- 5/14/2025
Before the advent of the long-range escort fighter, American bomber groups flying daylight bombing raids into the heart of Nazi Germany were at the mercy of the Me109s and Fw190s of the Luftwaffe, losses on a single mission could sometimes exceed 30%.
As the B-17s and B-24s were brutally torn out of the skies by 20 and 30mm cannon fire, the whole feasiblity of daylight bombing was called into question.
And then the P-51 Mustang arrived, the P-51 was the only fighter with the range to escort bombers deep inside Germany - and it was a natural killer.
By early 1944, the Luftwaffe had to be smashed as a prelude to D-Day and the P-51 would do the smashing, while the 100-mile-long bomber formations acted as fighter-bait.
Packed with archive footage, dramatic gun camera film and exclusive interviews with Mustang pilots, this programme is a tribute to the fighter aircraft that won air superiority for the Allies in the war-torn skies over Europe.
As the B-17s and B-24s were brutally torn out of the skies by 20 and 30mm cannon fire, the whole feasiblity of daylight bombing was called into question.
And then the P-51 Mustang arrived, the P-51 was the only fighter with the range to escort bombers deep inside Germany - and it was a natural killer.
By early 1944, the Luftwaffe had to be smashed as a prelude to D-Day and the P-51 would do the smashing, while the 100-mile-long bomber formations acted as fighter-bait.
Packed with archive footage, dramatic gun camera film and exclusive interviews with Mustang pilots, this programme is a tribute to the fighter aircraft that won air superiority for the Allies in the war-torn skies over Europe.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Thank you for listening.
00:30The year was 1944, and one of the most critical crusades in all of history was being waged.
00:53The Aces, Richard Peterson, Bud Anderson, Chuck Yeager.
01:00More than 50 years have passed, yet the success of these pilots in World War II still resonates amid the growl of their airplanes.
01:10The P-51 Mustang.
01:24This plane gained its mythical status as the only fighter with enough range to escort bombers deep into Germany.
01:33These men and their machines cleared the way to bombing targets and crippled Hitler's air force, bringing the German dictator's Third Reich to its knees.
01:43We picked up our first P-51s in England in January of 1944.
02:00We picked them up at the assembly factory and flew them for about an hour and a half over England and landed at our base at Leicester.
02:07And the next day we're sitting over Leipzig, Germany, fighting in them.
02:11And that was the transition.
02:14That was it.
02:14And you learned just from experience.
02:18We weren't very well checked out in it, but we were amazed how capable the airplane was, especially in endurance.
02:24It was just fabulous.
02:25It came at the right time.
02:30At the very time that the long-range bombers were having so many losses and were questioning whether daylight bombing was even feasible, suddenly the P-51 appears.
02:43The opponents in this airborne joust were the elite of the German Luftwaffe, a proficient tactical air force.
02:55The German pilots had dominated the skies for much of the war, flying thousands of missions in the worst of conditions.
03:02The German pilots would see and engage the enemy every mission they flew.
03:18See, and that's the reason.
03:19If you look at the kills, like Eric Hartman, 380, General Gunther Rall, who's a very good friend of mine, and, you know, 270 or 80.
03:30An American fighter, on average, he flew about 50 missions over Germany, then he went home.
03:38We have flown already three years, or four years.
03:43And I personally, I can, but this is an example for many of them.
03:48I was injured in those days, three times, I was in hospital, I was recovered, came back to the front line, flew again.
03:57So this is quite a different attitude.
04:00The German fighter planes, the ME-109 and the Focke-Wulf 190, were known, ironically, as Jäger, the German word for hunter.
04:12They were short-range aircraft, able to dive, turn, and reach great speed.
04:18Outstanding in their armament, which shot down Allied planes with deadly efficiency.
04:22There was this mixture of weapons, and they were unbelievably effective.
04:45It was almost scary, the power we had.
04:53You can't believe what it feels like to watch a B-24 lose a wing,
04:57or even fall completely apart in just a few shots.
05:03The 109 was truly an excellent aircraft.
05:06Tremendous power, tremendous speed, tremendous maneuverability.
05:10And I think testimony to that is, in fact, the fact that it did shoot down a lot of American aircraft.
05:15Throughout 1943, before the Mustang's arrival, the theory was that the bomber alone could fly over Germany's front lines
05:27to strike directly at aircraft and ball-bearing factories, transportation, oil refineries, and aluminium plants.
05:36Targets, which, if destroyed, would deprive Hitler of the means to wage war.
05:50The bombers evolved into flying fortresses, outfitted with guns front and back.
05:56Their speed, armor, armament, and high-altitude flight were to enhance self-defense during attacks
06:03flown in the bright light of day for target accuracy.
06:16Most existing U.S. and British fighters could not fly to the bomber's maximum distance without running out of fuel.
06:22Fighters had only one role, and that was to defend the air bases from which the bombers flew.
06:29They were spot interceptors to prevent any sort of counterattack.
06:33But as far as escort fighters, not necessary.
06:46Autumn, 1943.
06:49The bombers faced devastating losses.
06:52Culminating in what was known as Black Thursday.
06:56Hitler had massed his Luftwaffe forces.
