SPITFIRE | A Documentary

it's late may 1940 the tattered would-be remains of the allied armies lie in a tense wait for the german blitzkrieg to roll over them for a final time but the armies would never come and instead the ever-famous luftwaffe would be the ones to want them out the pilots of the meschismet bf-109 were confident nothing they had faced so far could put up a fight that could match them they strongly believed that wherever the 109 flew they would be victory and they had little reason to doubt this claim but as they flew to dunkirk they met an aircraft that would throw this confidence aside an aircraft that would put a stop to their dominance in the skies an aircraft that they would fear the spitfire [Music] it was here in southampton that the spitfire was born of the aviation company supermarine supermarine hadn't made its name creating fighters however but instead seaplanes racing seaplanes the story starts all the way back in 1917 when supermarine advertised to a personal assistant for the owner hubert scott payne the man they chose had impressed scott payne so much that he was hired there and then and his name was reginald joseph mitchell rj mitchell had no experience in the air industry instead being trained as an apprentice for a locomotive engineering company but what he didn't know he taught himself and just two years after he was hired by supermarine he was promoted to chief designer later that year scott payne decided he wanted to race in the schneider trophy contest which would shift supermarine's focus onto making record-breaking cutting-edge aircraft the schneider trophy was an annual race for seaplanes and flying boats often seeing hundreds of thousands of spectators at its peak schneider trophy aircraft would break airspeed world records and it was incredibly important in developing aviation technology many technologies developed for the schneider trophy would be adopted in combat aircraft during world war ii supermarine's first attempt at winning the trophy was in 1919 using a modified flying boat that they had already designed for other purposes which they named the sea lion unfortunately while competing the aircraft hit some debris in the water and sank leading to an italian victory later on however the italian entry was disqualified for not correctly going around the course marked by boys in the water the next two competitions took a hit from the global financial instability of the time and only the italian team completed the circuit as no other nation entered into the competition in 1920 and in 1921 the only other entry a french aircraft wasn't able to start the race because of their disqualification from the 1919 race the italian team had just fallen short of winning the race three times in a row the first nation to win the schneider trophy three times in a row would keep the trophy permanently if italy won again then this honour would go to them but supermarine's sea lion 2 flying boat was the victor in 1922 cutting off the italian winning streak in 1923 the americans joined the fray funded by the us navy who saw the value in such a competition and changed the way that the schneider trophy races would be flown instead of the flying boat that had been used since the end of the first world war the american team brought a seaplane the difference in performance and cost was staggering rj mitchell had a real challenge on his hands and this is where the spitfire truly began the next year in 1924 both the british aircraft crashed before the race and the french and italians didn't turn up so the competition was cancelled following some financial trouble james byrd took over the supermarine company from scott payne but was happy to continue participation in the schneider trophy races by 1925 mitchell had realized that the age of the racing flying boat had long since passed and out of this realization came the supermarine s4 on its very first flight the s4 broke the world seaplane speed record and the british entrance to the 1925 schneider trophy went to america riding on high hopes but the s4 had been designed and tested in the waters around southampton a very different area to the course that would be flown in the 1925 race and during pre-race trials pilot henry beard crashed the plane meaning that the s4 was unable to compete in the actual race beard although injured did survive and said that he had lost control of the aircraft due to high wing vibration in the high g turns so the usa had won the schneider trophy two times in a row meaning they only had to win the next race to be able to keep the trophy for good but by now the british air ministry had started to notice the value of the schneider trophy in developing high-speed aeroplane technology and they were willing to sponsor supermarine in their efforts to create and fly a winning design mitchell began work on the s5 in italy the relatively new fascist dictator benito mussolini sent out a call to italian aircraft manufacturers to win the schneider trophy at all costs which would both increase national unity and would display to the world the strength of his fascist nation but when race day came in 1926 the supermarine s5 wasn't ready but the new italian design the machi m39 was flying against the unimproved american design from the year before it won the race handing the trophy back to italy for the first time since 1921. when the 1927 race came around the next year mitchell's supermarine s5 was ready and while it looked very similar to the s4 it was a great improvement it dominated the race watched by a quarter of a million spectators who all saw supermarine's s5s take first and second place britain had won the trophy but now they had to keep it after the 1927 race there was a mutual agreement between the teams to extend the time between races to two years meaning that each nation would have more time to design test and fly their aircraft but while mitchell was designing the s6 the engineering company vickers wanted to purchase a pre-existing aviation company one of the options being supermarine who were approached with an offer james byrd knowing all too well that supermarine's and indeed mitchell's true potential was locked behind a lack of funds agreed to sell to vickers staying on as managing director it seems there were two main reasons for vickers buying supermarine the first being that there weren't many other logical options to go for and the second was rj mitchell mitchell's talents would have been no secret and neither was his contract that stated that if another company were to buy supermarine he would be obliged to stay on for at least another five years while mitchell was away on holiday in 1925 vickers sent the engineer barnes wallace the man who would later go on to design the bouncing bomb to try to make changes in supermarine to maximize its profitability he promptly sat himself in mitchell's office and began making changes around the supermarine factory now mitchell prided himself in his ability to do every job there was to be done in the factory whether it was at the drawing board designing aircraft or on the shop floor building them this led to an intense knowledge of the factory he worked in and how everything was done and indeed a lot of respect from every worker there as they all knew that he could do their jobs if he ever wanted to so when mitchell returned home to find a new man in his office shuffling his factory around he was furious and instantly moved wallace to the loft and told his staff not to make him comfortable wallace complained and eventually the mata was raised with the vicar's board but mitchell threatened to resign if wallace was not removed from supermarine and so naturally wallace was removed from supermarine and sent back to vickers but it wasn't all office drama for mitchell he had work to do he had felt he had bled as much as he could from the napier line engine that he had been using and so he went to henry royce co-founder of rolls royce to request the production of a new engine for his plane this new engine had over double the power of the engine used in the s5 but with all that power came major cooling problems nevertheless the supermarine s6 won the race and five days later broke the world airspeed record at 357 miles an hour or 575 kilometers an hour now it was britain's turn to be won race off permanent victory but in 1929 a major world event would shape the hopes of supermarine even being able to