Could You Survive as a Spitfire Pilot in World War Two?

[Music] foreign [Music] for as long as I can remember I've always been in awe of the Spitfire especially after hearing Tales from my great uncle who joined the RAF and would reminisce about his experience flying in them but why has the Spitfire remained arguably the most celebrated symbol of the country's spirited resistance during the second world war I'm Luke tomes and in this video I'm at the Battle of Britain air show in Duxford to learn more about the battle that cemented the spitfire's place in history the Spitfire sort of endured for the rest of the war because it became the raf's main fighter they were the the newer and more Cutting Edge fighter the pilots who flew in them during the second World War I cannot believe they wore this much stuff and why it occupies such a special place in British Hearts to this day you mix the sight and the sound together and people just adore Spitfires a direct descendant of a series of float planes competing for the coveted Schneider trophy in the 1920s the supermarine Spitfire was designed by engineer Reginald Mitchell in response to numerous air Ministry specifications throughout the mid-1930s calling for a fast and high performance fighter armed with wing-mounted machine guns little did Mitchell know that the aircraft would go on to become one of the most revered icons of British Air Combat foreign enough to speak to a few Spitfire pilots in my time indeed a couple of my family members joined the RAF and trained to fly Spitfires during the second world war now without fail they all said that there was something truly remarkable and unique about this aircraft which has remained the darling of the British media ever since it went into battle against the measuresmit 109s in the summer of 1940. it was then in the skies above Southern England that the Speedy agile aircraft played a crucial role in fending off fighter escorts of the German luftwaffe [Music] but does the spitfire's performance in the Battle of Britain alone truly warrant its subsequent acclaim I've come to the Imperial War museums Duxford Airfield to meet senior Creator Adrian Kerrison who I hoped would give me a better understanding of the pivotal air campaign and an objective view on the spitfire's performance within it okay Adrian let's set the scene it's the summer of 1940. France has fallen and now Britain is definitely concerned for its safety and the RAF was very important to the protection of the island how did the fleet of aircraft of the RAF compare to that of Germany's so in July 1940 which is essentially the first month of the Battle of Britain the RAF standed about 900 Fighters so that's Spitfires hurricanes Defiance and a few twin engine Fighters as well in comparison the luftwaffe has about 2 800 aircraft so on paper it looks like they're heavily outnumbered but in fact about 1100 of those uh luftwaffa forces are Fighters and the rest about 1700 are bombers and obviously bombers aren't a massive threat to RAF Fighters so um it's actually a bit more equal than it seems got it and we're here at doxford Airfield talk to me a bit about the positioning of this Airfield why was this so important and what role did Duxford play yeah in the summer of 1940. so Duxford was what was known as a sector station during the Battle of Britain so RAF fighter command essentially divided the country into these geographical groups and then the groups are then subdivided into sectors um and each sector had a sector station which was effectively the headquarters of the sector and it was where all the sectors squadrons were controlled and directed into combat so uh Duxford was in 12 Group which was basically covered the East Anglia the Midlands parts of Wales the industrial North so very wide area but duxford's sector was also at the very south of 12 group and it bordered 11 Group which was the area that covered um Southeast England and London London yeah of course so because it was so close to 12 group you find that in around September 1940 as the battle is like really heating up that 11 group was calling in 12 group for reinforcements Duxford was heavily involved in the 15th of September 1940 which a lot of us know is Battle of Britain day when it's commemorated and this is when the liftwaffe launched two massive raids on London uh hoping for it to be the final knockout beloved Battle of bridge and because all of 11 groups squadrons were committed to intercepting this raid 11 group called in 12 group to support and Duxford sent what was known as boders Big Win so this was a wing of five squadrons so on in the morning this was about 56 aircraft all flying together and they intercepted some of the raids over London and caused quite a lot of damage to the lift offer and they were sent out again later in the afternoon when they lived off the launched an even larger raid and they accounted for about 25 percent of the lift office losses that day so we'll uh talk a bit about the aircraft we've got one behind us shortly um earlier I saw the operations room can you tell me a bit about the different roles and the importance of that room during the Battle of Britain yeah so the operations room which was in the operations block was uh probably the most important building in Duxford and on other sector stations and in the operations room you had the the general picture of what was going on in the air yeah so on the the floor you would have the map table and this is where