The German War Files German Night Flyers

Video Statistics and Information

Video

Captions Word Cloud

Captions

although the terms are Stora or destroyer when applied to aircraft has become virtually synonymous with one type namely the mesh's mid vf1 100 it is actually representative of a number of types that emerged in the 30s in different countries the concept of a long range twin-engine strategic fighter found its advocates in Poland France the USA and Japan as well as Germany while Japan was to develop the kawasaki ki 45 which saw wide scale service in the pacific war it was in germany that the concept was most vigorously pursued it would be wrong to think that such a type originated in the mid-30s in fact the need for such an aircraft was seen as early as the first world war operations with bombers such as this Goethe which operated over enemy territory devoid of fighter escort had prompted thoughts of a heavy fighter with sufficient range to fly with the Bombers to their targets it would also possess the ability to deal with enemy fighters sent up to shoot down the incoming attackers such a plane would also need to carry a heavy armament it was also envisaged that such an aircraft could be used to fly far ranging offensive missions over enemy territory this concept was far too ambitious for the limited technology of the day to even begin to address but this notwithstanding the whole notion of such an aircraft is flawed in as much as it is a compromise in all things to attain the range the plane has to be fairly large if so then it becomes unmovable and unable to dogfight with the lighter and more nimble fighters it's seeking to destroy a heavy air frame needs powerful engines which in themselves raise the weight in a real sense the concept of the destroyer was to military aviation what the battle cruiser was to warships a seemingly good idea at the time but fundamentally flawed that in itself however was not enough to kill it one man who was undoubtedly attracted to the idea of such an aircraft ended the first world war as a famous fighter pilot he won the paulla merit and the Iron Cross first class and was commander of the infamous Flying Circus 15 years later Hermann Goering as the second most powerful man in the Third Reich and the commander of the still clandestine Luftwaffe was able to use his power and influence to see that such an aircraft would have a role in place in the new German air force the specification for a camps destroyer was won by the firm of Mesha Schmitt their prototype be f11 o flying on the 12th of May 1936 first production of the 1:1 OB took place in July 1938 with the type being powered by uomo engines just 45 of this variant was manufactured pre-war film of the 1:1 Oh is very rare this short clip shows to be f11 Obie's taking part in war games in 1937 they wear the large pre-war swastika on their fins although the destroyed Griffin were cultivated as elite units in Germany before the war and participated extensively in the Polish campaign which began on the 1st of September 1939 no footage was taken of the type in action some for Griffin was spread among the two lifts floppin committed to case white the be f11 oohs flew mainly escort sorties and were employed extensively in the tactical role supporting the army this one one OC was operated by the destroyer griffin of LG one bf one one O's played a significant role in the destruction of 12 Wellington bombers in the Battle of the heligoland bite in December 1939 such heavy losses led the RAF to switch to night bombing commander of the one one knows in the heligoland bite was Wolfgang Fogg who was soon to emerge as the formative figure in Germany's night fighting force and was to be a major player in overseeing its development throughout the war BF 1 1 o seas of 1zg 76 under the command of Falk provided top cover for the Ju 52 units landing in southern Norway during operation phase arou boom in April 1940 they were a rapidly pulled back to Germany when on the 10th of May 1940 Hitler launched the ver marked against France and the Low Countries the Luftwaffe could deploy be f11 O's belonging to four destroy - father he's included said g1 252 and 76 and were allocated to look gratin 2 and 3 while in the opening phase of the offensive that one monos found themselves engaging in aerial combat most sorties after the initial period saw them operating in the ground attack role rapid movement forward from base to base in support of the fast moving mobile columns became the order of the day it was over Dunkirk when the one where no units came into contact with large numbers of RAF Spitfires and hurricanes for the first time that doubts began to arise over the alleged superiority of the one one Oh high losses were experienced and as a precursor of what was to come over England a few months later the 1:1 Oh pilots found themselves unable to mix it with the more maneuverable British fighters with the surrender of France and the rejection by Britain of his terms for peace Hitler ordered the aerial campaign against England to begin as the first stage in his invasion plan Goering x'v aunty destroyers would now face their severus test in the period of recovery after the battle for France the destroyed Gish Vartan went through a significant upgrading as new subtypes of the C and the D model were delivered in Norway - and 3zg 76 had taken delivery of the extended range B f11 OD at probems gripper - 1 Oh an experimental trials unit took delivery of the first fighter bomber