Aerial Array

At the beginning of the war German airborne radar was in its infancy but as night bomber attacks increased in both scale and effectiveness airborne radar development was made a priority and several types of set entered service. The Fu.G.202 Lichtenstein radar was the first radar set in widespread use and operated on the meter band. It had a frequency of 490 megacycles, a maximum range of 2 miles and a minimum range of 200 yards. To start with the airborne radar was not popular, as the aerials on the front of the aircraft markedly reduced the performance of all the types to which it was fitted. Some pilots persisted with the radar, however, and as the amount of their 'kills' increased, Fu.G.202 became more popular with the crews. Eventually Bomber Command obtained information and an actual set of Fu.G.202 so the Allies could work out ways of jamming the radar. With Fu.G.202 being successfully jammed the German night-fighters' kill rate plummeted. A new radar, the Lichenstein SN2, was introduced and this worked on a frequency of 90 megacycles. It had a maximum range of 4 miles and also had a wider angle of cover, its main drawback was that its minimum range was 400 yards. What saved this radar was the fact that it was recognized as the only set not to be affected by the Allied jamming techniques. The poor minimum range was given urgent attention and a solution was found in early 1944, but in the meantime a simplified version of the Fu.G.202 was fitted so the crews could follow the bombers within the SN2's minimum range. Unfortunately for the Germans, a Junkers Ju88 night fighter landed by accident at RAF Woodbridge. The aircraft had the SN2 radar fitted so it was analysed and the jamming immunity of the SN2 came to an end. It was also found that the aircraft had two homing devices fitted, Flensburg, which homed on the bombers' 'Monica' IFF and warning radar equipment and Naxos, which homed on the British H₂S ground mapping radar. From tests it was found that the Flensburg homing device used to track 'Monica' could be used to direct the night-fighters onto individual bombers in a bomber stream from 45 miles away and also track solitary aircraft from 130 miles away. The order was immediately given to remove all 'Monica' devices from Bomber Command aircraft and that the H₂S radar was only be switched on when the aircraft were nearing turning points or targets. Back to the top

Armament

The main armament of night-fighters were forward facing 7.9mm or 13mm machine guns and 20mm cannons, normally situated in the nose of the aircraft. How the aircraft attacked was left up to individual crews although most attacked from astern and below as German night fighters had poor downward visibility. It was also known, however, that British bombers were not well defended from attacks from below, in fact, very few had ant defence at all in this direction. Due to this gap a lot of night-fighters were fitted with Schräge Musik. This was the name given to 2 cannons pointing almost vertically up from the fuselage of the fighter, which were matched to a Revi reflector sight in the roof of the cockpit of the night-fighter. This meant that the fighter had to formate under the aircraft it was attacking then fire the cannons. This did have its dangers, however, some fighters were destroyed by the bomber it had just attacked falling on top of them, or the bomb load exploding and destroying both aircraft. When it was introduced, Schräge Musik was not universally popular, particularly with the older pilots who had trained with and become accustomed to the forward firing guns. It was popular with younger pilots, however, as many of them tended to fire their conventional weapons beyond their maximum range, therefore giving their position away. However, using Schräge Musik was not all that easy especially as it was extremely difficult to stay below a bomber taking evasive action. It should be noted that the aircraft that made up the German night-fighting force were among the most heavily armed fighters of the whole war making them an extremely effective defensive force. Back to the top

Cockpit

In most night-fighters the cockpit could hold a crew of three or four, the pilot, the gunner and the radio/radar operator, sometimes a specialist in each task. The radio/radar operators job would be to liase with the ground controllers and operate the airborne radar. When a contact was made the radar operator would then guide the pilot onto the target bomber. At other times, particularly when Allied jamming was heavy, the pilot would patrol the skies looking for targets visually. The gunner was to protect the night-fighter from attack because, as the conflict developed, Bomber Command started introducing radar equipped Beaufighters and Mosquitos into the bomber stream. Later, these were equipped with homing devices that enabled them to track the German airborne radars, and the hunter became the hunted. Back to the top