheezybleezy7036 He said "the port of Kiel", so i'd assumed he was talking about the naval yards (since Kiel doesn't have much of a cargo port, not then and not now, when it comes to cargo facilities, Lübeck is the more important city)

[@thecheezybleezy7036]

@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs I can understand the confusion. I'm not entirely sure myself

[@MrNicoJac]

@@Chrischi3TutorialLPs I enjoyed the little detail, so thanks for nitpicking :)

[@thedaniel4999]

I’m sure this will be a perfectly normal comment section with no unnecessary controversy at all

[@ThisOldHelmet]

Strap-on spelled backwards is no-parts

[@neilwilson5785]

The comments are normally respectful for this channel. Are trolls incoming?

[@kiel_3222]

​@@neilwilson5785He means the Dresdoids, the ones who go "Hurr durr Dresden war crime hurr durr"

[@q-tuber7034]

There was a kerfuffle over the Kashmir map that O.R. used in a recent India-Pakistan video

[@georgea.567]

@@kiel_3222 It was a war crime no matter what you think of the war. You can support the allies and admit that the allied fire bombing raids were war crimes.

[@CH-lc3yf]

Thanks Operations Room for covering... my home town.

[@dk6024]

Thanks!

[@emmgeevideo]

The pictured P-51s were not the B variant. The P-51B had the greenhouse canopy. The first P-51 with the bubble canopy was the P-51D. The D variant arrived soon after Big Week, not before.

[@PORRRIDGE_GUN]

The B and C model had the Malcolm hood which was bubble-ish and looked like the spitfire's canopy

[@RonaldAndrew]

Pardon me if I've done this before. Your detail is extrodinary. Your method of expression and determination is second to none. "Thank you so very much". I'm quite sure that if i zoomed in on any one of those planes down there I would'nt only see faces but I would see the right faces in the right planes. Of course I would. Thats how you guys go! Thanks for that.

[@alantoon5708]

The P-47 provided most of the fighter cover; Big Week started with three P-51 groups. The 4th FG did not fly its' first P-51 mission until the last day of Big Week. That is also a story of legends...

[@ramonzzzz]

The 4th FG didn't fly its first escort mission in P-51s until the 29th of February, which was several days after Big Week concluded. The 354th and the 357th FGs were there at the start of Big Week and the 363rd joined them on the 24th.

[@thethirdman225]

The P-47s could only go so far. All the long range work was done by Mustangs. At the end of February there were only about three P-51 fighter groups, compared to eight P-47 fighter groups. Once the Eighth Air Force could go anywhere in Germany - and they could only do that with Mustangs - the whole dynamic changed. By April, P-51 groups were out scoring P-47 groups at a rate of four to one and that in half the number of missions. The P-51 changed everything.

[@billy5179]

Greetings from Leipzig. 😅 fan of the channel for a while now and this video will be special to me. Thanks OR. 😊

[@terraincognita2221]

Leipzig here, too. Hallo :)

[@markrtoffeeman]

Doolittles tactics coupled with improved technology (P47 & P51 with drop tanks) really changed the dynamics of the air campaign of the US

[@markrtoffeeman]

Question is. Do the US further adapt to any adaptations of the Luftwaffe

[@navyseal1689]

They adapt from 1943, so i guess they will adapt for new and better tactics

[@B17FlyingFortress]

B-17 'Cabin in the Sky's serial number was 42-38109. I was assigned to the 305th Bomb Group on February 10th, 1944. Only ten days before Leipzig Mission. Thank you for the video. I love the animation :)

[@VRichardsn]

Man, that sudden sight of the huge bomber stream at 6:20 is one hell of a sight.

[@alexgodofsky]

Thanks!

[@RaymondCore]

Great story and I love the animation. My Uncle was a copilot of a B-17 in the 8th AAF. Shot down and bailed out over the English Channel and bailed out after a collision in the clouds on a delivery mission, he survived the war.