develop a new plane for the 1931 race the wall street crash with the wall street crash and the economic depression that followed the air ministry withdrew funding for british aviation companies for the schneider trophy of course both vickers and supermarine suffered during the great depression with supermarine having to lay off a third of their construction staff vickers helped keep supermarine afloat by contracting some of their own work to them meanwhile in their continued bid to win the schneider trophy outright for britain there was a surge of public support for supermarine and money was being raised to fund a new design but not enough it would take the rather surprising investment of a hundred thousand pounds from the very wealthy and eccentric lady houston to both give supermarine the funds it needed to compete again and pushed the government into giving support back to the project which they eventually did with the government backing them once again and the funds needed finally secured mitchell's last obstacle was time because it had taken supermarines so long to get to the stage where they could go ahead with designing something for the schneider trophy there wasn't enough time to design a completely new aircraft so mitchell began refining the design of the previous race into the supermarine s6b one of the issues that he sought to target was the cooling problems of the rolls-royce r engine so he made use of every surface he could including the enlarged floats to run radiators through to help cool the engine he would later refer to the s6b as the flying radiator and even the pilot had to be careful not to touch the outside of the aircraft lest he burn himself despite all the effort when race day came none of the other nations had been able to get an aircraft ready in time and so the s6bs flew to an uncontested victory bringing the trophy home forever to their home country where it still sits today in the london science museum two weeks later they smashed the s6's world record meanwhile in the air ministry hugh dowding one of the heroes of the battle of britain was forging a story of his own he had often challenged the traditional philosophies of those around him but managed to advance through the ranks anyway in 1932 the then prime minister stanley baldwin made a famous speech in which he declared that the bomber will always get through a philosophy that was held by pretty much everyone else of importance it was thought that a multi-engined larger bomber aircraft would always outperform single engine fighters as they did at the time of the speech dowding disagreed believing that a highly sophisticated defense network with fighters as its front-line force could defend from a bomber threat he clearly had some success as in 1931 the air ministry issued specification f730 to various aviation companies including supermarine to replace its aging frontline fighter the specification ordered a fighter with a minimum speed of 195 miles an hour at 15 000 feet and 4.303 machine guns as armament keen to broaden their range of aircraft and draw upon knowledge they had gained from the schneider trophy supermarine designed the type 224 for the specification they requested that the name spitfire be reserved for them although this request was denied in 1934 the prototype went into production as the specification had encouraged it was powered by the rolls-royce goshawk engine despite the engine's many flaws it had a large gull wing configuration which was done to reduce the size needed for the undercarriage and therefore reduced drag but this also came with its own flaws in the form of lessened stability overall supermarine's type 224 was a complete failure when tested but mitchell refused to just give up instead looking to refine his design the gull wings were abandoned and a fully retractable undercarriage was installed the machine guns were moved from the nose to the wings so that they could fire free from the main propeller and the previously open cockpit now had an enclosed canopy the design was much more sleek and modern and being so different to the type 224 it was called the type 300 but the air ministry had already rejected supermarine and so the new design never even got a prototype while the ministry chose the gloucester gladiator biplane as their new frontline fighter it was around this time where mitchell after feeling unwell for several months decided to go for a medical examination only to tragically find out he had rectal cancer and was advised to go for an immediate operation the operation did what it could but mitchell would have to wear a colostomy bag for the rest of his life one that he was told may not last long as the cancer would likely return most would have chosen this point to retire indeed the great henry royce had retired when his cancer treatment forced him to wear a colostomy bag mitchell didn't retire nor did he ever complain so much so that no one at supermarine even knew of his disability and instead of giving up on the type 300 mitchell and his team sought to refine the design the now sir hugh dowding had been one of many that had high hopes for the type 224 but was sorely disappointed by its performance with doubting seeing the static undercarriage as a major flaw in the type 224's design upon hearing that supermarine was trying to refine it the air ministry's director of technical development air commodore cave brown cave sent a letter advising dowding to officially support supermarine's revised design dowding naturally agreed and the air ministry wrote to supermarine expressing their support for the project while they did not directly place an order it was clear that they wanted the innovators of the schneider trophy races to create a fighter design that an increasing number of air ministry staff believed they sorely needed one of the primary problems with the type 224 was its engine the rolls-royce gothawk engine that powered it only ran at 660 horsepower and given that the schneider trophy engine the rolls-royce r had run at over 2700 horsepower mitchell knew that they could do better the rolls-royce r was of course too large and impractical for a fighter plane but rolls-royce were developing a new engine possibly in collaboration with supermarine trying to develop a proper high-performance fighter the new engine would go on to power some of the most famous allied aircraft of the war from the hurricane to the p-51 mustang from the lancaster to the mosquito but at the beginning it was simply called the pv-12 and was being designed to reach at least a thousand horsepower thanks to supermarine's great relationship with rolls royce it was very quickly decided that the new engine would be the one used for mitchell's redesign of the type 300. soon after sydney cam who was also designing a monoplane interceptor would use the pv12 as the engine for his design two years later the pv12 would get a name merlin now that the problem of the engine had been solved mitchell and his team sought to further refine their design one of the failures that they had identified with the type 224 was the thickness of the wing even after the type 300 was drawn up with its much thinner wing they weren't satisfied they didn't just want to fix the thick wing as the type 224 they wanted to make the new wing as thin as possible to do this mitchell decided to go with an elliptical wing design which would create more lift therefore giving more room to make the wing thinner it had several other advantages too for example a very wide cord at the wing root which had several benefits in itself one being that it meant the wing would be able to more easily accommodate retractable landing gear and more weapons it also gave the wing much higher stability meaning that the aircraft would be more stable at very high speeds like a dive and it meant that the aircraft could turn much tighter than other aircraft without the wing tearing off being able to deal with as much as 9g as 1935 dawned the air ministry awarded an official contract to supermarine in the form of a completely new aircraft specification created to suit the advancing type 300 specification f3734 as the year went on an important change in design from the original type 300 was requested there was a growing realization in the more active and forward-thinking members of the air ministry that a stronger armament would be needed on fighters if they were to shoot down a bomber effectively in addition