"JTF600's P-61 and Nightfighter operations gaming" Topic

So were enemy radar able to detect aircraft if they were from behind and below? Robert

Interview of

LIEUTENANT COLONEL EDWARD A. MONTGOMERY, USMC
NIGHT FIGHTER OPERATIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN

in the
Bureau of Aeronautics
9 June 1943

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Looks like there may have been a nightfighter vs night fighter engagement,

"The NJG 2 was a Luftwaffe's night fighter squadron moved in Mediterranean Theatre on November 1941 when its Gruppen 2 and 4 (2./NJG2 and 4./NJG2) was transferred to Catania, Sicily, and afterwards to Beghazi, Libya. The first "kill" was claimed on 13 December when Obfw Hermann Sommer downing a Bristol Beaufighter, South Crete."

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Nightfighter Navigator: Recollections of Service in the RAF, Compiled from Flying Log Books and Personal Records by E.G. White,OBE

nightfighternavigator.com

I was looking for the Solitaire Rules (Release v1.0)- Updated 25 Jan 12 of Nightfighter. The download site seems to no longer be there. Does anyone know of an alternative site? Robert

US Night Fighter Radars of WWII

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Damn Bug again.(sigh). Robert

From looking around it appears the Soviets had their own night fighter aircraft,

"According to the write up in the directions, Moscow Aircraft Plant No. 39 and it's chief designer were ordered to to develop a fighter version of the Pe-2 aircraft. The Pe-3 was one of the first Soviet airplanes to carry radar. The first Soviet radars (Gneis 2) were so heavy that it could only be carried by a plane of the Pe-2/-3 category. Pe-3 equipped with the radar served in air defense units of Moscow district. They were in action with both Soviet naval and air defense units and a total of 360 of all varients were used in combat right up to the last days of the war."

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Another lesser know French aircraft that was used in a night fighter role was the ANF Mureaux 113. 40 113s converted into night fighter and used in 1940 against the Germans.
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Robert

Another Japanese Night Fighter was the A6M5d-S it was a night fighter Version of the Zero that incorporated a 20 mm cannon mounted obliquely in the rear fuselage foe use against bombers. Robert

Hellcat night fighter Vs Rufe

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D4Y2-S "Suisei"

"The D4Y was faster than the A6M Zero and some were employed as D4Y2-S night fighters against Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers late in the war. The night fighter conversions were made at the 11th Naval Aviation Arsenal at Hiro. Each D4Y2-S had bomb equipment removed and a 20 mm Type 99 cannon with its barrel slanted up and forwards (similar to the German Schräge Musik armament fitment) installed in the rear cockpit. Additionally some examples also carried two or four 10 cm air-to-air rockets under the wings. However, the lack of radar for night interceptions, low climb rate and the B-29's high ceiling limited the D4Y2-S effectiveness as a night fighter. Little is known of their operations."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D4Y

J2M3 Raiden night fighter

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"The Raiden got its primary use during the defence of the Japanese home islands. Its good performance, powerful armament, and armour protection made it perhaps the best bomber destroyer employed by Japan in the latter stages of the war. It had good high-altitude performance, and was one of the few Japanese fighters able to reach the high-flying B-29 Superfortress. Its armament of four 20-mm cannon was sufficiently heavy that it could do major damage against B-29s."

". The Base during this time handled 48 carrier fighters who flew out to ships ported at Yokosuka and 12 night fighters used to defend the skies over the Kanto Plain.

To heighten the effectiveness of the 302nd against US bombers, the Group's aircraft were fitted, in addition to their standard armament, with 20mm machine cannon aimed up 30 – 40 degrees from the aircraft's centreline to permit attacks from below the bomber formations. This tactic met with mixed success. By the end of the war, the Group was credited with shooting down some 300 attacking American B-29s. "

plane-crazy.net/links/j2.htm

Judy night fighter crew

One night in 1944 P-61s were credited with 2 Irvings,1 Rufe and a Frank. Robert

Something new to me. Robert

"The designation Mitsubishi Ki-109 was used for two different attempts to produce an interceptor based on Ki-67 heavy bomber that would be capable of shooting down the new B-29 Superfortress.