[@untruelie2640]

There were several attacks on Leipzig during the war, but the most destructive ones were the one in December of 1943 and this one in February of 1944. My grandfather witnessed the previous attack on Leipzig (on the 4th of December 1943), which was exclusively a british night-time operation, from about ten kilometers away. He said that the firestorm was so intense that the whole sky glowed orange and he could see little burned pieces of paper raining down around him. They were the remnants of the "graphic neighbourhood", an entire city district consisting of printing factories and book publishers. This night marked the end of the "world capital of the book". Other important historic and cultural buildings as well as many residential areas were destroyed too and many of the scars can still be seen today.

[@gleggett3817]

by the way, in case no one else has mentioned it . Spaatz is "Spots" not "Spats"

[@28pbtkh23]

Those escort fighters really did make all the difference.

[@thethirdman225]

Sure did.

[@terrybrown6057]

I have a relative who was killed on this mission, we think on the way home (20th - as they left at 11pm maybe) TJ Pullman was a rear gunner on a Lancaster, 626SQ. The plane went down in the sea just off the Dutch Freisen islands. 3 bodies washed up, his was never found. It was his first mission. It is presumed a German night fighter shot it down. Thank you for the video, it's added a lot of context to the mission we didn't know. 👍

[@couchwarrior2449]

The fish ate well that night.

[@mynamejef7963]

⁠@@couchwarrior2449 username fits

[@alanjones6359]

My father was on this OP said it was the scariest one he did out of the 29 completed until shot down over France, he was luckier than your relative he survived the war even being captured lived to the grand old age of 96

[@alanjones6359]

​@@couchwarrior2449 troll off

[@vito7428]

​@@couchwarrior2449Must be a sad existence to come online everyday to go'Hurr durr he deserved it'to everyone recounting their a relative's death at least 80 years ago by now. Yeah i'm sure the ghost of Hitler's gonna pin a knight's cross on you any day now for your valiant efforts

[@TheOperationsRoom]

Slight audio issue on the corresponding Intel Report - standby for reupload

[@trentk268]

My uncle was shot down in one of these raids after SIXTY MISSIONS. The farmers who caught him tried to string him up. The Wehrmacht rescued him in the nick of time.

[@jp__878]

@@KrokLPModern German nationalist are funny 😂

[@jp__878]

@@KrokLPlet’s be real. If they tried the airman we’d have shot every SS soldier, all the way down to the logistics nerds and the cooks.

[@owez7113]

@@KrokLP ew go home

[@Mr_Stitch]

​@@KrokLPbro, it was thousands of bomber crews being ordered too by superiors. Just like your SS guards. It's war but 2 wrongs don't make a right Ps. Germany's civilian death count is literally still a world record. So shut it.

[@AudieHolland]

@@jp__878 Talk about insanity. Of the famous Doolittle Raid, a few crewmembers were captured by the Japanese, 3 were executed. I didn't see the US execute all Japanese they captured after that.

[@Krawata1975]

Dziękujemy.

[@Alpha_Arc]

Slight inaccuracy on your Leipzig city map: nearly all of the big lakes shown around the city wouldn't have been there since they were pit mines for coal or gravel at the time and were turned into lakes only at the turn of the millenium. Greetings from Leipzig!

[@PORRRIDGE_GUN]

For texture, the animator used Google Earth satelite view

[@maryambintghassani2341]

Note, it wasn't only the Mustang and the fighter sweep tactics, but also Doolittle's realisation that the P-38 was almost useless as an escort but excellent at attacking German airfields. This put several hundred previously useless aircraft into the fight during that decisive winter, and broke up the Luftwaffe assembly areas (P47s helped too, obviously).

[@MrNomanTV]

The air raid ones are always so good

[@maisonraider4593]

Not for those on the ground

[@woodrax]

This presentation is so good, I felt actual joy when the description of the bomber crews feeling such happiness with their Mustang and Thunderbolt escorts was read.

[@christo0187]

I knew a woman who was in a slave labor camp inside of leipzig during this Raid and she wrote a book about it. She wrote how they were placed under the least safe place in the basement but when the bombs came they landed near where all the german people were and buried them alive. They listened to the monsters scream until there lungs couldnt hold air

[@dougmasters4579]

That was awesome man, what a video. 2 missions in one, so much detail and suspense. Well done.

[@JBRAI22]

YES! I’ve been wanting this for AGES now! Thank you so much!

