Night bombers interception in Western Europe in 1944

The Lufwaffe Nachtjakgt

Well that looks interesting.

The
Luftwaffe for a time had to resort to wild boar tactics which involved
single engined fighters equipped with special navigation equipment but with
no radar.

The 'special navigation equipment' carried on Wilde Sau Bf 109s and FW 190s
consisted of a UV lamp and specially coated maps. The special nav features of
the FuG 16Z were not utilized because they would have required a personal
controller for each "Boar", so instead they were following the Reichjägerweile
(general information fighter broadcast - "The four-motor bombers are
approaching Kassel; all aircraft within range, strong raid approaching Kassel",
that sort of thing. No naviads in the cockpits of the Wilde Sau airmen I have
interviewed.


Quite often when the German radar was working the link between the ground
and night fighter was not.

They were being jammed and intruded upon for the last two years of the war.
When the voice RT was 'stepped on', most NJ pilots had their bordfunkers switch
to Morse, which was not as easier to operate in a dirty environment.

The introduction of the Bernhard-Bernhardine system
improve matters. This system was very jam proof it told a night fighter
exactly where was in that provided a secure telemetry to link the night
fighter with ground control by a ticker tape.

One cool part of that system is that it was the first on earth to provide a
blind landing capability, when hooked to a three-axis autopilot. The Interim
Nightfighter (Me 262 B-1a/U1) 'version 2' carried this setup, as did a couple
captured Ju 88 nightfighters.

Berndard was essentially an early datalink system intended for large bombers
but it evolved into a fighter director.that was quite advanced for its day.

Because the German Lichtenstein radar had large aerials aircraft were slowed
down considerably this limited number of interceptions they were able to
achieve.

Crews often scored 4, 5, or even more Abschusse in a single sortie. Other
Experten crews managed up to 7. Faster speed does not help a radar
interception of a slow target in low/zero visibility.


The night fighter pilots maintained high morale and motivation to the end.
In five years this arm of the Luftwaffe underwent greater technical and
tactical change than any other branch of the Armed Forces.

Probably true, although it should be weighed against the groud attack arm of
the airforce, that started the war in some cases with Henschel biplanes and
open cockpits and ended with Jets.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

Its always better to lose -an- engine, not -the- engine.