Researching the Luftwaffe through Prisoner Interrogations - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

Bruce Dennis · #1 30th October 2018, 10:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

Agreed, would people like a dedicated "Researching the Luftwaffe through Prisoner Interrogations" thread?

Nick, I look forward to following whatever course you decide on.

For the record, within these P/W reports are references to 'captured documents': I hope everyone recognizes that this meant ULTRA or another sensitive source that could not be named at the time, hence my choice of the 'Using ULTRA...' thread for posting.

Bruce

Bruce Dennis · #2 30th October 2018, 10:50

"SECRET A. D. I. (K) Report No. 357/1945.
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FROM P/W. AS THE
STATEMENTS MADE HAVE NOT AS YET BEEN VERIFIED, NO MENTION OF THEM.
SHOULD BE MADE IN INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OF COMMANDS OR LOWER
FORMATIONS, NOR SHOULD THEY BE ACCEPTED AS FACTS UNTIL COMMENTED
ON IN AIR MINISTRY INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OR SPECIAL
COMMUNICATIONS.
RADIO AND RADAR EQUIPMENT IN THE LUFTWAFFE - II
Navigational Aids.
1. This report is the second of the series dealing with radio and radar equipment in the
Luftwaffe.
2. As in the case of the first of the series (A.D.I.(K) 343/1945) dealing with Blind Landing
and Airborne Communications Equipment, it is based on interrogation of General
Nachrichtenführer MARTINI, Director General of G.A.F. Signals, and a few important
members of his staff, and has been supported by a file of current papers which were in the
possession of the General’s Chief of Staff.
3. An index of the numerical designations of the navigational equipment mentioned in this
report appears in Appendix I.
4. For convenient reference, a translation of the document entitled "Funkausrüstung der
Flugzeugmuster, Notprogramm" (signal Equipment in the G.A.F. - Emergency Program) - item
45/99 ff in A.D.I.(K) Documents List 45/9 - which has also appeared as an Appendix to
A.D.I.(K) 343/1945, is reproduced as Appendix II to the present report but the list of equipment
contained in that document has been omitted as Appendix I gives a fuller list.
TRENDS OF DEVELOPMENT.
5. Throughout the course of the war, the general standard of German navigational training was
undoubtedly inferior to that of the Allies. A simple form of navigation was taught but
navigators track plotted only and relied on W/T aids and in particular positioning by means of
loop fixes as the main basis for their navigation.
6. During the early part of the war extensive use was made of Knickebein and other beam
systems, but later this form of navigational aid gave way to the "Y" control system (better
known by the Allied codeword Benito) and "Egon".
7. Sonne was universally accepted as an outstanding success and from the time of its inception
in 1942 research was continuously directed towards overcoming its imperfection, in particular
the range limitation. Komet was a typical example, of attempted improvement on these lines
8. The Germans were patently backward in the field of pulse systems and the majority - if not
all - of their navigational aids of this type were copied from Allied methods.
9. The fear of the Allied countermeasures was much to the fore during the last two years and
considerable research and efforts was devoted to offsetting such interference and to perfecting
systems which would reduce and if possible preclude the danger of jamming. Another factor
always present in the minds of those responsible for tactical navigational requirements was that
the apparatus must be as light and small as possible because of the limited space available in
German aircraft.
10. During the last stages of the war, and as a natural consequence of German air policy, being
forced to concentrate on the defensive, thereby involving almost exclusive use of fighter power,
a great deal of attention was devoted to the development of simple navigational aids suitable
for single-engine aircraft of which Rübezahl was a typical example.
D/F LOOP EQUIPMENT.
PeGe (Peil Gerät) 6.
11. PeGe 6 was the successor of PeGe 5, the standard loop D/F, set in use at the beginning of
the war, and. operated on 150 - 1200 kc/s (2000-250 meters). It provided automatic D/F
facilities, the W/T operator merely having to tune to the signal and the "answer" being produced
on a course indicator.
12. In the opinion of P/W, who was responsible for operational requirements in the
navigational field and who had had fairly extensive navigational experience with K.G.40,
PeGe 6 was less reliable than the manually-operated PeGe 5 as the automatic D/F facilities
could not distinguish between the true signal and jamming and were apt to record bearing midway
between the two if they were near together. The human ear was much more acute and
could distinguish the minimum of the real signal from that of the "phoney” one. It had the
further disadvantage that it was a heavier piece of equipment than the manually operated set.
