Best Nightfighter of WW2

[Erich]

guys can you find the work by English author Alfred Price...... Instruments of Darkness.

it is a classic work although pretty old on the night air-war of the German RAF. have written Alfred several times but his inspiring ego prevents him from writing peons like me any word. and although I feel the man is a jerk his book on the radar systems is one of the best yet.........he should re-publish this.

>the night air war was of one blockage of radar to another and the steps to overcome them. The Germans never totally caught up with the Americans or RAF with the AI radar systems till much too late in the spring of 1945 with the Berlin 1a dish systems<

♪

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the Piperack radar jaming system which was carried in a lead aircraft could hide an entire bomber stream in a "radar proof cone" behind it

Lanc, are you talking about Window?

no i wasn't, Piperack was a system in which a lead aircraft carried a unit which blocked the garman radar getting into a "cone" behind it, window was a system in which lenghs of tin foil were dropped to confuse german radar...........................

[Erich]

yes I understand what you are saying but it did not work........the system you mention was not effective as wilde sau-seen with the eyes- was used from July 43 till war's end and when there was an overcomplication of window dropped even the younger more inexpereicned nf pilots could home onto the bomber stream. the best tactical advantage the RAF posed was the useage of the Mossie intruders especially over the German nf's airfields. have talked with many German nf aces and they were not that concerned with running into a Mossie nf in combat while dealing the death blows to the RAF 4 enigne jobs. in fact many aces have told me that they never ran into Mossies on any mission. so much for the myth that the Mossie was everywhere controlling the skies over the Reich !

weird eh ?

E ~

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i never claimed they were everywhere....................

[MP-Willow]

So Germany owned the night?

[plan_D]

How could Germany have owned the night when bombers were still bombing Germany into submission.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

just because the mossies weren't everywhere doesn't mean we didn't rule the night......................

[Huckebein]

My Grandad met a German night pilot after the war, and the guy said that during the course of his career he'd grown not to fear the bombers' defensive guns or British flak near the coast of England (where he occasionally ventured). The only thing that sent him into a cold sweat and hyperventilation, he said, was two words, invariably shrieked at him by his observer: "Achtung Moskito!"
He said that counter-Mosquito tactics took up more of his unit's mess discussions than anti-bomber techniques, and that 'merely hearing the word "Moskito" would send any German Night fighter pilot into a cold sweat.

Allowing for a little exaggeration here, the Mosquito, just by the very possibilty of its presence in the vicinity of German nightfighter fields, caused severe delays in getting large numbers of fighters airborne. This, combined with its actual combat stats meant that, although it was impossible to dominate the night skies in the way the daylight sky was, the British bmobing campaign was never threatened, and German night bombing ops became prohibitively costly from 1942 onwards.

I cannot understand the enormous number of people voting for the P-61. The most effective nightfighter, as shown above, was the Mosquito, without a shadow of doubt. The best nightfighter was undoubtedly the He 219A-7 'Uhu', but for various reasons it was prevented from achieveing it's full, formidable potential.

[Erich]

your understanding of German nf operations is a bit warped friend. The Germans flew missions regardless of whether Mossies were in the area or not and when they were it was usally after a mission when it was easy enough to dampenall airfield lights. German crews were sufficient enough in lbind landings so there was not a problem.

the words Achtung Moskito was not heard that often and did not create the fear you are trying to confirm. this is old news that is being updated in new published works.......

[MP-Willow]

Ok so I could be wrong about the night. But as an American the whole night fighting operations are somthing not talked that much and one area that I am still horridly uneducated on. But the P-61 just had great up side.

As I understand it the He 219 was a victome of politics and crazzy proformance demands?

[the lancaster kicks ass]

which is true of most of germany's later designs....................

[MP-Willow]

but tht ust sucs

[Erich]

Baloney ~ The P-61 was too bloody big and the US crews were not good nf chaps to id German nf a/c let alone Allied a/c.

The He 219 had it's own teething troubles as can be seen in best night fighter thread. True, politics destroyed what may have become a leading German a/c design, but upon employment in the skies propaganda surrounded the great mossie hunter.............yeah right. it was too big, too heavy, poor engines and wing support system, not enough crew members, ejection seats did not operate correctly all the time. no rearward firing defensive arms, no tail warning radar for most of the a/c on ops........

at leat you know my feelings of this German Uhu

[the lancaster kicks ass]

no rearward firing defensive arms

you can't really use that in the argument against the mossie as the mossie didn't have any either.......................

[Erich]

that was also a defect in the Mossie nf. sitting duck for the Me 262A-1a, and yes I can use that as a legitimate argument.........as it happened more than the fingers on your hands