The Incredible Story Of The Avro Lancaster | The Lancaster At War | Timeline

[Music] [Applause] 1941 Nazi Germany dominates continental Europe it is vital to destroy the military power of the Nazi dictatorship and the industrial-strength suspension we need an aircraft that was going to be able to go basically behind enemy lines and destroy their supplies there's only one way to strike directly at the pollution Tomica mom took over and started taking the fight to the enemy and it was the hard way one aircraft has come to represent the courage and determination of all who flew and fought in a deadly relentless aerial battle as an aircraft it was ahead of its time it was more a person than than an aircraft this is a powerful machine its aggressive capability will play a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany it's specialized missions will become part of aviation history this is the story of the outstanding heavy bomber of world war ii the lancaster told by the men who flew [Music] [Music] as they have done many times before in the long and deadly war against Nazi Germany air crew of Bomber Command gather for the briefings that will detail their targets for the night the renter's of the briefing room and there's also a huge map of Europe at the end with tapes on it to where the target was I decided I didn't want to be called up because that meant the army and I wasn't really a suitable physical man to go and tell me so I volunteered to go into aircrew I applied to be a pilot and I was told as a waiting list of one year why not be an air observer it was to become a navigator most the I had wanted to be pilots he hooks taste most of my father's disgust because he was went through World War one as a driver and he didn't want me to be a to fly I went to a Rhodesia to train as a pilot and then I got a dose of malaria and I scrubbed off the course so I went down to South Africa to change as a bomber by the time 1943 the losses of currents were so high that they said no you can't become a wireless operator you have to be a camera and so I became a gunner after a number of training places in England I was I was taught to fly in the United States in the Army Air Corps there we had to learn the RAF way after after we got back the air crew the price paid in the fight for freedom is a grimly personal statistic my own squadron numerically was wiped out twice during the period I operated because all I was really expected to finish a tour especially when you're getting towards the end you felt now how am I going to finish it or not it takes a particular kind of courage to climb aboard an aircraft fully aware of the growing losses amongst aircraft and crews the slim chance of surviving we met a crew and they were all excited they were going to do their first operation and we said all good luck to them and that was the last anybody ever heard of them they just disappeared the word last comes in many many times in preparation because you've written your last letter possibly you had possibly your last meal and you've had your last cigarette and yet night after night airman every one of them are volunteer will make the long flight through hostile skies determined to smash the Nazi war this was something we had to achieve to wipe out as much of the enemy's industry and occupy as many people defending Germany as was possible in the counter-attack against Nazi aggression the Avro Lancaster and the man who later became the mainstay of Britain's Bomber Command it will fly the greatest number of sorties and deliver a greater tonnage of bombs than any other aircraft Bomber Command entered the war equipped with twin-engine aircraft that are no match for the enemy that would face [Music] Hitler's armies aided by the Luftwaffe sweep across the Low Countries and into France the men of machines of Bomber Command joined the fight to disrupt the advance it becomes a losing battle they the blenheim steer in the day were were sitting ducks to the single-engine fighters the plenum was under battles of course they were the main casualties in the Battle of France where they will be shot down more compete squadrons were shot down sometimes faced with the demands of modern warfare these aircrafts with basic equipment and limited range are completely inadequate for the task Amanda on the 17th of May 1940 well plenums were sent to a place called jean blue how many aircrafts of those twelve you think we lost a lot all twelve hard lessons are being learned and greatest we are sitting ducks very battle squadrons handley page Hamden squadrons with the squadrons and Blenheim squadrons in 1940 were almost decimated a Dunkirk British forces are evacuated from France Britain and her Commonwealth stand alone only Obama command can carry the fight back to the Nazi homeland where we are backs against a war and going to take back and going to push Hitler off his couch lacking equipment and instruments capable of precision navigation and targeting only one in three aircraft succeeds in getting within five miles of its target 50% of bombs fall in open countryside a map recent all that easy for them to take if you're traveling it's about hundred eighty miles now has three miles a minute and if you are 20 seconds in thinking stretching your backside you know you've gone a long way