[@fastmadcow]

At Airventure we got to see 120 ww2 aircraft flying around. So I would imagine this many bombers and fighters would be even more staggering to witness. I’ll never forget the sound!

[@DoktrDub]

We will never have thousands of tanks on a battlefield again, nor hundreds of bombers, and that’s probably a good thing, but wow it would have been an incredible sight to behold.

[@jdlamb4212]

Probably? I think it's pretty good...

[@philgiglio7922]

We might not be putting 1000 bombers and 300 fighters in the air on a single mission...but hundreds of aircraft participated in the opening night of Desert Storm.

[@emmanuelzozobrado5981]

The allied air power is a true wonder to behold

[@st3phan321]

can we just agree on the facrt that animating so many plains is a blessing. good job!

[@drnazgul580]

Wow another completely historically accurate documentary with no bias whatsoever (newsflash, its not)

[@tconnor07]

My grandfather’s older brother was an 8th Air Force pilot who went down with his bomber over southern Germany. I appreciate the bomber content because it helps me understand what he was going through

[@aldosigmann419]

Excellent breakdown with accompanying graphics to boot. I never miss an episode!

[@GoodForYou4504]

I had the privilege of having an elderly B17 Navigator as a neighbor who is long gone now. One time he spoke, in a very relaxed manner, about how after some mission how difficult it was to move on the "catwalk" with so much frozen blood. The man got nothing but respect from me after that.

[@yancieb]

Man I cant imagine the emotions running through these guys on these raids. My great grandpa was actually a waist gunner from the 381st , in the B-17 known as Nip and Tuck. Their plane was shot down on the way to bomb the Bremen shipyards. He was taken prisoner but returned home after the war. The Air Force thought he died when the plane crashed and records say that he was buried in Ardennes but I have a picture of a newspaper showing his return to America along with two others. Never got to meet the man unfortunately and I didnt know he was a waist gunner until a couple months ago. I was always fascinated by the bombers of WW2, especially the B-17s and they are the biggest heroes to me so finding out my great grandpa was a waist gunner was a very prideful and proud moment for me.

[@samuelbarreto6752]

Waiting anxiously for the next parts of the Big Week 😅

[@MadilynnBrock-f5w]

My favourite military history channel :). The sheer scale of these raids are crazy..

[@falcons1931]

My great grandfather served in the 69th infantry division, the same divison that captured Leipzig and met the soviets on the Elbe river. He never spoke about the war due to the many horrors he witnessed. He spoke about the destruction the city endured over big week. The damage achieved was sustained until the liberation of Leipzig. He also has these German nazi metals he took off of dead soldiers, he was a Jewish man fighting for the survival of humanity and his religon.

[@livethefuture2492]

Why did we let Leipzig go to the Soviets despite us being there first?

[@falcons1931]

@@livethefuture2492 all the Allie’s agreed they would not let territory disputes interrupt the final days of the war. It wasn’t until the Potsdam agreement was signed that Leipzig would be in east Germany. Berlin, Prague, and Vienna could be taken by any of the Allies. The land would later be split off during negotiations between the west and the soviets

[@livethefuture2492]

I knew they had already agreed to the occupation zones of germany in Yalta in February 1945. But i didn't know they had any arrangements for the other places like Prague, Vienna and other places in eastern europe. I know after the war the west would be often criticized for 'selling out' eastern europe to the Soviets. That we let them take too much and so on. Though realistically i don't really think the Allies could have done anything about it. The Soviets were going to occupy most of eastern Europe anyway. Short of starting a war with russia to push her out of eastern Europe, i don't see how they could have avoided that.

[@falcons1931]

@@livethefuture2492 it was a chaotic time a regime was collapsing and both powers wanted nothing more than to end the war. Stalins hardline stance on the iron curtain was extremely difficult to negotiate against. Nobody wanted another war to be started from territorial disputes. Therefore our leaders at the time decided they couldn’t do much about stalins demands. You can’t really argue with another country when they suffered 8.6 million losses. The soviets did indeed do majority of the fighting in Europe.

[@saiajin82]

This series is going to be HOT FIRE on both channels!! Thanks, I really enjoyed that video.

[@danielholtom7777]

We getting the rest?

