Luftwaffe´s Henschel HS129 Anti-Tank aircraft (Sep 1944)

[itostrong923v]

Your vid went viral on Abidjan

[osjaikisa]

I dont know and really dont give a fuck who had cannons, what size were they, etc! What I know for sure: USSR won the war! FACT!!!))))))

[88Phobos]

And Still armies use these like A-10 improved from these...

[Metalicalypse]

This is kick ass.

[zorzerother]

that bounced shell at 0:38 is just beautiful.

[10causa]

niemiecka technika wojenna była z reguły wyższa niż przeciwników , lecz jej produkcja była pracochłonna , przeto i powolna ; to w głównej mierze zadecydowało

[FRforcing]

yeah...and ther was version with one 50 mm cannon...but it only could take 13 shells...but one hit on medium or easy tank and tank becomes crap...

[hokuspokus29]

I like this plane

[dolenzia78]

nazi trash

[XCougar85X]

Thank you for sharing this rare video.

[sahtekar1000]

@vvsector1 and one more thing stukas had bombs too , strong enough to destroy any tank thah hit by 37mm cannon from chains and hey you destroyed a tank but you r a KGB agent sorry you can immobilize everything in the worl with 9mm pistol :)))

[sahtekar1000]

@vvsector1 puahah:D idiot.. im a tank driver in Turkish army.i drive a Leopard 2a6 and ı know tanks much more than you if you hit it a with cannon and if you hit it's chains or suspension pots it would be immobilize for hours and if it's stucked for hours it's can easily destroy by any other tank divebomber ,anti tank or anti tank mine-granade.And you say get a life:D and say im a KGB agent if you r really an angent you write it in here right?? now go play more İl-2 :D

[sahtekar1000]

@vvsector1 stukas had 37mm cannos what they can easily immobilize any tank in the battlefield.and once immobilized it's a iron pile and open target for bombing or destroying .and here you claimed a victory cos this is your duty.

[Aerobix]

EIN TANKWAGEN WIRD ANGEGRIFFEN UND FLIEGT IN DIE LUFT! ich will einen "wochenschau stimmgenerator"

[noelchan127]

Why does the cannon projectile leave a smoke trail?

[Toddinfantry]

@noelchan127 They are generally tracer rounds

[noelchan127]

@Toddinfantry But I thought tracer rounds only produce light, but not smoke?

[Toddinfantry]

@noelchan127 Tracers are made by putting a brightly burning material into a hollow at the base of the projectile. This substance is usually magnesium. As the magnesium burns creating the light it also creates smoke.

[noelchan127]

@Toddinfantry So those are tracer designed to produce smoke? Cause most other tracer I've seen didn't leave smoke

[Toddinfantry]

@noelchan127 Depends on the weapon and whether it is modern ammo or are you talking just ww2? Let's stick to this era. Generally you will see smoke from ww2 tracers, most notably seen on aircraft vids. You really see it when the 37mm fires because the round moves so slowly. Watch vids of aerial battles and you will see the tracer smoke.

[noelchan127]

@Toddinfantry I'm talking about both. I noticed that it's rare to find videos of tracers with smoke. Is it that larger calibre rounds tends to use tracer's which produces smoke?

[Toddinfantry]

@noelchan127 Here you go...watch the vid "german ww2 STUKA ju87g shooting. In the second attack watch for the small caliber MG rounds being fired and you will see the smoke from the tracers. There are plenty of vids showing this, I will find more and let you know.

[noelchan127]

@Toddinfantry I just watched it. Cool, I think it's just that the other videos are not clear enough so I wasn't able to see it. Thanks :)

[Toddinfantry]

@noelchan127 My pleasure! Glad you watched it, there are lots of them, I'll send you more info.

[hogiesanKenobi]

@noelchan127 They had a flare in the rear of the round to allow pilots to see where the shell was going . Look at the Hans Rudel gun camera footage .The 3.7 cm wolfram ( tungsten ) rounds were used to knock out tanks ,but standard ammo with suitable fuses exploded on impact. Rudels 70 landing craft kills were in a 2 day period . He would have shot similar on the Volga ,but did not record it.

[athomicritics]

the grandfather of the mighty a-10

[IanHunedoara8]

Soviet T-34's had thin armor on top- making them especially vulnerable to Henschels equipped with vertical rockets activated by magnetic sensors.

[Skandalos]

Das Gebiet, das diese Aufnahmen zeigen, sieht nicht wirklich nach Rußland aus. Eher nach Deutschland.