The first design, suggested in November 1943, was for a 'Killer-Hunter' team of two aircraft. The Ki-109a would have been the killer, armed with two obliquely mounted 37mm Ho-203 cannon, while the Ki-109b would have been the hunter, equipped with radar and a nose mounted 40cm searchlight.

The second design was proposed by Major Hideo Sakamoto, the officer in charge of the Ki-67 evaluation programme. He suggested mounting an Army 75mm Type 88 anti-aircraft cannon in the nose of the Ki-67. This would reduce the speed and manoeuvrability of the aircraft, but allow it to operate outside the range of the B-29's guns, and was produced in the belief that the American bombers would be forced to operate without fighter cover.

This second design was approved on 20 February 1944. The prototype Ki-109 retained the defensive guns of the Ki-67, but with a new nose and stronger fuselage. From the third aircraft the dorsal turret and lateral machine gun positions were removed. The prototype was completed in August 1944, two months after the first B-29s appeared over Japan, and production began later in the same year. Twenty two aircraft were produced using the Ha-104 engine as the Ki-109-I. They were to be followed by the Ki-109-II, using the 1,900hp turbo-supercharged Ha-104ru engine, but this version never entered production.

The 107th Heavy Fighter Regiment was formed in November 1944, and received its aircraft in 1945. The Ki-109 failed to live up to expectations. The production Ki-109-I lacked the speed and rate of climb to catch the high flying B-29s on their early daylight raids, and despite a number of attempted interceptions never actually made contact with a B-29 formation. Once the Americans switched to low level night-time raids the Ki-109, which lacked radar, became completely useless, and the 107th Heavy Fighter Regiment was disbanded on 30 July 1945."

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"But Britain did have the antidote to nocturnal raids, something she had developed painfully in the flaming nights of the Luftwaffe's blitz against London : radar-guided ground-controlled interception of intruders by radar-equipped night-fighters. Guided by the ground controller to a position near the enemy aircraft, the night-fighter was able to 'acquire' the target on it's onboard radar screen, and the radar operator (observer) could then guide the pilot to where he could see the enemy and shoot it down. The best of the night-fighters turned out to be a biggish twin-engined aircraft based on the Bristol Beaufort torpedo-bomber. Called the Beaufighter ( Beaufort + fighter), it was anything but 'Beau' in appearance, being snub-nosed and portly, but it had room enough to carry the AI (Air Intercept) radar and an observer, and also the awesome armament of four 20 mm cannon and six .303 machine-guns – firepower that was necessary to deliver a lethal burst in the very short engagement period usual in night interceptions.

Powered by 1500hp Bristol Hercules engines, it was just fast enough (c.330 mph) for the job. Flown by skilled night-fighter pilots like Cunningham, the Beaufighter defeated the Luftwaffe's night bombers over Britain, and by 1942 was carrying the fight to the enemy, flying night intruder missions over enemy bases. A number of Beaufighter squadrons went to the Middle East. One such squadron was no. 89 in Egypt, which had a detachment flying intruder missions out of Malta. As an immediate response to the outcry that arose after the December raids on Calcutta, 89 Squadron was asked to detach a flight of Beaufighters to India to defend the city.

Eight Beaufighters (or five – sources differ), a mix of Mark 1F and Mark 6F types (the latter had 1670 hp Hercules engines but still carried the AI Mark 4 though other 6Fs were already flying with centimetric radar) made their way to Calcutta in stages, arriving at Dum Dum around the 12th of January 1943. On the 14th a new Royal Air Force unit, No. 176 Squadron, was raised from the nucleus of this detachment. The squadron letters were AS, and the motto chosen for the new formation was a very appropriate one : Nocte custodimus – 'We keep the night watch'. Veteran pilot Wing Commander Tony O'Neill, whom we have met earlier, was appointed the first CO. This was a rather unusual step – Wing Commanders actually commanding a Fighter Wing are not usually asked to take up a Squadron Leader's job – but the fact that O'Neill had flown night combat missions as a Beaufighter pilot in England may have had something to do with it.

[There is an interesting piece of aviation history here which deserves mention. 176 Squadron was raised at Dum Dum, it's principal task for much of it's existence was the protection of Calcutta, it served only in SE Asia, and it was disbanded at Baigachi in May 1946 : thus it can reasonably be called the Calcutta Squadron.]"