[@herbers8791]

1:19 This was for me the the realisation of how Mahan`s naval theory applies to aircraft. Thank you so much.

[@JackStewart316]

I can honestly say this is the most consistently high quality and interesting channel I've ever come across.

[@keithfarrell3370]

You can see your hard work in every second of the presentation. Fantastic

[@berenhamilton3321]

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them..."- Arthur Travers Harris

[@gabriellegomez2005]

I read about Harris in the book Lancaster. Such an interesting character, sometimes annoying. He loved the Lancaster so much that he refused orders to relocate Lancaster units on other combat roles. Also, he's a believer of en masse strategic bombing. A war of attrition in the air if you will.

[@untruelie2640]

​@@gabriellegomez2005I always wonder why the British thought mass terror bombing of civilian targets would work against Germany when it hadn't worked at all against Britain. In the end it was more or less useless, except some industry targets (but they could've been destroyed without devastating all major german cities). All this death and suffering for nothing. This still makes me angry, especialy because I know how many cultural treasures and historical buildings were destroyed, not to mentioned the peoole who died.

[@primmakinsofis614]

@@untruelie2640 I would point out the idea that all Bomber Command did was incendiary raids on German cities is a myth. It in fact hit plenty of military targets, and the peak year for incendiary usage was 1943. Area raids did general economic damage rather than specific economic damage when the raid went after a specific military target. That general damage did have negative effects on the German war economy, though obviously it was less efficient than going after specific economic nodes.

[@mikemurphy5898]

CoughcoughPutincoughcough

[@couchwarrior2449]

Well, if it's a war crime for them to bomb civilians, then it's a war crime for the Allies too. Otherwise you are the worst of hypocrites.

[@SNP-1999]

I sincerely hope that the following days of Big Week will be presented to us asap. Great work !

[@the_taxi_guy2086]

Always a great day when operation room posts a new video. Very high quality and great narration. Great video!

[@Grateful420phish..]

Great work 👏 love the channel 👏 👍

[@Jimorian]

I haven't been able to find the reference again, but I read that Eisenhower had to order the 8th Air Force to NOT run tricks to disguise where the bombers were going during the run-up to D-Day because the point was to get the Luftwaffe to engage with everything they had so that the US fighters could shoot them down. Hopefully somebody else here knows if this is true or not.

[@lucasselvidge-fd9ik]

Yes, the 8th air force also didn't use drop tanks, though they were available and the British even made some local ones, to draw our more fighters to engage bombers. The bomber crews were not given escorts for the sole purpose of driving the Luftwaffe out of the area so overlord could happen without air opposition

[@primmakinsofis614]

@@lucasselvidge-fd9ik _Yes, the 8th air force also didn't use drop tanks_ Drop tanks for both the P-47 and P-51 were available by Feb. 1944. _The bomber crews were not given escorts for the sole purpose of driving the Luftwaffe out of the area_ That makes no sense. You defeat the Luftwaffe by shooting down its fighters. You need fighter escorts to do that.

[@lucasselvidge-fd9ik]

@@primmakinsofis614 drop tanks were available for the p 47 from the day they were shipped to England, British p47 were using drop tanks immediately when they arrived And not it makes sense, we were willing to exchange a 4 engine bomber for a single engine fighter because we could withstand the attrition, and that was the plan The p47 was fully capable of escorting the bombers to and from the sweinfort raids, but the doctrine of the USAAF was no drop tanks, see also why even though the p-39 and p40 had noted poor range, no drop tanks were provided which would have eliminated over half the complaints against these planes, turbo charging or a better super charger system would have fixed the high altitude performance issue, but we just made them regardless and gave them to the Russians for the cheap

[@thethirdman225]

@@lucasselvidge-fd9ik No, that is incorrect. At the time of the Schweinfurt raids, the P-47 could only be fitted with a centreline tank and that was not sufficient to get them to Schweinfurt and back. By the time of ‘Big Week’, only about 20% of P-47s had been re-plumbed to carry under wing drop tanks, a long, slow process that had to be carried out in the field and involved cutting metal. As a result, few P-47s could get beyond the Dutch border and none could get as far as Magdeburg. Adding more drop tanks could not solve the basic problem of the P-47. The only thing that could was increasing internal fuel, which was the case with the D-25 variant and that did not see combat until May, 1944.

