Awesome Battle of Britain documentary!!

[Kling]

I have never seen it before! Its from 1985 so many of the pilots are still alive as it was made!
Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS_4wioaVBc

[9./JG52 Ziegler]

Excellent Kling! Thanks for posting. It's really cool to see the photos and film. In particular seeing the guys as young men and interviews later. You still see the same man in their face.

[ATAG_Snapper]

This is great, Kling! I've just listened to Part 1 and put another pot of coffee on before I continue with Part 2. Now, where are the figgy duffs......

:)

[Kwiatek]

These one is also nice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nMc_HJO0RU

[HurricaneHarvest]

I have never seen it before! Its from 1985 so many of the pilots are still alive as it was made!
Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS_4wioaVBc


@ 9:10 , I think he's talking about attacking a Defiant ? .. so defiants can fly upside down!

Excellent.

HH.

[Kling]

bump

[mazex]

Thanks a lot for sharing - watched the whole of it in one sweep!

It's so nice to hear the stories from the pilots themselves and not told by someone else... Sad that there are so few left that still can tell first hand how it really felt!

I remember flying a few flights with an old 109 pilot in 1990 or so on a glider competition in Sweden (and quite a number of "direct imported" German beer at the bonfire in the evening). He was there with his Grob 109 motor glider (interesting that it was a "109" too :)). It was his plane but his heart did not pass the certificate medical tests since a few years so he had others flying "as the official pilot" so he could fly in the air... I remember that he did the take off but when we where going back to land he insisted that I did the landing: "You know - I have hated landing since being scared to death every time landing the "real" 109". He was one of the pilots that where rushed into service in mid 1944 and he had quite a few combat sorties - but only fired his guns a few times - and he was sure he never hit anything. They where 19 year old "kids" with less than 100 flying hours put in the late war high wing loading 109:s that where nightmares from a rookie pilot perspective. He said most of his friends died landing and not by enemy fire. His memories of combat where that it was total chaos with aircraft that where everywhere and then nowhere.

I guess that was the way dogfighting was to most of the pilots that never got any kills - which must have been the majority? The young pilots over the channel from both sides that got shot down on their first or second sortie never knowing what hit them. The ones in most interviews are the ones with 5+ kills that actually got the hang of it. I guess the relative performances and turn radius etc of the aircraft meant a LOT less IRL than in our "comfy" simulated wars. And when some allied rookie pilot met one of the "experten" with 200+ kills and thousands of flying hours it must have been slaughter...

/mazex