enemy movements are essentially tracked and kept up to date above that you would have what were known as tote boards and these would give the status of all the squadrons in the sector and at the station you'd also have information like weather and you'd have people triangulating the enemy aircraft and the friendly squadrons so that they can then direct them to be intercepted of course yeah so around the map table you would have air women of the women's auxiliary air force and they would be receiving plots from radar stations and observer Corps posts and they would be putting these on these little locks on the table and that would show you where the enemy formations were how many aircraft there were in them and their estimated height as well so then on the dice up above you'd have the control staff and the the head of that staff was the controller and he was usually also the station commanders that's the station Commander okay and he would look at this whole picture of everything that's going on and he would be the the key decision maker so he would see where the enemy formations are he'd be looking at the weather he'd be looking at the status of the squadrons how many aircraft he had available and then he would direct the squadrons where to go well that's the nerve center let's talk about the planes we've got a Spitfire behind us now am I correct in saying that this aircraft actually there were no hurricanes produced that's right as opposed to Spitfires well so in in the Battle of Britain if we look across the course of the whole battle um Spitfire squadrons were outnumbered by Hurricane squadrons roughly three to two so there were about 33 hurricane squadrons in the battle and 19 Spitfire squadrons hurricanes accounted for more of luftwaffe losses throughout the battle so around 55 okay that's interesting yeah but Spitfires still accounted for 45 they did having less less of them yeah yeah so they were obviously a very important part of uh fighter commands strength and they were the the newer and more Cutting Edge fighter and they had let's be honest better performance than the hurricane and do you think that's the reason why they Remain the most iconic aircraft and almost like a symbol of the Battle of Britain yeah I think um it's a good question because obviously we talked about how there were more hurricanes contributing to the battle yeah um but the Spitfire sort of endured for the rest of the war because it became the raf's main fighter not long after the battle and it would have been the main fire that people in Britain saw for the rest of the war so I think that has a lot to do with why it sort of became the symbol of the Battle of Britain even though it should technically be the hurricane they both [Music] thank you so Adrian we've talked about the planes we've talked about the nerve center the operations room talk to me about the pilots how many train Pilots were there and where did Britain Source its its pilots from uh there were about roughly 3 000 aircrew who took part in the Battle of Britain and a lot of these would have been pre-war regulars a lot of them would have come from sort of auxiliary Reserve squadrons as well and you also had around 500 600 pilots who were not British so you had a lot of Czech and polish Exiles and then you'd have Pilots contributing from the Commonwealth and even places like the United States and agent myths about the Battle of Britain there are quite a few aren't there there are yeah and I know it's a bit of a controversial thing to say but probably the biggest myth is that the RAF were very close to defeat during the Battle of Britain and this isn't really quite true um so you get people saying that the RAF were heavily outnumbered but we already talked about how a huge part of the luftwaffe's forces were bombers and the RAF also had this massive advantage over the luftwaffe in the doubting system and this is what provided uh radar information to the RAF and this essentially allowed the RAF to know when and where to expect enemy tax and to essentially preserve its resources that it had also the luftwaffe they they never really had a coherent strategy so they kept changing strategy and they were relying on faulty intelligence thinking that they were doing a lot more damage than they were and okay you know RAF air stations were easily repaired and the RAF were able to produce aircraft continuously throughout the battle so it wasn't as close run as people really make out another myth is that a lot of the RAF Pilots were very Posh and upper class oh yeah that's a good one but in fact only around 200 of the air crew had like a public school education really so that's really interesting I like that there were a lot of you know working-class pilots and the RAF at the time because it was one of sort of a newer service there was a lot more meritocracy so you know almost anyone could be a fighter pilot you might not make it to officer but you can still fly uh as a as a sergeant [Music] well then if it really was true that almost anyone could become a fighter pilot I thought I'd get started and familiarize myself with the gear [Music] the clothing and Equipment wasn't just designed for the rigors of battle it was pretty stylish too [Music] hi Jamie hello how are you doing great to meet you good to see you so you're part of the number 19 Squadron that's right we're Spirit of Britain portraying 19 Squadron pilots flying from Duxford in the Summer and Autumn of 1940. of course so