it was realised that the only two machine gun manufacturers in britain didn't have enough designs to fight a war should a war come to britain one of these forward-thinking men captain ch keith toured european machine gun factories to try to find suitable guns to manufacture in britain squadron leader ralph sawley also looked at foreign guns to bring over the channel one such weapon was the 20 millimeter hispano cannon but that was at the time seen as too unreliable certainly at least to fit onto a fighter later on ch keith would call an informal conference to discuss armament for fighter aircraft sawley would also attend this conference as would keith's scientific officer captain fw hill keith and hill presented graphs and calculations made by hill and his 13 year old daughter to the men at this conference who all eventually decided that in order to shoot down a bomber in the two seconds that it was expected that a pilot could keep a bomber in his sights a fighter would need eight machine guns double the amount that was currently on the designs of supermarine's type 300. it was also realised that the vickers machine guns that were currently standard in fighter planes would not be adequate for continued production of eight gun fighters as spare parts and replacements for the guns left over after the first world war were in relatively short supply it was therefore decided that a new gun would have to be used and trials pointed to the browning machine gun to be the best choice ch keith traveled to america to try to get a licence to manufacture the guns in england and after a long tour managed to do so on sorley's fervent recommendation the request to change the four gun armament to eight came in the form of yet another new aircraft specification f-1035 which also came with a minimum top speed requirement of 310 miles an hour it soon became apparent that this new specification may already be met by the monoplanes being designed by supermarine and hawker both with their own private specifications as the type 300 design became more and more refined it was time to build a prototype but this was fraught with constant delay the first prototype was originally scheduled for october 1935 but then delayed until january 1936 and then delayed further finally in march 1936 the first prototype of the supermarine spitfire was ready k-5054 the first tests at supermarine were successful with the pilot praising the handling of the plane mitchell however was disappointed it had a predicted top speed of 350 miles an hour but was only able to reach 335 miles an hour mitchell was worried that if the k-5054 prototype couldn't reach the target speed then it wouldn't be put into full production by the air ministry as it wouldn't be seen as superior to hawker's hurricane and as the hurricane was much easier to produce it would be seen more favorably by the air ministry thankfully as mitchell and his team in tandem with the test pilots worked to perfect the prototype further it reached 348 miles an hour k-5054 was ready to be officially tested by the raf despite the frequency of aircraft tests at raf martelshin base there was clearly some excitement around supermarine's spitfire and as k-5054 was flown after closing hours on the 26th of may 1936 many stayed behind to watch it fly the test pilot for that day flight lieutenant eduardo jones later recounted that he could see the white hats of the cooks who were lining the road to watch such was the novelty of a retractable undercarriage he almost forgot to put it down when landing playing it off as a daring feat for some years afterwards eight days later the head of the air ministry lord swinton ordered 310 spitfires expected to be delivered by march 1939 while mitchell continued to show great interest in the spitfire often hauling himself over to watch the prototype fly despite the pain he moved on to designing something else for the raf under the specification b-1236 the air ministry had asked for a four-engined heavy bomber with a cruising speed of at least 250 miles an hour and a range of 15 000 miles mitchell's response was the type 316 and its two variants the type 317 and the type 318 he dreamed of the idea of his little supermarine company producing britain's frontline fighter and their frontline bomber naturally supermarine's bomber submission was the favourite with the short brothers design being held as a backup it had an estimated top speed of 360 miles an hour an operating ceiling of around 30 000 feet and had a maximum range of three and a half thousand miles all of these estimations trumped the attributes of britain's later frontline bomber the lancaster but tragically it seems mitchell's time was running out at the end of 1936 his cancer had returned and despite numerous attempts to halt its advance it became clear that there was nothing to be done he spent the beginning of 1937 trying to prepare supermarine and his family for his death as news of mitchell's illness reached the outside world those who knew just how important his work was sent letters of gratitude and sorrow one letter read i think i've never told you before how your great services to the raf and aviation as a whole are valued i am fully aware as are all the other members of the air council of the unsparing manner in which you have devoted your great abilities to the task of design and i wish you to realize that however incomplete you may feel your work to be at present we know that you have always given us of your best mitchell's replies show his determination to make sure that the air ministry kept confidence in supermarine after he was gone especially with the type 317 bomber project which was starting to seem a more risky choice without mitchell but at last mitchell's pain became too much he was finally unable to work and after a failed last chance visit to a clinic in austria he returned to spend his last days at his home he died at the age of 42 and at his funeral three raf planes flew overhead and dipped their wings in salute in his determination to do as much as he could in the face of inevitable death mitchell adopted the blitz spirits before the blitz even happened he was resolute in the face of his fate he was the first of the few [Music] after mitchell's death his chief draftsman joe smith became super marine's chief designer and would be responsible for its initial production and its continued development perhaps the biggest problem that the spitfire ever faced was actually getting it off the production line with all its curves unconventional construction and sleek design the spitfire wasn't easy to build and faced numerous delays over the coming years for all the skill that the supermarine workers had the factory floor was never really managed very well often being seriously disorganized and chaotic not only this but it simply wasn't big enough to build 310 spitfires in record-breaking time especially with much of the workforce and factory space being devoted to building supermarine's flying boats for the raf in addition there were constant design changes being made from the designer's office changes that may have seemed small on the surface but in reality every small change could come with a host of construction problems it became clear that supermarine's factory couldn't build the spitfires by themselves and as their parent company vickers was busy building wellington bombers they would have to subcontract parts to another company after a long battle with the vickers managing director parts of the spitfire were finally subcontracted but complaints about the low quality of drawings as well as the need to retrain staff meant that the spitfire's production didn't accelerate as much as it needed to the issues over the spitfire's production went hand in hand with the political battles of the time germany was clearly building up its military strength and many in parliament were outraged at the government's lack of response to the build-up of german aggression it was clear that in the war that may be coming the air would for the first time play a great role in the success of the victor even then there was controversy over the spending of britain's air capabilities and even within those who supported a strengthening of britain's air force there was a disagreement about what should be strengthened many still firmly believed in the idea that the bomber will always get through and pushed for the bomber fleet to be built up and