The FReeper Foxhole Reviews USAAF Night Fighters at War ~ Part 1 of 3 - Jan. 16, 2004

http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/night/index.htm ^ | Stephen L. McFarland

[SAMWolf]

Morning Phil Dragoo.

Thanks for the story on Bowen and the Tizard Mission.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Gator Navy.

I've read some about Navy night fighters in the Pacific but hadn't ever heard of anything from Europe about that.

Yeah, I haven't seen much mention of American night fighters in Europe either. I was surprised to find out about the US too because you almost always hear about the Brit and Germans nightfighteres.

[SAMWolf]

ROTFL!!!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Gator Navy. I haven't seen too many pictures of the two seater P-38.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! A publicity stunt gone wrong?

[SAMWolf]

I think I 'd have a heart attack flying in on of those pods.

[SAMWolf]

North American P-82 "Twin Mustang" at Muroc Army Air Base, California. Official flight view of the "Twin Mustang", the Army Air Forces long-range fighter. Powered by two 12-cylinder Allison V-1710 engines, the P-82 is capable of a top speed of over 475 miles per hour. Rate of climb for the aircraft is over 5000 feet a minute. Standard armament is six .50 caliber machine guns, but the P-82 can also carry eight additional guns in a special center nacelle.

[SAMWolf]

I've seen both flicks and although I consider them sort of "chick flicks" I liked them, besides the flying scenes are worth it.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Iris7, thanks for all the additional info on the radar and the engines. Snippy shouwed me the info she had on the development of nightfighter radar, she's right, she could make 3 threads out of it.

[U S Army EOD]

Especially after you notice the pilot bail out.

[PhilDragoo]

H2S - A self-contained scanning radar. It consisted of three parts, a generator driven by the starboard outer engine, a rotating radar emitting and receiving scanner mounted in a pod under the aircraft, and a Plan Position Indicator, a cathode ray tube, in front of the Observer. The scanner rotated once per second, and reflected from buildings, etc. directly below and forward of the aircraft. The scan remained on the screen long enough to be updated by the next rotation. No reflection was received over water, but the coastline could be identified, as could reflections from towns and villages along the route. From these, a bearing and distance could be calculated and plotted, and this would be passed to the Plotter for his use in determining course, wind velocity and ground speed, which info he would pass up to the pilot with any changes required to keep us on track.

~~~

"H2S" was an downwards pointing radar scanner in the rear belly of the aircraft; a large Perspex black-painted blister contained the rotating scanner. It gave a reasonable "picture" of the ground below; water, buildings and roads showed up clearly. It could not be jammed, but specially-equipped Luftwaffe night-fighters could home in on any aircraft using it. Consequently it was only used by a bomber for very short periods. RAF intruders (counter-night-fighters) homed in on Luftwaffe aircraft using airborne radar, and shot them down, often over their own bases.

~~~

By this time, all the NF.IIs had been converted into NF.XIIs and NF.XVIIs. NF.IIs had been performing night intruder sorties over Occupied Europe since mid-1943 to help Bomber Command deal with German night fighters. The British had decided that the Germans had little to learn from the old AI.V longwave radar, but worries that the Germans might learn the secrets of centimetric radar kept the NF.XII and later night-fighter marks out of enemy airspace until May 1944.

In fact, the Germans had pulled an H2S centimetric bombing radar out of the wreck of a British bomber over a year earlier and the secret was pretty much out of the bag anyway. It did the Germans little good, as they never managed to put a centimetric radar into large-scale service, though they did build a device named "Naxos" that could home in on centimetric emissions.

~~~

In February 1943, a Stirling bomber with the H2S radar was shot down near Rotterdam and the radar was found by the Germans. The Germans tested this radar.

~~~

A Stirling fitted with H2S was shot down near Rotterdam on Feburary 2, the H2S were retrived by the Germans. But the German Scientists were never able to make a receiver in 2-3 months, as suggested by Watson-Watt. It was 8 months’ time before a Naxos-U receiver was made against ASV III systems, thanks to the huge gap in technology between the British and the German.

Alan Blumlein was head of the EMI team which was responsible for developing electronic circuitry for the H2S radar programme. It was while working on H2S that Blumlein and several of his colleagues were killed during a demonstration flight in a Halifax bomber.

Despite the loss of Alan Blumlein and other key members of the H2S development team, the project was completed. H2S went on to become one of the most important radar developments of the Second World War, allowing accurate bombing of enemy targets with a precision never before achievable.

[SAMWolf]

LOL! I sure hope the pilots never mistook them for drop tanks or a bomb loadout

[Iris7]

Your Beaufighter and H2S pieces are not only interesting but have links I am systematically searching. The Internet has come a very long way in the last two years!

Most of my early effort was spent in libraries and specialty bookstores, and such a richness of aviation materials I have never experienced.

The land war materials are thinner than the aircraft, though, and really very poor before the 1861-65 war. Naval war materials are too skimpy even as recently as 1798-1812, no real Mahan related materials and their derivatives, for example. People sure like their photos!

There are excellent Great Patriotic War materials in English at Russian web sites. One has a history of the theory associated with armor piercing projectile terminal action, very useful. I'll go dig it up if anyone is interested, but, you know, my interests are eccentric (just ask my wife!) and don't think my interest in such thing is widely shared, hey!

Came across a magazine article about Kursk, the Pokrovka area in particular. Manstein very nearly destroyed Vatutin there in a remarkable Panzer battle nearly unknown by historians. The US Army classified materials on this subject were just released in 1998. So much good material, only one lifetime, but I am going to make 101 years old, and get reasonably knowledgeable in my areas of interest!!

[colorado tanker]

The story of Bletchley Park and the enigma is amazing. I got to see an enigma on display at the Imperial War Museum. The impact of that little box on the outcome of the war was incredible. There were also some interesting eccentrics who worked there. I read a book that told the story a few years ago, I think it was just called "Bletchley Park."

The impact of the sub hunting radar was immediately felt. Tonnage losses reversed their trend and began trending downward right when the radar was deployed.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the additional detail, Phil. The fact that the Brits gave us their most closely guarded secrets about radar underscores the extraordinary nature of the Anglo-American alliance.