Would Luftwaffe Night-Fighter guns have had Muzzle-Flash suppressors built in?
 

Did a search through the forums and see if I could find any hits, and although I see that Tracer Ammunition wasn't used, I'm not sure if there was any type of Muzzle-flash suppressor on the aircraft (I'm thinking of 210 and 410 here).

Just for my own interest I'm wondering what methods the night-fighters of the Luftwaffe took to evade detection, but once they had a target and opened fire was the muzzle-flash significant?

Thanks for any interest and help, cheers, MP

Re: Would Luftwaffe Night-Fighter guns have had Muzzle-Flash suppressors built in?
 

The quick answer is that the 210/410 were not night fighters.

The key problem with muzzle flash is usually that of damaging the fighter pilots' vision: again, on the 210/410 family this would not be a problem because of their position, and this would also be true of the 110/88/219 with nose radar and belly weapon packs. It would be worthy of consideration on the earlier 110/215/88 series.

I don't have an answer for your first question, other than that devices to reduce muzzle flash are not visible on most Luftwaffe night fighters, although I think that may not be true of all.

Re: Would Luftwaffe Night-Fighter guns have had Muzzle-Flash suppressors built in?
 

I do not know how effective they were, but the Me 410s definitely had cannon muzzle flash eliminators - a long steel tube around the barrel of the MG 151, angled at the front to fit the contour of the nose where the rounds emerged. I know this because we found one at an Me 410 crash site in Norfolk in 1979.

BC

Re: Would Luftwaffe Night-Fighter guns have had Muzzle-Flash suppressors built in?
 

Are those not just blast tubes? How were they shaped to be flash eliminators?

Re: Would Luftwaffe Night-Fighter guns have had Muzzle-Flash suppressors built in?
 

Good Point. I suppose it all depends how far recessed inside the tube the end of the cannon barrel was. Blast tube it is then.
BC