Nachtjager!

[SCG_Darbzy]

A quick preview of a night fighter co-op campaign I'm working on for IL-2 Great Battles. Unfortunately, B-25s had to stand in for the Lancaster's, Sterling's and Halifaxes but the various night effects look quite nice. When Battle of Normandy is released I will be able to add Allied night fighters into the mix too. Thanks to Bainsy and LordNPrior for flying with me. For some reason either my video editing software or YouTube has made some of the dark footage slightly blurry for some reason. I have no idea why, all my other videos are shot in daylight. Enjoy.

 

PS - I don't have the German style 'a' on my keyboard, I apologise to any German watching this. Music: Goeltia - Dark Magic Music.

 

 

[Raptorattacker]

Here Darbz...

https://tools.oratory.com/altcodes.html

Ü and ¥ and . just for you... Ö!!

Now you can write KÖLN!! 

Rap

[SCG_Darbzy]

11 minutes ago, Raptorattacker said:

Here Darbz...

https://tools.oratory.com/altcodes.html

Ü and ¥ and . just for you... Ö!!

Now you can write KÖLN!! 

Rap

Legend! 

[Yogiflight]

BTW, the international writing would be "Nachtjaeger" and "Koeln".

Nice video, looks like fun, even though I surely would either be shot down by the gunners or simply crash into the bomber. Now we need the two MK108 for the G2

[Raptorattacker]

2 hours ago, Yogiflight said:

Koeln

That's more like the phonetic spelling though? Isn't it actually SPELT 'KÖLN' in Germany? It was the last time I was there...

Edited May 1, 2020 by Raptorattacker

[II/JG11_ATLAN_VR]

YES KÖLN IS DEUTSCH!

 

[Yogiflight]

26 minutes ago, Raptorattacker said:

That's more like the phonetic spelling though? Isn't it actually SPELT 'KÖLN' in Germany? It was the last time I was there...

Yes, of course in German it is spelled 'Köln', but as I wrote above, the international spelling is 'Koeln', as the 'ö' gets replaced by 'oe'.

Greetings,

Juergen

from Wuerzburg

[=J18=FritzGerald]

Wow! Really great video!

[tribal50]

Really nice !

[Raptorattacker]

3 hours ago, Yogiflight said:

but as I wrote above, the international spelling is 'Koeln'

Whereas here in England it's called 'Cologne'!! Typical eh?!!

[Retnek]

Looking very interesting - thanks for not cheating using a high gamma. Il2-GB with the western Europe map offers the key elements to simulate the beginnings of a well organized German Night defence in 1941. It soon was organized in cells, but not that advanced like was later done with the "Kammhuber-Line". The early line consisted of a rising number of cells:

 

- A line of forward searchlights to detect and mark bombers early

- Another line of searchlights in front of

- heavy AAA batteries, so the AAA optically got a target solution and / or
- a loiter position (navigation light plus NDB) for a single night-fighter plane positioned behind that box at 5000 m. The job for a 110 E.

 

RAF bombers came in one-by-one individually. At that time each crew planned the way to the target on it's own. With good navigation, sufficient intelligence and friendly weather they were able to navigate around known boxes. If the slow and over-burdened planes (Hampden, Whitley, Wellington) still offered the performance, they used tricks like coming in at 5000 m and trailing that height for speed down to 3000 m. Much better chance that way to survive a single AA-box and avoid the night-fighter waiting. But bad luck when meeting the next defence-line that low and slow.

 

Night-fighters had to be quick and experienced because there was a short time of illumination to bring themselves from the loiter position into the back of the bomber. When AAA batteries and night-fighter operated together at the same searchlight-box it wasn't self-evident the gunners ceased fire timely, too.

It was a deadly game of it's own. The German defence was mainly limited by the numbers of searchlights. Sometimes they were able to add further lines of search-lights to the boxes, enhancing the time for the night-fighter to get close to the bomber. Bad weather (not that rare over Western Europe) helped the bombers not be detected, but quite often ruined navigation around dangerous areas and target detection, too, naturally.

[SCG_Darbzy]

Retnek, I think the night bomber war was the most interesting part of the air war over Europe. The terrible odds faced by the bomber crews and night fighters, the futility of their task, and the tactics employed by both sides are fascinating. I wish there was some way to simulate the basic radar in the German night fighters, and 'serrate' in the British ones. None the less, I think once BoN comes out (Mosquito) there will be enough to make a basic co-op night fighter campaign for both sides. Even pathfinding can be available.

B-25s will have to stand in for the British bombers, but I can use the homing beacons for the German night fighter holding points and the British Oboe transmitters. The searchlights and flak look amazing already. All the cities are there. I can even use flares as the target indicators. Add in some foul weather and it should be quite realistic and fun experience.

