The Plane Built for Hitler to Escape? - BV 238

perhaps the most remarkable achievement of the blowman voss company was it celebrated bv238 flying transport float plane which stood out among war machinery of its time due to its sheer size the bv238 was the largest aircraft ever built by the axis powers during world war ii and also the heaviest up to 1944. the development of the aircraft began in the middle of the war but it was only completed in its last days the enormous ship was more than capable of crossing the atlantic and even reaching south america concerned that adolf hitler or other high-ranking nazi officials could flee the country before being captured the allied leaders set out to destroy any last resort that could help the enemy [Music] genesis the bloomin voss company was founded by hermann bloom and ernst vos in 1877. although it was initially specialized in building ships bloemann vos eventually turned their sights on designing and building aircraft for the german state airline deutsche lufthansa and the luftwaffe a 1500 square meter shipyard was constructed on coverage island with a 250 meter frontage of water the three birders were enough to handle two large hundred meter ships then managed by the brothers rudolf and walter bloem the company seized the opportunity to join the nazi party's plan to build impenetrable army and air forces this task was a provocation against the 1919 treaty of versailles which forbade germany from substantial rearmament still the crumbling company was able to reestablish and even rebrand itself while supplying the german forces during world war ii blom and vos would thereafter be recognized for their flying boats successful results [Music] a massive aircraft the huge bv 222 veking was a long-range passenger flying boat intended for operation by lufthansa which was able to reach new york in 20 hours its success prompted its chief designer to begin preparations for an even larger project in 1941 dr richard vogt improved the design and presented the plans for the bv238 model to the german ministry of aviation or rlm the project was approved but a quarter scale model was required first built by the czechoslovakian company known as fjp the fjp 227 model was tested in prague with particular emphasis on its long and slim hull the disappointing results did not contribute much to the program and construction of the first bv238 parts began in early 1942 the bv238 wingspan was 196.85 feet with a range of nearly 6 000 miles it was only surpassed in wingspan by the tupolev ant-20 the martin xpb2 m1 and the hughes h4 still at 100 tons when fully loaded the bv238 was the heaviest aircraft built up to 1944. its conventional all-metal aerodynamic design was a blumenva structural hallmark with a tubular steel wing main spar that doubled as an armored main fuel tank the hull was long and slim with two decks for the crew and inboard equipment on top and a storage area on the bottom its straight wings had flaps along the trailing edge and their considerable size allowed for passageways to the engines during flight [Music] a pair of auxiliary floats were implemented in underside panels a huge front hatch door was placed on its nose with the main crew cabin directly above and behind it a crew of around 12 men was presumed for the massive aircraft including two pilots two mechanics a radio operator and a machine gun operator the warplane was powered by six 1287 or 1750 horsepower domler benz db603 liquid cold inverted v12 piston engines these engines were arranged in forward-facing nestles three on each wing coolant radiators were placed under each engine in a chin cowl as standardized crafted power egg engine modules as for the armament the bv238 was to be provided with two hd 151 twin gun turrets with 20 millimeter machine gun 151 cannons two hl 131 v turrets with four 13 millimeter 131 machine guns and two additional 131 machine guns mounted on the side to the fuselage for self-defense it also had the capacity to carry six 2 400 kilogram bombs a second version of the 238 was planned to be powered by a single mw801 engine but it was never built moreover a land plane version called bb-238 land was proposed for long-range bombing and transatlantic reconnaissance duties the underside would be replaced by a plane retractable landing gear of 12 main wheels and two nose wheels it would have had two bombays one between the wheelbase and the second behind the main undercarriage wing floats would be replaced with outrigger wheels for stability and the nose wheel would be folded up to allow vehicle access directly into the hatch through a loading ramp in addition an upper deck behind the cockpit would have accommodated around 300 troops three of these prototypes were ordered but none could be finished before the end of the war only one prototype of the initial bv238 model was built meant to join the luftwaffe the aircraft was designated ro plus ez [Music] according to dr vogt's post-war testimony the bv238 first flight test took place in 1943 although several sources placed it in early 1944 still the results were satisfactory and the aircraft was put into operational service right away during this time there were discussions about the role the sea plane would play in the war it was initially built for transport but it could also be used to support supply missions transporting fuel ammunition and men to u-boats deployed in the atlantic there were also plans to use it as a long-range bomber but they never materialized due to the constant allied attacks the weakened german forces needed to turn to the production of fighters instead [Music] volkt explained that further bb-238 production plants were dropped after a conference in berlin colonel general erhard milsh deputy chief of the german air force put it this way quote the house is burning and we must put out the fire first destruction [Music] as the end of the war was approaching allied leaders were concerned about top nazi officials fleeing germany there were rumors that martin borman had plans to use the bb-238 to escape in early 1945 but by then it would have been too difficult for such a massive transport plane to go unnoticed a massive bombing then destroyed the blowman voss facilities in hamburg but german workers managed to hide the colossal aircraft however it was found soon after moored at lake shaw to the east of hamburg the bv238 was then strafed its engines were set on fire and the aircraft partially sank with only one wing remaining above the surface however there are different versions of the dates and perpetrators of the attack german sources contend that the royal air force spotted the prototype between april 23rd and 26th partly based on witnesses and employees testimonies the attack would have happened on may 4th 1945 by hawker typhoons or hawker tempest meanwhile american forces claimed the victory contending that the flying boat was destroyed in september of 1944 by three p-51 mustangs of the us 360 first fighter group according to the american version the lead mustang was piloted by lieutenant urban ben drew who believed he destroyed a bb-222 v king but in 1974 the bbc contacted drew for a documentary and was told that their research demonstrated the target had been the bv238 its remains were blown up between 1947 and 1948 to facilitate the post-war scrapping process and all that remained of the bb-238 prototypes under construction were also scrapped aftermath [Music] after the war ended it was believed that blumen vos was finished but over a century later the company continues operations as a key manufacturer of large ships and heavy machinery for germany it also exports oil drilling equipment and ships for commercial customers [Music] still it eventually came to light that the company used prisoners of a war camp during the war to work at their hamburg facilities perhaps even a concentration subcamp operated by the company itself a memorial still stands at the campsite and blumen vos is supposed to have been paying a compensation fee towards the forced labor if it had been put into production the bv238 would have been the largest aircraft that ever saw service during the war still it proved to be an impressive engineering achievement and it never transported fleeing german officials out of the country if you enjoyed this video subscribe to our dark documentaries channels to learn more about outstanding aircraft developments and don't forget to like and hit the bell icon to get notified about new videos you

Channel: Dark Skies

Views: 1,999,043

Keywords: aviation, airplanes, aircraft, air force, history, documentary, history channel, documentary channel, dark docs, dark skies, bv 238, escape, ww2, wwii, luftwaffe, airplane, secret

Id: IbIjjkY9kUk

Length: 10min 9sec (609 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 22 2021