Great Fighting Machines of WW II Allied-Axis Bombers

These are the middle two videos from the Questar set that I reviewed last week and if you read that thread you will recall I was not very kind in my remarks, finding many flaws and too few highlights. To my surprise and delight both videos are considerably better than the two previous volumes. Calling all of the planes discussed 'great' is something of a exaggerated claim but forgivable in the main.

First up is Allied Bombers and is a very detailed list of British and American types used through out the war period. In so far as I can tell only the Fairey Battle and B-18 Bolo are not present and considering their combat records we aren't missing much. Only one Russian type makes the list and like Allied Fighters French and Polish aircraft were omitted. For the rest each gets a reasonable amount of air time with some nice footage of each included. Of the lesser known craft like the Bombay, Baltimore, Whitley et all, how they were used and why they failed or succeeded is touched on.

Axis Bombers, while not quite as good as Allied Bombers, Is still superior to Axis Fighters. The segments at the beginning and end on German aircraft are both good as is the segment on Italian bombers. The weak spot is again on Japanese aircraft. They cover pretty well the 'Lily', Nell' and 'Betty' types, but no others and make the claim that both 'Nell's' and 'Betty's' participated in the raid on Pearl Harbor. Yes they were long ranged (and paid a steep price to be so), but played no part in the carrier strike on the US fleet base.

Both videos would make suitable primers on the subject despite the flaws they possess.

 

The fact they wrongfully stated that Nell and Betty bombers participated in Pearl Harbor, puts into question the integrity of the whole series. Even an amateur WW2 historian should know what aircraft participated in Pearl Harbor. This unfortunate error now bars me from ever spending the time and money to watch this series.