Hello all, I was wondering what do you consider the best night fighter? I've seen some interesting designs including a german night fighter with guns on top of the plane so it could shoot from below the target. Please tell me what you think is the best night fighter.
De Havilland Mosquito. It was not just designed to hunt bombers at dark but also other enemy night fighters as well and had an impressive electronic warfare sets installed including radars and radar detection systems.
The most effective was possibly the Me 110 it formed the backbone of the Germannight foghter force for most of the war. For "Best" there are lots of candidates: Britain: Mosquito the Beaufighter was a good plane but the Mossie was better. The Blemheim lacked power and was discontinued as soon as something better was available. US :P 61 the P 38 was not bad and the USN fighters F4U-2 are generally underestimated. At sea with good fighter direction a single seater was effective. Germany; He 219, not as effective as claimed but possibly the most advanced night fighter of the war. The later Ju 88 derivateves were pretty good and the Me 110 did sterling service. The radar equipped Me 262 was just a prototype. I know very little about Soviet and Japanese Night fighters, afaik the Japanese were badly underpowered to carry the heavy armament required to deal with B 29s that was harder to shoot down than a Halifax. My favourite remains the 219 though the radar equipped USN carier fighters are intriguing. The P 61 just looks too big for a practical fighter.
I always thought of WW2 night fighters more as "platforms" that could effectively carry the equipment to do their intended jobs than "fighters" . The ME maligned 110 made a terrific night fighter it's airframe could carry automatic cannon, radar arrays, and though not agile it's twin engines were a plus,. I have always had a soft spot, it that possible ?, for the HE 219 , and it did a great job as TOS pointed out The JU 88 was a great plan in any environment so stands to reason it would make a good night fighter. Unlike day fighters, depending on speed , agility, etc, night fighter maneuvered into position , hopefully undetected before loosing their Schräge Musik at an undefended belly of a British bomber. I highly recommend Len Deighton's historical novel "Bomber" to read a spell binding account of one day which involves a night fighter and a bomber.....chilling . Deighton also wrote "Fighter" a factual account of the Battle of Britain which compares the early marks of the Spitfire and 109's. "Bomber" is pure fiction but nicely based on a sound knowledge of fact. I am also a huge Mosquito and Beaufighter, excellent in many roles. I confess to little knowledge of single engine fighters in the night fighter role , a subject I need to explore. To me the best night fighter would be the one with the best electronics package, a precursor to current jet fighters as they are called platforms for weapons in many discussions. A stealth or thrust vectoring fighter might avoid a smart missile but I believe , like night fighters, electronics is currently key.
Electronics are critical but some "fighters" were so loaded up they ended up too slow to catch the bombers. The tactics for interceptors was basically get in close and bang away with lots of firepower, defensive capability of night bombers was marginal, the gunners, with no radar, had little chance to spot a fighter before it opened up and by then it was usually too late. Not so sure manouverbility was irrelevant, a lot of planes had radar receivers and would manouver to avoid an attack, comming back for a second pass after a failed attack required a small turning radius.
TOS, thanks for the update, I always learn things here I was assuming sufficient speed but reckon that those big arrays di not help . I cannot image how terrible it would be to be caught by a night fighter from below and slightly rear Once beneath the down angle of the tail gunner it seems the attacker would be relatively safe . Gaines
I read that the germans had long range radar on the ground to alert of bombing runs then shorter range radar would direct night fighters close enough so it would show on the fighters radar. The usual action was to pull up behind the bomber then let loose. Later on the RAF would drop shreds of aluminum foil to fool the radar.
Good link to the radar subject and great picture of ME 110 night fighter. http://century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/WW2/german_radar.htm