these are one of the most famous squadrons from Battle of Britain aren't they indeed and here we have some of the gear don't we so this right here life jacket yep nicknamed the May West 1932 pattern uh yep life jacket sure yeah um as well to blow it up I guess uh we've got Irving flying jacket another classic piece of um flying clothing from the second world war that's b-type flying helmet Mark II goggles and a d-type oxygen mask oxygen mask okay 36 pattern flying boots keep your feet warm stick this screwed up here that's called a Prestige suit popular in a pre-war period and then the early part of the second world war quite common to seeing the Battle of Britain it's the same as what I'm wearing here but in Black just cotton you know we've got scarf scarf okay no pilot could be seen without his scarf they're again pretty vicious items why do they have to wear the scarves well I think it was a more of a style thing sometimes some people say it's to do with the neck and looking around you know the guys had style yeah you know they were proud of who they were and they dressed apart I can I can imagine and here this is a life jacket but another life jacket but this one has been doped got it um so if you see a Spitfire today when the Battle of brick runs the roundel on the side has a ring of yellow paint which is dope and the guys painted them so they would have started like this but you can't see that in the sea because they painted them lots pictures of 19 Squadron Stone painted both front and also the rear got the die marker pack this you pull and it looks uh die out into the sea to again try and Mark your location so you can be picked up by SC rescue uh we've got another b-flying helmet saying something we've looked at lots more things to show you but how about you get into some clothes and we'll try it on for size and see how you feel let's do it start with the Irving and we'll have a flying suit under that pair of 36 boots um let's go with the dope May West because that's that's the real one there we go and we'll stick a flying helmet up there and you would be lost without your scarf scarf let's get you changed pilot officer tomes reporting for Duty hi Jamie how do I look you're looking the part you look ready for your first saute how do you feel about that I feel yeah I feel I feel confident I feel very smart very stylish but I also feel very very hot I cannot believe they wore this much stuff well that's nothing if pilot officer Hills wants to step in you would have this uniform on underneath what you're wearing at the moment this is made of a wool Barrel fear uh it's built for warmth clothing in this period in Great Britain was built to keep you warm now you know you've got the shirt the detachable collar the tie the guys flew wearing the shirt and tie the whole lot you've got to remember once you get to altitude it gets colder so they'd be wearing this outfit underneath the overall that's correct which is about three layers down yep you might have your Woolen underwear on underneath then you've got your cotton poplin shirt and tie then the jacket then your flying suit Prestige soup Irvin jacket on top yeah May West and we've got the parachute which we haven't even got to yet but that's some more weight and that's gonna keep some more heat in because it's going to be a little bit restricting well we'll get to that bit later and let's start from the top um I'm actually going to push this back because I can't actually hear you guys that well I'm guessing that was for a reason wasn't it you'd have some mic there's my sound deadening in there because obviously when you're flying a Spitfire is a loud piece of equipment yeah so that's in there to deaden the sound so what you're getting is as much of the sound in your receivers as possible and who would you be speaking to you'd be speaking to your squadron leader or it could be depends you'd be speaking to guys in your flight you might be depending on the role speaking to the Ops room um or possibly Uxbridge or another one of the Ops rooms yeah and right here if I just actually take this off we have the uh the oxygen mask now would you need this at every single altitude or just when you're really no when you're low you don't need oxygen so you know you obviously have taken off they're not wearing oxygen masks but it will always be attached to this side ready to be fitted ready to use the microphone or the oxygen which plugs in into that here okay you've also got the goggles here Mark two flying goggles very iconic very early pair um yep again once you're you know possibly spotting the Target that you're going to go for that's the point where you're going to put the goggles on but the goggles on okay a lot of this is also doing fire protection the Irvin goggles you've got to remember that sometimes there was fires yeah a lot of the pilots were very very scared of fires to the point where they would wear um sidcot suits or Urban suits as much stuff as possible to protect themselves so if you've got your goggles on your mask you're protecting more of yourself got it okay that makes sense so I've just taken the life jacket off uh right this is the iconic jacket isn't it it's the sort of the urban suit jacket yep it's almost uh the Hallmark of the RAF pilot absolutely um hugely popular throughout the wall um worn by many aircrews also popular postal motorcyclists absolutely other adventuring types and you can see why you don't want to take it off do you no you want to go