The V1 story is VERY close to home for me. The first one to land on London, as correctly stated in the opening, crashed in Bethnal Green killing 6 people. However, the very first V1 to crash about 30 mins before, at around 4.30am, was in a quarry at Swanscombe, Kent (about 300m from what is now Ebbsfleet Station on the Eurostar line to Paris). My Mother (now 94) was on her way to work at Springhead Nurseries nearby as she was in the Womens Land Army. She still clearly recalls seeing what she thought was a small fighter with flame coming from it which suddenly dived toward the ground and she took cover anticipating the explosion (which came a matter of seconds later). That was a few days after D-Day and she assumed it was a fighter on it's way back to base which didn't make it. During the war, people just accepted things like that, didn't question them and just got on with what they had to do. My Mother was just one of them. It was only about two weeks later when the Government couldn't hide any longer the fact that the Germans were firing 'pilotless aircraft' at the UK and had to come clean with the British public. It was only then that she realised what she had seen and put two and two together. Just wanted to record this here as my Mother is not in the best of health now and small pieces of the 'jigsaw of history' need to be set out somewhere before they are lost...

@robbyschemonia3089

6 жыл бұрын

Shane Waterman, amazing, just, amazing. I loved sitting with my great grandfather as a kid and listening to his war stories. It's great that you and your mother share first hand accounts of such events, on the internet, so they will be around forever in one form or another. Cheers.

@shanewaterman4125

6 жыл бұрын

Robby Schemonia - thank you Robby. You're very welcome. :-)

@HeaanLasai

5 жыл бұрын

I'm saving your story, thank you for sharing.

@shakeydavesr

2 жыл бұрын

Great story. Glad she was still around to pass it on, and thank you for sharing.

@ThroneOfBhaal

9 ай бұрын

Amazing, thank you for sharing! Stories from normal people doing their part in extraordinary times are worth remembering. Hope you're doing well!

This entire series is so well done and so full of information that I am still learning things watching the episodes for the 3rd & 4th time around. Don't know if Mr. Woolard is a scientist himself or just an outstanding narrator but his flawless delivery really adds to the series. I was fascinated by a couple of human nature stories amid all the technological back & forth. First the fact that both the British and the Germans had discovered that cut up strips of aluminium foil dropped from a plane would foul up the opposition's radar so bad as to make it useless but neither side wanted to use it for fear of it being used on themselves and the fact the Germans continued using some early navigation aids even after they knew the RAF was jamming it because nobody wanted to tell Hitler it had been discovered by the enemy!

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

And the second surely the description of Churchill's War Cabinet meeting. A Marx Brother's farce at such a moment. Compare that to descriptions of Hitler's conferences.

@alexwild4350

3 жыл бұрын

Mike Higgins I'm old enough to remember Mr Woolard as part of the 1970/80's tv series Tomorrows World. While part of the team I think Woolard was just a Tv presenter, while Mr Baxter, also part of the same team, I can't remember his first name, had been a Spitfire pilot during the war. KZread search for "Tomorrows World" to get a better idea of the program. But why I really dropped by was to point you to David Irvings work, The Mares Nest, available as a free PDF for personal use, available from this link from the authors website - www.fpp.co.uk/books/MaresNest/index.html The book looks at both the German and British sides of the development of the V weapons, and being derived from first hand sources is an utterly fascinating journey into this history. So much that I could hardly put it down. I'm sure if you love this series, you'll adore this book for the journey it will take you on.

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

@@alexwild4350 Raymond Baxter

God i would kill to go back and talk with duncan sandys in his prime! what a gent. Aces. just Aces

Few people know that some of the first V1 “buzz bombs” used actual pilots that were on Hitlers S-list. (Scheibliste) The added body weight became prohibitive due to fuel consumption so the practice was halted, much to the joy of Captain or (Hauptmann) Wolfgang Shultz, the next pilot in line to fly. In an interview (Hauptmann) Shultz commented that he was willing to die for the Motherland as a pilot but he preferred a plane that didn’t explode every time it landed and one he could actually steer. After the war Schultz hired on with the American Ford Motor Company where he helped design such automobiles as the Edsel and Pinto. Schultz lived to tell his amazing life story and retired from the automotive industry in 1989. Sadly, Schultz met karma while driving his personal restored Ford Pinto wagon home in 2004. He was rear ended by a motor scooter on a Detroit Michigan freeway and perished in the blaze. All true. Believe it or not.

@shakeydavesr

2 жыл бұрын

"Shultz met karma while driving a restored Pinto" Ford's own little buzz bomb that had the rupturing fuel tanks. Ironic.