06:59Swarms of German fighters charged after Allied bombers,
07:03as they attacked industrial plants in Schweinfurt on October the 14th.
07:12Unfortunately, they had to go the last third of the way without any escort,
07:16because the P-51s weren't in business yet.
07:26And in that particular raid,
07:29there were roughly about 300 bombers in the thing,
07:31and they shot down 100 of them.
07:33That's 30%.
07:34In fact, it was 31% is what they lost.
07:37And the Germans were having a field day.
07:47By 1943, the Germans had learned their lesson,
07:49and they had put long-range armaments on their aircraft,
07:5320-millimeter, 30-millimeter cannons that could reach beyond the range of the .50 caliber.
07:57And as such, the B-17s and the B-24s simply could no longer defend themselves.
08:11The skies witnessed slaughter on an unprecedented scale.
08:15Ten men died for each bomber shot out of the sky.
08:23Only the fortunate limp home.
08:26The self-defense theory of the Flying Fortress was an utter failure.
08:31The Eighth Air Force had lost the battle for air superiority over Germany
08:35in one of the most savage air encounters of the entire war.
08:39That's when they said,
08:44we've got to have a long-range fighter that's going to go...
08:47How far can the bomber go?
08:48We've got to have a fighter that's going to do it.
08:56Enter the P-51 Mustang,
08:59a long-range fighter that had been simmering on the back burner of the war for two years.
09:07For their first months in service,
09:09the new fighters were instructed to fly close to the bombers.
09:12The bomber crews at last had air support.
09:16But air strategy continued to evolve.
09:19Air Force leaders realized strategic bombing alone would not win the war.
09:24And a new leadership took over in the fall and winter of 1943-44
09:28that realized that, yeah, strategic bombing can still work,
09:31but we've got to achieve air superiority first
09:34so that the bombers can go in and actually do the damage they need to to these industries.
09:37But moreover, they've got to support the invasion.
09:40And they realized that any invasion of Europe would be impossible without control of the air.
09:45There is complete agreement that an invasion six months from now would fail.
09:53Would fail.
09:54So in early January 1944,
09:57the commanding general 8th Air Force decided to, what he called, free the fighters.
10:01General Jimmy Doolittle declared that there would be a dual role for the new fighters.
10:11They would continue to protect bombers on the way to their targets.
10:15But more importantly, the Mustangs would be free to fly away from the bombers
10:21to pursue and destroy the Luftwaffe.
10:23The Mustang cleared the skies over Europe
10:35to make way for an imminent Allied invasion of the European continent,
10:39enabling Allied troops and equipment to land with no threat from above.
10:49It was Britain's quest for a new fighter plane to shore up its fleet against Hitler's advances,
10:55which brought about the P-51 Mustang.
10:57Just six months from design to test flight,
11:04the first incarnation of the aerodynamic Mustang was delivered from a U.S. company,
11:10North American Aviation, to Britain in 1942.
11:18The early Mustang lacked power at high altitudes.
11:21The solution was to install a powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine with a supercharger.
11:27You have tremendous power at sea level for take-off,
11:32but with the supercharger,
11:34it allowed you to have that same kind of power at a high altitude.
11:41The U.S. Army Air Forces ordered 2,000 P-51s
11:45when they realized they needed just such a long-range fighter
11:48to prepare for an invasion of Europe.
11:52The new engine used about half the fuel of other fighters.
12:03With its elevated nose,
12:05the Mustang had limited field of view on take-off,
12:08causing pilots to weave down the runway
12:11so that they could see on either side.
12:18In late February 1944,
12:32over a five-day period,
12:34the largest American heavy bomber force ever assembled,
12:37more than a thousand bombers,
12:39escorted by 900 fighters,
12:41flew into Germany,
12:43determined to destroy the Luftwaffe in the air.
12:45and the industrial plants below where the planes were manufactured.
13:04The fighters flew to protect the bombers as detached escort,
13:09free to roam ahead, above,
13:11or to break off and pursue the enemy.
13:13We used to do slow zigzags across them.
13:19They're going slower than we are,
13:20and we're trying to keep our speed up,
13:22so you make 90-degree turns and stay on top of them.
13:26We also would send out flights out to the side and up ahead
13:30to try to break down these groups
13:33that were going to come in head-on.
13:34The Luftwaffe's integrated radar and flight command centers
13:43picked up the mass of aircraft
13:44as they made their way across the English Channel.
13:47We were directed by a central flight control office.
13:56When we took off,
14:00they knew exactly where the American bombers and escort fighters were,
14:05and they led us straight to the planes.
14:08We saw the big contrails of these bomber streams, you know,
14:16and I was looking for the fighter escort.
14:18Where are they?
14:19And how are they?
14:20And how high are they?
14:22The minute you saw any contrails coming,
14:24you knew that it was the opposition.
14:26You got ready, and you used your tanks up to the...
14:30The outside gas is up to its fullest,
14:34and you didn't use any inside stuff until you had to.
14:39And then you dropped the tanks, and you were ready to engage.
14:44Richard Peterson engaged a German on one of his first missions.
14:47Got so excited, I didn't realize I was holding the trigger down.
14:51And I'm shooting holes in the sky all over the place,
14:54and holding the trigger down because I was so excited.
