Gladiator - The Forgotten Battle of Britain Fighter

[Music] when we think of the battle of britain that huge aerial clash in 1940 between the raf and the luftwaffe over the skies of southern england images of spitfires and hurricanes often come to mind of the few the fighter command pilots who outnumbered and exhausted scrambled day after day to stop hitler's plan to knock britain out of the war what we don't normally think of are biplanes flying machines more readily associated with the first world war rather than the second but backing up the sleek spitfires and hurricanes were a handful of biplane fighters nimble and well-armed gloucester gladiators the raf's last biplane fighter but completely outclassed not only by the raf's new fighters but also by those of the luftwaffe forming a second line of defense the last gladiators in britain were thrown into combat even though no longer suitable for modern war [Music] the gloucester gladiator had first entered service in 1937 the raf's last biplane fighter by september 1937 eight gladiator squadrons were operational tasked with the defense of london pilots generally like them though they could be tricky to land could stall abruptly and could easily enter a flat spin which could be fatal for inexperienced pilots unlike earlier biplane fighters it had a fully enclosed cockpit and could manage a top speed of 253 miles per hour [Applause] it was armed with 4.303 inch machine guns it had a service ceiling of 32 800 feet and a cruising speed of about 210 miles per hour however in 1938 the spitfire and hurricane began to enter frontline raf service and the gladiators days were numbered by the time hitler invaded poland in september 1939 most gladiators had been withdrawn from frontline service in the uk but a few lingered on with both the royal air force and the royal navy's fleet air arm two gladiator squadrons had gone to france in 1939 to support the british expeditionary force but run the campaign in 1940 all the aircraft were lost proving that the gladiator was no match for german fighters like the messerschmitt bf-109 in the desperate events that surrounded britain's evacuation from dunkirk the raf even added a flight of gladiators from raf manston in kent to help provide cover for the little ships faring british and french troops off the evacuation beaches at the same time sea gladiators of number 804 naval air squadron flying from hadston patrolled the air over the royal navy's fleet anchorage at scapa flow in the orkney islands off the north coast of scotland though they didn't intercept any german aircraft down on the south coast of england the raf's number 247 squadron fully equipped with gladiators was ordered to protect the devonport naval base at plymouth flying from raf robera this squadron's presence allowed spitfires and hurricanes to be moved east to engage in the battle of britain however devonport naval dockyard was a prime target for german bombers as demonstrated on the 25th of september 1940 when an incoming german raid was picked up by radar consisting of 24 dornier 17 bombers escorted by 12 messerschmitt 110s four gladiators were scrambled from robra ordered to intercept the german formation and though it appeared a suicide mission the pilots nevertheless did their duty however moments before the gladiators found the german formation it was pounced on by hurricanes at number 601 squadron which scattered the germans the gladiators gamely gave chase but were not fast enough to catch the bombers or their escorts the one occasion gladiators came close enough to open fire on the enemy was from the latter part of the battle of britain a pair of sea gladiators on a training flight out of royal naval air station yeovilton in somerset one flown by trainee and future test pilot legend eric winkle brown spotted a pair of heinkel he 111 bombers approaching the coast though trainers the sea gladiators were fully armed just in case of such a situation and they immediately moved to attack as anti-aircraft guns on the coast also opened fire on the intruders [Music] brown had lined up on one heinkel and just flipped his gun button to fire when both bombers exploded in a huge detonation that almost took the sea gladiators with them an anti-aircraft shell had scored a very lucky hit on one of the 111s the shell exploding in the bombay setting off the full bomb load the resulting detonation taking out the other 111 as well when brown and his companion landed back at yeovilton both aircraft were full of holes from flying debris but because the aircraft's skin was doped fabric over a metal framework rather than all metal like more modern aircraft the gladiators had absorbed the punishment well once the battle of britain was over number 247 squadron re-equipped with the hurricane though the gladiator would continue to serve in the front line in north africa and east africa and most famously drink the gallant defense of the island fortress of malta in the eastern mediterranean in greece in 1940-41 raf gladiators fought enemy biplane fighters italian cr-42 falcos in scenes reminiscent of world war one the top world war ii gladiator ace was flight lieutenant pat pattle of the raf who had 15 and a half confirmed aerial victories in his gladiator gladiators saw extensive service with china finland sweden and elsewhere and with the irish air corps who also used them to shoot down runaway british barrage balloons that had drifted into irish airspace even the luftwaffe used the gladiator several examples captured from the latvian air force were used as glider tugs in germany until 1943. the last operational gladiators were retired by portugal in 1953. out of 747 gladiators built eight complete or partial airframes still exist in museums with two still airworthy both in the uk [Applause] thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the 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Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 423,987

Rating: 4.9798961 out of 5

Keywords: Mark Felton, Gloster Gladiator, Battle of Britain, Spitfire, Hurricane

Id: xTpJA9-3vOs

Length: 8min 8sec (488 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021