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Every WWII Air Force Ranked — WORST to BEST

Blitzkrieg

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Air power in World War II didn't reward the best planes — or even the bravest pilots. It rewarded something colder: factories, fuel, radar, and training pipelines. In this video we rank EVERY major air force of WW2 from WORST to BEST — and the #1 spot isn't the one most people expect.

From China's borrowed "Flying Tigers" and Poland's obsolete PZL fighters, to Finland's tiny air force posting some of the deadliest kill ratios in history, to Japan's unbeatable early Zero, the Soviet VVS rising from catastrophe, Germany's legendary Luftwaffe aces, Britain's game-changing Dowding radar system, and the overwhelming industrial might of the US Army Air Forces — this is the full ranking, with the real reasons each air force rose or fell.

Which one do YOU think deserves the top spot? Let me know in the comments.

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CHAPTERS
00:00 – The truth about WW2 air power
00:33 – China
01:38 – Poland
02:52 – France
03:57 – Italy
05:17 – Finland
06:41 – Japan
08:06 – Soviet Union
09:36 – Luftwaffe
11:13 – Royal Air Force
12:40 – United States Army Air Forces
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If this ranking made you rethink which air force was really the best, drop a LIKE and SUBSCRIBE — it genuinely helps the channel keep making these deep dives.

#WW2 #WorldWarII #Aviation #AirForce #MilitaryHistory #Luftwaffe #Spitfire #P51Mustang #Zero #History

20 Comments

@hmasdropbear1372 12 days ago

You also did not mention why the RAF and the USAAF were really good. Their best pilots were not left in the fight until they died. They were pulled from it and sent home to train the next intake of recruits. This way the replacement pilots had first hand experience in training from aircrew who had been on the front lines. This meant their replacement aircrew were far better trained than any other countries. This made a world of difference.

@watcherzero5256 11 days ago

The RAF dropped more tons of bombs than the US in every year of the war and that includes both the European and Pacific theatre's.

@ianmoseley9910 11 hours ago

Dowding system was not just RDF (radar), there were a thousand or so Observer Corps posts all precisely located with overlapping sight areas and specially devised plotting tables, all feeding back to Sector command centres and integrated with the radar plots. Communications were via a network of redundant telephone lines, switching centres and a separate teleprinter system. Fighters also had multiple systems to show locations and receive instructions.

@MarkHumphrey-fi7we 13 days ago

P41 only became the great plane when it was given the merlin engine.

@NBrad100 6 days ago

Not a surprise you chose the USAF as #1! I recently watched WWII with Tom Hanks & the same there, all about US winning the war (reinforced with 4 episodes covering to the US entering the war, then 16 featuring mostly US campaigns!!)

By your own description you say the Luftwaffe was at its best in 1940, & single handedly (with commonwealth & allied pilots) the RAF beat them with inferior numbers! The radar just gave us the opportunity to get fighters in the air before they were destroyed on the ground, then vectored to an area to intercept!

@seanmccann8368 13 days ago

About the Italians using the CR42 Falco biplane, please remember that the British RAF were still using Gloster Gladiator biplanes in the first few months of the war also. The Finnish used Gladiators and Fiat CR42's also.

@kingdaniel69 9 days ago

Didn't the Rolls Royce Merlin make the Mustang P51 much better, particularly at altitude?

@pshehan1 12 days ago

By 1945 Australia had the 4th largest Air Force in the world, fighting in Europe and the Pacific. My grandfather and two of my mother's cousins were in the air force. One of the cousins was a bomber pilot KIA over Milne Bay in New Guinea. His brother was a bomber pilot shot down over Germany and sent to Stalag Luft III. He was supposed to go out in the Great Escape, but being a medical student and the closest thing they had to a doctor in the camp, his place was given to another man who was amomg the 50 executed. Geoffrey felt the guilt for the rest of his life.