of track 169 aircraft set off to raid Berlin than are used to target very few bombs actually fall upon the Nazi Canada nine are killed and 32 injured on the ground a hundred and twenty aircrew died on this operation and Britain itself has come under savage aerial attack they started bombing out an open citizen Coventry Plymouth Manchester and various others in the course of the war over 43,000 civilians are killed and many more seriously injured in German bombing raids on Britain the ruthless nature of the Nazi war machine generates a loathing of the Fuhrer and all these stands what do you think of it I was going over to Berlin and doing the same to them I should think so too bit worse than this I hope with a wicked bugger Lakis by one King Paul I'm sorry for the women and children of Berlin but what about the women children of this country how does a man I'd go over then I'd give them the same as what they've gave us here they became an urgent need for aircraft powerful enough to cross the inhospitable skies of occupied Europe and strike hard at the heart of the Third Reich a new generation of warplane is developed the four-engined heavy bomber they are the stirling the halifax and the aircraft that will be described as the finest bomber of world war ii we shall not fail or falter we shall not weaken or tire yes the dual and we will [Music] the Avro Lancaster who become part of bomber commands effort to destroy the Nazi industrial might it'll play the major role in this operation but its origins lay in another far less successful design [Music] three years before the outbreak of Roy Chadwick Averroes chief designer responds to an air ministry specification for a twin-engined medium bomber powered by two rolls-royce vulture engines the first prototype of this aircraft the Avro Manchester flies on the 25th of July 1939 problems are immediately obvious the vulture engines lack power and there are handling problems while in flight however when war breaks out six weeks later the Manchester bomber is rushed into service but the vulture engines are prone to bearing failures and overheating causing fires in spite of modifications the Manchester continues to suffer numerous problems affecting its performance and reliability the Manchester was completely underpowered and quite quite useless bad Avril Chadwick and his team of designers are already planning to develop the Manchester into a potent four-engine bomber when the highly successful rolls-royce merlin engine replacing the unreliable puncture chadwick added another four foot six and half inches on each wing span of maybe a four engine job and that was absolutely ideal here are the propeller is being introduced to the other plan of which in the future it will be an integral part known as the Merlin Manchester or Manchester mark 3 for security reasons it is named unofficially the Lancaster by its design team the Manchester's wingspan of 90 feet is extended to accommodate the extra engines this increase in the wing area also improves the new aircraft's takeoff performance the flying prototypes of the new aircraft are an immediate success as an aircraft it was ahead of its time technologically it was a fantastic airport and also she had a sort of character of her own you know and the name that will become legend is now official the Lancaster mark 1 is ordered into full production she was a beauty there's no doubt about it Roy Chadwick designed their really tip-top aircraft there it wasn't designed for comfort I think it's a it's a metal tube with a mains power to support the wings of the engines and then it has miles of cables electronic equipment the Lancaster will acquire the Manchester's most singular feature a spacious and unobstructed bombe the typical bomb load will be out of 15 1,000 pound errs or cookie and cans which was a four thousand pounder and 12 cans of in centuries Americans couldn't carry the Bombers to the Lancaster as 1941 draws to a close the Avro Lancaster enters operational service and Bomber Command gains a new commander the single-minded uncompromising Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris the Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everybody else they said the wind and now they are going to reap the whirlwind in the aerial battle to defeat Nazi Germany the gloves are about to come off [Music] the gathering strength of Bomber Command will be used to wreck the centers of German war production shattering the confidence of emissions workers forcing them to abandon their factories [Music] have an easy way to escape from these severity abandon their work and go out into the field and watch the home fire the lancaster makes its first operational sorting it is an unremarkable debut for such a remarkable aircraft as for Lancaster's from 44 squadron take part in a night operation sewing anti-shipping minds of the German Coast the first operational bombing mission for the Avro Lancaster comes seven days later two Lancaster's join the force of a hundred and twenty four other aircraft in a night raid on the German city of Essen four aircraft are lost on the ground very little damage is done to a city that is home to many major munitions factories increasing numbers of Lancaster's and now joining the squadrons of Bomber Command and pilots converting from