the spitfire with all its delays to be reduced or even cancelled outright but one worry for those who thought the raf needed more bombers and not fighters was that the home defense idea relied on a fighter that was capable of actually shooting down attacking bombers and that the most promising design for this task still hadn't seen any complete spitfires off the production line a key believer in the ability of the fighter was the prime minister neville chamberlain who eventually won this particular battle to keep funds moving towards fighters like the spitfire and the hurricane ensuring that the spitfire's albeit troubled production would continue but in the political war that was raging in parliament there had to be casualties as the head of the air ministry lord swinton was in the house of lords he wasn't seen as accountable to the democratically elected house of commons and so to appease the fiery angry masses in the commons chamberlain sacked swinton and had him replaced swinton had been the man to order the production of the spitfire merely eight days after its test flight and had placed an equally risky trust in the merlin engine while it was still being developed despite all the problems in the spitfire's production swinton constantly had faith in it being one of the few to see its potential from the very beginning in an almost cruel jeer from fate or perhaps a final salute swinton resigned at the same time as the test flight for the first spitfire to come off the production line k9787 [Music] finally in july 1938 spitfires started entering raf service the first spitfire to be taken to the raf was parked next to a gloucester gauntlet a biplane that had entered service just three years earlier the difference between the two fighters and now the renewed capabilities of the raf stood bare for all to see meanwhile the tension in europe was ever mounting a war with germany seems more and more likely by the day and naturally the idea terrified the people of britain they had been told continuously of the devastation of the bomber and of its inevitability should another war come unknown to them the luftwaffe was in no shape to launch a large-scale bombing campaign in 1938. when chamberlain's famous munich agreement came that year many in the air ministry were thankful that they had more time to prepare unaware that the german side was also glad of their added time despite the panic following the munich crisis as much of europe realised how unprepared for war it was the spitfire was by no means saved new designs of aircraft like the westland whirlwind and the bristol bui fighter were seen as more desirable by many who wanted the spitfire out of production and replaced thankfully just enough resistance was put up to keep the spitfire in production which accelerated due to the newly reignited fear of war a year later and war finally came despite all the predictions over the last decade of what a modern war would look like with new air technology there was still a degree of uncertainty on what to expect indeed as britain had focused so much of its defense budget on fighters it seemed like the strategy would be to wait for the germans to act first chamberlain ordered that no action be taken that might provoke hitler and he still held out hope for a peaceful solution during the phony war that followed the young excited spitfire pilots of the raf grew bored in their inaction some squadrons saw a little action though with the first spitfire victory over an enemy aircraft being a ju-88 bomber attacking royal navy ships in scotland with another being shot down soon afterwards interestingly hugh dowding had been advised not to waste new fighters in the north as it was unlikely that german bombers would try attacking there because it was out of range of their fighters dowding did so anyway believing that the luftwaffe may attack in the north precisely because they thought they would see little resistance his gamble paid off the first kill in a spitfire rather tragically came at the same time as the first death that the raf suffered in combat during the war in an event that became known as the battle of barking creek a radar fault in little training in identifying german aircraft saw a spitfire squadron engage a hurricane squadron who they thought were enemy aircraft the hurricane squadron squadron leader realised the aircraft coming down on them were british and ordered his pilots not to engage them two hurricanes were shot down and one of the pilots montagu holton harep was killed better training in identification as well as iff equipment that would help identify friendly craft in the future was prioritized it was at dunkirk in may 1940 that the spitfire was really tested for the first time the british expeditionary forces three french armies and the remains of the belgian army were stranded surrounded by the vermact who were ready to squeeze away any last chance britain had of defending itself but raf intelligence intercepted an uncoded transmission that revealed that the german army would not advance past the lee canal the german tanks had already stopped outside dunkirk to wait for the slower infantry divisions to catch up but continued worries about supply lines the vulnerability of flanks marshy grounds and the want to observe tanks for later conflicts meant that they did not advance further while the german high command deliberated hermann goering head of the luftwaffe persuaded hitler that he could destroy the allied armies without the vermax even having to get involved the german pilots were confident they only faced the raf so far in the form of hurricanes which had fought valiantly but were not a match for the 109s but now they fought spitfires the weapon that dowling had so desperately tried to reserve for the inevitable battle of britain rather tragically the work done by the raf that day was witnessed by few soldiers on the beaches sometimes because the fighting was happening too high sometimes because the raf had been sent past dunkirk to stop the luftwaffe from even reaching the beaches and sometimes because there weren't enough fighters to always be fighting the animosity between the two branches of defense was so high that raf pilots were sometimes denied passage across back to britain one spitfire pilot that took part in the battle over dunkirk was a new zealander named alan dear he had claimed what might be the first spitfire victory over a bf-109 over france while escorting a two-seater trainer aircraft to rescue a downed pilot it was a daring mission and with only one other spitfire alongside him dear's prospects of survival and the mission's success looked quite slim when 12 109s attacked the spitfires swung into action shooting down three 109s and seriously damaging another three despite the odds the downed pilot was picked up and safely returned to england later on while flying over dunkirk he shot down a do-17 bomber but while chasing another his spitfire was damaged by its rear gunner forcing him to land on a beach in belgium after walking to the nearest village and getting his wounds treated to by the locals he managed to luckily catch a british army vehicle on its way to dunkirk but when arriving at the beaches and trying to board a ship back he was refused when he did manage to find a ship that would take him back he was met with no thanks or praise but only scathing remarks about the raf's inability to protect the men on the ground they must have been disheartening for someone who had spent the last two weeks exhaustively flying over france to try to do just that nevertheless when he got back to england he went straight back to his airfield got into a spitfire and was flying over dunkirk again within a day of being shot down a month later he received the distinguished flying cross for his efforts it was after diaz first combat against the 109 said he described the performance difference between the two planes highlighting the problems that the spitfire would face in its early days but also the advantages that would carry it through the battle of britain and beyond he said that the 109 was initially faster in the dive but slower when climbing while the spitfire could out turn the 109 it was less capable in a roll the main problem that early spitfires faced was a float carburetor failure when performing negative g maneuvers now what does that mean well a carburetor in an engine is responsible for regulating the amount