variant in the c-4 and started operating them attacking shipping in the channel by the time the battle for Britain opened the Luftwaffe could dispose of no fewer than 289 be f11 O's for operations here be f11 o seas of Z - wearing their famous Bamberger hunter insignia are seen taxiing out prior to a mission over England the strategy behind the employment of the one one arrested on its superior range they were tasked with flying ahead of the bomber formations to entice the RAF fighters up into combat forcing them to expend their fuel and ammunition before the arrival of the Bombers in the meantime the Spitfires and hurricanes needing to refuel and rearm would be found doing so by the Luftwaffe bombers as they arrived over the airfield this however turned on the assumption certainly unquestioned at the time the battle began that the 1:1 O's could mix it with the Aria fighters and come out on top here the plan fell down for arriving over England the 1:1 O's found themselves experiencing once more what some had first encountered over Dunkirk their charges simply could not follow the highly maneuverable Spitfires and hurricanes which flew rings around the heavier German fighter by comparison it was sluggish and vulnerable to fire from the rear the gunner proving of no worth with his single machine gun Luftwaffe commanders overseeing the campaign looked on with some concern as the numbers of 1:1 O's being lost over England rose sharply Goering was incensed that his elite fighters were being handled in this fashion and blamed the pilots claiming that they were not using them properly by the end of August no fewer than a hundred and twenty-one windows had been lost they're 83 being shot down in September forcing the disbandment of a number of destroy units this be f11 Oh belonging to zg 26 horse vessel has crash-landed on a kent beach its crew taken prisoner symbolic of the immense loss of experienced crew was helped Minh Volta Reuben Stauffer commander Evette probems grew up a 2:1 oh shut down on all this the 15th / Croydon the decimation of the destroy Koosh garden in the Battle of Britain soared disbandment and amalgamation of a number of formations the surviving stampin were pulled back into Germany to rehabilitate and be gone to pastures new a number of one mono unit stayed in France here one Manos are seen giving top cover to create marine units in the Bay of Biscay where they quite frequently came under attack from British aircraft these one one O's belong to painting 76 and carry the claim of shark mount insignia on their nose the first part of 1941 saw the movement of a large number of wha-wha nose to the Mediterranean theater in support of the German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece and as part of the Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid and give air cover to Rommels Afrika Corps one and second group per kg 26 and second staefel kg 76 we used almost exclusively in the fighter bomber role in North Africa 1 100 units included the third grouper of ZG 26 which was later joined by the second staple although flying against the RAF the North African theatre provided a more benign environment for the 1:1 O's as they were not opposed by the Spitfire the primary task of the war mono became that of ground support and acting as a long-range fighter bomber operating in concert with Rommels fast-moving ground forces in the desert the range of the well mono was a great advantage allowing it to roam over the whole battlefield a number of those seen here are carrying bombs and are the c4 gave ovarian the worst enemy of all for the ground crews the wha-wha knows was the all-pervading dust it was necessary to fit filters to the carburetor intakes to prevent the Jets becoming clogged up causing damage and wear to the engines this occasion a small collection of British Army lorries and armored cars probably well within what they imagined to be their own lines are being straight by the 1-1 O's the one onenote was also employed for photo reconnaissance of enemy lines this modeler c5 employed a single RB 50/30 camera being carried to the aircraft by the ground crew the f11 O's served in North Africa throughout the campaign later variants made their way into the theater and were employed extensively for ground support and Stoker escorts until the defeat of Rommel at El Alamein and that withdrawal into Tunisia this picture of a bf110 preparing to take off gives a very graphic impression of the clouds of dust raised as the throttles are opened up destined to become a major theater of war four variants of the one one Oh until 1944 was Russia these one 100g twos of the Vespa oh gosh whadda date from late 1942 operating to the four of the advancing Panzer columns in the advanced into the USSR on June the 22nd 1941 and obtaining up-to-date photographs of Soviet positions and deployments were the Henschel HS one two sixes of the army reconnaissance squadrons rapid examination of the images returned from the battlefield were then communicated to Luftwaffe units following the successful surprise assaults on Soviet airfields which had caught most of the red air force on the ground in the opening hours of the invasion many Luftwaffe units were turned over to support of the advancing German columns although fall off' lawton were committed to Barbarossa the number of 1:100 formations involved was small with most serving elsewhere only the second grouper of ZG 26th serving in the 8th meager core and schnell kampfgeschwader to 1o in the 