A Crashed German Bomber's Final Stand - True Story of Battle of Graveney Marsh

coming up on a bombing raid over london a german bomber is shot down forced to crash land on english soil but in a strange turn of events and in an effort to destroy crucial top-secret intel the german airmen decide to fight back on the ground against british soldiers instead of surrendering in this video we will take a look at this unusual encounter that would be the first armed battle on british soil in over 150 years first a quick shout out to my patreon supporters if you want access to behind the scenes videos and bonus content please check out the patreon link in the description the british fighting spirit in world war ii can best be summarized by winston churchill's famous we shall fight on the beaches speech in june of 1940 we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air we shall defend our island whatever the cast may be during those warm summer months the battle of britain was raging on between british and german air forces the germans led by hitler had been working hard at pushing britain out of the european battlefields by implementing their fast and hard blitzkrieg attacks with the defeat and retreat of the british troops and french army britain knew that a german invasion was inevitable and could happen any day but the british did not have plans to surrender anytime soon if germany had any hope of victory they would have to conquer the skies and gain the upper hand over their landing areas in other words the luffa would have to destroy the raf spitfire and hurricane squadrons during these intense air battles when allied or axis aircraft were struck down by enemy pilots they were usually not keen on putting up a fight after bailing out despite having the means to do so most pilots were armed with some kind of personal weapon or pistol that they could defend themselves with if needed but many knew that this was pointless when a plane crash landed or the crew was forced to bail out most airmen could expect to be greeted by enemy troops and civilians looking to capture them within minutes an important note here is that the downed german pilots in england did not have the same situation when bailing out over enemy territory as the allies did when the british pilots bailed out over france they were often aided by french civilians the germans on the other hand had nearly every civilian in england sternly opposed to them this made the choice to surrender peacefully an easy decision for these downed german airmen however this was not the case when it came to one fateful german crash during the battle of britain this small scuffle which would go on to be named the battle of graveny marsh was not only notable for having enemy pilots resist capture through fighting back but it was the first armed confrontation between british forces and enemy troops on british soil since the french landing at fishgard in 1797 in the napoleonic wars in july of 1940 the german bomber group comptusvaga 77 made the decision to use france as their base as the blitz began to shift their role to nocturnal attacks this group participated in the massive raid on london on september 26th and 27th of that year their night raid was a success and they released their payloads over the city in the late hours of the night however on the mission their bomber took a direct hit from anti-aircraft fire and was severely damaged this would cause them to be separated from the rest of their group as they had to fly much slower than the rest of the bombers as the sun rose over england their plane was spotted trying to limp home in the early hours of september 27th by patrolling raf fighters the british pilots that saw this bomber realize that it was one of the newer ju-88 models that had just been put into service the raf had passed down orders to their pilots to keep an eye out for any new german aircraft and if possible to treat them with care when shooting them down in case there was any information that could give british intelligence a leg up in the war following orders they shot down the bomber gently making sure to damage it just enough where it couldn't fly home when the severely damaged aircraft was no longer able to stay in the air the german pilot brought the youngers down for a wheels up crash landing in a place called graveny marsh in kent after landing with only minor injuries the crew was already working to arm themselves before the troops could get to their crash site the commanding crew member likely ordered his crew to defend the aircraft at whatever means necessary to ensure that the rest of the crew would have time to destroy any equipment that could give british troops any sort of intel on plans or even worse the technology itself one prime example of this was the brand new top secret bomb site computer that this particular ju-88 was equipped with the german crew members shuffled around their plane in hurried steps as they work towards destroying the equipment as fast as possible but it was too late for them british troops were already on their way in a stroke of luck for the british a few members of the a company 1st battalion london irish rifles were enjoying a pint at a pub nearby when they heard the plane crash as they drew closer to the crast ju-88 the machine guns on board of the german bomber still operating at full capacity opened fire at the british soldiers the men responded with their own rifles taking cover and gauging the situation at hand when the british saw an opening they took a flanking movement along a dike nearby for a brief moment the british troops thought that the jew 88 had given up and started to approach it until they opened fire once again raining down even more machine gun fire upon them the british soldiers immediately retaliated with heavy return fire their bullets tore through the thin layer of metal on the outside of the aircraft pinning the germans down they likely realized that their situation was not looking good and surrendered shortly thereafter once the german crew was stripped of all their weapons the british soldiers found and disarmed a demolition bomb that was placed by the crew members as the british were checking over everything one of their german fluent soldiers overheard the members of the crew whispering about another bomb that was set to explode shortly the soldier then alerted their captain john cantifer who wasted no time acting and ordering everyone to evacuate the area the courageous captain cantifer clambered back into the aircraft determined to preserve the valuable intel he searched for the bomb in the back of the plane and once located through the metal box into a ditch nearby saving both the captured plane and the new top secret bomb site computer in addition he could have very likely saved british lives who may have been in the aircraft when the bomb went off the intelligence that cantifer managed to save would be thoroughly examined by british intelligence for any kind of clue or information that could be useful in the allied forces for the war after the strange incident the british soldiers actually welcomed their new german prisoners to their country by treating them to drinks at a nearby pub the londoners and irish soldiers treated them with respect despite being on opposing sides they had a pleasant meal together before handing the german airmen over to military police captain cantifer would later be awarded the george medal for his courage and gallantry in the battle of graveny marsh and it would later be said that the intel from this captured german bomber would be of substantial value to british high command i hope you enjoyed this historical recreation please make sure to click subscribe and comment if you have any ideas for future videos if you want to support my content and get awesome bonus videos please check out the patreon link in the description of this video thanks for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: TJ3 History

Views: 173,670

Keywords: battle of graveney marsh, Battle of Britain, Historic, History Channel Dogfights, Documentary, IL-2 Sturmovik, IL2, Bomber Crash Landing, YarnHub, IL2 Crashes, Junker Ju88, Flight Sim, battle of graveney marsh in kent, Ju88 Last Stand, WW2, Ju-88 Bomber, World War II Flight Sim, Mark Felton, IL-2 Great Battles, IL2 Game, WWII, Crashed Bomber Fights Back, IL-2 Crashes, IL-2 Highlights, IL-2 Flight Sim, Combat Flight Sim, Ju88 War Thunder, Realistic, Gameplay, dogfighting Game

Id: x7cVPnnpH4U

Length: 8min 54sec (534 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 08 2021