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"In February 1943 176 Squadron moved from Dum Dum to Baigachi airfield, some 40 miles North East of Calcutta. The pilots became adept at covering the distance between Baigachi and their favourite watering holes around the Chowringhee area in an alarmingly short time.

In May 1943 the squadron received reinforcements of a distinctly dubious nature : a flight of Hurricane 2C aircraft equipped with pilot-operated AI (Mark 6?) radar. The Hurricane, obsolete as a day fighter, had won some renown as a night intruder at the hands of pilots like Kuttelwascher. Now it was to be tried out as a night-fighter. It looked suspiciously like a lash-up job : one source describes it as having an underwing-mounted Type 69 transmitting dipole from a Mosquito outboard of the cannons,Type 29 unipole arrays for elevation from the Defiant night-fighter,and vertically polarised azimuth dipoles from the Fulmar night-fighter. It was true that 245 Squadron in England had operated this aircraft, called Hurricane IIC (AI), on convoy patrol duties [some ex-245 aircraft came to 176], but to 176 Squadron fell the unenviable distinction of taking this machine into battle. There were good reasons for reservations. The performance of the Hurricane IIC, already inferior to contemporary frontline day fighters, was further degraded by the weight and the drag of the radar installation. And the feasibility of the pilot operating the radar set while flying night combat was in doubt.

Maurice Pring learnt to fly the Hurricane, but he cannot have been too impressed with them, considering that the night-fighter version of the potent De Havilland Mosquito had become operational more than a year ago in Europe. It was a pointed reminder of the fact that South-East Asia Command enjoyed the distinction of having the lowest priority among all combat theatres. No wonder Gen. Slim told his men "You are, and will remain, the Forgotten Army."

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"Airborne at about 2145, Pring was vectored towards the raid. In the brilliant moonlight, the three unpainted Ki-21 Sallys of the 98th Sentai piloted by Capt. J. Takita, Capt. K. Tanaka and Lt.(junior grade) J. Ishida seemed to 'gleam like silver fishes' to one onlooker. Pring intercepted , and destroyed all three in just four minutes. The combat took place about 20 miles South-South-West of Khulna, roughly 70 miles East of Calcutta. There was no return fire from the Japanese gunners."
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"Maurice Pring was called up from university in 1940 and selected for night fighter pilot training. On completion of training he was first posted to 604 Squadron (Beaufighters). By June 1941 he was in 125 Squadron (Defiants, then Beaufighters), and in early 1942 he was transferred to 89 Squadron based in Egypt (Beaufighters). Here he teamed up with his observer, Warrant Officer C.T. Phillips. Pring damaged a Heinkel He.111 on the night of 3 / 4 July and achieved his first victory on the night of 4 / 5 July 1942 – another Heinkel over Suez. Posted to C Flight at Malta, he destroyed two bombers, an Italian CANT Z1007 bis and a German Heinkel He.111, over Castelvetrano airfield, Sicily, on the night of October 12 /13 ,1942. On the night of the 19 / 20 October he added a Junkers Ju.88 to his tally – his fourth victory. Two nights later he claimed a He.111 as damaged – postwar research shows his victim was possibly a Fiat BR20M of the Regia Aeronautica's Gruppo 88 which was so badly damaged that it's crew baled out and the plane crashed at Nisceni in Sicily. "
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Must admit that the Nightfighter idea has taken somewhat of a hold in my own project list as well. Expanding it for Mediterrean seems a straight forward with some intruder vs Interceptor style games.

Early days for me and needs Dom to drop a pack of two of models and decals

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and

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Si

LOL Si. I just responded to your post in the Group . Robert

My Yahoo 1/600th scale Wargaming Group
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By the way thanks for the links to your blog. I am interested in how you will adapt the rules for use with miniatures. Robert

My Yahoo 1/600th scale Wargaming Group
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The Me-410 would be fun to game as a night bomber. On one occasion following some AAF bombers back to their base and attacking them. From what I understand they were very elusive. Robert

"The following is the Pilot's Individual Report of Wg Cdr (later AVM, CB, DSO, DFC, MA, FRAeS) E. D. Crew of 96 Squadron.