[lmos26]

haha seriously why do these 70 year old HUD videos have more clarity than it's modern contemporaries do?

[Toddinfantry]

@lmos26 Because it is not video, it is film, BIG difference.

[lmos26]

@Toddinfantry Hmm, can you reference this? I was under the impression that this is in fact actual combat footage that has only been cut and made into a propaganda film.

[Toddinfantry]

@lmos26 I think you missed my point. All the images you see from ww2 are on film which has a different frame rate than actual film. Film is what movies are shot on. Video is fairly new. This is actual footage.

[kineticdeath]

@lmos26 not to mention better clarity than alot of other videos that are so pixelated and seemingly videoed with a 1980's calculator

[aserix]

@lmos26

What you see nowadays is a video of a plane flying 900 km/h from 2 km high; this video is from a plane flying 300 km/h at 300 meters high. Not to say that old black&white films has many times more clarity that modern colour ones (and also most of modern films are taken with infrared or similar filters).

[StaffanGoldschmidt]

Eine Geniale Maschine Die leider zu spät yum Einsatz kam, der Grund war das die deutsche Industrie keinen geeigneten Motor hatte bis der französische Ghnom-Rhone Motor zur Verfühgung stand.

[erus234]

@StaffanGoldschmidt Was heißt hier leider??

[traxel14]

@StaffanGoldschmidt Nun, das ist leider eine inkorrekte Aussage. Die Luftwaffe benötigte die erheblich stärkeren deutsche Motoren für Jäger und Bomber. Aus der Not heraus nahm man eben die schwachen französische Motoren als "Ersatz" für die nicht lieferbaren deutsche Motoren.

[notaire2]

Das war wirklich ein PanzerAbwehrFlugzeug. Leider war es zu spät und zu wenig.

[IanHunedoara8]

The authoritative book on TORCH campaign and Tunisia is "An Army at Dawn". I will get it out of the library to close the file on this. Someone may be mistaking a Panzer 1V for a Panther OR- both Tigers and Panthers ( which were definitely available to Wehrmacht in 1942) were encountered in Tunisia in small quantities with an ever-decreasing supply of petrol.

[IanHunedoara8]

@IanHunedoara8 I stand corrected -you are right. The tanks encountered by the M1 Stuarts were Panzer 1V's with long 75 mm cannon.

[Magni56]

@IanHunedoara8

Tigers, yes. Panthers? No. Combat debut of the Panther was '43 during Kursk.

[IanHunedoara8]

Great leaders are judged by their failures as well as their successes. Ploiesti 1943 operation was one of the costliest ever to USAAF  in terms of aircraft and pilot losses. McArthur warned Brereton to move his aircraft away from Clark Field to smaller airstrips away from Japanese carrier force striking distance. Did Brereton ever have a success (except to bomb McA in in published memoirs)???

[wwwtotalitaerde]

The German Army blew up at least one of their own hospitals while retreating from Moscow in 1941. Obviously they did not only assassinate Jews, Gipsies or Russians. They also got rid of their own wounded. This obviously was done on a large scale. I´ve never seen anyone crippled by the war here in Germany. The worst thing I´ve seen had been missing or stiff fingers.

My Brother Markus Bott had been assassinated by the BND on July 11th09 because of our homepage.

[hetmanbasza]

@wwwtotalitaerde

Really? Why?

You are corect in observing that. There were very few visible handicapped German soldiers with massive wounds (missing legs or arms). Large part of it was propaganda need for keeping any demorlizing sight out of the german population. Abandoning wounded was common. Especially anywhere Americans were involved. Soviets handled German wounded "at no aditional charge". They just dissapeared. 95k German POW's were taken at Stalingrad and about 5k returned.

[wwwtotalitaerde]

@hetmanbasza Do you know of any literature or other sources giving more Information? And also wether this happened in other countries as well. Up to now I only found this publication mentioning the hospital having been blown up by the German troops. But I was shown several times that in other countries they take care of their veterans and elderly in general. And I have seen more than once how the Germans dispose off their elderly today.

[hetmanbasza]

@wwwtotalitaerde

Germans do not bragg about stuff. I had to befriend some or their closest relatives before any info would surface. There is a good book, a memoire, by Guy Saier: "The Forgotten Soldier". It's worth reading because it will give you a perspective of why many inhumane things became simple after a human character gets pushed so far off "normal".

The eugenics movement started late in 1800's and flusished in early 1900.