more familiar aircraft a quick to appreciate the Lancaster's flying qualities the lake was such a different aircraft it was much lighter much more positive in his reactions to control and it handled quite quite beautifully a force of 12 Lancaster's embark on a daring daylight raid deep into Germany accurate navigation and precision bombing are essential it is a round trip of 1,250 miles to the Bavarian city of Augsburg buying at low level confronted by enemy fighters and a hail of anti-aircraft fire as they battle their way to the target the factory producing diesel engines for the German u-boat fleet [Music] in spite of losses eight Lancaster's make it through the barrage to deliver their bombs precisely on target [Music] of the 12 Lancaster's taking part in the raid only five badly damaged aircraft returned 49 aircrew Amasa Squadron Leader John nettleton who five weeks earlier had led the first operational flight made by Lancaster's winds the Victoria Cross his part in the operation and becomes a national celebrity touring factories in Britain addressing the workers [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] production of submarine engines at the Augsburg Factory is halted but the plant is back in operation within several weeks such losses for so little result were unacceptable if Bomber Command is to remain in the war it has no alternative but to fight by night there was no other way we could do it people thought well why didn't you bomb in daylight pretty useless we'd all been shot down why didn't you do precision bombing completely useless we hadn't got the equipment at their precision bombing in night time if you had 15 bombs and you're releasing them at half a second intervals it would take seven and a half seconds from the first bomb to the last bomb so how far would a length fly in seven and a half seconds quite a distance between the first bomb and the last bomb so that's why quite a number of bombs actually missed the target the industrial raw district produces 80% of Germany's coal supplies and 75% of a steel this network of war industries is clustered in and around Germany's major cities German defenses are concentrated around these centers creating a barrier of shells high explosives and night fighters guided by probing searchlights and the electronic gaze of radar searchlights could be a problem and they had what there's known as a master search limiters the blue searchlight which suddenly latched on to you and his radar controlled and you couldn't dodge it the airmen of Bomber Command will confront the increasing strength of these defenses as air marshal haratz intensifies the aerial bombardment of the third that is only just beginning but for the Nazis the writing is on the wall seventy-three Lancaster's take part in the largest raid of the water date a total of 1047 aircraft strike the city of Cologne that's not on your mind your mind is on the job kilter to do 41 aircraft alas in Cologne production is halted at 36 major factories 70 others of their output reduced by half within a month production is back to normal for the damaged city Arthur Harris intends Bomber Command to become a war winning weapon devastating power he resolves to strike harder and repeatedly at the enemy's resources the new I the means of destroying a major part of the resources by which the enemy's war effort this meant a Lenny may have it right on the chin [Music] Hitler's dream of total victory has not been realized he demands a huge expansion in herb food from the German war industry Bomber Command is about to be tested in the shadows of night and the fires of war the head of Britain's bomber force is a staunch advocate of his commands ability to shorten the war [Music] there are a lot of people who say that bombing can never win a war well my answer to that is that it has never been tried yet and we shall see Bomber Command aircrew are aware of the crucial role they play in crippling the German war effort and the high cost involved [Music] on the one side you wanted to go and get this exercise behind you toward your 30 and then on the other hand you didn't want to go because you're bloody scared you knew the circumstances and the possibilities the moment you entered the briefing room and you look at the board and we should go and be unveiled and reveals is ribbon and you stride away cuz to the point where the ribbon start to come down and so you know that that point is where the target is every crew member had a job to do a return and every crew member relied on the other whether it was a pilot or the camera they knew that if you didn't do your job right they'll know it would be a risk everybody is important to each other or to everybody else it is teamwork that counts you live or die by the support of the rest of your mate the area lancaster carries a crew of seven young Airmen whose average age was 22 the old man of the crew was the middle beginner and he was 29 she always thought was rather old attacked the rest of us are in our early twenties cause some were younger than that in other crews the bomb aim is position is in the Plexiglas blister at the nose of the aircraft [Music] behind him below the pilot and flight engineer or the radio operator and navigator I was behind my screen doing calculations and I was so occupied that