‘Wg Cdr E. D. Crew DFC, (pilot) and WO W. R. Croysdill (operator) took off West Malling at 0100hrs and landed there at 0230hrs. I was patrolling over the channel at 23,000ft under Wartling GCI (Controller F/C Powell), when I was vectored onto a bogey on a course of 340.'

‘Contact was obtained at four miles slightly below and crossing port to starboard on an a/c taking slight evasive action. At full speed the range closed easily and I did not use N2O at all. After four minutes, range was 1,000ft and I obtained an indistinct visual of a twin engined a/c, which, on closing to 300ft, I believed to be a Ju88. No exhausts were visible. I eased the nose of the Mosquito up and fired a short burst from dead astern, just as the e/a began to dive. This was followed by a last flash from the centre section and cockpit area, and flames.'

‘I followed the a/c down and fired again, with more strikes in the same area, resulting in more white flames and e/a dived very steeply to port. A third deflection burst produced more strikes and flashes and e/a disappeared below me. Visual and contact was lost. I noticed that outboard of each engine there was a cylindrical bulge beneath each wing, resembling the long range tanks of the Fw190.'

‘Shortly afterwards, I was put on another contact at 4,000ft height. This e/a was at 3.5 miles range, below and to port, flying in a southerly direction. I turned to starboard as it crossed and followed it down through a steep port orbit. Evasive action was moderate and window was being used. As I straightened out of the orbit, an a/c crossed in front at almost collision range, and I had to pull up sharply to avoid hitting it, so that I had no chance to open fire. As it passed below me, I recognized the twin fins and rudders of a Do217. But though I turned round immediately I could not regain contact, and because of the nearness of the French coast I was told to return on 330.'

‘Time of combat 0048. Place of combat R11. At 0050 according to the ROC MG fire was heard at sea, at 055 an a/c later identified as an Me410 crashed in Brighton reference Q72. No ack-ack was heard in the area before 0110, AI 2 (G) report that 20mm cannon strikes have been found on this Me410.'

‘This a/c was originally claimed as a Ju88 probably destroyed. It is now claimed as an Me410 destroyed in view of the evidence of the British crash.'

‘Wg Cdr Crew states that his operator said at the time it was a Me410 but he contradicted him and insisted that it was a Ju88. The inability to see exhausts from above would also point to its having been, in fact, an Me410.

Armament report: rounds fired: 20mm SAPI 48, 20mm HEI 48. Total 96

Stoppages: Nil

Cine camera exposed 1ft automatically' "

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"The last attack of the "Baby Blitz' took occurred on the night of 18/19th April 1944. Operation Steinbock began on January 21st 1944 and was intended as a renewed offensive on London to disrupt preparations for the invasion of Europe by the allies, and as an attempt to demoralize the British civilian population in retaliation to the increasing bombing of German cities by the RAF.

One of the participating units was I/KG51. Now equipped with Me410A's the Edelweiss Geschwader had seen action on the Eastern front with Ju88's before moving to the west. Based at Evreux in France and commanded by Maj Hans Unrau, the squadron's mission was to fly intruder mission over southern Briton. These missions were not going well, with two or three crews failing to return from each night's sortie. There were very few survivors, with the British night fighter squadrons of Mosquito NF MkXIII's proving more than a match for the German intruders. One of the participating pilots on that last raid was 24-year-old Oberleutnant Richard Pahl.

Richard Pahl joined the Luftwaffe in 1939 as a candidate officer and subsequently joined KG51 flying Ju88's on the eastern front. He was wounded three times, the last of which in 1943 was nearly fatal when he received a bullet through the lungs and just managed to bring his aircraft and crew home safely before collapsing at the controls as the bomber rolled to a stop. Following months of convalescence he was offered a training assignment but he insisted on returning to his unit, now based in France and flying the Me410A on night intruder missions over southern England.

On the 16th of April, 1944, Richard wrote a farewell letter to his family, perhaps due to some sort of premonition. Two days later during the night of 18/19th April, Richard, who had taken a mission originally assigned to a comrade, left his base flying a Me410A 9K+JH WNr 12005 and failed to return. On the 20th his unit celebrated his promotion to Hauptmann, retroactive to 1st April in his absence."