2nd Liga Corps saw action in this period it is 1 1 o seas from the former unit that are seen in this film of interest is the tethered observation balloon which the aircraft passing which was used to mark the forward German positions upon reaching their target area the Ju 88's begin their attack the one one knows while flying top cover are now free to engage upon their secondary function for the mission which is a fried yak or free hunt while a vast numbers of Soviet aircraft had been destroyed on the ground a significant few survived the initial German onslaught to fly against the invaders as most Soviet fighter types at this period were decidedly obsolescent the 1 1o was able to deal with many of the Soviet types they encountered the heavy nose armament of the 1 1o comprising a to 20 millimeter cannon before seven point nine millimeter machineguns gave it a heavy punch it was admirably suited to the role of ground attack and in the absence of a heavy anti-aircraft fire that would later make such operations extremely hazardous on the Eastern Front the 1 1 o is proved highly effective indeed the one 1oc fors of my or karl-heinz Stricker's schnell kampfgeschwader to onenote were tasked from the outset with the low-level assault on Soviet airfields and bridges this Yebo variant at the Guam 100 was designed as a fighter bomber it was fitted with 2 ET c 250 bomb racks under the fuselage and powered by two daimler-benz 601 n engines and first saw action over the English Channel in July 1940 by the time this film of the Wawa knows in action had been taken both meshes mid and folk of wolf had taken the bf1 100 out of production the former had already geared up to produce the one mono success of the me2 one oh that it Salzburg and Regensburg plants however reports that the premature demise of the war mono were greatly exaggerated for problems with the me2 OneNote would see its predecessor reintroduced in 1942 to rejuvenate the destroy - Barbie as with all other types employed by the Luftwaffe in the atrocious Russian winter of 1941 42 the severe cold brought particular problems the one one''ôs water-cooled Dame the Benz engines needed to be run throughout the night to stop them freezing usage of the one one o as a Yebo to attack Soviet ground forces was very high all through this period consideration of the Yonkers 88 in the heavy fighter role began almost as soon as it's superb flying attributes became apparent the type possessed the long-range fine handling qualities and high speed all of which made it a prime candidate for employment as a destroyer the prototype was based on an a1 airframe and appeared in early 1940 with the production c2 model entering squadrons service with kg 40 in Norway during the spring the more numerous c4 and c6 destroyer variants employed the later ju 88 a five and a four bomber airframes the glazed nose of the bomber was replaced with a metal cap which mounted a number of 20 millimeter cannon and 7.92 millimeter machine guns the quantity in combination depending on field modifications the heavy firepower saw the type employed on all fronts in the anti-shipping train busting and ground-attack roles this c6 has its nose painted to simulate the bomber variant to fool soviet fighters one of the more unusual roles for which the me1 100 was employed was as a glider tug for the massive me3 to one gig and first flown in February 1941 the lack of aircraft with sufficient power to tow the glider into the air saw its designers alight upon an unusual proposal employing three B f11 OHS acting in concert subsequent troika schlep as this arrangement came to be known was not without its pitfalls even with 3-1-1 owes the gig and also needed the help of rockets to help it get airborne on at least one occasion that troika schlepped failed in all four aircraft plunged into the ground killing all involved including a large number of soldiers being carried for testing purposes however even the troika schlepped was not a solution that arrived only with the shilling barian to the Heinkel 111 bomber the reusable rockets were dropped by parachute after the gig and was airborne Messersmith had been working on a second generation destroyer to replace the one one Oh as early as 1937 with the prototype seen here taking to the air on the 2nd of September 1939 designed as a multi-role aircraft including that of a dive-bombing replacement for the Stuka the high expectations attending the new to 1o were to remain unrealized as development flying revealed the type to be plagued with problems even so 1,000 me2 100's were ordered in 1940 entering service with the Luftwaffe test problems grouper - 1 Oh at the end of that year by the end of 1941 the - 100 was deemed to be a failure shot through with so many defects that it was described as being vicious to fly even so the investment in the type had been so great that heavily modified to 100 ones were delivered to the second group of zg 1 and elements of zg 26 in sicily in 1942 as replacements for the one one owes it was as a heavy fighter that to 100 formations found themselves thrown into combat against Anglo American forces in Tunisia in November 1942 me2 1 o Tzar seen here attacking a forward airfield man by British and American forces the two one''ôs come in at low level to drop their bombs amid a hail of anti-aircraft fire heavy damage is inflicted on the wildcat fighters and other types parked on the airfield no two nos are lost on this sortie and they make good their escape although the two one Oh