Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "Ed Nash's Military Matters" channel.

  1. I seem to remember reading that many of the Soviet pilots used to fly the harassing attack during WW2 were women who seemed to have developed quite a flair for the task. There was a British tank crew which shot down a MiG-15 in Korea using its main gun. By that time of the war in Korea the tanks were being used more as self-propelled artillery as there was little in the way of opposition from the North Korean tanks. To carry out the task of shelling North Korean positions the tanks were sat on specially constructed ramps to give them more elevation. While they were firing on the enemies lines the MiG flew down the valley the tanks were in passing in front of the tank in question just as it fired. The tank shell hit to MiG blowing it up killing the pilot. Not sure if they were credited with this kill but it has got to be something to boast about.
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  2. The Valiant was used during the Suez Crisis where the Egyptians used the MiG 17s to try to intercept it. But as the service ceiling for the Valiant was 2,000 feet higher than that of the MiG they never got close.
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  3. The Pterodactyl was on its wat to Farnborough when it was involved in an accident when it was hit by a comet rendering the Pterodactyl extinct. It's a pity he did not stick with the one shown 0:22 as that does look a better design. Leave it a single seater with the twin vertical fins and mount four machineguns in the nose.
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  4. Polikarpov in the US in the lead up to WW2. Now that would have been interesting.
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  5. I do know of Beardmore, mostly through their involvement in locomotives for the Great Eastern Railway in East Anglia. They built GER S69 4-6-0 locomotives.
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  6. These people may have been the same ones who, some 50 years before, had designed the French navies battleships which looked like floating hotels
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  7. Along with the aircraft the west has, for some time, been sending military instructors and advisors to Ukraine. Yes Britain did send some troops to teach the Ukrainians to use the Javelin missiles just before the invasion, but that is part of a long running project by a number of western countries to help Ukraine improve its armed forces. Considering the poor state of the Russian economy even before this all happened you have to wonder about the standards of Russian training.
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  8.  @casinodelonge  Not sure about the Italians as they would have viewed it as not having enough wings.
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  9. I did know about the Jaguar being shot down. As I understand it the Phantom had a jack plug socket in which a jack plug would in inserted before going into combat. This would complete a circuit and allow the missiles to be fired. Because of the closeness the border between West and East Germany it had become standard practice to have the jack plug resting in the socket. So in the event of a sudden attack by the Warsaw Pact the plug could be quickly pushed in to complete the circuit and make the aircraft ready for combat. What was supposed to happen was that the Phantom would intercept the Jaguar and do a mock firing of the missile. But what actually happened was the plug was in far enough for the circuit to be completed and the missile was launched. Fortunately the pilot of the Jaguar managed to eject from the Jaguar. After that the jack plug would no longer be placed into the socket until it was needed. Not sure if the Jaguar pilot got his tie from Martin Baker, the people who made the ejection seat. You are entitles to join an exclusive club of those who had successfully used the ejection seat. This was not the last time the Jaguar pilot ejected from an aircraft as he had to do it again. As I am writing this a thought has occurred to me. In the British military if you are awarded the same medal more then once instead of wearing two medals you would wear a bar across the ribbon of the first medal. So if you are awarded the Military Cross twice it would be the Military Cross and Bar. So having ejected twice was the unfortunate Jaguar pilot awarded the Tie and Bar.
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  10. I think they've used the gates for spear for when they've run out of muskets
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  11. I am surprised they did not try and sell the helicopter to the army. A fleet of them landing anything up to a regimental size group where ever they were needed would be of huge importance. The autogiro you show at 1:35, the Avro Rota C-30A, was one of those unsung heroes of the Battle of Britain. They were used to calibrate the radar so they could work out the hight of the incoming German bomber raid. The radar operators needed something which could fly as slowly as possible at the same altitude as the raiders. I believe one thing the would do to reduce their speed was fly into the wind which could bring them virtually to a stop as far as ground speed is is concerned. All this while being unarmed and with German fighters about.
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  12.  @stephenrickstrew7237  I'll have to tell my partner that one. She loves puns. Ok, I laughed as well.😁 Just came across a photograph of a black Jeep. Licence plate is BAABAA. Thought you'd like that one.
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  13. Actually the reason for the German Me-262 having swept wings was because the engines they ended up using was longer then those originally planned, with the engine much further forward of the leading edge.. This left the aircraft somewhat nose heavy. So to counter this problem they swept the wings back which moved the centre of gravity back.
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  14. Well, at least enough to fit a cup holder in the cockpit.