Luftwaffe at War,Nightfighters over the Reich PDF

PDF link

An interesting "What If?" would be an encounter between a Ta-154 Moskito Vs a de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito. Robert

Hi Robert,

A bit late to the party, with your answer, but yes, aerial radar could detect objects below the aircraft, to the front, sides, and even to the rear, depending upon the radar type and its side lobe profile. The search range was optimized for performance to the front, and/or front and front quarter angles (sometimes as wide as 180 degrees, but usually 120 degrees, or less, when viewed from above).

Many aircraft also had a rear-warning radar detector, for self defense as well, e.g. German twin-engined nightfighters and bombers, British NFs and bombers, etc.

Early to mid-war radars for both the British (Americans) and Germans were limited to roughly the detection range forward being equal to that of the height of the searching aircraft above the ground, when if was flying level, due to ground clutter.

With the later, centimetric radar (AI MK X, or Mk 10, depending upon which nomenclature is used; American SCR-720, if I recall correctly), the search distance was greatly improved forward, due to the narrower search cone of the aircraft.

Scenario 10c pits a Ju88G-6 and a Ta-154A-4 against 34 Halifax Mk III from No.6 Group RCAF supported by 2 Mosquito NF.XIX intruders.

I was looking at playing an intruder scenario soon so might just move this one up the list.

Other varaints might see BC Reactivating Monica to tempt the NF in and then close down with Perfectos.

I remember that one CAG. With all the others I forgot about it LOL. Robert

What makes WWII nightfighting so interesting is that both sides had different ways of detecting one another, and would frequently change tactics from month to month, in response to enemy advancements, or perceived ones.

Many of the NF aids seemed to cut both ways, depending upon the period of war, tactics used, etc.

It certainly was a very dynamic period, from mid-1943 to the end of the war.

Many of the pilots didn't trust some of the new advances, and/or came to suspect that some of them were giving the game away to the enemy, who quickly adapted, and was able to turn the defensive devices against those they were supposed to protect. Frequently, they were right.

Rob,
played 10c tonight. Lost the game quite badly with a Ju-88G-6 being shot down early on and then the Ta-154 on the receiving end of some unwanted Mossie attention

TMP link

Development of Night Air Operations, 1941-1952, by Joe G. Taylor (1953). 312 pages.
PDF link

Thanks for that AAR CAG *gerin*. Robert

Nachtjagerstaffel Norwegen
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Scenario 2 doesn't work with Miniatures

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Thanks for that. I was wondering how well gaming nightfighters can be done. It certainly would be had with the smaller numbers in some of the scenarios. Perhaps some way o adapt for having smaller numbers. Robert

Actually, you could just put plenty on the table, but many of them will be false targets, or fleeting ones.

In the P-61 PDF I read recently, only 50% of the airborne radar detections were translated into visual sightings.

Can't recall the value of the percentage of GCI detections turned into airborne radar detections, but I imagine that would probably range from 50% – 90% as well.

So, that gives you a success rate of about 1 in 4 detections being turned into a target you can actually attack.

The "interesting" ones are where you have a mix of AI Radar, Searchlights, and Radars. Plenty of fleeting contacts to then consider.

One of the scenarios has the bombers entering the searchlight zone to start with which makes for more models on the table.

Single nightfighter in the early days with no other way of gaining a fix don't translate to minis at all as essentially it only appears when you bump into them which if you only have one model on the table doesn't give you a cinematic experience even if it is thematic.

Si

Sounds like fun Simon.

Try the early war period, with that mix, since a number of German NFs and bombers were lost to their own aircraft.

If I recall correctly, someone (probably either Hitler, or Goering) forbade the NFs to fire on twin-engined bombers, and to only attack the four-engined heavies, due to that.

I want to run some Wilde Sau sorties over Berlin, so will need to come up with some house rules for that. From accounts I've read, they would: go after coned bombers "inside" the flak zones on frequent occasions; try to sight the blue exhaust flames of the engines from behind and slightly below; try to spot them from above, against the burning cities and bomb explosions below; sometimes find them silhouetted agains the clouds above; or get aircraft to drop flares from above to silhouette the bombers against the clouds below, if the searchlights didn't provide enough illumination through them.