rapidly left the inventory of the Luftwaffe it nevertheless acquired a good reputation while serving in the hungarian air force built under license it entered service in June 1943 and was employed as a home defense fighter against Bombers of the u.s. 15 thayer force and also as a fast light bomber through to 1945 the decision to abandon the me2 100 was taken in April 1942 with Messersmith being ordered to stop production of the type although variants of the type were encountered over the British Isles in 1942 in addition to Tunisia by 1943 the to 100 was fading from Luftwaffe service in substitute for the failed to 100 find one 1o left the Messerschmitt production line in May 1942 designated the one 100 G - it had an improved airframe and more powerful engines to enhance versatility conversion sets were made available to allow it to serve both as a heavy fighter and fighter bomber first film of the new one 100 G - in action came with a newsreel report of Luftwaffe operations in northern Finland in the summer of 1942 the f11 oohs at the seventh Destroyer Staten of Yogesh modified the scene providing fighter escort force to preserve fourth group lg1 attacking the strategic Soviet port of no man gun camera film from a11 Oh shows the downing of a defending cannon-armed 1/16 type 17 fighter whereas just for one one O's had been delivered to the Luftwaffe in February 1942 the cancellation of the two one oh and recommencement of one one o production on a wide scale after April sought 577 delivered by the end of that year however although there was a reoccurring of existing destroyer Govardhan the increasing importance of the type as a night fighter saw a reduction in output of the type as a destroyer the only be f11 o formation present with the Luftwaffe units concentrated for operations its Attell was the panzerjäger Staffel of destroyed Gaspar de 1 these 1:1 O's had originally been part of an experimental flying anti-tank unit set up during the previous year to investigate suitability of aircraft types in the tank destroyer role a number of 1/1 OTS mounting a modified 37 millimeter cannon that fuselage fairing had been tested but found unsuitable however those employed at Kursk was subsequently returned to normal service as a heavy fighter and operating within a flock 6 the duration of the offensive even though the Soviet victory occurs marked the real emergence of the red Air Force the be f11 o could still be employed in an offensive capacity as a fighter and succeeded in downing many Soviet aircraft in this case the opponent of the 1y note is an illusion il-2 Sturmovik this was a specialized very heavily armoured ground attack aircraft known to the Luftwaffe as the cemento because of its capacity to absorb heavy punishment before it was shot down indeed the example in this film is taking a lot of fire from the nose guns the one one oh the problem for Soviet pilots flying this type was that the protective armor also made the aircraft unmanageable standards of tougher practice was to first knock out the rear gunner then bring down the plane which inevitably tended to fly in a straight line while built in larger numbers than any other time in world war ii the Sturmovik was also shot down in greater numbers than any other if for many the me1 100 was found wanting as a destroyer because of its undoing at the hands of the raf in the battle of britain there is no justification in claiming it was a total failure given its sterling service with an active liga from 1940 until the end of the war bearing the England blitz badge of the night fighters it was the RAF ever constant opponent in dark skies over the Reich the notion that the Luftwaffe might need to develop a night fighting capability was not something that Hermann Goering in early 1940 regarded with seriousness if needed at all then he believed the combination of searchlights and heavy flak would see Germany through in addition a number of me-109 s had been allocated in 1939 to form an experimental moonlight squadron in June 1940 yosef cam Hoover established the first night fighting division in Brussels following the beginning of the RAF night raids in May casting around for aircraft to serve in the night fighter and intruder role led to dawnia being asked to adapt their do 17z medium bomber employing the nose cone from the ju 88 c ii destroyer led to the appearance of the do 17 counts only one was produced before the improved count two left the production line just after the Battle of France Hermann Goering appointed Hauptmann Wolfgang Faulk the commander of destroyed ashraddha 1 to command the Luftwaffe first nacked yank ashraddha n jg 1 was drawn from two staefel in the first group of zg 1 and sent to disel door for night fighter training - these were added forth gripper of JG 2 in July the all-black wha-wha nose transferred to Venlo in Holland as part of the first night fighting division no specialised equipment was added or modifications made to what were standard bf1 1 OC destroyers one of the earliest depictions of night fighter operations shown to German audiences in early 1942 his most revealing from what it was not shown Deutsche vaak and Shou filmed principally for home audiences was also a vehicle for propaganda overseas and many copies were dispatched abroad through neutral countries and has ended up in the UK where they were studied with great care by intelligence operatives seeking to glean every item of value from the images as for security reasons that the German film editors