The British plane is a Bristol Blenheim.

The trajectory of the torpedo can be seen across the sea.





by Jeanmichel50

30 comments

  1. This is wild footage. Can’t believe I’ve never seen it before

  2. Fantastic footage, have to love that little jump of the torpedo

  3. God damn, they’re so low! And they have to hold the angle they’re flying at to make sure the torpedo heads the right direction. Crazy.

  4. Holy shit, imagine sitting in that Blenheim with its glass cockpit flying low and slow and several 20mm flaks are firing at you from like 30 meters.

  5. Crazy footage, one of the best ever. It seems they only shot 1 down, wild considering how low and close they flew to the German escort ships. Just goes to show that, German naval anti-air wasnt all that great

  7. Took a lot of balls to fly right into 20 mm fire to drop a torpedo 300 yards away wow

  8. Beauforts launching torpedoes? Blenheims didn’t carry them. Mix of both in the footage

  9. This is seriously amazing footage. It’s actually extremely difficult to find footage of torpedo’s, especially with it being so visible. Thanks op.

  13. That second plane!!! Holy shit!! Took two at point blank range

  15. You definitely see one of the earlier planes get hit , impact smoke coming off the engine to the left wing

  18. Unlikely to to be a Bristol Blenheim in an anti shipping role in 1942. More likely a Bristol Beaufigher or Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber. Amazing footage nevertheless!

  19. As an italian, the first phrase kinda threw me off: “ACHTUNG ENGLISCHE TORPEDO FIGA!”

    for those who don’t know what figa means. Welp

  20. OP thank you for this! Please share more of your archive findings

  21. Makes me appreciate bravery of those WW2 pilots making torpedo runs straight into AA fire even more. Nice footage, thank you.

  22. Amazing footage dude,thank you for hunting for this and posting it.

  23. Translation

    >0:01 Attention, English torpedo bombers!
    0:08 There they come!
    0:12 Bombing!
    0:19 New approach!
    0:30 Torpedo attack!
    0:41 The second torpedo!
    0:49 A third one!
    0:59 Bomb line, hard starboard!
    1:03 The escorting convoy is being protected from further attacks by fogging.

  27. Fantastic footage.. gives you a real insight in to what it must have been like for both sides.

    was that Torpedo meant to bounce? and were any German ships hit during this attack?

    & the RAF seem pretty brave flying so low at the time, that AA was active.

    wonder what chance of survival the pilots had If shot down over the med sea.. must be a bit higher then the Germans right as we had one of the best navies in the world.

  29. Is that one of the older Italian destroyers at the end there?

  30. At 0:09 the aircraft is indeed a Bristol Blenheim, specifically a Mk V as one can tell from the distinctive nose.

    At 0:20 however it is a Bristol Beaufighter that was the heavy fighter derived from the Bristol Beaufort that can be seen dropping torpedoes at 0:33.

    These aircraft were almost certainly flying from Malta and their efforts contributed directly to Allied victory in North Africa. In August 1942, Malta’s strike forces had contributed to the Axis’ difficulties in trying to force an advance into Egypt. In that month, 33% of supplies and 41% of fuel were lost. In September 1942, Rommel received only 24% of the 50,000 tons of supplies needed monthly to continue offensive operations. During September, the Allies sank 33,939 tons of shipping at sea. Many of these supplies had to be brought in via Tripoli, many kilometres behind the battle front. The lack of food and water caused a sickness rate of 10% among Axis soldiers.

    The British air-submarine offensive ensured no fuel reached North Africa in the first week of October 1942. Two fuel-carrying ships were sunk, and another lost its cargo despite the crew managing to salvage the ship. As the British offensive at El Alamein began on October 23rd1942, Ultra intelligence was gaining a clear picture of the desperate Axis fuel situation. On October 25th, three tankers and one cargo ship carrying fuel and ammunition were sent under heavy air and sea escort, and were likely to be the last ships to reach Rommel while he was at El Alamein. Ultra intelligence intercepted the planned convoy route, and alerted Malta’s air units. The three fuel-carrying vessels were sunk by October 28th. It cost the British one Beaufighter, two Beauforts, three (out of six) Blenheims and one Wellington. Rommel lost 44% of his supplies on October, a jump from the 20% lost in September.

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