of fuel and air that gets fed into the combustion chamber in an engine the way an engine works is by having thousands of tiny little explosions within the combustion chambers moving the pistons up and down which then move whatever the engine needs to whether that be wheels or a propeller now two things an explosion needs are fuel and oxygen and making sure there's the right amount of both is what a carburetor does part of what allows it to regulate fuel flow into the air is a float chamber which uses a float and a valve in a similar way to a flushing toilet to keep a certain amount of fuel in the float chamber the problem with this float chamber is that if it experienced negative g-forces the fuel would go to the top of the float chamber instead of the bottom meaning that no fuel was being put into the engine and the engine would temporarily cut out so when a spitfire went into a dive or rolled upside down the float carburetor would fail and the engine would temporarily cut out the problem became even worse if the negative g persisted as the float in the float chamber would fall to the bottom releasing the valves that kept most of the fuel in the fuel tank out of the engine and so fuel would flood the float chamber and then down another part of the engine completely shutting it down in more simple terms if a spitfire were to perform a negative g maneuver like a sudden dive or a roll the engine would cut out leading to a sudden loss of speed naturally raf pilots would try to find ways around this and stop their aircrafts experiencing negative g-forces but sometimes that meant that if they were on the tail of a 109 all the enemy had to do to get away was dive and a spitfire was unlikely able to follow quick enough to shoot the 109 down given the 109s already stretched range during the battle of britain an evasive dive like this would usually mean that they would have to fly home so that would have been some comfort to a spitfire pilot who had just seen his prey dive away from him it was during the battle of britain that the spitfire finally proved its worth to all the people who had put their faith in it guring's plans for the luftwaffe during operation sea lion the german plan to conquer britain stated that it would take four days to defeat the royal air force in southern england and four weeks to totally defeat the raf raf fighter command had just under 700 planes at their disposal and the luftwaffe could muster 2 600 planes to fight over britain 1 100 of these were single-engined fighters nearly all of these being the bf-109e variant the spitfire was more maneuverable than the 109 and slightly faster but at the time fighter command didn't have a point-by-point reference to compare their aircraft to the enemies given the disadvantage he knew he had in numbers hugh dowding who had been made head of fighter command when it was created in 1936 kept fighters tightly in britain often letting luftwaffe attacks carry on unchallenged or barely challenged in the channel eventually though the bigger attacks that dowding was waiting for came and slowly more and more fighters were being deployed to fight off the luftwaffe swarms thanks to the earlier problems in manufacturing the spitfires some of which were still ongoing they were still only available in limited numbers usually the hurricanes of the raf more numerous in number and inferior to the 109s would be sent after the bombers while the spitfires would deal with the fighter escort the spitfire wasn't designed to dogfight it was designed to shoot down bombers but in a characteristically versatile fashion it grasped hold of the challenge and was the best at it despite the 109s meeting a match for the first time over dunkirk the confidence of the luftwaffe pilots was still not shaken it was only after coming across the spitfire more often did they understand the true threat it posed and they grew to fear its very name while the spitfire is generally considered a better fighter than the 109 it wasn't streaks ahead of its opponent and pilots often had a tough time against greater numbers and the luftwaffe's superior flying tactics the raf bases were getting pummeled and at the beginning british factories were only just succeeding in replenishing losses of fighter aircraft one upgrade to the spitfire that had been considered from the very start was eventually trialled the 20 millimeter hispano cannon joe smith supermarine's chief designer proposed a way to fit them into the spitfire's wings pilots had sometimes complained about the spitfire's firepower as the 0.303 browning machine guns although proving to be very effective at short ranges and vitally reliable were less effective at longer ranges spitfires of 19 squadron were outfitted with cannons but dowding was reluctant to commit them to the front lines as he thought they wouldn't fare as well against the 109s his concern about these spitfires only being armed with cannons proved to be justified as 19 squadron constantly experienced failures as the unreliable hispano cannons jammed not only did this decrease the firepower of a spitfire but if a cannon jammed on one wing and not the other it would throw one wing out as the cannon fired instead of just slowing the whole aircraft down if both fired for now the armament of cannons proved a failure it was adelatag or eagle day which would mark the substantial german push to finally disable fighter command despite the masses of aircraft that flew over the channel to challenge the raf dowding was still cautious in committing his fighters knowing that there would be many attempts to try to bait out fighters to weaken his ability to shoot down bombers where it mattered most this was getting to the peak of the battle of britain where spitfires and their pilots would fly up fight land to rearm and refuel a process that took just minutes and then goes straight back up there to fight again pilots were in such short supply that some would join the battle with just 10 hours flight experience flying one of the most advanced aircraft in the world despite its complexities the spitfire could be quite forgiving to a new pilot while notoriously difficult to deal with on the ground if a mistake was made in the air threatening to put the aircraft into a stall the spitfire would shudder but would remarkably not be pulled into a full stool unless really pushed to in the end eagle day which had been riddled with organizational errors and bad intelligence was a failure for the luftwaffe despite this guring kept on pushing with his arrogant overconfidence still driving him through five days later on the 16th of august 1940 there were massive air raids launched on the south of england targeting cities like southampton with the spitfire factory and here in portsmouth home of the royal navy the luftwaffe forces had a massive close fighter escort and the raf squadron center intercept struggled to shoot down enough bombers it was on this day while observing events in an raf bunker churchill privately confided never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few two days later came what would eventually be dubbed the hardest day the spitfires fought ferociously as fighter command grew ever closer to running out of air bases and planes to fight off an invasion but by the end of the day they limped out into the night still able to carry on fighting as the battle of britain raged both sides buckled at the strain of battle while the raf edged closer to breaking point the luftwaffe's shock losses in britain not only left them with fewer aircraft than airmen but also shattered the morale of a fighting force that once thought they were unbeatable guring who'd been so confident and boastful about how easily the luftwaffe could smash the raf was furious rather than blame his wildly varying tactics or the misguided intelligence he was being fed guring blamed the fighters for failing to protect their bombers he then ordered his fighters to keep closer to the bombers which was not well received while the tactic did seem to have a positive effect in some regard making the fast bf-109 stick to the slow cumbersome bombers robbed them of the advantages they would have if they flew ahead in a free hunt and brought them down to an altitude preferred by the spitfire adolf galland probably the most famous luftwaffe ace strongly opposed these changes but goring didn't listen so when he was talking to some of the luftwaffe's best pilots