B-29 Superfortress Operation Against Germany

[Music] privacy on the internet is rare all sorts of snoopers want to monitor and collect data about your online activities Nord VPN shields you from them you can browse an ultimate privacy how Nord VPN sends your online traffic through a remote server within a worldwide network of secure VPN servers this way your real IP address has changed an online traffic is snoop proof Nord VPN keeps no logs of your internet activity along the way so you can surf the web without leaving a trace the kill switch ensures that your private data will not be exposed not even for a second in case the VPN connection drops when you connect to Nord VPN your device will only use dns service operated entirely by Nord VPN protecting you from DNS leaks sign up today at Nord VPN comm / mark Felton and enter the promo code mark Felton to get 70% off a three-year plan and an extra month for free protect yourself online today the boeing b-29 Superfortress the aircraft that helped defeat japan from the fire bombing campaign against her cities to the dropping of two atomic bombs but was this iconic aircraft used in Europe against the Germans well I can reveal that it was but not in the way you might think a single b-29 was active in England in 1944 as part of a clever propaganda campaign to frighten the Germans who feared that America was planning to unleash super fortresses against the Reich in support of the massive b-17 and Lancaster bombing raids that were turning Hitler's Germany into rubble the b-29 was developed in the late 1930s when it seemed certain that the US would be in a war with Japan in the future and the b-17 Flying Fortress was judged have inadequate range for the Pacific Theater Boeing won a design competition the b-29 began construction in 1941 production was complex but the first aircraft were ready for operations in spring 1944 the aircraft's four engines were prone to catastrophic failures making them temperamental birds capable of an altitude of almost 32,000 feet at 350 miles per hour its altitude and speed were its best protection against Japanese fighters and flak guns fully pressurized unlike the b-17s and b-24s used in Europe each had four remote-controlled turrets with two point 50 caliber machine guns in each turret the b-29 could carry a large bomb load over great distances and initially the u.s. did plan to use them against targets in Europe deploying them to British air bases in Egypt such was the plan but by the end of 1943 the plans were altered largely by production delays and President Roosevelt making a promise of assistance to nationalist China then resisting Japanese occupation to the eastern side of the country an operation called Matterhorn Reserve basis would be created in British India with all supplies for the Chinese bases having to be flown over the hump as the Himalayas came to be called by US air crews the question was how to get the b-29s to southern China it was decided that the aircraft will fly in groups from the US across the Atlantic to Africa and then on to India before tackling the hump to China there was a not unfounded fear that in March or April 1944 German aircraft based in France or northern Italy could intercept the b-29s as they came into range the usaaf decided to fool the Germans into looking at England and not Africa a single b-29 was detailed to pique the interest of the Germans while four groups of b-29s took the southern route to India via Africa why b-29 hobo queen departed Marietta Georgia for England on the 1st of March 1944 on a top-secret mission hobo Queen was a special aircraft the YB designation meant that she was one of fourteen improved test models and not a production version hobo Queen was the only y b-29 to serve overseas in world war ii the aircraft piloted by Colonel Frank Cooke flew to Gander in Newfoundland to refuel before embarking on the final stage of the flight across the Atlantic to RAF sent Morgan in Cornwall in the West of England arriving on the 6th of March 1944 on the 8th of March hobo Queen flew to RAF passing born and from there made a series of excursions to Royal Air Force and US bases in southern England such as RAF net ashore Horsham son faith now Norwich Airport and gladden before returning descent Morgan at each locality the b-29 attracted huge crowds of British and American service personnel who marveled at the giant plane and Winston Churchill General Eisenhower and other VIPs also visited the aircraft as well pyaare hobo queen tested runways for weight carrying capacity and importantly was captured on film by a high-flying German reconnaissance flight he was intended that the Germans should deduce that hobo queen was an advanced aircraft for a large b-29 bomber force that would soon start to pound Germany in fact hobo Queen arrived in England in the midst of the biggest German air campaign against the UK since the London Blitz in 1941 operation Steinbach sometimes called the baby blitz saw hundreds of German bombers launched nightly bombing campaign against British towns and cities between January and May 1944 naturally aerial reconnaissance was stepped up during Steinbach he was one of these German flights that bagged photos of hobo Queen sitting on a British airfield exactly as the Americans planned to help reinforce the cover story apparently propaganda leaflets were dropped over Germany and details of the new American aircraft were published in the Nazi Party newspaper the volca sure be a bhakta the four groups of b-29s BAMF India traversed the southern route via Africa without incident and hobo Queen herself departed flying via Marrakesh in Morocco to Cairo on the 4th of April the next day she arrived at Karachi then in British India and on the 6th of April arrived at keurig poor india preparatory to crossing the hump to china and operations against the japanese hobo queen apparently survived the war and was scrapped in the late 1940s back in the US so why didn't the Americans use b-29s against Germany the answer was simple by June 1944 when the b-29s had actually been planned to enter combat missions in Europe b-17 and B 24 bombers could reach any point in Germany the b-29s great range was better employed against Japan in the vast spaces of the Pacific but though hobo Queens visit had been purely propaganda b-29s did fly bombing missions from the UK but not until 1946 project ruby was a top-secret endeavor to test deep penetration bombs against reinforced concrete structures during the war the British and Americans had faced daunting challenges in trying to knock out German u-boat pens and V weapons facilities due to their massively thick concrete roofs it had led them to the development of immense conventional bombs like the RAF 12,000 pound tall boy and the grand slam a twenty-two thousand pound British earthquake bomb post-war tests were required against ground targets fortunately war devastated Europe was littered with abandoned German facilities that fit the bill somewhere far from civilian settlement was required and the USAAF selected the former u-boat pen on the island of helgeland of Germany's North Sea coast three b-29s fresh from the bombing campaign against Japan flew to RAF Marham in Norfolk England arriving on the 15th of March 1946 accompanied by four b-17s with maintenance administrative and technical staff three more b-17s from raf mildenhall also joined the bombing trials that commenced on the 25th of March a series of old and new bombs were dropped by the b-29s and b-17s on the u-boat pen including the American 22,000 pound Amazon bomb the rocket assisted four and a half thousand pound Disney Bomb American and British Grand Slams and tall boys and various armor-piercing munitions none of the bombs managed to penetrate the Yubel shelter's twenty three foot thick roof it meant that more development work was required to produce better bunker busters for future Wars but that's not quite the end of the story b-29s will become a common sight in the skies over eastern England after the war RAF Bomber Command lacked a modern jet bomber under the introduction of the English Electric Canberra in 1954 to bridge the gap from the old Lancaster's of world war ii the u.s. loaned the raf surplus b-29s re-designated the b1 washington they equipped several bomber squadrons between 1950 and 1954 until return to the US Air Force thanks for watching please subscribe and share also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark Felton details below you can also help support both of my channels at PayPal and patreon and details in the description box [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,258,317

Rating: 4.9172773 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton Productions, B-29, B-17

Id: RKgQBpP5kVs

Length: 10min 54sec (654 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/FakedThunder]

Green B-29s feel wrong

[u/Lordie__]

Teacher: you cant hear pictures

Me A smart Boi: *BLOOD ON THE RISERS INTENSIFYS*