14:59And I finally got strikes on this guy,
15:01and he pulled the canopy and bailed.
15:03He went drifting on by me, standing at attention,
15:07gave me a highball salute, and pulled a ripcord.
15:11And I thought, boy, that's pretty great.
15:14He had black boots on, a blue flying suit, and he had black gloves.
15:18That was great.
15:20The hackles, wasn't he?
15:21And I was, yay, shouting to myself in the cockpit, you know,
15:25about how great this was.
15:26But that was the first one I got.
15:28Over the skies of Germany,
15:30the Allied planes faced two levels of German fighters.
15:33The Fokker Wolf 190s attacked the Allied bombers,
15:37while the Me 109s attacked the Mustangs.
15:39When your big bomber streams came escorted by long-range fighters,
15:50some of the eastern experts were called back to the home defense
15:54to fly as a top cover and to engage American fighters,
16:00so that the heavy groups could attack the B-17s and the B-24s.
16:05The American squadrons attacked and attacked again.
16:19Leipzig, with its sprawling modern aircraft production complex.
16:24Schweinfurt and Regensburg,
16:26responsible for producing ball bearings and airplane parts.
16:29Americans lost 150 bombers and 35 fighters.
16:37German casualties were much worse.
16:43During these six days of February, known as Big Week,
16:47the Germans lost a third of their aircraft
16:50and a fifth of their pilots.
16:51Prior to Big Week,
16:57the young and influential German fighter commander Adolf Gallant
17:01was desperately trying to prevent these very losses,
17:05calling for all existing German defense fighter planes
17:08to be based in a central location,
17:10not scattered across German-held territory.
17:13You know, Hitler was...
17:15I don't know how well informed he was.
17:18They didn't regard the build-up of, also the British,
17:25and the American fighter force or air force
17:28as he should have really sealed this then.
17:34No, they didn't do that.
17:36Hitler's response was to refuse this defensive strategy.
17:40Instead, he informed Luftwaffe leader Hermann Goering
17:46that German forces should escalate their bombing missions
17:49against Great Britain.
18:00And so this philosophy was not existent
18:04in the Hitler's or Goering's mind,
18:07and Hitler was warned.
18:09Hitler didn't pay very much attention
18:12to the fighter fleet over Germany.
18:15He said, oh, it's anti-aircraft.
18:17We stuffed the whole thing with anti-aircraft.
18:18We don't need these fighters.
18:20We got the lesson, you know.
18:25President Roosevelt, on the other hand,
18:27recognized in 1938
18:28the need for heightened military airpower.
18:31His push for aviators paid off at just the right time.
18:36There were 7,000 combat pilots in 1940.
18:40After Pearl Harbor in 1941,
18:42there were over 100,000.
18:53Pearl Harbor broke out December 7th,
18:58and January 13th, I turned 20 years old,
19:02went down, raised my right hand,
19:03and there I was.
19:07Some pilots knew instinctively
19:08that they were destined for the skies.
19:10I was 12 years old at the time.
19:13My teacher asked around the room,
19:15we'd go around when we started school,
19:17what we wanted to be when we grow up.
19:19I responded when it came to my turn
19:23to be, I want to be a fighter pilot
19:25and shoot down Germans.
19:27Her name was Miss Weisbrod,
19:30and she almost hit the ceiling.
19:33German background.
19:35I'd never seen an airplane on the ground
19:38before I got in the military.
19:39They meant nothing to me,
19:41and I didn't have any burning desire
19:42to be a pilot like Andy.
19:44Hell, he'd hang on fences and work
19:46and flew before he got in the military.
19:49I was raised in West Virginia,
19:51and they didn't have airports
19:52and airplanes back there,
19:54and I never flew in one until,
19:56I think it was January of 1942.
19:58I'd changed an engine on my AT-11,
20:00and my engineering officer
20:01came down to test-hop the airplane
20:03and said, get in, you're going with me.
20:06That was my first ride in the airplane.
20:07I got sick,
20:09and I didn't think there was much future in it.
20:12But Jaeger eventually saw
20:14there was indeed a future in it
20:16when he became an ace in a day,
20:18shooting down five German fighters
20:20in the same air battle.
20:27But even good pilots had their bad days.
20:31After just eight missions,
20:32Chuck Jaeger got shot out of the sky
20:34by a Focke-Wulf 190 over Bordeaux.
20:40We were down south of Bordeaux
20:41and escorting B-24s,
20:44and some 190s jumped us,
20:45and I was tailing Charlie in a flight,
20:47and broke into him,
20:48and I made a head-on pass,
20:49and I got hit 20 millimeters,
20:51making a head-on pass.
20:52The thick armor-protected windshield
20:57saved my tail.
20:58A 20 millimeter hit it,
20:59and it crazed,
21:01and I lost about half the left wing,
21:05and the prop came off the airplane,
21:07and it caught on fire when I got shot down.
21:11There was no time to panic.
21:13The 21-year-old pilot released his parachute
21:16and spiraled from 5,000 meters to the ground below.
21:20German-occupied France.
21:22With shrapnel wounds in his hands and feet,
21:25Jaeger limped off into the deep brush
21:27and spent the next six weeks dodging Germans.
