How it Worked (Animated): The Night Air War Over Germany, 1943

[wokelly]

 

A ~25 minute 3D animated video I made showing the tactics, technology and strategy of the night air war over Germany circa March 1943. This is set against the backdrop of the march 5th, 1943 raid on Essen which is held as the opening of the "Battle of the Ruhr". I try to demonstrate how the RAF's blind bombing system OBOE worked, how the German radar controlled night fighting positions were setup and how it interacted with the RAFs bomber stream tactic. Much of the German system would be rendered ineffective by WINDOW in July 1943, which is where you start getting the Tame and Wild Boar tactics of the latter part of the war. I was never able to find anything that showed how everything worked, so if the night air war interests you I think you'll find this video quite interested.

[busdriver]

Very informative and enjoyable. I highly recommend Beam Bombers to get a more detailed explanation of Oboe.

[Retnek]

6 hours ago, busdriver said:

Very informative and enjoyable. I highly recommend Beam Bombers to get a more detailed explanation of Oboe.

Good reading, indeed - never was able to grab a copy for a reasonable price ...

There's an interesting small book dealing with the German detection story and countermeasures, too:

 

Alexander Dahl

Bumerang : Ein Beitrag zum Hochfrequenzkrieg

Lehmanns München 1973, ISBN: 9783469004659

 

(interesting author)

 

Main part of the story is given here:

https://www.gyges.dk/jamming_service Oboe.htm

[wokelly]

7 hours ago, Retnek said:

Good reading, indeed - never was able to grab a copy for a reasonable price ...

 Yes, apparently a new copy on Amazon is almost 1000 dollars ?

[Retnek]

12 hours ago, wokelly said:

 Yes, apparently a new copy on Amazon is almost 1000 dollars ?

Mad markets - here's some compensation containing lot of details:

Oboe - Chapter of "The Canadians on Radar"
http://www.rquirk.com/cdnradar/cdnradar.htm

 

In memory of Cmd. Craig - Oboe
https://masterbombercraig.wordpress.com/

First hand report by a Mossie-navigator

[Retnek]

Digging in the sources cited above I stumbled over this guy, a US-bomber-(pathfinder-)navigator telling his own stories together with lot's of very well made technical documentation about radio-navigation equipment. The tube at it's best:

Jake Howland B-17 navigator & Oboe, Gee, Gee-H

Next thing I will do is follow the path of his ferry flight to Europe with MSFS-2020:

Jake Howland - Flying the Atlantic -1943


PS: And I'll do the passage again if there is at least one proper 4-prop-plane available for MSFS-2020

[wokelly]

Thanks for those sources. I'll look to see how I can incorporate them into my future videos. I'm largely reliant on what I can find on the internet or beg from people I bump into who hold documents not available online. British archives are at least a 6 hour plane ride away, and unfortunately they have little documentation they have uploaded.

[Retnek]

Here's a big pack of sources - you might know them already. But I dare to point on this because it would be tragic to miss this treasure covering all the RAF-operations. Usually first hand presentations by veterans or top historians. Often with a discussion pointing on further, rare details:

RAF Historical Society Journals - 55 journals and 7 proceedings