@garyandrews5104 7 days ago

At its wartime peak in late 1944, the RAAF (Australia) had more than 6,200 aircraft and about 184,000 personnel. Which made it the fourth largest Air Force in the world.

@rogerlenton3335 4 days ago

"Every major air force"? Canada and Australia would like to have a word. Both became major air powers in numbers of personnel, aircraft, and production, not to mention the number of aces. Each peaked as the allies 4th largest air force at various times in the war. Even if you expand the list to all the world's air forces they were 7th and 8th. Silly video.

@69vrana 12 days ago

Pretty good and accurate. Maybe to add one little note - just before official start of WW2 in Europe, USA started CPTP or Civilian Pilot Training Program. They paid for basic civilian pilot training for interested candidates and then used that system to feed the Air Force with pilots who already had flight basics covered. Germans did a similar thing where they funded civilian glider programes. I am sure some other countries did the same, since interest in flying was high in the 30s and everyone knew air power would be important in future wars.

@Gregoryfellows 1 hour ago

No mention of the Mosquito?

@ROCKETRICKYH 5 hours ago

My father was among the best trained pilots of the war. From an intake of 100, about 5-6 got onto front line fighters. He was one of them. RN Fleet Air Arm. A very shallow analysis, I am afraid.

@bclark5794 5 days ago

Is this a joke? Firstly the U.S. wasn’t even in the war when the “undefeated” German airforce were beaten by the RAF. They were also not in the war when the British started bombing Berlin much to the shock of the Germans. Then the “best” fighter of WW2, the P51 mustang was hardly a world beater, being useless at high altitude, until the British put Rolls Royce engines into it, then it became a world beater. The RAF Lancaster bomber also carried a higher payload than the U.S. Flying Fortress and was the only plane capable of carrying the Big Boy bomb that could destroy heavily re enforced targets like U-boat pens. The RAF dropped more tonnage of bombs on Germany than the U.S. Sadly the RAF lost 55,000 to 57,000 airmen during the European war compared to 26,000 US aircrew

@rb239rtr 10 days ago

by the 3rd year of the war, Japan and Germany had lost their skilled pilots

@Matthewswiftsilver 7 days ago

Relegating the RAF to second spot is criminal, the P51 was British design and engine, the B29 came about because the US military top brass didn't want a British plane (the Lancaster bomber) to drop the atom bombs on Japan, the RAF used so many different planes in multiple roles, way more roles than the US air force, Britain also had a jet fighter and gave a jet engine to the US to study, the RAF was clearly the better air force in the second world war 🤷

@edgarkurm8148 10 days ago

Italian main fighter was Saetta, which was not great, not bad, it was ok, later they did some very good planes, but yes was already to late.

@sebastiandomagala9233 6 hours ago

So many details wrong, and I don't even mean the AI images.

The Luftwaffe knew well what that radar system was, they were strangled by ideologically motivated orders to bomb London instead of RAF airfields.

The RAF were more capable than the USAAF and fought more than two years longer. Despite investing in obsolete aircraft like the Baulton Paul Defiant and some major shortcomings in armament and tactics.

@maximomartin2529 2 days ago

Polish, Italian, and French airforces are kinda underrated. Poland in 1939 had a stronger military overall than the US, since the US was still being isolationist and had no reason to militarise, having just below 200K active personnel.

Italy had a sizable fleet up until 1940 where their major military base in Sicily was raided by Britain from Malta, crippling approximately 1/3 of the entire Italian airforce, weakening them considerably.

And France, despite the many jokes we make about it in WW2, actually had the military with the greatest quality during the late Interwar period. Even during the Battle of France, France had a larger and stronger army than Germany, only being doomed when they were encircled at Dunkirk and the Ardanelles blitzkriege ended up destroying a large part of their airforce equipment.

@DarrenWhite-x7k 3 hours ago

This is forgetting a major point. And as the narration is American I’m guessing it’s loaded for the Americans. The p51 mustang was average until a rolls Royce Merlin engine was put into it