21:36Meanwhile, the rest of the 8th Air Force
21:39was in the midst of the next stage
21:41of their quest for air superiority over Germany.
21:44The bombing target moved to Berlin,
21:46the home of Adolf Hitler.
21:52The armament on the Mustang
21:54would be decisive in influencing the outcome.
21:58Now, from the rear of the aircraft,
22:00you can see the back of the wing.
22:03This area here is covered,
22:07which covered the three chases of the ammunition.
22:10Our ammunition was called API .50 caliber,
22:13armor-piercing incendiary.
22:15And it's a steel-encased chunk of magnesium
22:21on the business end of the shell.
22:25So when you hit and got a strike on an aircraft,
22:28it was a flash.
22:29It also drove the magnesium in to set fire
22:32and explode the airplane.
22:33So that was the whole purpose of API ammunition.
22:44Every tenth shell was a tracer.
22:47So you could see your line of fire
22:50by the tracers that were lighted every tenth shell.
22:54When you get near the end of running out of ammunition,
22:56every shell was a tracer,
22:58which alerted you to watch it you're running out.
23:04It was now March 1944,
23:08just three months before D-Day.
23:10The goal was to lure the Luftwaffe into battle at all costs,
23:15and then destroy it through attrition.
23:23The way to get the maximum number of German fighters in the air
23:26was to go after a prize target.
23:31Carl Spatz was strategic air commander
23:33of the U.S. Army Air Forces in Europe.
23:35Jimmy Doolittle headed the 8th Air Force,
23:38tasked with preparing the continent
23:40for an Allied ground invasion.
23:42Spatz tells Doolittle at 8th Air Force,
23:45no more diversions.
23:46I want all those bombers over Berlin.
23:48I don't want diversions.
23:49I don't want to try to confuse the enemy.
23:50I don't want those radio messages
23:52trying to get them to go in the wrong place.
23:54I want them to come up and find us.
23:58March the 6th, 1944.
24:00Fighter pilots awoke before dawn
24:02to the drone of bombers flying overhead.
24:05The slow-flying bombers left early.
24:09The Mustangs would catch up later.
24:12The fighter group gathered for a briefing.
24:15It's what the pilots had been waiting for.
24:18The map showed that they were flying
24:20to the eastern edge of Germany.
24:22Target, Berlin.
24:24The group went over the engine start times,
24:27rendezvous points with the bombers,
24:29targets, and courses home,
24:31information dutifully recorded
24:33on the back of the pilots' hands.
24:35The pilots synchronized watches
24:38before making their way
24:39to the awaiting Mustangs.
24:41Ahead lay Germany
24:43and the heart of the Reich.
24:44The bomber crews were less enthusiastic
25:07than the fighter pilots,
25:08as General Spatz described their mission.
25:10He told them when they flew to Berlin,
25:13this is one of the most dangerous missions of the war.
25:15It scared the willies out of these guys.
25:17He told them,
25:18I want you flying straight
25:19and level all the way to Berlin.
25:22Your job is to attract the German Air Force.
25:24Now, of course, he can't tell them that.
25:26They'll know their bait.
25:27They'll know their sacrificial lambs.
25:29Can't do that.
25:29But, in fact, that's what was happening.
25:32How do we know it today?
25:33It's because Spatz and Anderson wrote it in their diaries.
25:35They didn't use the word bait,
25:37but, nevertheless, it's quite clear from their diaries
25:39they intended for the bombers to be bait.
25:41The bombers had good reason for concern.
25:46There was more to fear than German fighters alone.
25:51The Germans operated an early warning network
25:54of radar and gun batteries,
25:57all coordinated under the umbrella of the Luftwaffe.
25:59The fighters flew with the bombers
26:08until they were nearly on target,
26:10then broke off as the bombers headed, unescorted,
26:14straight into a flak barrage
26:15to drop their deadly load.
26:17And from the initial point to the target,
26:31it was straight and level.
26:34And that's where they were so darn vulnerable.
26:37Oh, man.
26:38They had to get lined up, of course, for the target.
26:49Get lined up in a bomb site,
26:51do the wind correction and all this kind of stuff.
26:54From the initial point to the target
26:55was their time for dropping the bombs.
26:59We would stay.
27:00Boy, the flak would come up.
27:02You could walk on that stuff.
27:03It looked so black and heavy.
27:04You can see the bombers.
27:05The threat of flak did not stop Doolittle and Sputz
27:10from making Berlin a regular target.
27:13Over the next 16 days,
27:15the 8th Air Force would return four times.
27:19And it's very brutal warfare.
27:21It's the kind of attrition warfare
27:22we know from Gettysburg
27:25and from Petersburg in the Civil War.
27:26It's the kind of warfare we know from the trenches
27:28in World War I.
27:30It's attrition warfare.
27:31Kill more of them than they kill of you
27:33and you win the war.
27:33You've got to bleed the Luftwaffe
27:35so that when June 6th comes around,
27:38the German Air Force
27:39will not be there to stop it.
27:41The battles included some brutal realities
27:44for Richard Peterson.
27:46Normally, nobody, including the Germans,
27:49would be shooting anybody in a parachute.
