A Hawker Hurricane Rams a Do 17 to Save Buckingham Palace

during the ferocious battle of britain between august and september of 1940 there was plenty of bravery and sacrifice one such act occurred on the decisive day of september 15 1940 during the raid on the city of london ray holmes a young royal air force fighter pilot tasked with taking down enemy bombers went above and beyond the call of duty defending his country after running out of ammo without blinking the raf pilot rammed his hawker hurricane into a heavily armed dornier do-17 that was on its way to bomb buckingham palace he succeeded sacrificing his aircraft to take down the german bomber his action became one of the most well-known cases of aerial ramming during world war ii reyholm's name would become a synonym of british patriotism for being willing to sacrifice himself in the name of his country after taking over poland with the help of the soviet union in 1939 hitler and the german high command turned to the west to avenge the humiliation that germany had to endure for more than a decade after signing the one-sided treaty of versailles the german army the vermont swiftly took france before the french could blink and put up an effective defense it was 1940 and after trying to negotiate a very reasonable peace with the british people hitler decided that there was no other way to secure the western frontier than by invading the uk and forcing winston churchill to surrender during august and september 1940 germany would try to wipe out the british defenses to initiate operation sea lion an amphibious assault on british shores on september 15 1940 during the battle of britain's climax ray holmes from the royal air force volunteer reserve was flying with the 504th squadron trying to repel enemy bombers from penetrating into the heart of london [Music] his team spotted a formation of three dornier do-17 bombers of campground 76 but it managed to get past british anti-air defenses at more than 4 000 meters from the ground a ferocious battle began when ray holmes known by his mates as rt got close to one of the bombers he was fired upon by the flame throwers of one dornier do however at 40 000 meters the weapon was useless and holmes windscreen only got covered in oil when the oil cleared away he barely had a second to react and avoid crashing into the enemy aircraft after a successful roll almost poured his machine gun into the second dornier causing a crew member to bail out the german's parachute got stuck in homes a starboard wing before sliding off as the firefight raged on sergeant homes saw that they were close too close to buckingham palace the enemy was going to vomit and he had to stop it no matter the cost holmes quickly climbed his hawker hurricane ahead of the german bomber to make a head-on attack but he realized he'd run out of ammo when he was about to shoot the enemy aircraft was severely damaged and holmes concluded that only one option was left to destroy it before it reached buckingham in the book battle of britain by matthew parker holmes recalled quote as i fired my ammunition gave out i thought hell he's got away now and there he was coming along and his tail looked very fragile and very inviting so i thought i'd just take off the tip of his tail so i went straight at it along with him and hit his port fin with my port wing after the impact holmes hawker immediately stopped responding and went into a vertical dive he bailed out and during the adrenaline-filled seconds that followed he briefly saw the german dornier going down without its tail near the victoria tube station when he was interviewed decades later by members of the battle of britain monument rt recalled what he thought instance before charging the enemy aircraft quote there was no time to weigh up the situation his airplane looked so flimsy i didn't think of it as solid and substantial i just went on and hit it for six i thought my aircraft would cut right through it not allowing for the fact that his plane was as strong as mine sergeant homes was then held by the press as a war hero for saving buckingham palace after landing successfully he kept fighting until the end of the war [Applause] in 1989 ray holmes published his autobiography sky spy where he shared his aviation experiences and the actions that made him a war hero in 2004 64 years after ramming his aircraft into the german bomber the remains of the hawker hurricane rt piloted during the battle of britain were excavated holmes himself had the chance of watching the aircraft's joystick that was set to fire mode one year later in 2005 sergeant ray holmes passed away during a military commemoration air vice marshal barry newton honorary inspector general of the royal auxiliary air force said quote sergeant holmes deserves the highest praise for his courage and determination it is fitting that the date of september 15th when he slammed his hurricane into that dornier has now come to be known as battle of britain day and has been commemorated every year since you

Channel: Dark Footage

Views: 606,854

Rating: 4.9141359 out of 5

Keywords: ww2, wwii, footage, image, photos, Buckingham Palace, hawker hurricane, do 17, dark footage, history, documentary, world war 2, indy neidell ww2, london, britain, the blitz

Id: eu6bwu_5DdI

Length: 5min 43sec (343 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021