including galland and asking them what they needed to win the battle gallons replied with i would like an outfit of spitfires for my squadron many have claimed that this proved that even the luftwaffe's best pilot preferred the spitfire but this isn't true while galland admired the spitfire and believed it to be a better defensive fighter like many pilots on either side of the battle he preferred his own plane nevertheless his retort left guring in a speechless fury and it was a sign of the wider problem of the morale of luftwaffe pilots in the end the change of tactic probably hurt the morale of the 109 pilots more than any other downside showing the distrust that the high command had placed in them and it wasn't the only thing the name spitfire may have roused great courage in britain but to its enemy it brought terror they waited terrified for that name to call out on the radio and sometimes gunners would even freeze in terror at the sight of a spitfire because if one appeared on their tail in the hands of one of the shockingly skilled raf pilots it would usually be the end just as the luftwaffe was starting to take the upper hand a revenge bombing on berlin by the raf made an infuriated hitler order british cities to be erased the luftwaffe switched targets from fighter command to the british people despite the terror of what would later be called the blitz it might have just saved the stricken fighter command raids on strategic targets didn't stop completely but the focus was now on civilian targets this phase culminated in battle of britain day on the 15th of september 1940. it was on this day for the first time the controversial big wing tactic was heavily used in which many groups of aircraft merged into one large formation to the luftwaffe pilots who had been assured that the raf was down to its last 50 fighters seeing a charge of 60 fighters in addition to the small groups harassing the bombers it would have been a terrifying sight battle of britain day was a huge victory for the raf and two days later hitler postponed operation sea lion indefinitely the bombing didn't stop however and tragically on the 26th of september the supermarine factory in southampton was successfully bombed destroying the work in progress prototypes of rj mitchell's type 317 heavy bomber and any last chance to see it fly the short sterling was accepted in its place as the blitz continued the luftwaffe eventually moved their attacks to the night not even the spitfire could shoot them all down when it couldn't see despite its proficiency as a fighter it became clear early in the war that the advanced spitfire had far more potential than just this role and several photo reconnaissance variants were built to fly over enemy territory and take pictures to gather intelligence stripped of its armament and covered in a special paint photo-reconnaissance spitfires known as pr variants could fly higher than german anti-air guns and faster than german fighters and they became a valuable tool in a war where intelligence played a crucial role the first major upgrade of the spitfire came as a result of the new bf109f being introduced into the luftwaffe ranks it became clear that the experimental spitfire mark iv with its new super powerful griffin engine was not going to be ready in time the 109f was more than a match for the spitfire mark twos that were currently in service and were superior at higher altitudes joe smith and the rest of the design team at supermarine had to quickly design something that could fight off the 109f and so the mark v was created being fitted with a much more powerful merlin engine than the mark ii thanks to production problems with the bf-109f the mark 5 was being delivered to squadrons in time for it to properly combat the luftwaffe's new fighter and once again proved more than a match the spitfire mark v ended up becoming the most numerously produced spitfire of them all and by this time the problems with the 20 millimeter hispano cannons had been dealt with a sufficient amount for them to be installed in spitfires the mark v and the spitfire's subsequent variants had three main wing types available a b and c the a-wing type housed four machine guns like the first spitfires by the time the mark v came into use however this was considered outdated and four machine gun wings without cannons were not used the b-wing type was a modified a-wing that housed one 20-millimeter hispano cannon and two machine guns each so two cannon and four machine guns per aircraft the c-wing type was the most versatile and the most unique while the three wings looked the same on the outside the c-wing was different on the inside from the other two being easier to manufacture and also allowing for all three main types of armament four machine guns a cannon and two machine guns or two cannons often a c-wing with a cannon and two machine guns would still have the fitting for where the second cannon would have gone sticking out but if it was not used it was covered up the sea wing also had a couple of other features like a more stable undercarriage for easier control on the ground one of the most consequential battles that the spitfire took part in was the siege of malta malta was a british colony and a small island in the mediterranean like gibraltar it's an incredibly important strategic territory and during world war ii both the allies and the axes knew it would be a hugely significant airbase and naval base for battles fought around the mediterranean like the desert campaign in north africa the italians resolved to bomb malta into submission as it was seen as too risky to use their navy as british naval power in the mediterranean was still a major threat with malta taken that threat could be taken care of in mid-1940 the siege began initial italian attacks were unsuccessful and the aged and outdated rafc gladiators put up a heroic fight while they didn't score much offensive success it was clear that the italian bombings weren't having the desired effect and the german luftwaffe was brought in to help with only a limited number of aircraft with the most advanced being hurricanes the fighter defence forces in malta were overwhelmed and the bombing campaign was far more successful and crippled malta's offensive capability in april 1941 however the luftwaffe withdrew from the siege as more support was needed in other conflicts like the battle of greece and eventually the german invasion of the soviet union the raf were able to somewhat recover and launch offensive operations again but the italian bombings grew more successful and eventually the luftwaffe returned the hurricanes put up a valiant fight but were hopelessly outmatched the bf-109s even sought to humiliate the raf pilots flying in front of the hurricanes to show off their superiority malta desperately needed spitfires on the 7th of march 1942 16 spitfires flew from the aircraft carrier hms eagle to malta with nine more to follow in the coming days the luftwaffe who had just been toying with the hurricanes once again saw spitfires bearing down upon them their fear was obvious from one day when malta's fighters were grounded and being serviced the group captain put a canadian pilot on the radio and pretended to give him orders while the pilot pretended to fly the germans picked up this chatter and the cry of alarm went on the radio in the panic that followed two 109s shot each other down it appears the spitfire didn't even have to take off to beat the luftwaffe but malta wasn't saved yet the spitfires that were being sent were still outnumbered to a massive degree and hms eagle was struggling to get them to the island fast enough churchill realising that this one small carrier wasn't enough appealed to president roosevelt america had joined the war at the end of the previous year and churchill asked if britain could have use of the aircraft carrier uss wasp which could carry 50 spitfires at a time roosevelt accepted churchill's request and on the 13th of april 1942 47 spitfires made their way to malta the axis had learnt of this however and launched a massive attack on malta's airfield as the spitfires came into land this organization on the ground meant that it took far too long to get them airborne again and many were destroyed in the airfield the ones that remained weren't enough to fight for aerial superiority and the attacks continued eventually on the 7th of may both the hms eagle and the uss wasp