did not include in this sequence any coverage of the radars that were the absolute key to their whole night fighting system in this film they have inquired that observer sightings and sound directors are the source of the information used by the ground control system was known as Himmel bet or four poster bed and was based on a belt of radar stations placed 20 miles apart these ran along the coast of northern Germany from the Danish border south westward through to the border of France bisected the route taken by RAF night bombers on their way to Germany each radar station had its captive night fighter that was required to fly a continuous course that took it no further than thirty miles from each radar station on the birdsburg radar on-site would track an incoming bomber information back to the control room the station would then employ its second verts Berg to vector its captive night fighter onto the raf bomber traversing its box one of the Rising Stars of the NAFTA Liga was my or lent awarded the Knight's Cross in August 1941 following his 30th night victory by January 1943 length had scored 50 victories he's seen here with members of his second group which he established at Cintron in Belgium in November 1941 the incoming RAF raids spread out across a wide front is tracked first by the long-range Preah radars they were sufficiently accurate to plot the direction and heading of the Bombers and determine the general areas of the line they would penetrate and fly over and this had been ascertained the night fighting units would be scrambled to take up their position in the boxes by the end of 1941 the me1 1o was the most numerous of all German night fighters although many of those employed were similar to their day fighter brethren save in their all-black finish in 1941 the first proper night fighting variant left Messerschmitts production line this was the f4 is equipped with more powerful engines and had the capacity to mount a heavier armament from an under fuselage pannier by March 1942 production of this specialized variant of the one 1o was running at some 36 per month although construction of this defensive line had begun in 1941 by the beginning of 1942 it had acquired a formidable depth but the RAF had not sat passively by and was striving to find the weaknesses in the system most obvious once engaged its workings was that only one aircraft could be tracked and only one fight affected at any one time did not take long for a bomber to traverse a box thirty miles in extent so the actual time available for a one 1:02 intercept the RAF aircraft was quite limited once this was realized Bomber Command chose to swamp a given area of the line with a large number of planes following in one after the other while one or two might be brought down by far and away the fault would get through this tactic refused on May the 30th 1942 when Bomber Command dispatched a thousand aircraft to hit Cologne with all flying the same route 41 aircraft will far fewer than would otherwise have been shot down in what was developing into a sophisticated game of technological cat and mouse it took the raf longer to undermine him or bet which they finally did in july 1943 one of the limitations of filmmaking during the war not always readily appreciated today when special-effects a common place was the inability to capture genuine night fighter action so in an attempt to portray night fighting for the German audience the propaganda department has mixed genuine footage of ground action with Studio simulations employing models 20 millimeter flat guns with searchlights and the interior of the command and control center is genuine footage once the film cuts however to what purports to be a 1 1 o night fighter we are then looking at a model all shots of the pilot inside the cockpit are also filmed on the ground the film then shows the 1:100 shooting down what is meant to be an RAF Wellington bomber but it too is a model of interest is the manner in which the 1 1 au is shown approaching the bomber at a much steeper angle than was actually the case alongside the me1 100g to 1942 also saw the appearance of the specialized more heavily armed anyone 1og for night fighter with the emergence of this one 1o and also of the ju 88 night fighters carrying the same Liechtenstein radar and mounting large nose mounted antenna film coverage of night fighters ceases all together in the air war above the Reich each side was now employing devices in their planes that placed them on the cutting edge of the new black art of electronic warfare wherein the need to preserve secrecy was paramount the Year 1943 had seen a steady rise in the sorties of the US 8th Army Air Force bomber squadrons flying out of England to attack targets in Germany in a bid to provide a more effective air defense the decision was taken in the autumn of 1943 to strengthen the air defence of the Reich by resurrecting the nearly - funk destroyer Griffon serving alongside the more usual one 100 G 2 s was a new destroyer although it for more than a passing resemblance to the type that had sired it indeed the me4 100 which entered production with Messersmith in January 1943 was in effect a revamped - 1 o with all of its many problems eliminated although the schnell bomber was deemed to be the primary variant the war situation saw the destroyer version acquired growing significance to the Luftwaffe in its light former role the 410 began to appear in some numbers over the Mediterranean and was also encountered and shot