27:52It just wasn't done.
27:53I mean, there's no challenge
27:55with shooting a guy in a parachute,
27:57for God's sake.
27:59He is, I mean, he's had it.
28:03You can't miss.
28:06And here I came across this 109
28:08and the sky was full of bomber shoots.
28:11Flack had gotten them
28:12and it was a target area.
28:15And this arm,
28:16it was going from parachute to parachute,
28:19shooting up guys in parachutes.
28:22Oh, I got just, I mean,
28:24this was too much as far as I was concerned.
28:28And I didn't want him,
28:29I didn't want to blow him up.
28:32I wanted him to bail.
28:35So I was pecking away at him,
28:37just hitting him,
28:38just, and I'd get strikes on him.
28:40And he knew I was there
28:41and he knew I was getting strikes.
28:42He finally pulled the canopy.
28:45I said,
28:45you've met your maker, buster.
28:52And I fired,
28:53I damn near emptied my guns on this guy.
28:56He was mincemeat
28:57by the time I got through with him.
28:58And he was in his chute.
29:01And of course,
29:02other guys who weren't there
29:03were nervous about me shooting a guy in a chute.
29:06They had to be there
29:06to know what I was seeing
29:08with this guy going,
29:09these guys were helpless
29:10of a bomber cruise going down.
29:13And I just,
29:14I just tore him up.
29:16With 800 rounds a minute,
29:18you can do a lot of damage
29:19with 50 caliber shells
29:21from six guns.
29:23So that was the end of that.
29:30U.S. losses on missions to Berlin were high.
29:3369 bombers and 11 fighters
29:35shot down on March the 6th alone,
29:38more than on any other day in the war.
29:40But the Mustang had overwhelmed its opponents.
29:451,000 German pilots were killed
29:47in the first months
29:48of the Allied air campaign,
29:50including 28 top-scoring aces.
29:53Hitler had put his faith in Blitzkrieg,
29:56a lightning war,
29:57massing all available men and material
30:00to ensure a quick victory.
30:02The Luftwaffe had exhausted its ranks.
30:04There were no reserves
30:06to replace the battered pilots.
30:11One of the key days
30:12in the air war over Europe
30:13was March 9th.
30:14This is where the bombers
30:15went to Berlin
30:16and fighters went with them
30:18and the German Air Force
30:19did not come up to fight.
30:20The Luftwaffe did not come up to fight.
30:22After that date,
30:24March 9th,
30:25there were days
30:26where the German Air Force
30:27would not come up.
30:28There were other days
30:29where they would come up
30:29in large numbers.
30:32Prior to March 9th,
30:33they might come up
30:33in formations of 10, 12, 14.
30:36After March 9th,
30:37they would come up
30:37in formations of 90, 100.
30:40And the reason is
30:40because it gave them
30:41a better chance for success.
30:42It made them better able
30:43to perhaps survive that mission.
30:48The bait strategy
30:49of the U.S. Army Air Forces
30:51was working.
30:53Thanks to the Mustang
30:53and its range,
30:55air superiority over Europe
30:56was shifting
30:57from Germany
30:58to the Allies.
31:00The Mustang
31:01was assigned
31:02one last task
31:03before Allied ground forces
31:05landed on the coast of France.
31:09Shoot up German aircraft
31:10on the ground,
31:11shoot up locomotives,
31:14shoot up assembly areas,
31:15shoot up anything
31:16they could find
31:17on the ground.
31:25In fact,
31:25there are all sorts
31:26of after-action reports
31:27that, in fact,
31:28had fighter pilots
31:29claiming to shoot cows,
31:32arguing that, you know,
31:33it's part of the war effort
31:34and we need to shoot them.
31:36Imagine the psychological
31:37effect of Germany
31:38as I say Sunday morning
31:41at 11 o'clock,
31:42precisely 11 o'clock
31:43on the minute,
31:44all of these fighters
31:45descend on Germany.
31:49Straffing had been described
31:50as air guerrilla warfare
31:52fought at treetop level,
31:53an extremely dangerous mission
31:55for the Mustang.
32:02It was not the airplane
32:03for the job.
32:04The P-47,
32:05the P-38
32:05were by far better airplanes
32:06for the job.
32:07The P-38 had liquid-cooled engines,
32:09but it had two.
32:10So you shoot out one,
32:11still come home.
32:12The P-47 had no liquid cooling,
32:14it was air-cooled.
32:15So you could shoot the heck
32:16out of a Pratt & Whitney 2800,
32:18and it would still run.
32:19Connecting rods
32:20would be popping out
32:21of the cowling
32:21and the oil would go over.
32:23Guy just flew around.
32:24It didn't matter.
32:24P-47, very rugged.
32:26One little bullet hole
32:27in a Mustang
32:28and you're down.
32:29And all the great aces
32:30of World War II,
32:31except one
32:32in the European theater,
32:34went down to ground fire.
32:37The missions were useful,
32:38however.
32:39The fighters smashed
32:40communications
32:41and transportation networks
32:43and destroyed
32:44Luftwaffe aircraft
32:45as they sat silently
32:46on the German airfields.