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  15. At 3:42 there is a group of figures in the bottom right corner. I believe the figure on the left raising his right hand in greeting to the man with his back to us is Edward, Prince of Wales. Interestingly, many of the people in the photograph are wearing black arm bands which would indicate they are in mourning. So I do wonder if this was taken in January 1936 after George V had died. Which would make Edward King Edward VIII. First time I saw the Wellesley I was very much put in mind of a flying cloths peg. One which hung the Italian out to dry.
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  16. There has been talk, on and off, of bringing back the OV-10 Bronco for COIN use. Got to be better then using the A-10 for COIN which is like using a Rolls-Royce for pizza delivery. Great aircraft though it is the A-10 it's wasted on COIN missions.
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  17. I came across this some years ago. The version I saw would have been flown by the Royal Air Force and was aimed at dealing with the huge Soviet helicopter fleets which would have been used to drop thousands of troops behind NATO lines. As jet aircraft are not much use against low flying helicopters the idea was to have these aircraft deal with them. I think they were to have flown behind the NATO front line and dealt with the helicopters once they had crossed over. Interestingly the RAF version would see the return of the Spitfire wing. The end to the Cold War meant there was no longer a need for such an aircraft.
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  18. It looks like some sort of prehistoric bat. Or something designed on a Friday afternoon when the liquid lunch was decidedly more liquid then usual. Still. It would have been interesting to see it over Berlin in 1944.
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  19. When I first came across the Albacore I had wondered why they had just enclosed the cockpit. It was not until I looked into its history I realised that there was more to it and its reputation was not deserved. Taranto may have had a bigger impact if the second carrier had been available as was supposed to happen. One or two more of the larger warships damaged or sunk would have made it harder to make a show of force.
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  20. Actually a number of P-39s and later P-63s were flown by US pilots who thought they were a very good aircraft and liked them a lot. You have to wonder what they could have achieved after D-Day with a 37 mm and a couple of 20 mm cannons in the wings taking part in the staffing of German vehicles on the roads in France.
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  21. The F-15EX would make a better choice. Ticks all the right boxes and with the two seater version would make it ideal for ground attack and long patrols on the Canadian border. I did come across the idea that one of the reasons the F-18E/F was not picked was because of the Boeing causing all that trouble for the Canadian owned company Bombardier. Something which was seen as totally unnecessary on the part of Boeing as Bombardier was in no way a rival for any of Boeing's market. If true, and I am not saying for one moment it is, then would the same apply to the F-15EX Anyway. CF-15EX Would make the better bet.
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  22. Thanks for the video, Ed. I had heard of this Lanc, if you hang around long enough it's amazing what you come across, but I have to admit I had forgotten all about it. As I don't remember much about it I'm assuming I had read a brief mention about it in one of those articles or books which seeks to list all the variants no matter how obscure. So thanks for the research.
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  23. Thanks for the video, Ed. I seem to remember coming across this aircraft in the dim and distant past where, I seem to remember, it was claimed to have been the bomber version of the Bf 110. The Ju 88 was a much better aircraft.
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  24. To be fair they got it spot on with the Buccaneer. It flew so damn low it did not need guns to kill infantry. And at that hight not even the fastest jets could catch it.
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  25. Plans for 1919 would have been very interesting indeed. Combined arms with a dedicated ground attack aircraft and paratroopers would have been a huge step forward militarily. Something which would not happen until the invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. And then by the Germans. Now that's history changing.
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  26. Some must have realised what a missed opportunity the Junkers Ju 89 was when they were having to build the Mistel to do the job which the Ju 89 could have done. Some 250 Mistels were built with limited success. Operation Iron Hammer was to knock out Soviet power stations around Moscow and Gorky. But these were never attacked because the Red Army had entered German and the Mistels no longer had the range. The Ju 89 could have carried out these raids. When looking at the Allied bomber raids one thing which is often overlooked is that they tried up some 5,000 aircraft, about the same number of AAA guns and one million men. Stalin may have dismissed the idea that this was the second front but just imagine have having all of that to send to the east.
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  27. Do you think it's possible that the next step for drones is aerial combat with each other and that Digital Combat Simulator is being used like in The Last Starfighter to recruit virtual pilots. Or do you think it's time I had another coffee. And before anyone says it there is no such thing as too much coffee.
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  28.  @EdNashsMilitaryMatters  Wrangler flares and a Ben Sherman shirt. Those were the days. They had Sweet playing Ballroom Blitz on the film Suicide Squad, the only good thing in the film, so maybe time for flare to return.
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  29. I did read that the Egyptian airforce looked to using their new MiG-15s against the Valiant but as there was over three thousand feet between the service ceiling of the Mig and that of the Valiant this was never going to happen.