worked together to send 64 spitfires to malta when they arrived the ground crews were now far more prepared and had them ready to fly again in just minutes the spitfires were still heavily outnumbered by the german 109 f's and the italian c202 thunderbolt fighters but still managed to fight back for air superiority as more spitfires were slowly delivered by hms eagle the spitfires were now free to go after the fighters or the hurricanes dealt with the bombers with the arrival of keith park who had been instrumental in helping dowding win the battle of britain the tactics of the raf saw massive improvement and for the first time the spitfires went on the offensive it was from malta that the spitfire was first used as a fighter bomber with bombs being attached to either the wings or the central fuselage by august malta had a substantial spitfire force and the luftwaffe commander ordered a massive offensive to finally wipe out malta's defenses it was a complete failure and the attack had to be called off the spitfire had won again but a new challenger had started flying over the skies in europe and its performance was an unpleasant shock to all those who flew against it this was no 109 upgrade however it was an entirely new aircraft the fokkerwolf fw 190 had started flying in force and it proved to be totally superior to the spitfire mark v in all but turn rate joe smith and his team once again had to stop work on a significant upgrade the mark viii and work on a stopgap measure to stop the absolute dominance of the fw 190. while this was being designed and put into production it was realised that the clipped wing variants of the mark v fared better against the 109 at low altitudes but was still inferior a german pilot accidentally landing at an raf airfield had allowed the raf to put both planes against each other and the confirmation of the 190 superiority put more pressure on joe smith and supermarine to find a solution the mark 9 spitfire was that solution and proved to be a match for the 190. in tests with the captured 190 it was found to be a close rival superior in some aspects but inferior in others the 190 was more heavily armed and was a little faster at certain altitudes but the mark 9 was faster at most operational altitudes and could still outmaneuver the 190 although the 190 fared better in a dive by this time the so-called miss shillings orifice had solved the problem of the float carburetors stalling the engine in a sudden negative g maneuver but if the negative j persisted the engine would still cut out most mach 9s however would be fitted with negative g carburetors unlike the one being tested against the 190. [Music] interestingly the highest aerial battle of the war was between a modified mark 9 spitfire and a ju-86 r2 luftwaffe bomber the ju86 r2 was capable of flying higher than any fighter that could catch it and while there were efforts to build a spitfire that could reach such a height they weren't much success and the ju-86's poor accuracy and small bomb load meant there was no massive drive to build something that could shoot them down however there was still high concern about the ability of german bombers to completely evade british air defenses and in late august 1942 a bomb dropped by a high-altitude bomber killed 48 people in bristol enduring many more the spitfire mark 9 had a powerful enough engine to achieve what the other high altitude attempts had failed to and two spitfires were modified to climb high enough stripping them of everything they didn't need including their machine guns so only the two cannons remained even the metal propeller was considered too heavy and it was replaced with a wooden one after rigorous training and testing they were ready in december 1942 another super high altitude ju-86 was detected and the spitfire mark 9 flew up to meet it the spitfire was piloted by prince emmanuel galitsin a descendant of catherine the great of russia much to the shock of the crew of the ju-86 the spitfire continued to climb up to them and was eventually able to attack in a slow and arduous battle that lasted for 45 minutes and with so little air to move with galaxies found it difficult to actually hit the ju-86 especially as ice coming off the enemy bomber would stop him from being able to see his target with only one hit in the bomber's wing galaxy pulled away and went to land running low on fuel despite the difficulty of the spitfire to successfully shoot down the ju-86 it did manage to shoot a sizeable hole through its wing this new capability scared the luftwaffe enough that another raid of such a height was never attempted again the spitfire and its capabilities were famous all around the world and it wasn't just the raf who used them spitfires would be used in the australian air force portuguese air force turkish air force u.s air force and in 1943 churchill accepted stalin's request for spitfires to be sent to the soviet union 143 second-hand mark v b's b being the wing variant were sent to the ussr but this was not to be one of the spitfire's great success stories for one the spitfire mark v had already been replaced in britain with the significant upgrade of the mark ix and so the older mark v had difficulty fighting any fw190s that the soviets came across the spitfire also had difficulty on the ground at the rough improvised airfields on the soviet front lines and could easily tip in addition the soviet tactics didn't really suit the spitfire's high maneuverability and as the soviets were unfamiliar with the spitfire it was often mistaken for a bf-109 and there were numerous incidents of friendly fire these problems aside soviet pilots generally praised the maneuverability of the spitfire and their durability compared to the russian planes which had more of a wood-based construction for the luftwaffe seeing a spitfire again would have been a terrifying sight after their invincibility early on in the war the raf had convincingly beaten them back on more than one occasion since and the luftwaffe's morale would not recover for the rest of the war one german pilot convinced he had seen a spitfire on the eastern front over russia told his commander who told him he was probably mistaken and ordered him not to tell his fellow pilots as not to scare them and ruin their morale it must have been like seeing a ghost in the sky later on the ussr would receive over a thousand mark 9 spitfires and these were well liked by soviet pilots however it wasn't really suited to the soviet offensive tactics and was instead used as an interceptor especially favourable at higher altitudes where no soviet fighters could reach effectively by the end of the war spitfire mark 9s would be the soviet union's primary fighter for this role and it would remain that way until 1947. in mid-1942 the first of a new breed of spitfire was ready which replaced the rolls-royce merlin engine with the much more powerful rolls-royce griffin the mark iv was meant to be the original griffin-powered spitfire but by the time it was ready the mach number was changed to the mark 12 when it entered service in 1942 in tests against a hawker typhoon and the fw190 the spitfire was expected to fall short of the two much more modern designs but to the amazement of everyone there it easily outflew both all of the mark 12 spitfires had clipped wings allowing its greater performance at lower altitudes as it was built to combat the growing number of german fighters flying at lower altitudes which was a tactic used to outfly the mark 9. the mark 12 didn't end up seeing much aerial success not because it wasn't capable but because eventually german fighters just resorted to avoiding spitfires completely at lower altitudes the mark 12 eventually found better use as being one of the few fighters able to catch up with the v1 flying bombs which were hugely destructive when they started flying towards london the spitfire would play a large role in the relative success of shooting down v1s with the pilots of the raf once again showing astonishing bravery as evidenced by this famous picture of a spitfire using its wing to tip a v1 off course but in the end the mark 12 was a fighter built with a specific purpose rushed through production because nobody realized just how capable it was going to be royce immediately began work on a more refined two-stage supercharger griffin engine and fitted it into the spitfire mark 14. the spitfire mark 14 was the last variant