home in that jacket I do but I also it's also very hot and you said they were also were there you know warmed versions of this yep they had wired versions which had a heating element inside matching trousers uh inserts for the boots and also gloves so you could plug into the aircraft keep yourself warm that way and underneath here we've got the overalls so this you said would be you'd wear this and have that on over the top of your black overalls wool uniform um this is called a Prestige suit they were popular with motorists as well in the 1930s if you look at pictures racing car drivers a lot of them wear the white one I've got on the black became more popular in the early War period particularly um there's one famous pilot called dizzy Allen and he had a black suit and he said he bought a black suit because he thought was more in keeping with the mood of the time in 1940. got it okay they went out of um I'd say fashion but they you don't see them much after the Battle of Britain is more clothing and Equipment became available and last but not least the boots 1936 pattern flying boots again very warm it's just like it's a fur is so thick yeah um is there anything else that I'm forgetting parachute parachute yes on top of everything else can we try this on then is this uh you certainly can would you like to try it on over everything or how about just the May West for the for the sake of this yeah let's get your life jacket back on maybe I can bear nine or ten layers so this is the seat type parachute sometimes but it was the Pilot's parachute yes uh made by Irvin um this would have been worn by Spitfire Pirates hurricane Pilots anyone who's flying anyone who's a pilot essentially um so you see you've got the this is called the quick release box uh the idea is that you can hit this when you need to get out of your parachute maybe you're hanging up in a tree maybe you're in the sea but you need to get out quickly because that parachute could be doing you know something in the wind Something In The Water so you're dragging you down so if you pull those two up up is it as if I'm in a cockpit that's right that's what we're imagining this is going to come over the top we've got those two yeah I've got those two there we go and you're in so if you want to stand up and feel the weight oh boy I did not expect that at all so it's almost like part of the seat yeah so the seat has a recess in it to allow for the seat pack to sit in the seats also adjusted in height so you can move up and down depending on you know for takeoff you'll be at the top so you've got the best views you've got to remember you're sitting like this looking at the sky because the back of the airplanes on the ground yeah and the fronts like this so you can wind the seat up and then you're seeing a little bit more and I I'm just imagining having to eject essentially from from this uh from this aircraft you'd have to what's the process inside the canopy Sutton harness we've had to come off from over the top of this that's one holding you into the seat yeah then you've got to try and pull yourself out and you might be diving turning you could be under some G's yeah you could almost be pushed into the aircraft and you're gonna have to physically pull yourself outwards yeah and then you've got to get usually over the side and onto the wing so it's pulled off onto the side with this dragging behind that's right it's just yeah it doesn't even better the point you then pull this you're hoping whoever's packed it has done a good job yeah because if it's not packed right that's not going to open and you're brown bread after speaking to Jamie I wasn't so sure of being a Spitfire pilot really would have suited me supposing I had made the call nonetheless what would my training look like luckily John Romaine owner of the aircraft Restoration company and one of the pilots flying at the Duxford air show was on hand to talk me through it now a couple of uh my family members flew Spitfires during the second world war but I never got the chance to ask them what the process of training was like now there's perhaps no better person to ask than yourself take me through that training uh process we're next to what is this here this is this is a Spitfire 11. okay um and as you can see it has a tail wheel so it's sitting on the ground in a three-point attitude yep which means that from the cockpit you can see very little straightforward okay so that comes heavily into the training so we picked pilots who have got tail wheel experience they may have trained on tiger moths as they did during the second world war um or Chipmunks in the in today's age and then we put them into a T6 Harvard which is still a tail wheel airplane but much more powerful it has retracting undercarriage I think the variable position propellers and things like that that brings them up to the next level and from then we put them into a two-seat Spitfire got it of course during the war they weren't available as two seaters but they are now so we train them in the two seats fit fires and then eventually they go into the single seats got it and let's talk a bit about the Spitfire itself um it's a such a unique sounding uh aircraft why has it remained that the darling of the British media and the public and is still one of the most famous aircraft of all time I think it's a mixture um obviously you know just looking at the airplane it looks right doesn't it I mean a Spitfire really does look um a very you know