32:51The strafing success
32:52prompted General Eisenhower's
32:54pre-invasion pep talk
32:55to paratroopers
32:56about to drop
32:57onto enemy territory.
33:00He kept telling them
33:01all the same thing.
33:02It was the only thing
33:03he'd really tell them
33:04with any assurance,
33:05and that was,
33:05when you look up,
33:06you're going to see airplanes,
33:07but they're going to be ours.
33:09And they were.
33:16On June the 6th, 1944,
33:22Allied troops swarmed
33:23over the French coast
33:24of Normandy.
33:26The invasion had begun.
33:28In the skies above,
33:30only two German combat missions
33:32even attempted
33:32to fly over the beachhead.
33:36German pilot,
33:37Willy Unger,
33:38escorted bombers
33:38on a mission
33:39to attack invasion fleets
33:41with little success.
33:48Terrific.
33:50Completely black with ships,
33:52my God.
33:53And they were all
33:53shooting at us.
33:54The bullets were zinging
33:56all around us,
33:56just like in the movies.
33:59As long as you weren't hit,
34:01you were fine.
34:02If you were shot at,
34:03that was it.
34:04You would fall
34:04into the sea.
34:06But it was truly fantastic.
34:08The sea was completely
34:09black with ships.
34:12It was a miracle
34:13I didn't get hit.
34:14Large craft,
34:15small craft,
34:16everything under the sun.
34:18Amazing.
34:20Mustang pilot
34:21Ted Conlin
34:22found no Germans
34:23to fight,
34:24so he decided
34:25to fly down
34:25to observe
34:26the Normandy landing.
34:28We dropped down
34:29to about 1,000 feet
34:31off the beach.
34:32All we saw
34:33were a tremendous
34:34number of ships
34:35and people
34:37being killed
34:38on the beach.
34:39It was a very unpleasant sight
34:41from that viewpoint.
34:44So I was kind of glad
34:45to get back up on top
34:46and do our job up there.
34:50The invasion
34:51revealed a grim reality.
34:53The Luftwaffe
34:54were caught weakened
34:55and unprepared
34:56for the Allied onslaught.
35:00I had to go inside
35:02to retrieve my pack.
35:03When I came back out,
35:06my plane was gone.
35:08A training pilot
35:09flew it to Germany.
35:11So I had to find
35:12another plane.
35:13After searching around
35:15for a while,
35:15I saw a plane
35:16without a propeller.
35:19The maintenance crew
35:20took parts
35:21from two other
35:21damaged airplanes
35:22and we put together
35:23a propeller.
35:24and then I flew
35:27a day or so
35:27trying to get back
35:29to home base.
35:31I was completely
35:32exhausted.
35:35The Luftwaffe leader
35:37Adolf Galland's memoirs
35:38state,
35:39the enemy,
35:40our own troops
35:41and the general population
35:42asked the obvious question.
35:45Where is the Luftwaffe?
35:46The Mustangs
35:52and the bombers
35:53had done their job
35:54so thoroughly
35:55during big week
35:56in bombing Berlin
35:57and on strafing missions
35:58that when it was time
36:00for the Allies
36:00to invade,
36:02the Luftwaffe
36:02were nowhere to be found.
36:07An historian
36:08called D-Day
36:09one of the greatest
36:09air battles
36:10of all time,
36:11one that never
36:12actually took place.
36:13By mid-1944,
36:19Allied troops
36:19were battling
36:20their way
36:20across the European continent
36:22through France
36:23and Belgium
36:24on their way
36:25to Germany.
36:27In bomber streams
36:29that were often
36:29160 kilometers long,
36:32the British
36:32and the Americans
36:33continued to smash
36:34German oil refineries
36:36and communications.
36:38Hitler was running
36:39out of resources
36:40as he tried
36:41to stave off
36:42Americans,
36:43British
36:43and other Allies
36:44on one front
36:45and the Russians
36:46on the other.
36:47By now,
36:48the end was near.
36:50With the final air war
36:52raging above Germany,
36:53Chuck Yeager,
36:54shot down
36:55over occupied France,
36:56had made his way
36:57back to his squadron.
37:00I got to the French
37:02underground
37:02and spent six weeks
37:03with them,
37:04went through the Pyrenees
37:05into Spain,
37:05was enduring in Spain.
37:08With the help
37:09of the French underground
37:10and disguised
37:11as a woodcutter,
37:12Yeager made his way
37:13through southern France,
37:14then trudged
37:15through hip-deep snow
37:17over the Pyrenees.
37:24After one close call,
37:26encountering Germans
37:27in a mountain cabin
37:28with bullets whizzing
37:29by his head
37:30as he escaped
37:30out of a window,
37:32Yeager staggered
37:33into Spain
37:33and turned himself in.
37:35When he finally reached
37:38his squadron in England
37:39after six harrowing weeks,
37:41Yeager was told
37:42he would not fly
37:43combat missions again.
37:45If you're working
37:46with the underground,
37:47the Mach-E,
37:48obviously,
37:48if you go on another mission
37:50and you're shot down,
37:52then,
37:52if you're captured,
37:53then you compromise
37:55the underground system.