Once it was exposed for what it is, it was stopped

[hetmanbasza]

@hetmanbasza

for most of 1900. It is resurfacing recently as a smaller part of the culture war and I don't like that.

Hitler tought, that americans do not hold the high ground in case of killing mentally ill. He figured no one is going to be to upset when he will exterminate gypsies, handicapped, retarded, and a nation or two.

Read "The Fly Boys" and it will give you a plain idea why Japaneese Empire had to be stopped (nuked) and in retro spect, A-bomb was actually a god send for them.

[wwwtotalitaerde]

@hetmanbasza I think one of the main misconception of the 3rd Reich is that Hitler did decide on his own. He was recruited by the Reichswehr in 1919 and, after some training in Munich, used to infiltrate right wing parties. They sent many and Hitler made it to the top. So, as a snitcher, he obviously was doing as he was told. And of course he was manipulated by his surroundings. That excuses none of the atrocities committed as he ordered them instead of blocking them.

[hetmanbasza]

@wwwtotalitaerde

True. There has not been a notable leder who did it all him/herself. They all had a break somewhere to acheive top echelon of power.

The problem is how they hide the bodies of the oposition and who knows about them.

"The best form of gov't is kingdom. If you disagree with it you will be greatly disapointed in heaven!" As far as recent totalitarians, Tito would be my #1. He knew how to take from americans and promiss things to Stalin and yet he did not murder too many.

[hetmanbasza]

@hetmanbasza

Because Hitler's history was written not by him, he is portrayed as "crazy mad man".

This is a poor attempt to cover up everyones incompetance. From 33 untill 44 he was the most feared person on Continent and no one wanted to really screw with him. He was briliant in bullying, intimidation, threats and had president of Czechoslovakia collapse in his office with a heart atack. Stalin, went into shock for first 5 days of Barbarossa and locked himself in his office.

[IanHunedoara8]

@hetmanbasza He never fooled or intimidated Churchill. Except Brits didn't listen to Winnie until it was almost too late.

[hetmanbasza]

@IanHunedoara8

Yes, Churchill had that quality. Too bad most others on the continent fell for it.

There is however, a glitch with Winnie. I am convinced that he would have sued for peace just to take England out of the war. What screwd his plans was Roosevelt's public statement of "fighting Germany till unconditional surrender" . Washing his hands of the war at the point would make him look hipocritical in light of his famous speach early on.

[IanHunedoara8]

@hetmanbasza atamanbashi- in Tunisia 1943 Jeb Stuaart tanks got behind a group of Panthers and finished them off with their 37mm guns at Mejd-el Bab. This was accomplished only after these Panthers knocked out another group of Stuarts in front of them only minutes before. I agree with you -certainly German armour was vulnerable from sides and rear- but only at suicidally close ranges.

[IanHunedoara8]

@IanHunedoara8 Pardon- at my age I seem to be repeating myself.

[hetmanbasza]

@IanHunedoara8

Panthers were a quick German solution (copying) of a successfull Rusian design the T34. They compromised here and there and that is primary reason for example that Panthers were relativelly easy to knock out just as Brist did in Africa. I would add that a Panther or any medium veh. was not "easy pickings" from "suicidal ranges".  They were vulnerable to a single determined soldier! That goes for Panthers & T34.

[Dreachon]

@IanHunedoara8

You mean panzer III or IV right as the Panther was never sent to africa or tunisia.

[IanHunedoara8]

@Dreachon They were but the RAF sent most of the supply ships to the bottom of the Mediterranean

[Dreachon]

@IanHunedoara8

There weren't any panthers ever sent to north africa.

Only panzer I, II, III, IV and a small number of VI, besides by the time the panther was introduced at kursk which was in july the tunisian campaign had already ended in may, therefor no panther could have ever been sent to north africa.

[osjaikisa]

@hetmanbasza u right: none should returned.))

[hetmanbasza]

@osjaikisa

Are you refering to the post above?

[The4rfvbgt5]

the Germans were nuts all thous Russian tanks in the open ready for the road out of kuwate treatment and they used tanks Dowp.

[IanHunedoara8]

The events of 6/22/41 devastated the Soviet Air Force more than any other of its military branches- a blow from which it did not even begin to recover until after Kursk 7/43. This left ideal operating conditions for the HS 129 until very late in the war.