[@krisfrederick5001]

Field Marshall Gerd von Runstedt : "Lets get to the point. Air power?" Major General Gunther Blumentritt : "Air power, Field Marshal... Air power is minimal...what do you think we should do sir?" Field Marshall Gerd von Runstedt : "Ammunition? Tanks, troops, replacements?" Major General Gunther Blumentritt : "Also minimal..." Field Marshall Gerd von Runstedt: "End the War, you fools..." -A Bridge Too Far

[@PeterBrennanfisic]

Looking forward to seeing 'Big week, Day two'.

[@jakstat9880]

babe wake up new op room!!

[@imnothefather027]

I have to say i am an avid fan of your work. The details and research that goes into your videos is impressive. Thank you and keep up the great work. NZ

[@Will_M600]

Doing the rounds with the 4000lbs

[@UsuallyTrolling]

Arthur “Brit RAF, lit AF” Harris

[@Will_M600]

​@@UsuallyTrollinggreat british bake off champion 1944

[@DemonSliime]

And this is the only channel that shows the number of aircraft actually involved accurately.

[@asc.445]

My mum was in Leipzig during the war. She told me it was horrendous. Her worst memory were the bodies and the huge rats feeding on them. It haunted her all of her life. We went back to Leipzig in 1988. She pointed out not much had changed since she left in 45 to escape the Russians.

[@avnut5517]

These are of better quality than any I say during my education. Thank you!

[@ZMikluscak]

Great stuff right here. Not much out there on the British bomber effort in WWI like the USAAF. I would like to see more on Bomber Command. I bet they had a hard time over Europe as well.

[@UsuallyTrolling]

It was extremely dangerous to be Bomber Command. They had the highest casualty rate out of any allied unit in WW2. Out of 120,000 who served in Bomber Command in WW2, over 55,540 were killed in action. That was a 44% fatality rate, which was only matched by the U Boat crews.

[@WtSonar]

Great video as always, was also great to meet you at tankfest 👍

[@PancakeBoi]

I used to think America was given the disadvantage by flying during the day, today I realized just how much of an OP advantage it was, you get fighter escort and clearer vision of the target objective (depending on the weather).

[@UsuallyTrolling]

They were definitely at a disadvantage in 1943. They got mauled so bad they had to terminate daylight bombing operations over Germany for 6 months until the P51d could be introduced in early 1944.

[@primmakinsofis614]

@@UsuallyTrolling At one point the British tried to convince the Americans to switch over to nighttime bombing. The U.S. countered that such a change would require a massive change to the training programs as well as having to refit the bombers with the appropriate nighttime operating equipment, all of which would cause delays to the U.S. bombing efforts. As it happened, a couple of USAAF bomb squadrons did participate in nighttime raids with the British as an experiment. In 1944, the British started flying some of its heavy bomber missions in the daytime. By war's end roughly one-third of sorties had been flown during daylight.

[@CD-SU]

same old, same old Operations Room... Brilliant!!!!!!

[@kbearl]

Always have had mad respect for Doolittle since reading his biography, glad to see him getting recognition in this video.

[@jemc4276]

Awesome video. Excellent work guys!!

[@usmcdevildog3497]

Tossing in a vote for some MACV-SOG

[@gnperdue]

Gosh, what a video. The in-depth stories of a few of those involved really drives home that every plane, on both sides, had a story to tell, with real people behind them. Makes the sacrifice and honor of duty hit really, really hard. Yeesh. It’s easy to glorify war, but this sort of stuff makes me tear up

[@afriyam3228]

Bro I just read a whole book on the bomber war and it’s so cool to see everything mentioned there mentioned here.

[@jdee8407]

I didn't realize the sheer amount of bombers till I saw this.

[@kevinharper9467]

Are you gonna finish this series?

[@zealman79]

i watched the first 10 secs and i liked it - i'll watch the rest later when i have time because i know it'll be excellent

[@0xmassive526]

It's almost fiction to me at this point. Crazy mindblowing. Great job on the vid.