to be built in great numbers and was the first to totally outclass nearly anything it came up against its massive five-bladed propeller allowed full use of the two-stage supercharged griffin engine which produced an enormous 2050 horsepower all mark 14s would eventually be fitted with the teardrop canopy as standard which had been used in the past but never fitted as standard it was an improvement on the blown canopy of before as it gave better all-round visibility to the pilot the mark 14 spitfire was the most numerously produced griffin variant and would be the most advanced spitfire and possibly the most advanced piston-engined fighter to fly over europe during the invasion by the time d-day came the allies had achieved not just aerial superiority but total aerial supremacy over the skies very little fighter resistance was encountered and the spitfire sent over mark 9s and the merlin engine mark 16s were mostly used as fighter bombers after a proper foothold had been established some new mark 14s were sent over they were one of the few allied aircraft to have any hope of competing with the emmy-262 jets that had joined the ranks of the luftwaffe although truthfully they were far slower and not much success was had offensively against them the spitfires were able to easily outmaneuver the 262s and as very few encountered they were never enough of a threat to turn the tide the raf had their own jets by july 1944 but they were forbidden to fly over enemy territory during this time owing to fears that if one was shot down or crashed the enemy could salvage its advanced technology for the most part spitfires enjoyed many successes over europe in the last year of the war raf fighting tactics which had been a great cause for controversy during the battle of britain had now advanced enough to be incredibly effective making full use of the spitfire and its strengths through the month of june 1944 152 spitfires were either destroyed or damaged but only 21 of these were actually shot down by the luftwaffe's fighters the great desert general irvine vomel was wounded and removed from command when a spitfire strafed his car an event that some have argued helped lead to the failure of a plot to assassinate hitler spitfires also unfortunately had to face american p-51s who had mistaken them for luftwaffe planes but were luckily easily able to evade them after the initial attack the luftwaffe's last ditch effort at restoring its dominance came in the form of operation modern plat the battle of the bulge the german plan to break through the allied armies and change the course of the war had become a stalemate and it was believed that air superiority was needed to resume the advance on the 1st of january 1945 operation bodenplatz saw the luftwaffe mount a massive surprise attack on allied airfields destroying varying amounts of allied aircraft on the ground the luftwaffe were less successful in the air however and only a handful of spitfires were shot down many raf and us aaf bases were hit damaging everything from b-17s and lancasters to typhoons spitfires and p-51s in the end though poor tactics and communication meant the luftwaffe was unsuccessful it never really recovered losing many of what was left of its best pilots and too many planes to replace less than half a year later germany surrendered and the war in europe was over on the 2nd of september 1945 the japanese formally surrendered as the japanese surrender was being broadcast 12 japanese a6m zero fighters dived upon a flight of seafires the naval aircraft carrier variant of the spitfire one seafire was shot down but the attackers were left with eight less aircraft and four damaged as the c-fires shot down the last aircraft of the war before peace was declared the mark 18 was the last fighter to be built with the original wing design and considered by some to be the last combat spitfire by the time it was finished and was shipped to raf squadrons the war was over and so very few saw combat afterwards the mark 21 and 22 were attempts to more efficiently utilize the massive power of the griffin engine they had larger propellers longer undercarriage and redesigned wings the most visually obvious traits of these being the wingtips which were less rounded and the overall thickness of the wing it was also able to fully enclose the undercarriage which would further reduce aerodynamic drag the mark 24 introduced in 1946 was the last spitfire mark this is a mark 24 spitfire you can see over the engine the characteristic bulges that you get in all griffon engine spitfires this particular spitfire served with the singapore auxiliary air force from 1951 to 1954 where it was considered unflyable after a particularly rough landing you can also see the double cannon arrangement that became standard on the latest spitfires this spitfire the mark 24 sought to solve one of the spitfire's biggest downsides its low fuel capacity and so it has a higher fuel capacity than any of the earlier marks you can also see the teardrop canopy that became standard on even today's aircraft it is perhaps fitting that the s6 stands here so close to what mitchell's incredible creation of the spitfire evolved into he brought the spitfire from the ashes of the type 224 paired it with the brilliant merlin engine thanks to his relationship with rolls royce that he built throughout the schneider trophy races and this is the end of his legacy a legacy that joe smith pulled along making sure that the name spitfire would always be one for the enemy to fear spitfires didn't see much service after the second world war mostly being used in a photo reconnaissance role there were smaller conflicts that the spitfire was a part of but in these they were mostly used in ground attack roles and rarely fought other aircraft an exception to this is the unique incident of the 1948 arab-israeli war where spitfires were part of the air forces of both sides leading to the only conflict in history where spitfires actually fought each other it was during this conflict as an israeli air force pilots claimed the first ever aerial victory for the israeli air force the last offensive action taken by spitfires was during the malayan emergency from 1948 to 1951 where spitfires and seafires were used to intensely attack positions held by the malayan communist party it was new year's day 1951 where spitfires flew their last offensive flight a strike mission carried out by spitfire mark 18s while the photo reconnaissance versions continued to be used until 1954 combat spitfires were retired from the raf in 1952 a successor to the spitfire the supermarine spiteful was designed by joe smith and his team and put into prototype it wasn't particularly successful however and the age of jets and budget cuts saw its production cancelled the spitfire was to have one final hurrah however as on the 5th of february 1952 a mark 19 spitfire a photo reconnaissance variant went into an emergency dive over china and reached mach 0.96 the fastest a piston-engined aircraft has ever flown even to this day it remains a fitting testament to the airframe that rj mitchell designed and indeed the steadfast upgrades that joe smith and rolls royce gave it throughout its long life allowing it to outlast and outfly everything that had once been its equal and so that's the end the last spitfire is to remain in active service where it's drawn in 1961 by the irish the spitfire became a legend but it's easy to see why i read a story about a vicar's engineer who was working on a restoration of a spitfire in the late 1960s a german businessman would often land at the airfield he was working at and the pilots of those private jets were ex-luff buffer pilots after parking up their own aircraft they would walk over to the hangar occupied by the spitfire to pay homage to their old adversary in the skies they would leave only after giving the engine cowling a fond patch of admiration with the usual remark bundaba [Music] wonderful indeed [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so you

Channel: Doug A James

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Keywords: Doug A James, Douglas James, History, Educative videos, History videos, Historical videos, Doug A James History, English Lit videos, Law videos, law, weird laws, ridiculous laws

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Length: 71min 58sec (4318 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 30 2020