I really was in a position to almost shut out what was going on outside and if you're running late you did try and speed up a bit so the Navigator worked out all those sorts of problems my flight engineered hated having to increase the revs speed up a motive his fuel consumption and he prided himself on getting 1.1 miles to the gallon out of a lack the wireless operators position is close to the Lancaster's cabin heater and while the temperature at 20,000 feet in the night skies could drop to minus 40 degrees his position by the heater is a dubious advantage only about two inches from me and of course you'd burn me like buggery so down there was the open gangway and of course nothing to obstruct anything except cold air coming in from various holes all over the place so you've got cold air freeze again growing down there you've got Bernard air down there so the wildest operator you're sitting something like this because he's been burnt like ever and it's frozen there far back in the fuselage separated from the rest of the crew are the mid-upper and the rear gunner positions of the to the rear gunner is the most isolated he crouches behind four browning machine guns exposed to the elements as well as the gunfire of stalking night fighters you had the very very end of the aircraft group suspended if you like in midair it is hard to imagine the reality of the rear gun situation in a space so crowd he is unable to wear his parachute faced with the prospect of being trapped in a disabled turret unable to escape as his crippled aircraft plunges from the sky it is the most vulnerable of locations that's the enemy aircraft would try and get rid of first so it was the word we used in those times was pretty Darcy Darcy once the targets of the night have been decided by Bomber Command headquarters they are passed to the squadrons the airfields become a hive of activity as they prepare for another operation - in the unremitting relentless battle the aircraft are fueled and bombed up final meals eaten parachute solution and the the wife girl who would issue the parachute always had to stand the choke bring it back if it doesn't work you know you always have to feel that the ground true it was their aircraft and they were only lending it to us to go and do a job we couldn't take off with that comply without them they lay with the boys who were and was necessary not enough praise was given to a ground crew they were they were absolutely able with aircraft waiting fueled unarmed there's a moment before the crews climb aboard for some this is the moment of greatest anxiety you had had your briefing you know what you're going to do and we assembled outside our aircraft waiting for the time to go and then the nerves are tight and we didn't want to talk and we all hated it and it was a very unhappy time till we got on the aircraft with the Sun sinking over their bases the cruise board the aircraft engines burst into life waiting for the green light to take off and you whip the inner engines to the gate and the aircraft has turned the chocks and on the brakes and screaming pulling pulling again after they were opening the throttles you know the flight engineer has got his hand behind them helping you to push them fully open and you really got to get the throttles fully open and it's a very heavy aircraft to lift off the ground and an awful lot of power in the four engines but there's a possible problem control Europe over and the bra did something I just can't explain that Mia it's absolutely fantastic the power and racing along the wrong way fighting against the force of gravity and straining straining straining and you're wondering whether they'll ever get off at the end of the runway then before the end of the runway and thought and you'd be up like a lift going up [Music] good luck to the more to the team that has done its job to the team that is again on the job hundreds of aircraft rendezvous assembly points high above the coastline of East Anglia where pilots set a course for their targets as the shadows closing around they fly towards a formidable air defense system almost a million men serve in Germany's air defense network another million and a half are engaged in air raid precautions and damage there there are over 150,000 anti-aircraft guns defending Germany's cities and industries to overcome the fury of the enemy defenses new tactics have been introduced formations of bombers no longer make their separate ways to the target all aircraft now fly on the same heading with only height and split-second timing for separating the Pullman spring is probably a mile wide are from our deep you have probably a seven or eight hundred bombers or heading for the same place the idea was for resort to keep keep together as far as possible and in the stream and we used to start hitting other people slip streams we started matching about his hope the enemy defenses will be overwhelmed by this concentrated mass of aircraft it is a dangerous tactic and it was a an air traffic control officers nightmare the whole thing person the bomb Ava and the wireless operator yell that's me that there was an aircraft approaching us on the port side and I just caught a glimpse of it was another lancaster i heave back of my control column from the climbed and he must have pushed