[@Mike-H_UK]

Excellent research & production. Many thanks.

[@dingusdean1905]

“The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation…” Reaping the whirlwind indeed.

[@UsuallyTrolling]

Hello Bomber Harris, there is a phone call for you. It’s from the Based department

[@TheTestyDuck]

Do it again bomber Harris!

[@28pbtkh23]

That’s why we should feel no guilt. Only a wuss would feel guilty.

[@Siddingsby]

Start shit, get hit 💥

[@dudududu1926]

Nazi in 1940: "Haha, our bombers are gonna erase London from the map 😈" Nazi in 1944: "No you can't bomb our city. That's a war crime 😡"

[@ThedwarfsizedWorkshop]

Although I absolutely see why those raids were necessary, having the destruction of my hometown explained in this great a detail is a bit eerie. Also: we do find unexploded ordnance on every bigger construction site till today. Fun for generations...

[@Sithman1776]

It would be awesome if you did a segment on the first battle between the Colonial Marines and the aliens in the movie Aliens (1986), directed by James Cameron. I know it’s sci-fi, but it would be awesome to see a tactical overview. Talk about how the troops inserted, how the two teams split up, how they realized that firing bullets might blow the whole place up, and how the few survivors fought their way out. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

[@Daanlikkewaan]

I second that!

[@chrisc1625]

Just saw you posted a video. As usual, stop what I'm doing, grab a beer, sit back, and watch. Love your work!

[@chaosXP3RT]

"The Allies contributed nothing in WWII. The USSR won WWII."

[@MintyLime703]

It's no surprise that most people who fully believe that nonsense are marxists. Hitler never intended for war with the Allies over Poland and yet they still came dangerously close to winning the eastern front and the desperately needed agriculture and oil that would come with it. It's a testament to their determination that the Soviets pulled it together, but they never would've gotten the chance without the other fronts and the shit ton of lend lease. They even got solo'd by Finland and barely scraped together a "victory"; the idea that they could've taken the Axis completely alone is just laughable considering how badly the war went for them early war as it was.

[@fantasyfleet]

Thanks for covering big week I always wanted to know more about this

[@krisfrederick5001]

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." This is the beginning of the end for Germany.

[@neilwilson5785]

Stalingrad, Kursk, and El Alamein was the beginning of the end. Germany had d-day and Bagration to look forward to in the near future.

[@josephroberts731]

Love the personal vignettes interspersed with the grand strategy. Keep it up!

[@shogun2215]

This isnt a comment about the video, more about the sponsor. Do not, under any circumstances, play War Thunder. The developers have changed the ingame economy to make the grind impossible for free to play members, and almost impossible even for those with premium accounts. They are trying to force you to spend real money in their game. Do not support them. .

[@gabriellegomez2005]

I suggest you read the book "Lancaster" if you're interested in reading about the british strategic bombing raids. The book covers all the raids the Lancaster took part in. The guy who designed it, the man who commanded bomber command. And also the accounts of the guys who flew them.

[@HeisenbergFam]

This history channel is the embodiment of quality over quantity, I respect 4 years of dedication

[@jcancino630]

@Donald LOLlmao what

[@JayDarrelMalibong]

Can you do girls und panzer battles.

[@MrLemonbaby]

Geez, that was well done. I can't imagine any over view doing it better.

[@panic_2001]

11:30 minutes another great victory for British Bomber Command: achieved almost nothing Killed 970 women and children 580 flight crew lost Without the 8th US Air Force, the RAF would have completely lost the air war over Germany by May 1944 at the latest

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

Imagining how much more effective the bomb raids would be with both airforces fills me with hatred of Arthur Harris.

[@UsuallyTrolling]

American tries not to take all the credit for winning WW2 challenge *impossible*

[@ChrisCrossClash]

Learn some history first you anti-British tw*t

[@orwellboy1958]

@@naamadossantossilva4736oh you poor little snowflake, what do you think the Luftwaffe were doing from 1940 onwards. Stop judging yesterday's actions by today's standards.

[@orwellboy1958]

Ah, U.S. good and British bad, even though they are doing the same job. Typical yank, where were the 8th in 1940 / 41. Get you head out of Hollywood and step into the real world.