History of the Nachtjagd in WW2 -- 1941-1945

[Bombardier101]

The Nachtjagd was the German nightfighter force in WW2.

1941

The British bombing needed to be countered so the Nachtjagd was set up, maybe just before 1941. Initially they were just mostly equipped with Bf-110 Day Fighters (Destroyers). But soon they got better and some Bf110s (Ds I think) were equipped with Spanner Anlage infrared sensors. Those could find any heat source around like all IR sensors And sometime in 41 the Himmelbett ("Heavenly Bed") radar stations were set up. Initially these consisted of 2 Wuerzburg radar dishes (one to guide the nightfighters, one to track the bomber) and a large long-range Freya radar tower for EW. But the average interception time was 10 minutes so while one bomber was dealt with his comrades could slip through.

1942

Most of the RAF bombers were obsolete Wellingtons, Whitleys, Albermarles and Blenheims. The Ju88C intruders based at Gilze Rijen went to the Bomber Command airfeilds when the bombers were set to take off and the Ju88Cs would strafe them and (I think) bomb them. Despite the successes Hitler thought the 'terror bombers' should be seen being shot down by civilians and shot down over the cities and the intruder force was sent to the Mediterranean Theatre.

The 1000 bomber raids are mounted. At least one was on Cologne. These devastate cities, particularly Cologne and the Nachtjagd's defences are powerless to stop the majority of bombers coming through and easily devastaing a city. This overwhelms the Himmelbett system! But a raid on Bremen starting on the 25th of June and ending in the early hours of the 26th was the last 1000 bomber raid for a long time. The first was actually a 1046 bomber raid aginst Cologne on the 30th of May ending in the early hours of the 31st. Happy new month tomorrow, Cologne

On the 11th of August the RAF's Pathfinder Force is established to lead the way for RAF raids.

The Rosendaal Halbe homing device was used on Bf110s and employed a very small antenna. It does look quite humble and mouse-like It homed onto RAF radar warning receivers.

[Bombardier101]

1943

In January the USAAF is agreed to bomb by day, and the RAF by night.

On the 5th of March all hell breaks loose in Germany's night skies over the Ruhr Valley. The RAF's Ruhr Offensive has commenced! The great nightfighters of the Nachtjagd are Bf/Me 110G4s, Ju 88s and Do 217s.

The Ruhr Offensive shows the peak of the Nachtjagds effectiveness. 38 raids are mounted against Ruhr towns and industrial cities. 872 British aircraft are lost while participating in the camapaign. One of their particularly large raids was on Duesseldorf. 826 aircraft struck on the 23rd of May to the early hours of the 24th.

The Dambuster raids apparently went without the Nachtjagd to hinder it. AAA fire only.

Around the 23rd of July the RAF was equipped with a new weapon--strips of tinfoil! What could it do? On that night the RAF bombers with incendiary bombs headed for Hamburg. Decoy aircraft and the bombers dropped loads of tinfoil around the German skies and the Nachtjagd's radar operators flew into panic. Words like "Too many hostiles!", "Try without your ground control!" and "The enemy are reproducing themselves!" came from them. I would like to know how a plane reproduces! But that's what the radar screens showed and the Nachtjagd's nightfighters mostly flailed at tinfoil targets while most of the bombers came through and nearly completely destroyed Hamburg. The firestorm ate just about everything in the area. Temperatures of 1000 degrees arose. Either get burned to death or suffocate.

After this, Hans-Joachim "Hajo" Herrman tried to get a "Wilde Sau" (Wild Boar) squadron. And soon, Goering authorized the creation of a Geschwader of Fw 190s and some Bf 109s. Oberst Kammhuber, who oposed it, was shunted off to oblivion in Scandanavia. He was the genius of the Himmelbett stations that covered the Dutch and German coast.

One night over Berlin, the bomber crews of the RAF were only accustomed to flak and searchlights were startled to find the air swarming with Fw 190s and Bf 109s.

But what about the Bf 110s? Well they were the Zahme Saus (Tame Boars). They would be guided to where the bomber stream should be and followed the bomber stream with radar on or off, shooting down any 'courier' (Nachtjagd term for any enemy aircraft) they could find in the stream. The Tame Boars proved to be a fataly successful group.

At the end of '43 the Lichtenstein SN-2 came out and was soon put on the latest Bf110s and Ju88s along with it's short range cousin the C-1 since SN-2 was problematic with short range work. The old BC radar was no more.

[Bombardier101]

1944

A variant of Bf110 was introduced without C-1 and only SN-2 radar when the short range problems with the latter were fixed.

The Battle of Berlin came and the RAF was trigger happy from Parchim, Stendal and other Nachtjagd airfeilds near Berlin. Berlin was puverised from the West and the East as the Russians advanced, but the RAF suffered dearly. Over 500 aircraft were shot down over only 16 raids. The Nachtjagd was still formidable. But the Luftwaffe was severely weakened as well.


On a night near Nuremburg (N