forward on his and dime we were so close but I could see his instrument panel like glow as he went underneath us and oregano said he shook hands with the other rear gunner as they went past the Nazi warlords stunned by the weight of the attacks on their cities reorganize their defenses night fighters are no longer directed on to individual targets by ground controls instead they weight over the target cities for the Bombers stream to come to them they dive down into their own anti-aircraft fire to pick off bombers no silhouetted against the fires below Lancaster's on their bombing run fly straight and level and make easy targets [Music] we suddenly saw another Lancaster person to flames and I can remember that his de leon upon skipper shouting the tasks concentrate copy our snakes in this savage battle losses amounting 11300 aircrew have been killed during the first three years of the war more than 12,000 will die in the fourth year alone the cloak of darkness that should shield the Bombers is no longer working the battle in the shadows is about to reach a new and savage ferocity the commanders of the Allied bombing squadrons have been tasked with the destruction and dislocation of the German military industrial and economic system aircraft are now equipped with a variety of electronic devices developed a baffle confuse the enemy defences one of them is surprisingly simple window is the code name given to thousands of strips of aluminium foil cut to an exact length hurled from the aircraft and fluttering slowly to the ground this metallic cloud reflects radar and swamps the air defense screens their screens just went blank covered with mush to begin with is amazingly effective but more it was used less effective it became as each new development is countered by the enemy the pilots and crews still have to fly into the same cauldron of fire and flame could see the target sometime before you arrived and if they grow just hope you get through they used to say that they chucked up everything he said the kitchen sink searchlights here's the night sky seeking targets or the guns to finish off now I mean if he got coned by searchlights now coning is an experience not to be forgotten throw the aircraft around in all sorts of different ways to try and get out of it and all the time they were shooting at me so we got full speed put the nose down and we got nearly up to 400 miles an hour which is far the excess of all the Lancaster's should normally do all too often the desperate attempts to evade the deadly beam thing as the Lancaster's reached the target evasion becomes impossible the aircraft has to fly straight and level all your concentrate on a musket it plumbing those mastering yards I'm also getting smack on that Factory on the line this is what you aim for [Music] the whole crew said the car said chocolate boy let's get out of here and then you hear the three magic words but even then there could be no relaxing of desperate vigilance I should sleep on my nose that's when the fear kicks in because you're not expecting it if you didn't see him it was curtains because with this fire power you just blown away a direct hit on a bomb de Lancaster when the fighters are spotted the sturdy Lancaster is capable of surprising for maneuverability a German night fighter came hey Don it was the flight engineer one choice the skipper sorry almost at the same time and you share cooks report you descend as a high-speed and then you heave back and swing the aircraft right over the other way and climbing out as you can go and everything's going flat out you lose complete orientation the g-force thing is some tremendous that you're pinned you're terribly many damaged aircraft we'll never make it back to their bases pilots will nurse their injured machines over the miles to fail moments from home all around us so horrible things are happening - Oh our aircraft at about 700 feet collided over the end of the over the end of the airfield just off the airfield and wiped out most of the crew and another aircraft flew into the ground nineteen Lancaster's of six one seven squadron carry out operation chastise the attack on the dams of the Ruhr Valley specially modified Lancaster's carry the bouncing bombs developed by Barnes Wallis huge nine thousand two hundred and fifty pound mines packed with high explosive designed to rotate skip across the surface of the water in front of the dams and settle hard against their walls before exploding using VHF radio guy Gibson the leader of the raid maintains direct contact with all his aircraft guiding them to the target correcting their bomb runs [Music] it is the first use of the master bomber technique it is a technique that will be adopted by a new target finding and fixing course fitted with the latest navigational equipment and trained intensively in precision bombing the Pathfinder force will be the first over the target marking the precise aiming points when they go to the target they put down their markers which we could see and we would bomb their markers d-day the Allied armies land on the Normandy beaches the main bombing effort is now focused on devastating the defenses facing the advancing Allied armies Lancaster's but the only aircraft capable of carrying the huge 21 foot long 12,000 pound 12 wipe-on and the even