streamlined pretty whatever you want to describe it as but it's a good looking airplane and so of course it it fell in people fell in love with the Spitfire um because of that because of the fact that it was a very successful fighter yeah um and it sounds great I mean the Merlin engine yep sounds iconic of course so you mix the sight and the sound together and people just adore Spitfires am I correct in saying that the Spitfire was the only British aircraft that from the start 1913 9 and lasted all the way up until 1945 I know you mentioned that they had to add weapons to it and change it up but yeah it went right through the war with development all the time so of course we started with the mark ones yeah and we ended up with Mark nine teams so another case all in between there is a lot of different airplanes but they were all developed to suit a need during the war so increasing speed increasing armaments all sorts of different things they were used for so John we're next to a Spitfire here can you yeah tell me a bit about some of the uh unique attributes of this aircraft okay well this one is a mark nine uh it was a single seat Mark nine now it's a two seat Mark nine okay and the mark nines had four blade propellers the earlier marks were okay but they started off originally with a simple two blade then they went to three blade then to four eventually to five with the Griffin engine so the development of more and more horsepower needed bigger propellers basically absolutely so this is the four blade um the blades on them interestingly are actually made of a wood substance so they're not metal they're actually wood and they're unique to the Spitfire uh pretty much some of the other Fighters had them um but most you know if you looked at an American fighter for instance there'd be metal metal okay so the Spitfire always had wooden blades and we come over to the uh these are cannons here right or would they be Browning machine guns no these are cannons so these are 20 millimeter cannons again that was something that the mark 9 carried um the mark fives also had uh 20 millimeter cannons but they had a mixture so they would different Wings on a Spitfire dictated what the Almond was so some had cannons some had cannons and machine guns so there was a variation of it is it true that they had about 15 seconds worth of ammunition yeah they didn't have long so the idea was that they would just do one or two second bursts right if you just held your finger on the button you'd get rid of your ammunition incredibly quick in seconds wow yeah it's and is that just because they couldn't carry that much ammunition especially yeah I mean if you look at the wing it's very slim yeah which helps of course with the speed but not so much but it didn't help so much when you're trying to push ammunition in there and or fuel and of course the the Spitfire did not have a a real great range so one hour 40 minutes was about the maximum you were going to get out of a Spitfire because there was nowhere to put the fuel um the fuel is actually carried in the fuselage okay yeah not in the wings and if we come round here to the cockpit very famous bubble uh yeah the bubble canopy yeah and the side hinging door again pretty unique to a Spitfire yep um and inside there of course you can see the the control column the instrumentation the undercarriage selecting units and the the front screen there that big pieces the armored glass so the gradually again through the development they started to fit armor to them so you'd have big pieces of steel plate behind the pilot to protect him got it some underneath the seat you'd have armored glass in the front there obviously to protect him from anything coming towards him and then in various places in the wings they fitted armor plate for instance behind the ammunition trays so that if the aircraft was hit by a shell that went into the ammunition areas the ammunition wasn't set off wouldn't blow up yep that's the real danger isn't it yeah that all added weight and so you know steel plate you know a good quarter of an inch thick gets heavy yeah and it can take it takes speed off really quick yeah and um talking about speed the pilots who had to as soon as they heard the alarm go off the siren how quickly did they have to get into these Spitfires and take off were as quick as possible basically but the the aircraft was they were always warm so the ground Crews kept the air the engines warm okay ready just in case and then chop the fuel up all the time so by the time that Bell did go the pilot literally ran to the airplane jumped in started and was gone they could take off so the only thing you really some of them even you know were still strapping the their parachute harnesses on so they were taxiing out because they would just had to get airborne as soon as they could the time of the air show I was understandably unable to get inside the cockpit of the famous aircraft but to certain Mr Dan snow had the opportunity to fly in a Spitfire a few years ago you can watch that documentary on History hit TV but anyway back to the Battle of Britain Air Show at Duxford where a crew of Pilots including John were about to give a very special display in honor of her majesty the queen foreign 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Channel: History Hit

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Id: nJzF1QBdKfs

Length: 30min 16sec (1816 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 12 2022