Audio of Lancaster under nightfighter attack

[slimm50]

WTG Tiger...a truly great post: informative, instructional, inspirational, got everyone envolved. That's the best thing about this AH community, if you can wade through the trash talk and uber egos that abound in here:D
Slim03

[GScholz]

Originally posted by MRPLUTO
GScholz, thank you very much for investigating this.

Your welcome Mr. Pluto.

On the sound issue, my guess is that they filtered out the low sound bands that the deep roar of the merlins would produce. The crew were all using headsets and throat mikes. You notice that there is very little bass in the sound, all high and mid tones. The sharp report of a machinegun could not be filtered out though (nor would you want to if you work for the BBC ).

EDIT: You can however hear the electromagnetic interference from the sparkplugs. It's a faint high-pitch vibration that sometimes varies a bit in pitch (prolly from not having all engines running at the exact same rpm).

[GScholz]

Hmmm ... I wonder if it could be possible to find out who they shot down? We have the date and location. It must be possible to find the LW losses over Berlin that night, and if the pilot/crew survived perhaps an AAR. This could be an interesting project.

[Blue Mako]

On the sound discussion:

Remember that the engines on the lanc are mounted outside the fuselage of the aircraft whereas the guns are mounted in the fuselage, only inches from the crew, with a clear sound path through the cabin.  This would probably account for the difference in what can and can't be heard clearly.

Someone mentioned that in a fighter you couldn't hear the guns over the engine.  In a fighter, the engine is sitting only a few feet ahead of the pilot, with only a firewall between them whereas a fighters guns are out in the wings with no clear path for the sound to follow through the aircraft to the pilot.

[Regurge]

Originally posted by Karnak
It sounds more like an audio of a Lancaster attacking a nightfighter.  They never talk about being hit.  It sounds like the nightfighter flew close over the Lancaster without ever being aware of it (or at least of the Lanc's actual location) and got shot down before being able to take action.

If you listen closely just before the gunner fires the first time he (or someone on board) says "Gerry tracer behind us". At least thats what it sounded like to me. Sounds like the German fired on them and the gunner returned fire.

[Karnak]

Originally posted by Regurge
If you listen closely just before the gunner fires the first time he (or someone on board) says "Gerry tracer behind us". At least thats what it sounded like to me. Sounds like the German fired on them and the gunner returned fire.

I hear it too now that I am listening for it.  It was quiet.

It is odd though.  Mossie nightfighters didn't carry tracer as it would alert the enemy.  I wonder why the Germans did?

[Batz]

wwiiol

Stolly cross oposted this over at wwiiol.

I think I am sticking to this as being "fake". Despite GScholz's great research theres no way to tell if this wav is actually the the aircraft he linked.

There was a edited version (actually just a snipped version) of this wav on earthlink's sounds of ww2. They were selling the full version. It was put on that sitedated 2000. I believe thats around the same time this first made the rounds.

Feel free to believe what you want but theres a number of things that arent right. The lack of eng noise is one for me but this recording had to made from the intercom. The crew most likely were wearing masks. I am not sure what type of mic was used or how they were keyed (push to talk, voice activated or what). The gun noise just doesnt seem right.

Read the link above if you can.

YMMV

[Regurge]

Originally posted by Karnak
I hear it too now that I am listening for it.  It was quiet.

It is odd though.  Mossie nightfighters didn't carry tracer as it would alert the enemy.  I wonder why the Germans did?

I thought about that too, but I suppose if you're attacking Lancasters the tail gunner would see the muzzle flash in any case. IIRC Mossies mostly went after enemy nightfighters, some of which were single seaters so not using tracer makes sense.

[BGBMAW]

dammitt..

hey Tiger ..i try ur link on ur first post but its a no go...can u repost link??


Salute
BiGB
xoxo

[Kisters]

If its not real i want more like this produced, anyone said Big Week radio soap opera? or Ploesti

[Rutilant]

Originally posted by Batz
wwiiol

Stolly cross oposted this over at wwiiol.

I think I am sticking to this as being "fake". Despite GScholz's great research theres no way to tell if this wav is actually the the aircraft he linked.

There was a edited version (actually just a snipped version) of this wav on earthlink's sounds of ww2. They were selling the full version. It was put on that sitedated 2000. I believe thats around the same time this first made the rounds.

Feel free to believe what you want but theres a number of things that arent right. The lack of eng noise is one for me but this recording had to made from the intercom. The crew most likely were wearing masks. I am not sure what type of mic was used or how they were keyed (push to talk, voice activated or what). The gun noise just doesnt seem right.

Read the link above if you can.

YMMV

Like someone suggested before, it's possible they edited out the lower pitch noises, the gnines, plus the lower sound of the .303 firing. All that coems through is the higher pitched noise.. If they were wearing masks, this would also offer an explanation..

To me, taht article GScholz posted is wwwaaay too big a coincidence to be different recording..

[Xjazz]

Originally posted by GScholz
The crew were all using headsets and throat mikes. You notice that there is very little bass in the sound, all high and mid tones. The sharp report of a machinegun could not be filtered out though (nor would you want to if you work for the BBC ).

EDIT: You can however hear the electromagnetic interference from the sparkplugs. It's a faint high-pitch vibration that sometimes varies a bit in pitch (prolly from not having all engines running at the exact same rpm).

This sounds right to me.

Comes to my mind that the tail gunner is very close to the guns and fireing high impact presure/sound pounding his flight jacked + throat microfone. Huge merlins have deep steady roar.

[Dowding]

It could be a studio based reconstruction of the original recording - that was done very often back then. Churchill's speeches were re-done using an actor for instance; the 'never surrender' speech we often hear tends to be a recording done after the fact by a well-known imitator.

[Zanth]

With the passing of time and all the file formats and compression this may or may not have been through to get it into a format we can hear over the interent, I would not expect what we are hearing is the quality of the original 60 years ago in any case.

[NJMAW]

I guess it is real!

great work on producing the evidence.

I would think that back then maybe just maybe they had throat microphones that were hooked up some how to a recording device.  

I mean hell we never been in a flying combat Lancaster and would now what the noise levels were inside.  Also we dont know if this recording was cleaned up digitally.

But I believe it to be authentic.