37:56After refusing to go home
38:00and appealing directly
38:01to General Dwight Eisenhower,
38:03Chuck Yeager
38:03was allowed
38:04to continue combat flying.
38:09His permission papers
38:11can be seen
38:11peeking out of his pocket
38:12in this photo.
38:13It just so happened
38:14that the invasion
38:15started on June the 6th, 1944,
38:18and June the 8th,
38:20I was allowed
38:21to go back on combat.
38:23Once he returned, however,
38:25Yeager had trouble
38:26finding any action at all.
38:28I only saw German fighters
38:31on five of my missions.
38:33That's all.
38:36When the Mustang pilots
38:37finally encountered
38:38German fighters,
38:40they were easy targets.
38:42The Luftwaffe
38:42was on its last legs.
38:44No fuel,
38:45few pilots,
38:46and little training.
38:48To add insult to injury,
38:50Hitler and his
38:50air commander,
38:51Hermann Göring,
38:52berated the Luftwaffe pilots
38:54for their losses,
38:55calling them lazy.
39:02Göring ordered
39:03that every pilot
39:04refuel at least three times
39:06before being allowed
39:07to disengage the enemy.
39:09Some flew more than
39:11five sorties
39:11in a single day.
39:12There were fewer and fewer pilots
39:17and the training
39:18became insufficient.
39:20The younger pilots
39:20received a much less
39:21thorough training
39:22than we had.
39:25Sometimes pilots
39:26received only the most
39:27basic flight instruction
39:28before they took off,
39:30and they never returned.
39:31We had to cover
39:33an airspace
39:34from the North Cape
39:35to El Alamein
39:37to North Africa
39:38with about
39:39700 fighters.
39:41It was
39:41too less.
39:42So,
39:42we didn't have
39:43the same philosophy
39:43as you.
39:44You know,
39:45you pulled out
39:45a pilot
39:47after 50 missions.
39:49We let them fly,
39:50and I always say,
39:51we had the chance
39:52to get an iron cross
39:53or a wood cross.
39:54And we had
39:56tremendous losses,
39:57particularly from
39:5844 onwards
39:59in the whole defense,
40:01what we called
40:01Reichsverteidigung.
40:03The average
40:04survivability
40:05of a young pilot
40:06were three missions
40:07and they were killed.
40:08And we knew
40:09exactly in every mission
40:10when we called,
40:12every second
40:13won't return
40:14to the base.
40:16And then you have
40:17to keep the fighting
40:18morale up.
40:18this is a problem.
40:22In his diary,
40:23one young German pilot
40:25wrote,
40:26Every time I close
40:27the canopy
40:27before taking off,
40:29I feel that I am
40:30closing the lid
40:30on my own coffin.
40:40Rubble and ruin
40:41abound
40:42where once
40:43proud cities
40:44had stood.
40:45By the start
40:46of 1945,
40:48Germany
40:48had suffered
40:48the full fury
40:49of the Allied bombers.
40:54Carpet bombing
40:55was now employed
40:56upon the hapless cities.
41:00There were
41:00600,000
41:02dead and wounded
41:03civilians.
41:05The goal
41:06was to break
41:06the will
41:07of the German people,
41:08forcing them
41:09to blame their government
41:10for starting
41:11the Armageddon.
41:12German pilot
41:13Gunther Rall
41:14tells of returning
41:15from duty
41:16to find his block
41:16bombed.
41:17All the houses
41:18flattened,
41:19except his,
41:21a story
41:21to chill
41:22the heart
41:22of every husband
41:23and father.
41:24Many other things
41:25happened,
41:26you know.
41:27My wife lost
41:28two children
41:30by bombing.
41:31as she was pregnant
41:33and premature
41:34delivery,
41:36six months out.
41:37She was attacked
41:38in a train
41:39when she came
41:39to my venue.
41:41I got her out
41:42from Vienna
41:42when the Russians
41:43came.
41:44So I said,
41:45get out,
41:45send somebody
41:46and get my wife
41:47out.
41:48And she was
41:49in the six months
41:50and the train
41:52was attacked
41:52by mosquitoes.
41:53and the guy
41:55who was
41:56out,
41:57down,
41:57down,
41:58down,
41:58can you do
42:00six months,
42:01was gone.
42:02So,
42:03this was a war.
42:07Yet,
42:08the will of the Nazis
42:09still had not been broken.
42:11This,
42:12despite the fact
42:13that the Luftwaffe
42:14no longer controlled
42:15the air.
42:16The Nazis
42:17had one last chance
42:18to drive away
42:19the Allies,
42:20the ME-262.
42:22This was the world's
42:23first operational
42:24jet fighter
42:25and a rival
42:26to the Mustang.
42:28You were
42:29feeling like
42:30a king in the air.
42:32You were
42:32again the king.
42:33I was singing
42:34loud in my aircraft
42:35because I never
42:37had the last,
42:38the last year
42:39was a very bad one
42:40and out of this,
42:42sitting in the aircraft
42:43in the 262
42:44and flying the 262,
42:46it was unbelievable.
42:49The Messerschmitt 262
42:50flew at a top speed
42:52of 860 kilometers
42:53per hour
42:54and attacked
42:55Allied planes
42:56as it roared
42:56through their
42:57bomber streams.