[MrBritdog2]

both of u below have good points, the downward thing, I read was photechnolgy, another first, that might be for night fighting with mortar rockets?? the Yack 2 or 7 and il 7? was the equivalent of spit mk 7 and p 51d, its just the Luft was way way out numbered and Hitlers meddling etc...

[IanHunedoara8]

At Kursk the HS 129 was fitted with downward-firing cannon that was activated by magnetic sensors when any armored vehicle passed directly beneath. Soviet T-34's had thin armor on top and were very extremely vulnerable to the Henschel's armament.

[hetmanbasza]

@IanHunedoara8

So did most of German armour, yet, they still argue that no .50 cal could knock out a panzer!

There were so many things that could go wrong with a tank that just might be started by a anti tank rifle shot into a track that it was not funny!

Panthers were vounrable at 800m to a 47mm AP round anywhere around sides and rear. Any caliber rifle shot at peep holes or peryscopes would blind it and any anti-tank granade or molotow coctail would finish it off.

[cherusker001]

BMunich16...how did Oberst Rudel, the best Stuka Pilot, killed more than 500 russian tanks.....with two 37mm cannons on his Ju-87...take a lesson

[Mrfishkopp]

@cherusker001 google him.

[IanHunedoara8]

While they proved to be highly effective tank killers at Kursk , the 129's were largely ineffective in Tunisia, -- they were vulnerable to P-38's

[malcolmgranger21]

you have a point there, my friend. Also, ruskies had no decent fighter aircraft (Yak-1, Yak-2?!, i don't think so). But you really have to give the Fw 190s and those reliable 109s in maximizing the effect of both the 88s, 87s, 129s, 190s(Ground Attack version).

[JG52Karaya]

@IanHunedoara8:

They werent vulnerable to P-38s, they were vulnerable to any kind of fighter for that matter, but the same applies to any other assault aircraft. The Russian IL-2 Sturmovik also suffered great losses to fighters and flak but the Russians continued to produce them like sausages nevertheless because it was an incredibly important aircraft for them.

Fighters usually get all the glory but it really is the mudmovers who win a war...

[IanHunedoara8]

@JG52Karaya The Germans kept Stukas with tank destroying cannon on the Eastern Front right up to March 1945, long after they were obsolescent and useless elsewhere.See Rudel's account of fighting around Kattowitz. It wasn't that the Russkies didn't have good aircraft by 1943 but their their deployment andtactics were poor. Yank and RAF tactic in Normandy was the use of armour piercing rockets from both P-47s and Hawker Typhoons. 50. caliber bullets would not penetrate a PZkw3 and 4 or a Tiger.

[hetmanbasza]

@IanHunedoara8

More German tanks were just abandoned due to lack of fuel than battle dammage (statistically). The lack of fuel started at the petrochemichal plant when it got bombed. Than, the railroad marshaling yards when they got bombed. Than the train got stopped at the blown up bridge/tracks or got straifed and lost its lockomotive. After that, if the german soldiers was really brave to ride a horse cart and try to deliver some by road he would get straifed. .50cal did its job well.

[IanHunedoara8]

@hetmanbasza Yes but only later in the war. The first Ploiesti raid 8/43 did not amount to a significant reduction in aviation and Panzer gasoline, its mastermind Col. Brereton was also responsible for B-17s and P-40's being destroyed on the ground during the Japanese invasion of the Philipines 12/41.

[hetmanbasza]

@IanHunedoara8

Not at first. Persistance was what accomplished the job.

As a general rule: Bombing industry takes time. Most of the time, bommbed plants quickly recovered from dammage and continured production.

Far better way to stop production was to disrupt electricity needed to run the equipment. That has been tried on a small scale in WW2 and is primary target today. It is very difficult fo build a tank by candle light.

[hetmanbasza]

@hetmanbasza

Now, Col. Brereton was the fall guy if there ever was one. Actual one to hang for Philipines should be McArthur but as we all know he got his much later.

In my opinion, officers in places of leadership at the opening days of that conflict were judged a bit harshly. So I cut them some slack.

[Karagianis]

The Hs129 was NOT a great aircraft. It's engines were underpowered, unreliable and caught fire easily.

The airframe was overwight with high high wing loading making it sluggish and giving it a high landing speed.

It was only about 10mph faster than a stuka in flight, and it had worse visability, which added to high landing speeds killed a lot of pilots. The cockpit was so cramped it made bailing out almost impossible.

[kolbpilot]

@Karagianis Yeah, I have to agree.  Powered by captured French engines. And talking about the miniscule cockpit, some of the guages had to be mounted outside of it.