more massive Grand Slam 22,000 pound bomb both created by Barnes Wallis reinforced blockhouses submarine pens by adducts railway tunnels launch sites of the v1 and v2 rockets even the German battleship Tirpitz sheltering in a Norwegian Fjord all our targets for Lancaster's modified to carry the huge earthquake bombs they bomb with precision hitting their targets hard and accurate operation thunder clap 796 Lancaster's formed the main strike force targeting the German city of Dresden classified as a major rail and communication center to the air crew of Bomber Command it is another long and dangerous mission it was just a case of there was a job to be done and you do it to the best of your ability and you hope that that every little bit that you do is shortens the wall that little extra bit that little bit war is war inevitably people are gonna get killed the same as they got killed in London carpentry nowhere else [Music] is a raid that will cause a controversy that endures today the intensity of the bombing and conditions on the ground combine to create a firestorm just Dante's Inferno the people on the ground the bombing of Dresden will focus attention on the civilian casualties caused by Allied bombing there will be claims and counterclaims as to the importance of Dresden as a military target Sir Arthur Harris will be held responsible for ordering the raid it will taint his reputation for years to come but the reasons for this particular raid are varied and controversial I personally went to see God cherish after the war and I spoke to him and he told me said that he personally did not want to bomb Dresden he said that it was too far for too little the war continues as Hitler clings to power with callous disregard for the suffering of his people he declares if the war is lost the nation will also perish their fate is inevitable there is no necessity to take into consideration the basis on which the people will need to continue with fifty five squadrons now equipped with Lancaster it has become the principal aircraft of Bomber Command and they continued to pound targets in Germany as the Allies fight their way into the heart of the Third Reich [Music] in subtle contrast to their usual road Lancaster's are given the humanitarian mission operation manner couple of months before the war finished and there we were faced with something totally different for her normal job the Dutch particularly in the western part of Holland were starving a week before we'd been bombing Bremen at 18,000 feet and here we were there on a mercy flight pushing all these different types of food powdered eggs chocolates all sorts of things pushing up the bomb by 31 Lancaster squadrons take part in operation Manor flying over 3,000 sorties in nine days there was a big white cross in a field that was a dropping zone but as you flew across the town thousands and thousands of people in the streets and the fields hanging out of windows on top of the roofs and they were all waving at you but we'll never forget the sight in my life they had got up to every roof every top and they had got Pyrrhus lips and white Bank hits and so on and they had spelled out on the rooftop god bless you there were tears in their eyes I could tell you that and the last trip we did we just got across the embassy at noontime and we heard on the RT mr. Churchill announcing the official end of the war unconditional surrender [Music] our freedom the European war is over Lancaster's assist in the homecoming of Allied prisoners of war and its operation Exodus which was a repatriation job these British prisoners of war some of whom have been in enemy hands for five years are on their way home by our scene those guys faces up thinking they're gonna be on for their first Christmas of a total of seven thousand three hundred and seventy seven Lancaster's built some three and a half thousand are lost on operations we get our services with a piece of this country it is an aircraft that will be forever associated with the men of Bomber Command but every time an aircraft didn't come back after seven people we fight apart in bringing the war to a swift end of the 125,000 aircrew who served in Bomber Command during the war 73,000 became casualties fifty five thousand five hundred and seventy three of them killed performing their duty it was the highest loss rate of any of the British Armed Forces in the Second World War the Lancaster fought a war for 1942 right through to 1945 as the main aggressive side of our our war effort their controversial commander would pay tribute to the man who flew and fought in the battle there is no parallel in warfare to such courage and determination in the face of danger of a so prolonged a period such devotion must never be forgotten [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 1,457,266

Rating: 4.832943 out of 5

Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, world war, royal air force, world war 2, second world war, world war 2: documentary, world war 2: germany, bomber command, world war 2 history, world war 2: full documentary, world war full documentary, avro lancaster (aircraft model), raf bomber

Id: lMgZ62jyPiQ

Length: 46min 38sec (2798 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 17 2019

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