"looking for German night fighter operations information" Topic

I've got an idea about how to run a nightfighter game, intercepting a bomber stream on the way to a mission but I really need information on how the Germans operated and what their capabilities were, just in case I've got it totally wrong.

Can anyone point me to reliable websites or recommend a good book that covers it in some detail?

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GMT games have two titles that cover this topic and some very detailed designer notes.

What is your idea? I'm intrigued.

Lots of good sources.

What period(s) are you interested in, e.g. early, mid-war, late-war, etc.?

There are tons of books on the subject too, for both sides. Don't have the time to list them right now, but will do so in a bit.

Do a search on nightfighters, and/or night bombing, here on TMP, and you might come up with some good book references, since we've had discussions in the past about the subject.

This is a huge topic and changes wildly depending on the time of the war.

German defenses,,, listening and acoustic posts, radio intercepts, flak ships off the coast, radar defense, observer corps, light units, mobile and fixed flak defenses, and of course the himmelbet ground controlled interception.

For the most part the German night fighter defense was based upon a specific area to work in. One night fighter in one area box. One night fighter wa assumed to be capable of only so many engagements in an hour. The whole idea of bomber stream was to flood the box as it were to overhelm the defenses and fighters.

Later on there were the wild sau tactics, that initially used day fighters in a free ranging role notunder ground control. They usually received simple instructions like, 'gather over Munster'.

So many variables to include, moonlight, cloud base, wind and ice.

I haven't even touched the bomber command counter measures like the electronic war, 100 Group or the counter night fighters like the intruders, diversionary raids or the Pathfinder Force. Just scratching the surface.

Don't mean to innundate you, but Bomber Command and the night raids have been a hobby of mine since walking the length of the thirty three foot bomb bay of the Lancaster in my home town, as a boy.

You could also seek information from the National Archives at Kew, NARA and the Bundesarchiv Koblenz.

Stuart.

Although its starting point and focus are Flak, this book by Westermann will give you an integrated picture of the total German air defence system, and the evolution of German nightfighter tactics and Allied bomber tactics. Highly recommended:
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Chris
Bloody Big BATTLES!
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bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk

Here are some links on TMP to get you started, with a little "light reading":

TMP link

Try searching the TMP message archives too, for terms like RAF Night Bombing Campaign (bomber), etc.. Sure to produce even more good stuff.

Thanks for the help guys.

It's just something I'm planning as a club game, maybe shows too if it plays fast enough.

The idea is that you have maybe 4 German players controlling the night fighters and the bombers being controlled by a fifth player. The main board would be double hexes, small ones inside larger ones. The bomber player would have a small board with just the big hexes represented where he would track the stream. Night fighters would be guided to the big hexes and then need to try and narrow it down to the smaller hex using radar and visual sighting.

Mechanism would be based on d10's for sighting and shooting. Not really planned it further than that yet.