@xj900uk

2 жыл бұрын

The piloted V-1's were all air-launched, as to fire one with a pilot off the ramp would have rendered the poor guy unconscious from the massive G-Forces when the catapault fired. I know that Hannah Reisch flew several piloted V-1's (in addition to the Me163 Komet) and was a mine of information on how they handled in flight; she seemed to quite enjoy the experience, which was a rareity as all the other test pilots were terrified of them.

As a six year old getting ready for school I remember listening out for the silence as a V1 landed not far away blowing in the kitchen door hitting my mothers head. As this happened in Sidcup Kent south of London I can thank the cunning of the brilliant Professor's misinformation . But the upside was that I had lots of schrapnel to swap at school. Ah such heady days!

@kchishol1970

3 жыл бұрын

Was your mother badly hurt?

I'm 73 years old and grateful for this excellent documentary. Never too late to learn about the evil humans are capable of.

41:08 That's some serious big balls DFC skilled flying, right there R.I.P *'Mr TSR2'* / *'Mr Canberra'* / *'Mr Lightning'* 42:03 This gives new meaning to Churchill's statement, _'Hiter only thinks in straight-lines'_ lol 46:57 British dry wit is sublime

Gyros at the nose controlling vanes for vectored thrust - alway a favorite of documentaries about the V-2. And they all fail to mention that that was developed and first used by Robert Goddard over a decade earlier and there was speculation that the Germans used that and other information in Goddard's patents liberally.

@whitewittock

3 жыл бұрын

Surprising that Professor Lindemann had no idea about his work and thought rockets had to made of cordite? Maybe that's how the world was before google, huge gaps in people's knowledge! Perhaps they hadn't yet shared the intel with the Americans who could have told them about Goddard

Thanks for these WW2 videos 👍

An excellent documentary packed with information. These days such programmes are predominantly presentation over information with long graphics, effects and 'scientist driving car to observatory' clips with nothing useful being imparted. Horizon is particularly bad for this.

Problem with the massive V2 ballistic missile was that it was very expensive to produce and it only packed a 2200 lb warhead, so it had limited destructive potential. Its inaccuracy added to the fact that the V2 cost more to produce than its likelihood of destroying anything strategically significant. It was an achievement of a space rocket, but as a weapon, it was a waste. Around 5200 V2 rockets were produced at a unit cost of 100,000 RM January 1944 to 50,000 RM March 1945. But where 90% of the V1 buzz bombs were intercepted, there was no defense against the V2 dropping down from space from 55 to 128 miles up at a speed of 2,880 km/h (1,790 mph) at impact. Beginning in September 1944, over 3,000 V-2s were launched by the German Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège, and even later against the captured Remagen bridge in Germany. The attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel.

This is an extremely good documentary on the V-1 and V-2! Excellent interviews with key personnel and some film which I have never seen before. Highly accurate: my only very minor quibble is that the V-1 was powered by a pulse jet, not a ram jet. (A ram jet will not operate at zero airspeed while a pulse jet will run on the launching ramp.

@Merlin1955UK

8 жыл бұрын

+MrLarryC11 A catapult was used to get it up to speed for the ram jet to start. As stated at 26:45

@MrLarryC11

8 жыл бұрын

+Merlin Emrys From my reading on the V-1 I understand that a pulse jet produces thrust at zero ground speed. When the pulse jet was started it ran for about 10 seconds on the ramp until it was released by firing the steam catapult which sheared a retaining bolt. The weapon then proceeded up the ramp until it attained flying speed. In short the jet could not accelerate the missile to flying speed, only maintain that speed.

It's usually believed that the U.S. was immune to the V-2's because they were at least 3,000 miles away and the rockets were limited to about a 300 mile range. Von Braun ran the V-2's "rich" so the rocket motors were better-cooled, so most of them went downrange no more than about 200 miles. There was, however, a period when the Germans contemplated hauling rockets about 800 miles from the American East Coast in submarines before their launch from there toward, NYC, Boston, etc.The idea died due to the costs and design problems involved. At war's end, von Braun and company were designing the A-9, a huge long-range missile with wings, and the A-10, both of which could potentially cross the Atlantic to bomb the U.S. The V-2 would have been the A-10's second stage. Von Braun's ideas were to do fantastic things with rockets, not use them to kill. Statements he and others around him made lead to his arrest by the SS. He and two of his top scientists spent several weeks incarcerated before their release because they were irreplaceable. At the end the Americans scooped up von Braun and about 400 of his top lieutenants at Garmisch Partenkirchen. All this is in a book by David Irving on Gerhard Milch (who actually did more than Goering to run the Luftwaffe) entitled The Mare's Nest. Most of the V-2's blew up several thousand feet in the air due to a weakness in the alcohol tank. The Germans braced the tank near the end, but some still blew up just short of their target at about Mach 4. As time went on their accuracy grew better and better. The British had a scandal in that the Germans' explosives were twice as potent as Britain's due to the addition of aluminum powder. British scientists also knew what 15% aluminum powder and 15% RDX did to ordinary explosives, but nobody asked them how to increase explosive power for a long while. The cost of the V-2 should have shut the program down. The V-1 was 1920's technology and was cost-effective.