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  30. That would make for a very interesting video
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  31. The problem with emphasis on the Ho Chi Minh trail is that the majority of the supplies came by sea. The most effective force against these supplies was the US Coast Guard. The Australian airforce flew the Canberra in Viet Nam. The Australians were so accurate that if forward air controllers knew they were available the Canberras would be used first. If just one bomb was not within the target area the crew would have to go step by step with other officers from the squadron to find out why.
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  32. Time to take the dust covers off the Victor and Vulcan. Interesting using acronym BUFF as I seem to remember it was originally used with the F-4 Phantom II
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  33. I read about that. Apparently the real Gant looks nothing like Eastwood. The photographs were a ruse to allow the pilot to return to civilian life.
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  34. Great looking aircraft. Watching the video I did think that the Royal Navy could have used it. But as they had the Buccaneer the Jaguar would not really have a role.
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  35. Just shows what can be achieved if you have the will to succeed. As for speaking Finnish, I understand even other Nord struggle with the language. Anywhere damp or humid is never good for wooden aircraft. Even the otherwise excellent Mosquito had to be withdrawn from the Far East because of the effects of damp.
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  36. I remember reading about the Firebrand test firing its guns during WW2. As Blackburn's factory is right next to the River Humber there is a bank between it and the river to protect the factory from flooding. To test fire the four 20 mm cannons they would lift the Firebrand's tail up to get the aircraft level then, fire at a target which was in front of the bank. After test firing one day they got a message from a rather irate barge skipper complaining about being fired on from the factory as he sailed up the river. It turned out that they had fired at the same spot so often that the cannon shells had dug a hole through the bank.
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  37. One of those aircraft you'd have loved to see in service. It may have proven itself as a dogfighter but Robin Olds showed that the Phantom was quite capable of dealing with MiG21s with the right planning. And as a mud mover it was very capable in that role. In fact that is what the Royal Air Force bought them for. And the Vought F8 proved itself as a dogfighter. Maybe not as quickly as its sibling. Here's a thought. If it had won out against the F-4 would this video have a what if for the Phantom and how it had more potential than the Vought F8U-3
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  38. This is one of several channels I follow which takes the intriguing footnotes of history and fills in the missing information.
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  39. On the up side when the MiG-15 faced the Valiant bomber the Valiant flew to high for it to reach.
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  40. I once met someone who was born before Karl Benz built his first car and lived long enough, she was 100 at the time, to see the first man on the Moon. So in her lifetime we went from the horse and cart to Saturn V.
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  41. The Shorts Seamew also seems to have beaten the Il-20 to the punch.
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  42. Oddly enough some German aircraft designers ended up working for the Allies. The designer of the Me-163 ended up in the US
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  43. I'd have thought dodging an incoming aircraft when things didn't go quite to plan during landing would have been higher. But then again you've probable got more experience of these things than most of us.
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  44. As the M4 Sherman used aircraft engines you have to wonder what the Wasp Major would have done with it. June 6th 1944. Lands on the beach at Normandy. June 7th 1944 takes Berlin. They would have arrived sooner but the driver likes to get his seven hours sleep or he gets really cranky.
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  45. That moment when you stop counting your money and start weighing it instead.
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  46. What does count as a kill does seem to have a wide interpretation. I seem to remember that the Germans had no problem counting aircraft strafed on the ground as a kill in WW2. And America will allow a kill if an enemy aircraft flies into the ground while in combat with an American aircraft as a maneuver kill. So why not.
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  47. The Ukrainians have a soft spot for all Russian tanks. It's called the turret.
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  48.  @billdyke9745  Sometimes you just have to face your fate. My problem is that last time I wore a pair of flares I had a much smaller waste. This may take some time
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  49. The first Ta-Go looks like a design from the early 30's. Japan had something of a Catch 22 as far as Kamikaze attacks were concerned. They needed good pilots for the aircraft they intended to use for those attacks but at the same time they could not afford to use their best pilots as these were needed to defended Japan. So, many of the pilots they used were given the bare minimum of training. This in turn caused problems because they needed to get passed the US pilots who by this time were highly experienced. And even if they did that their lack of experience often led to failure. When you see film footage of a Zero crashing into the sea instead of a ship it could well be because the pilot could not control the aircraft while in a dive. Something experienced pilots knew about.
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  50. R.J. Michell did something similar to this but decided against it because he feared that if the wings got steam hitting cold water would be rather explosive. Martin Baker of course produce the MB 5 aircraft with a gearing system to produce contrarotating propellers but with only one engine.
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