[JohnEngineerisback]

This airplane should have been the most widely produced when the invasion in Soviet Union began. Stukas were outclassed, slow and vulnerable to AA fire. HS129 was a real tank buster and far superior to IL-2.. I mean Russians had many tanks and proved to produce many more.. What did Hitler expect?

[Twilightfantasy1019]

Great video, I am restoring the complete cockpit from a Hs129B2 that was captured in Tunisia in 1943. It's nice to see how they actually looked in the air. Slow but effective Gun platform, top little aircraft, I even have flak damage to show.

[blightsmite]

The whole bit about you restoring an actual 129 cockpit, is just as real as your name... fantasy.

Us folk around here don't like non-truth tellers.

[Twilightfantasy1019]

Thats my father actually ,he doesnt have a youtube account so he uses mine for his stuff. He keeps his plane thing in our garage and I will get him to respond to you later.

[Degenskonto]

Coolest airplane in CoH.

[mtpinky]

The Henschel HS-129 has long held a place in my heart since I was about 8 or 9 years old. I was a young model builder back then and I saw a Revel model kit for the HS-129. I instantly fell in love with the entire aircraft. It is of distinctive design, and is one of those rare WW2 German aircraft built with a single mission...close air support. Yes, it is a tank buster, but so is the A-10. Both are slow and low, and underpowered. Any aircraft that's strictly CAS needs to be underpowered.

[longbowgold67]

I never understood why they didn't just do what Rudel did with the Stuka and put the 37mm cannon on it. It would have been so much more effective then putting the 75mm cannon on it. That made the plane totally ineffective. What good was the gun when it rendered the Hs129 nearly flightless?

[jadvs73]

37mm shells had a hard job penetrating soviet armour.

[longbowgold67]

No they didn't have a hard time, they were the perfect weapon to use against the Soviet tanks. The problem with mounting them on the Stuka and making a "Kanonvogel" was they could only carry so much ammo,w hile the HS129 could hold all the ammo needed.

[BMunich16]

A 37mm cannon couldn't knock out a tank in a million years.

[longbowgold67]

From a plane it could have. Because they were shooting at the thinnest armor on the tank, the top armor from above, a plane mounted 37mm gun was incredibly effective. It's how Hans Ulrich Rudel knocked out most most the tanks he knocked out.

[BMunich16]

Maybe with 37mm ap rounds, but no other way, the bullet would be fired from a huge distance away and most likely be tumbling. The reason I thought otherwise was because I immediately thought of a P-39.

[longbowgold67]

Not quite true. The tumbling theory is false. On the Western Fronts, P47 pilots relied heavily off of .50 cal machine guns to destroy tanks. They would actually bounce the bullets off the ground under the tank, and there are interviews ON YOUTUBE of P47 pilots claiming to do such.

[BMunich16]

That doesn't mean the bullets weren't tumbling, .50's have a much higher muzzle velocity and they armor under the tank is practically non existent.

[JG52Karaya]

@longbowgold67:

LOL, people still believe tanks could be destroyed by .50CAL rounds? Thats hilarious...

I SAW the interview in question and the pilot there meant the FUEL tanks that the tanks sometimes towed behind them.

A heavy machine gun has exactly 0% chance of destroying anything larger than a very light tank.

FACT

[infernalzen]

thousand of russian ghosts would disagree.

the cannon round strikes from above, where tank armour isnt as strong.

[BMunich16]

Like I said, a Henschel with AP rounds could.

[IanHunedoara8]

@BMunich16 Which was exactly what M3 Stuarts inflicted upon Pzkw 4's at Medjez El Bab in Tunisia Jan 1943 when they were surprised from behind where their armour was not as thick. The M3 of course was armed with the 37mm "squirrel gun."

[BaronKrolok]

Actually only about 25 Hs 129-B3 were built with the BK 7,5, while there were much more -B2 with 30 mm or 37mm cannon.

[Ejeska]

same as below-thank you!

[Michaelfranm]

Classic Publications have an excellent book Hs129 Panzerjager! by Martin Pegg which is the ultimate resource on this unique aircraft from the Henschell Locomotive Works.

[stukabomber44]

man thats insane thanks a lot for the videos they are rare!

[mac163]

thick armour for the pilot and engines, in the b3 version some hs 129 carried a 75mm cannon under the fuselage, slow and difficult to fly, underpowered but deadly. a flying tank!

[ml191172]

WOW! Thank u sooo much..