42:58What's more,
42:59it didn't need
43:00conventional
43:01high-octane fuel
43:02which was in
43:03short supply.
43:04If you're going
43:04to go through
43:05a fighter escort
43:06at 500 miles an hour,
43:08a top speed
43:08400 mile an hour
43:09Mustang is not
43:10going to catch you.
43:11And so you just
43:11go straight through
43:12the bomber formations.
43:13In March 45,
43:13they were able
43:14to do this
43:14to some degree
43:15and it would take out
43:1610 bombers at a pass.
43:17Very, very dangerous,
43:19yes.
43:21Hitler could have
43:22had this remarkable
43:23jet fighter earlier
43:24but his mindset
43:26was purely offensive
43:27so he ordered
43:28the Me 262
43:29to be made a bomber.
43:31In 1944,
43:33he finally conceded
43:34that he needed
43:35a weapon
43:35to fend off
43:36Allied planes.
43:38By now though,
43:39Germany had
43:40no resources,
43:41no chromium,
43:42no metals
43:43to make a fleet
43:44of 262 jet fighters.
43:45The funny thing
43:48is there were
43:48hundreds more built
43:49but they were all
43:50sitting in fields
43:51with no engines
43:52so it was a moot point.
43:57While the Mustang
43:58couldn't overtake
43:59an Me 262
44:00in level flight,
44:01it could position
44:02for attack
44:03by cutting off
44:04the jet
44:04in a sharp turn.
44:06Alternatively,
44:07attacking the Me 262
44:09as it attempted
44:09to land
44:10was another
44:11favoured method.
44:11I just glanced
44:13out the corner
44:14of my eye
44:14and spotted
44:15this Me 262
44:16who was on the final
44:17about three miles out.
44:19He obviously
44:19was about out of fuel
44:20and I rolled over
44:22and head on
44:25past him
44:26and pulled in.
44:27You know,
44:28I was doing it
44:28about a 400 mile hour
44:29and pulled in
44:30behind him
44:30and opened up
44:31at about 200 yards
44:32and got a good
44:33concentration of hits
44:34on his right wing,
44:36left right outboard wing
44:37blew off the airplane
44:38and he went into
44:39the ground
44:40about a mile
44:41offshore the runway
44:41was very unsportsmanlike
44:43but what the hell
44:44that's really good.
44:48By April 1945
44:49bombers had simply
44:51run out of targets.
44:53Two Allied fronts
44:54converged
44:55in the heart of Germany.
44:57Much of this success
44:59was attributed
44:59to the Mustang's role
45:01in achieving
45:01air superiority.
45:11On May the 8th, 1945,
45:18the Germans made
45:18an unconditional
45:19and simultaneous
45:20surrender
45:21of all land,
45:22sea and air forces.
45:24After nearly six years
45:25of flying,
45:27Willy Reschke
45:27and other German pilots
45:29handed over their planes
45:30to the Allies.
45:31It was just difficult
45:37for us to conceive
45:38that the last shot
45:39had been fired,
45:41that the war
45:41was over, period.
45:43After six years,
45:45you get used
45:45to the war.
45:47The civilians as well.
45:48They've been through
45:49days and nights
45:50of bombings.
45:51They won't forget that
45:52for the rest
45:53of their lives.
45:55You can't just
45:56shake that off
45:56in one day.
45:58It takes time.
45:59After the surrender,
46:04Mustang pilot
46:05Roland Wright
46:06saw the destruction
46:07the bombers had wrought
46:08on the shattered country.
46:10Germany, Munich,
46:12was practically
46:13totally destroyed.
46:16The building,
46:16just rubble everywhere.
46:17You'd walk down
46:18the streets,
46:18there was no streets,
46:19you know,
46:20just absolute rubble
46:23everywhere.
46:25And you could see
46:27the suffering
46:28that they had
46:29endured too
46:30over there.
46:30So it was a,
46:33it made you glad
46:35that it was all
46:35over, really.
46:38I felt that I did
46:39my part to bring
46:40that to an end
46:41and that was it.
46:44The battles
46:45of 1944-45
46:46in the European
46:47theatre
46:48were not the last
46:49the P-51 Mustang
46:50would fight in.
46:55The Mustang
46:56floundered in Korea
46:57floundered in Korea
46:57in the 1950s.
46:59Pilots flew
47:00low-level missions,
47:01constantly exposing
47:02the plane's vulnerable
47:04underbelly
47:04to ground fire
47:05and flak.
47:08As jet fighters arrived,
47:11the Mustang
47:11was decommissioned.
47:13Today,
47:14the most experienced pilots
47:16fondly remember
47:16and some still fly
47:18the mythical P-51 Mustang,
47:21the dependable fighter
47:22that carried them
47:23straight to the heart
47:24of the Third Reich
47:25and ultimate victory.
47:54the pull-up
48:04of the Second Press
48:06and the understand
48:06theется
48:07that the德
48:12pénע
48:17of the Second Press
48:17and theof
48:19West
48:19andкое
48:20death
48:20and Allah
48:20and Allah
48:21and launder
48:21and the
48:22on the second
Recommended
48:07
|
Up next
47:41
49:12
49:13
48:05