@skipsassy1

8 жыл бұрын

+Sabra S worthless idea unless they were nuclear tipped. Biggest mistake of Hitler - no atomic bomb research. Look how long the communists lasted with atomic weapons - MAD.

@michaelnobibux2886

7 жыл бұрын

nuclear science was considered to be jewish pseudo science nonsense by the Nazi's

@KazenoniKakuremi

6 жыл бұрын

nah man, they did have a nuke program. It was lead by Werner Heisenberg. However, he was off on the wrong track...so much so...that after we (US) picked him up as part of 'operation paperclip' we let him go LOLOL which is insane, given his scientific brilliance, but our military was only looking for weapons tech and after interviewing him, it was decided he could add no value and so he was let go... Even the Soviets didn't bother to scoop him up after we let him go...lol....even though, NKVD raided his facility and took some uranium oxide and some papers. oh, btw, even though, he had no idea about how to build the nuke. His method, required a sh88 tonne of uranium, which we got before NKVD lol, they only found what we left .... which was the uranium which had already commenced the multi-stage process required for reactor fuel and not the highly enriching process. Once you start the process, you can't then change it to other... But nevertheless, the soviets had several spies within the manhattan project anyways and they got plenty of their own uranium. So it more than offset the embarrassment of being 2nd in the race to the facility. lol

@HeaanLasai

5 жыл бұрын

​@@skipsassy1 You're forgetting chemical weapons. They're cheaper to develop, don't require fissionable materials and they already had a lot of good chemists so it wasn't a hail Mary. In hindsight, had the Germans focused on chemical weapons instead they could have "won".

There's something right at the start of this part of The Secret War which needs clarifying/correcting:- The V1 flying bomb William Woollard talks about as landing in Bethnal Green, killing six unfortunate souls, was the first to land IN LONDON. It was not, however, the first to fall to earth in England. This happened the same morning at about 04.20 British Double Summertime, and it landed in a quarry near Swanscombe, North West Kent - about 3 miles from where the Dartford River Crossing is today. And my Mum (20 yrs old at the time), on her way to Springhead Nurseries where she worked in the Womens Land Army, saw it !! It's a pity this series was made before the west got to view the archives taken to the Soviet Union and East Germany after the end of WW2. These contain even more information about the V weapons (V = Vergeltungswafen - revenge weapons) and a weapon few know about even today - the German 'Super Gun', the firing site of which still exists in Northern France.

@dutchboss509

8 жыл бұрын

+jasperozzie61 "Super gun" Dora?

@peterbustin8604

6 жыл бұрын

I was told that it landed on Grove park, Chiswick ?

@jaystreet46

6 жыл бұрын

Dutch Boss I believe he’s referring to the V3 gun, which was never actually used. One of a kind firing mechanism that I won’t bother explaining, but is easy enough to google.

@MrDaiseymay

6 жыл бұрын

Jason st germain---correct---we were so lucky to have got the D-Day landings going when we did. Any further delay, and these evil weapons might well have extended the war for years.

@shanewaterman4125

6 жыл бұрын

That was the first V2.

In other documentaries I have seen on this subject, the British supposedly received a package full of technical documents about Peenemunde from an anonymous source. I don’t think I heard about that in this video. Nonetheless, it was very good.

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

The Oslo Report is discussed in The Battle Of The Beams, the first episode in this series.

So interesting to watch, especially Reginald Jones, just the way clever english people spoke then and the insight into the ego rivalries in the cabinet war rooms, there is also a lecture by him to watch here www.rigb.org/christmas-lectures/watch/1981/from-magna-carta-to-microchip/principles-standards-and-methods and he wrote his memoir The Secret War which was the basis for the documentary

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

AJP Taylor said that Most Secret War was the best book on WW2 ever written.

For those interested Wernher von Braun talks about V-2 rocket| kzread.info/dash/bejne/mYegqdqlcdjZg6g.html Note| This is not just Von Braun, but everyone else that was part of his team speaking about this project. We (US) scooped up all of them, as part of 'operation paperclip'. Ethical questions aside, this is a great documentary, from the very people that built it.

