1940 King Tigers & P40 Spitfires

The line up of Tiger II's was this one i take it.

This wasn't on the BBC by any chance was it, they are masters at re-writing history. I recall a piece on BBC news, last year or the year before, about British MTB's. Firtsly it made out that we invented the concept. Then part way through, it went on about MTB's being the Spitfires of the sea because they were so fast and showed a boat zipping through the water (but the boat was a German S-Boat) then the next second it talked about them sinking ships far larger than them while showing footage of a large ship exploding (which happened to be HMS Barham which was sunk by a U-Boat).

My favorite is Dan Snow. That guy is to history what i am to brain surgery. He was doing a piece a few years back about ejection seats. He stood in the Martin baker factory surround by the seats that had built over the years and implied that the first live ejection was conducte with a martin baker seat in 1946. He could have just checked the Martin baker website which gives the history of ejection seats. It would have told him that the first live ejection took place in later 42 early 43 from a German aircraft, that the Germans ha around i think 60 live ejections during the war and they had 3 aircraft flying fitted with ejection seats, 2 of which entered operational service.

That Spitfire thing, was that the one about the girl who helped win the war because she determined that 8 machines guns were better than 4. I avoided watching that because i know i would have launched somthing at the tele.

Can't remember which channel or who made it, these are usually shown on some satellite channels day & night.  Shame the item about MTBs was a news article, I'm sorry I missed it! And yes, those King Tigers look familiar.

Bish

That Spitfire thing, was that the one about the girl who helped win the war because she determined that 8 machines guns were better than 4. I avoided watching that because i know i would have launched somthing at the tele.

I think I saw the Spitfire one you mentioned, don't remember if it was the same one,  I do remember cringing at the idea of a leading aircraft designer being guided by his schoolgirl daughter!

And poor old Barham, she gets sunk on just about every doc about WWII at sea, or about battleships.

I will bet that the Spitfire story failed to mention that more Spits were shot down during the BoB by 109's than the other way round. Or that the Germans had already dertermined that fewer large calibre cannon were better than smaller calibre MG's. Which is proven by the fact that the Spitfire later had its armament reduced from 8 MG's to 4 MG's and 2 20mm cannon.

The BBC does love its Spitfires.

Bish

I will bet that the Spitfire story failed to mention that more Spits were shot down during the BoB by 109's than the other way round. Or that the Germans had already dertermined that fewer large calibre cannon were better than smaller calibre MG's. Which is proven by the fact that the Spitfire later had its armament reduced from 8 MG's to 4 MG's and 2 20mm cannon.

No, I didn't know about those BoB stats- really interesting!  I did see (yet another documentary) an interview with a 109 pilot who was there, he said the extra punch from the cannons was good, but the relatively slow rate of fire meant that he & his mates often missed RAF fighters because they crossed the line of fire in between rounds, in a turning fight - he seemed a bit annoyed about it!  That might be why the RAF opted for (edit: initially) 4 cannon instead of 2.  The .303 was an excellent rifle round, devastating to human targets, but not really up to knocking down machines.

Hi Hutch. I know what you're saying about doco's, but you mentioned the footage of the King Tigers and I thought you might be interested in the following. The unit is 3./s.Pz.Abt.503 and the officer is Oberleutnant Richard Freiherr von Rosen. The film is from a 1944 Wochenschau propaganda newsreel. He served in Panzer III's, Tigers and King Tigers on both Eastern and Western fronts. He also served in the post WWII German army.

How do I know all this? I subscribe to an excellent U.K. magazine called Iron Cross in which they printed an interview with him.

Dodgy

The unit is 3./s.Pz.Abt.503 and the officer is Oberleutnant Richard Freiherr von Rosen. The film is from a 1944 Wochenschau propaganda newsreel. He served in Panzer III's, Tigers and King Tigers on both Eastern and Western fronts. He also served in the post WWII German army.

Thanks, Dodgy - excellent info!  

Tojo72

sometimes gets so aggravating I got yo turn them off

Yes, I've done that once or twice, too.  Another thing I've noticed is the practice of using the same sequence more than once in the same programme, but trying to fool people by playing the images reversed!  I've seen quite a few Lee/Grant tanks with left-hand gun sponsons, and a few aircraft codes with backward lettering.  I suppose at least they're making an effort