down over England a year's end 457 m e4 one''ôs had been delivered from the albergue Factory in production of a large number of field conversion kits saw it adapted to carry a variety of armament packages although a faster and more effective aircraft than the one one oh it supplemented the earlier type rather than replaced it clearly the older type still had an important role to play in the skies over Germany retaining the same bombe as the two one oh the spacious compartment proved admirable for fitting of factory supplied weapons containers he's permitted the type to carry an extra two 20 millimeter cannon in addition to the standard in built armament it also permitted the 410 to carry much heavier weapons external etc' fifty shackles could also be fitted for the carriage of bombs armament comprised of two nose-mounted 20 millimeter cannon and 27.9 2 millimeter machine guns the most interesting feature of the types armament was carried over from the earlier me2 one oh and employed to 13 millimeter mg 131 machine guns in remotely controlled bar bets mounted on the side of the fuselage just below the rear of the canopy these two guns were controlled and fired by a complex movement and sighting mechanism used by the rear gunner the use of destroyers against u.s. bombers saw an increase in armament this me1 1og 2 mounts to mg 151 s in the nose and a 37 millimeter cannon under its fuselage the u 4 variant of the emmy for 1o b2 saw a 50 millimeter cannon derived from the army pak 38 anti-tank gun mounted in the weapons Bay one of the major weapons introduced onto me1 1 O&M e4 one''ôs attacking bomber formations in 1943 was derived from the rocket launchers used by the army the 210 millimeter version was an unguided weapon and carried a 47 kilogram warhead to about 7800 meters the me1 100 G 2 R 3 variant carried for 210 millimeter Rockets in tubes outboard of the engines as did the Emmy for one-oh although the tubes affected the aerodynamics of both aircraft increasing their drag and lowering their air speed this was deemed acceptable given their effectiveness in employing the rockets to break up u.s. bomber formations this then allowed the single-engined me-109 s and fw 190s to tear into the fray and shoot down the now less heavily protected b-17s and b-24s seen in the winter of 1943 44 these 1/1 g2s are taking off to intercept an incoming u.s. bombing raid they carry a variety of armament a number mounted the Rockets underwing others 230 millimeter cannon in an under fuselage tray and a few the 37 millimeter cannon closing with the u.s. bomber formation from above the one one''ôs fire off their rockets from a maximum range of about 6,000 feet with a warhead primed to be exploded at between eighteen hundred and three and a half thousand feet the release of a large number of these powerful rockets did succeed in breaking up many bomber formations the 37 millimeter cannon armed wah-wah nose also proved most effective the weapon essentially the same as used on the tank busting variant of the Stuka who was more than destructive enough to destroy a b-17 or a b24 with one shot however the weight of the weapon and its cumbersome container did little to aid the maneuverability of the me1 one o the most successful sortie for the one one''ôs came on the 11th of January 1944 when there sailed of formation of 650 bombers on their way to bomb Brunswick employing their rockets to first break up the pulk thereafter they attacked the Bombers now devoid of their defensive formation and down 41 in conjunction with the single-engine fighters the returning crewmembers look very happy with their morning's work such sorties were only possible when the Bombers were beyond the range of escorting fighters once the Americans had solved the range problem the one monos days would be numbered while me4 one''ôs operated in conjunction with the one one''ôs they also flew destroyer sorties alone a quick-thinking us bomber crewman snapped this shot of a 50 millimeter cannon armed for 10 pulling away from his aircraft after it had made a firing pass film of the emmy 410 is not extensive this sequence shows one returning to its base the pilot waggling his wings to show that he scored a victory this particular variant is a 410 a to r2 230 millimeter cannons have been mounted in Bombay to give the plane extra firepower as soon as the plane has stopped the ground crew or black men as they were nicknamed because of the color of their overalls first congratulate the pilot and gunner then set to work to get the aircraft ready for its next sortie it was rare for aircrew other than famous aces to be interviewed in such depth by the newsreel but this time late 1943 early 1944 the destroyer Griffin were contributing in a major fashion to the success the Luftwaffe was having in shooting down American bombers using their hands to demonstrate as all fighter pilots do this Emmy for 10 crew described their shoot down of a b-17 and tell of how they approached the slightly below before opening fire it seemed there for 10 variant was equipped with extra cannon as they described the manner in which the heavy fire from their guns could be seen dancing across the plane skin causing it to burst into flame the 30 millimeter cannon used on some destroyers was a most formidable weapon to bring down a heavy bomber in just a few shots American survivors recall the coordination between destroyers and single-seat fighters in their attacks on the bombers by the peak a cameraman is a post sortie meeting