Thank god for clever ladies.

Not bad for a programme made in 1977!....

I think the music is from "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky. I believe it's from a piece on the goblin?

@kaustin9364

3 жыл бұрын

The Hut on Chicken's Legs, part of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", orchestration by Ravel.

This-Was 'Me'-Dad's 'Favourite'-[TV]-SERIES of The-[70] / [80s] ... He-'Watched'-It Soo-Many-TIMES ... He 'Wore'-His-Tapes (He-Had 'Recorded'-OFF The-[TV]) ... OUT!!!??? >(*U^)< *Wink*

Notice a whole documentary without some pillock starting a sentence with . So these Germans had some awesome stuff. So they used the V1 and so they hit London. Why is it impossible nowadays for presenters to avoid the word so at the beginning of a sentence

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

So I don't know. Isn't it awesome.

I see the Beeb Beeb Ceeb has taken down the Radar episode, which is my favorite.......

@jdflyback

7 жыл бұрын

I think the whole series is on daily motion

@KazenoniKakuremi

6 жыл бұрын

daily motion, doesn't give two sh88ts about copyright lol love em for it

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

@@KazenoniKakuremi Yeah but we can't discuss them on Dailymotion.

icepick141 You've uploaded episodes 3, 4, 5, and 7 to your channel. Where are episodes 1, 2, and 6? Thank you for uploading these. Most interesting history.

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

All the other episodes were on youtube but have been removed and unfortunately I'd expect those remaining to go as soon as BBC Worldwide's lawyers get around to it.

@shakeydavesr

2 жыл бұрын

Dang, I was wondering the same thing, guess I'd better hurry up and watch what I can while I can.

Do you have episodes one and two of this series please ?

@johnfowles2

5 жыл бұрын

Tip search on the other main video website (the one that advocates regular bowel movements those two are there

For me? I am perfectly happy they had this to expend their "energy" . But then, I am a child of them

Some of the other episodes are not available :-(

@HeaanLasai

5 жыл бұрын

Parts 1 to 6 are available here. watch?v=GJCF-Ufapu8 Also dailymotion has them. Part 1: video/x123i1g Part 2: video/x123k8x Part 3: video/x123n7i Part 4 (Mislabeled as "part 5 The Deadly Waves"): video/x123wne Part 5 If (Mislabeled as "part 4 If"): video/x123rbo Part 6: video/x123wpi Part 7: video/x123wr9

Where have I heard the theme music at the end before?

@sirtristram8297

7 жыл бұрын

Sorry my earlier post was meant as a reply to you but it didn't seem to work. I believe the music is from "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Mussorgsky. As I recall there's a piece about a goblin and I think it's from there.

... “but there were more failures, one much to the shock of a neighbouring Luftwaffe base.” ...”I couldn’t do much about it (the just launched V2) because I was having quite some argument with these gentlemen (the anti aircraft gunners) on the ground...” Oh don’t you love the British understatement.

Why can the Beeb not make clear informative documentaries like this any more? These days it's all weird visual effects and tight facial closeups that just distract from the narrative.

@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684

6 ай бұрын

All part of the dumbing down of society. Don't forget the token talking heads reciting a script off autocue.

Extreme luck that the Nazis didn't devote their energies to developing nuclear weapons, which they would have used without hesitation.

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

The problem being that Hitler considered nuclear a 'Jewish physik'.

So, icepick where are the other two videos. IE 1 and 2?

@abatesnz

3 жыл бұрын

And where's number 6? In the village?

@chrisst8922

3 жыл бұрын

You can see half of episode 1, Battle of the Beams on youtube and a year ago all of the rest were on youtube but have been removed. I expect that these remaining episodes will be removed before too long.

How the hell can you copywrite history??????

@Ni999

5 жыл бұрын

What the hell are you talking about? Buy a history book, look in the front, there's going to be a copyright notice. The book did not write, edit, compose, publish, and distribute itself. Same laws apply to film, video, and music. Have you been living under a rock?

@HeaanLasai

5 жыл бұрын

You can't copyright history, you can copyright your production. Just like you can't copyright a disease, you can copyright the medical book you spent years and millions of [currency] researching for. Also you can copyright the restored quality archive footage you spent money on restoring and increasing the quality of. Let's face it, BBC produces interesting and historically/scientifically accurate documentaries, and employ thousands of people to produce their stuff. They probably need to pay wages and buy equipment to do so. Unlike many 'Murican studios like Fox etc, BBC doesn't have insane profit margins.

9000 dead, Von Braun should have been hung as a war criminal, not slobbered over by the Americans.