Later, flak ceilings were established, so the NFs could pursue the RAF bombers a little more safely, e.g. not worrying about being shot down by their own flak gunners.

Seems like finding enemy bombers at night in low visibility would be a rather hit or miss technique, but that might be fun on the tabletop, especially with a crowded bomber stream over the target. If there were a lot of fires below, and/or good cloudcover above, the illumination could be good enough to permit even the occasional head-on attack by the Wilde Sau fighters.

Throw in a few NFs from both sides, and that would be an interesting, and chaotic game.

Scenario 5 has Wilde Sau with 2 Me109 and a Fw190 up against 45 Lancasters. The whole table is made up of searchlight zones which means lots of search activity picking up the stream on entry, Searchlight handover may drop the fixes so the target disappears and displaces and has to be found again. The visibility to a fixed target is 3 hexes so a good opportunity to have lots of models on the table.
Fratricide is possible from the Flak on your own aircraft. No additional NF though.
The 5B Gomorrah scenario variant has something similar but less effective Searchlight capability.

This site detail the JG300 the unit responsible for Wilde Sau operations is useful

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We just played Scenario 5. From a Minis perspective it works very well. You have to get a move on because the game limit is 15 turns (and turns rattle through very quickly).

3 NF Models on the table with nine searchlight zones means there is a possibility of 12 Lancaster models on the table. The early searchlight positions mean that Fix markers appear and disappear giving you some idea of where the bombers are. If you don't get a solution early then you are unlikely to get a kill once they leave the searchlight zone so you could reduce the table size slightly. By the end of Turn 4 I was in a position (only due to having an Experte in the Fw-190) to shoot down the first Lancaster after getting a tally in Turn 3. However there were 12 Lancasters and that was the only one I had a firing solution on (in fact I had one spotted with two fighters which was overkill and three Fixed by searchlight but no fighters anywhere near. I dropped the fix on one which then displaced and as you can't search if you have a fix it meant I had no idea if other bombers were present. My Youngest umpired this one quite well and came up with some good suggestions for putting this on as a demo game.

I have had a go at the He-219 which can be found

TMP link

Si

Looks good Si. Nice to see that some are paying attention to this part of the war. Robert

Only because it doesn't need a lot of painted aircraft :)

LOl True. Or just one basic color LOL Robert

"Wilde Sau.

3 Wilde Sau was implemented. This was a target defence concept based on single engine fighters visually acquiring the bombers, either by their shadow on the clouds illuminated from below by the burning city or by the Flak searchlights. Wilde Sau has been described as innovated after the fire storm attack on Hamburg, but in fact experiments had been carried out in the Ruhr area 3 weeks prior. The "conceiver" Col H. Hermann had approached Gen. Kammhuber with an implementation proposal, but had been turned down. After Hamburg every measure promising success had to be tried. A new Jagddivision (30 JD) with JG 300, 301 and 302 was formed subordinated directly to Lw.Befh.Mitte (the later Lft.Reich). Attached to 30 JD was also III/KG 3 (Behelfsbeleutchtergruppe with 1 – 3 Beh.Bel.St.) who was tasked to fly above the Bomber Stream and illuminate it with flares, in order to facilitate interception and acquisition by the Wilde Sau pilots. In order to give the pilots some measure of situational awareness, the Grossraumlage was broadcast from JK and JD Gef.Stds.(Reportage). At the end of 1944 Wilde Sau was re-named Objekt Nachtjagd."

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"Window" aluminum foil strips in the night sky during a night mission against Germany.

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I just read an account in "Only Owls and Bloody Fools Fly at Night", in which the author observed a very rare cloud phenomenon both below and above the bomber stream, as depicted in the diagram above.

The light clouds below were at very low level, over the Ruhr, and were illuminated by the searchlights below. Above, at an altitude too high to reach, and fairly thin and wispy, so not providing enough substance to hide in, they were illuminated by the full moon above. So, the RAF bombers were caught in the middle, and suffered high losses on the raid.

If I recall correctly, one pilot mentioned seeing as many as 25 bombers at one time, and as many as 13 aerial combats happening, simultaneously.

Their bombers were caught in the kill zone between the two, and had no where to hide, in their dark camo against the much lighter backgrounds of the two cloud layers.