between the 410 staefel commander and his men interest is the atmosphere of joviality in the manner of the commander the tone of the whole sequence is decidedly triumphalist a number of enemy bombers having just been shot down it would be fascinating to gain some insight into the thoughts of these men see what they really felt at seeing so many u.s. bombers streaming across Germany day after day seemingly increasing in number irrespective of how many they're shooting such meetings would not however continue much longer as the fate of the destroy - pardon in the opening months of 1944 was already sealed with the increasing range now being given to us des fighters in England the addition of drop tanks to us escort fighters early in 1944 effectively sealed the fate of the me1 one''ôs destroyers in the daylight air war over Germany the fort ends by virtue of their higher speed survived only a little longer Thunderbolts and Mustangs could now hit the German heavy fighters before they could reach the Bombers the fate of the 1:1 knows of zg 26 on March the 16th 1944 is a classic example out of 43 committed Mustangs accounted for no fewer than 26 in a matter of minutes the subsequent loss rate was so high that the third group of the gaspard had disbanded within weeks and by June 1944 only second gruffer was flying one one''ôs over Germany in daylight the building of a huge bomber force was the largest single investment made by Great Britain during the Second World War the Churchill bombing represented the only means available to hit back at Nazi Germany by 1943 British industry was turning out large numbers of heavy four-engine bombers with which to carry the air war to the Reich by night with production based upon three four-engined heavies namely the Lancaster the Halifax and the Sterling Bomber Command underwent a major expansion this was mirrored by the growing sophistication of its methods and of the electronic technology used for bombing aids and targeting under Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris the priorities of the bomber campaign were identified as follows the progressive destruction of the German military industrial and economic system and the undermining of the morale of the German people to a point where their capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened in march 1943 the instruments available to him to attempt to realize these objectives comprised 321 Lancaster's 220 Halifax's 141 Sterling's and 268 Wellington's March saw the launch of the Battle of the Ruhr a sustained attempt by Bomber Command to destroy the productive capacity of Germany's premier industrial region in July the decision was taken to concentrate a series of heavy raids on one german city and operation gomorrah was born in concert with us dave OMERS Bomber Command hit Hamburg in four great raids over ten days chosen because it allowed a clear and unambiguous return on the new h2s bombing radar the Hamburg raids were also important because they were begun with the dropping of millions of strips of aluminium foil which reflected the returns of the German Freya and verts burg radars rendering the kam Hoover line and the Himmel bet defense system impotent in the short term German night fighters were thus unable to intercept British bombers in any significant numbers and the loss rate among the attacking aircraft was low in all 87 were lost representing less than 3% of the aircraft committed other raf technical advances also assisted the heavies a device known as boozer was fitted to give the bomber crews advanced warning of the radar employed to lay the 88 millimeter flak guns and their attendant searchlights then there was Monica an early form of rear warning radar designed to tell the bomber of the proximity of a German night fighter although the employment of window had had a devastating short-term effect on the German night fighter defense steps were rapidly taken to surmount the problems raised by it although Himmel bet have clearly been compromised it was nevertheless through the basis of the whole system alternative methods that came online once the window problem was soll including what came to be called tame boor night fighters carrying airborne radar were given a continuous running commentary from ground control in order to vector them into the general vicinity of an raf bomber the British response was to give false instructions on the same wavelength used by the German pilots to confuse them although Hermann Goering is seen here inspecting a 1 1 o night fighter that sometime chief of the Luftwaffe remained woefully ignorant of technical matters relating to the night fighter arm whilst the Luftwaffe had employed earlier variants of the Ju 88 in the night fighter role it was only with the introduction of the G Series in late 1943 that the type really began to fulfill its potential when the British captured this particular plane in July 1944 they discovered that its Flensburg radar was attuned to the moniker tail warning radars employed by RAF bombers to warn them of the approach of German night fighters the entry into service of the g1 coincided with a marked rise in RAF losses in early 1944 and was to continue flying until war's end in 1945 the six variants employed more powerful junkers jumo inline engines to give the type higher speed although the radar combinations was some of the most sophisticated it arrived too late to make any significant impact on the air war this g6 allows us to view the fixed angle guns mounted atop