[Dutch2]

Wow new night fighter campaign would be great. You could also use the Havoc as an surrogate Wellington as these two engined planes were also frequently being used for air raids. 

 

[Retnek]

6 hours ago, StG77_Darbzy said:

Retnek, I think the night bomber war was the most interesting part of the air war over Europe. The terrible odds faced by the bomber crews and night fighters, the futility of their task, and the tactics employed by both sides are fascinating. I wish there was some way to simulate the basic radar in the German night fighters, and 'serrate' in the British ones. None the less, I think once BoN comes out (Mosquito) there will be enough to make a basic co-op night fighter campaign for both sides. Even pathfinding can be available.

B-25s will have to stand in for the British bombers, but I can use the homing beacons for the German night fighter holding points and the British Oboe transmitters. The searchlights and flak look amazing already. All the cities are there. I can even use flares as the target indicators. Add in some foul weather and it should be quite realistic and fun experience.

Without ground-radar simulated it will remain difficult to simulate any air war at night after 1942. Later we need airborne-radar and target marker bombs, at least. Imho we don't need any radar-display in planes or fancy graphics. All we need is all pilots had until 1945 - the voice of his radar-operator telling him via intercom where to target is or where he has to go. Same for the ground-controllers. It still would be some work to do, but basically the routine are established already. The air war at night might be seen as niche topic. For sure not that popular as the testosterone saturated airspace during dogfights at day. Nothing to complain about, the bills have to be paid, dividends distributed, that's Real Life (tm).

We can use the detection routines to trigger messages, this is more or less the way it was done with the "Flugwachen" (air raid warning guards) all over Western Europe - "(singe/many) plane activity at sector xy heading west". The Germans very soon had a line of Freya early-warning-radars along the coast-line, too. But without a proper integration into a air-defence-concept the RAF had from 1938 on. So until the introduction of larger numbers the Würzburg-radar (during 1941/42) and the building of the Kammhuber-Line until 1942 there was an air-war going on the way you painted it in your video.

During that time the Germans countered with long-range night-fighter operations (Möhlenbeck & Leihse 1976, Parry 2003), this would add another interesting element. Since there is no England, the most western airfields (like 0510 Schiphol, 1707 Deurne, 1901 Sint-D-W) might stand in as bomber-airbases.

 

At the Eastern front until the introduction of three (!) railroad-based radar-plus-ground-controller-units in 1943 the air-defence at night remained at a very low level of technology and organisation. I don't know any paper or book dedicated to this topic, any hint is welcome!

My impression by lot of single hints in publications: the Russian operations at night until 1943 seemed to be not that dangerous to Germans, annoying, but not more. Then a rising number of Luftwaffe tests and trials became operational. One can find more and more combat claims (Foreman at al 2004). I guess mainly because the Russian operations against the rear infrastructure at night became effective to a level it really hurt.

The most detailed source dealing with the air-warnings and communication-services of the Luftwaffe was written by Hoffmann 1968. In contrast to the very well organized infrastructure in the West for Russia he reports much less at all. Mainly the use of Flugwachen (eyes and ears), too, but in no way covering the whole theatre like it was done in Western Europe. Rarely single Freya-units, some at the Black Sea or one Freya at Kursk, noteworthy exceptions. Even the early night-defence installations in the West 1941 have been much more elaborate and organized than any German night defence infrastructure in Russia I read about. Marshalling yards, large airfields and other places of importance were sometimes defended by some searchlights and some batteries (often just one!) of AAA. Point defences, no area protection. If the Germans forgot the roof about Europe they never had a chance of one in Russia.

 

Möhlenbeck, Otto; Leihse, Manfred (1976): Ferne Nachtjagd. Aufzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1940-1945. 2nd edition. Stuttgart: Motorbuchverlag.

 

Parry, Simon W. (2003): Intruders over Britain. The Luftwaffe night fighter offensive 1940 to 1945. -. Surrey: Air Research Publications. (https://www.wingleader.co.uk)

 

Foreman, John; Matthews, Johannes; Parry, Simon W. (2004): Luftwaffe nightfighter combat claims 1939-1945. The definitive list of claims submitted by Luftwaffe night fighter pilots for allied aircraft shot down in WW2. Walton on Thames: Red Kite.

 

Hoffmann, Karl Otto (1968): Ln- Die Geschichte d. Luftnachrichtentruppe. Band II: Der Weltkrieg Teil 1: Der Flugmelde- und Jägerleitdienst 1939-1945. 2 volumes. Neckargemünd: Kurt Vowinkel Verlag.

Edited May 2, 2020 by Retnek