the fuselage to allow the ju 88 and me1 102 fire into the vulnerable belly of RAF bombers operating up to a range of 30 miles the Naxos passive homing device fitted on top of the canopy allowed Ju 88's to fix the positions of RAF bombers by the emissions from their h2s bombing radar the ferocity of the air war in the darkness over Germany can be illustrated by examining raf bomber losses between january 1943 in march 1944 this period covered the battles of the Ruhr hamburg in berlin 5,000 881 british heavy bombers were lost in this period german night fighter crews although accounting for most of these raf planes brought down had also suffered heavy losses another bomber type converted to the night fighter role albeit in small numbers was the Dornier do to 1/7 employing both radial and inline engines the Lishman stein equipped J and n variants were not a success the type being found to be too heavy slow and cumbersome for the night fighting role it was taken off active service by 1944 night fighter aces were fated by the German press in the same fashion as the single-seat fighter aces the highest scoring of the knacks Liga was Wolfgang schnell fir who shot down 121 aircraft in 164 operational sorties 16th 1944 he was awarded the diamonds to his Knight's Cross but the same ceremony of yeah barbar ace eric cartman received his from Hitler and his headquarters at Rastenburg in East Prussia all of Snoopy's kills were made in a11 OG for 4 MJ g1 snap has survived the war only to die in a motoring accident in 1950 a burst helmet lent commander of NJ g3 and holder of the Knight's Cross with diamonds achieved 105 victories he died in an accident in October 1944 when he and his two crewmen crashed in their 1 1 o at Paderborn in bad visibility Prince sign victim Stein scored 83 victories the bulk of his skills employing the Ju 88 he was shot down and killed on the 21st of May 1944 in the course of the air war in the night skies over Germany circumstances often forced the defenders to adopt unusual methods for downing RAF bombers following the introduction of window in 1943 an egg's bomber pilot named hi-oh Hermann proffered the idea of employing single-seat day fighters to attack RAF bombers fixed by German searchlights over the target area devoid of radar direction until such time as the German boffins found a way to counter window Hermann was ordered by Goering to form a special unit taking the name of wild boar to describe their methods me-109 s and fw 190s crude in the main by ex bomber pilots flew in the skies above Hamburg and Berlin in two raids on the capital on the 24th and 25th of August 1st of September 1943 Herrmann's fighters shot down 56 and 47 RAF heavies on the 4th September another 26 were brought down believed by many in Germany's night-fighter arm to have been the aircraft that could have won the air war was the Heinkel eighty two one nine indeed some say it was the best night fighter of the war although many of the claims for the performance of the type of being questioned since there is no doubting that had it entered full production the two one nine might have changed the odds in the night skies over Germany that it did not has much to do with the internal wrangling between different interest groups in the Luftwaffe the most important voice against the two one nine was Field Marshal Erhard Milch charged with oversight of aircraft production he was firmly of the opinion that the two one nine was a plane too many and that its role could best be carried out by the Ju 88 mine corps managed to produce a total of 195 of the to one nines with another 73 being produced and employed for research purposes those that flu shot down 104 heavy bombers another type that did not enter production but was also thought of as a potential destroyer as well as a night fighter was kurt tanks wouldn t a-15 for indeed the specification for this type flowed from the requirement for a two-seat night fighter with a long loiter time and a heavy armament of 220 millimeter and 230 millimeter cannon first flown on July the 1st 1943 following extensive testing a production line was set up in 1944 however problems with bonding the wood on the airframe the adoption of the emergency fighter program in November 1944 brought an end to all further work on the type the most radical and potentially effective of all the types to be conceived both as a destroyer and as an actor was the Dornier do three three five better known as the arrow this type employed both the pusher and attractor propeller in prototype first flew on October the 26th 1943 by September 1944 a unit had been set up to test the operational characteristics of the arrow and the do three three five a one was on the assembly lines however the war situation was declining and although a most promising type the three three five remained at war's end just a fascinating might have been with Germany's surrender in May 1945 the former airfields of the night fighters were a litter of destroyed and abandoned aircraft for five years destroyer and NAT Yeager had been key types in the lift buffers inventory have played a major role in the years of victory and had fought hard along the road to defeat you you you you you you

Info

Channel: BlueCrystalGem

Views: 60,039

Rating: 4.7765956 out of 5

Keywords: The, German, War, Files, German, Night, Flyers

Id: 2FMWojdkPPI

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 76min 3sec (4563 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 19 2013

Reddit Comments