FuGe 141
13. The FuGe 141 operating on a frequency band of 58.0 - 59.2 mc/s was a receiver with a D/F
loop fitted to Air Rescue aircraft used for homing on to the NS 4 emergency radio set carried on
the chest by pilots.
14. The NS 4 had a flexible steel tape aerial and batteries which gave it an endurance of 2 to
2,5 hours.
FuGe 142.
15. The FuGe 142 using the 2000 - 250 metre band was a small D/F battery set for use in
emergency in the event of failure of the aircraft' s electricity supply.
16. The FuGe 142 had a manually-operated loop and its accuracy was only 10° to 15°.
17. When the P/W who, in October 1944, took over the navigational tactical requirements first
made its acquaintance, he discovered that the designer of the emergency set, while having the
laudable object of assisting a crew in dire emergency when they where probably well and truly
lost, had omitted to include any sensing arrangement. The set was, therefore, quickly scrapped
as being as much of a danger as an aid.
FuGe 145
18. The FuGe 145 was a simple type of D/F set in development for use in single-seater aircraft.
It was for use with M/F beacons and was designed for use by coastal reconnaissance aircraft, as
for example the Do.335, so that they could obtain a bearing when flying at low level.
19. It was much lighter than the PeGe 6 and had no automatic facilities, but was very easy to
operate. P/W had thought that it might ultimately supersede the PeGe 6 for other types of
aircraft.
Suggested loop for fighter aircraft
20. The research centre at Rechlin had been asked to examine a rough type of loop for singleseater
fighter aircraft, which would consist of a loop built into the pilot' s helmet. It was thought
that this would enable the pilot to establish the general direction of a beacon by movements of
his head and without recourse to the use of a compass.
21. This idea was tried out and seemed promising, but was never fully developed.
HOMING BEACONS.
Schwanboje.
22. The Schwanboje was a waterborne V.H.F. beacon dropped by parachute and originally
used by K.G.40 for marking convoys or submarines. In the autumn of 1944 a 1ine of Schwan
buoys was used to aid the He.111's when launching V-1’s from the North Sea against this
country.
23. The beacon consisted of a frame aerial and transmitted on a wavelength which could be
homed on by the FuGe 17, the standard equipment of K.G.40 in 1942 when the Schwanboje
came into use.
24. The set was powered by accumulators and had a live of five hours; by the means of a
clockwork device it could be pre-set before release so that it ran for a testing period
immediately on release and later started up again after a prescribed interval governed by the
expected time of arrival of the homing aircraft. The buoy was fitted with a self-destroying
charge operated automatically.
25. A later type of Schwanboje operated on the 38 - 42 mc/s waveband so that aircraft
equipped with the FuGe 162 could also use the system.
Biene
26. Biene is the code word for a responder beacon. The idea of responder beacons for homing
purposes had only been hit on in 1944 and Bienen to respond to the different airborne radar sets
were still under development in 1945. The FuGe 243 - Hohentwiel Biene – had been used by
coastal units in Norway, in February or March 1945.
27. Responder beacons were also being developed for use in the Baldur method of navigation
(see paragraphs 79, 82 of this report).
BEAM SYSTEMS.
Zyklop.
28. This was the latest form of the well-known Knickebein working on 30 - 33,3 mc/s and
received by E.B.L.3 in the aircraft. It was a mobile station which could be fully erected into
operation within a week.
29. A still more mobile unit known as the Bock-Zyklop had been introduced. This could be set
up in three days and could be adapted for use on the FuGe 16 frequency although as yet,
according to documents, no visual indicator for the FuGe 16 had been developed.
30. The 120 W ground transmitter was called the ???? which gave a beam 0.5° wide and a
range of 300 km. at a height of 5,000 meters. The Zyklop systems had been made use of on the
Russian front up to the end of the hostilities.
Sonne.
31. The Sonne beacon system which worked on a frequency of 270 - 480 kc/s was received in
the aircraft on the FuGe 10. It was considered an extremely effective daylight system but the
range limitation was a disadvantage. Fixes could be obtained from ranges up to 1,000 - 1,200
km. Sonne 6 at Quimper which was the most efficient of the Sonne beacons, had been used on
an occasion at a distance of 1,400 km.
32. The sectors served by Sonne covered, an angle of 120 – 150°. The beacon was very reliable
over the centre sector of 100°, but the error increased progressively towards the edges of the
beam in conformity with the sine law.
33. At night errors up to 4° were liable to occur even in the centre of the sector of the beacon
and no real use could be made of it.
Mond.
34. To improve the Sonne beacons both in range, and accuracy, an experimental system
working on the same principle, but on 3000/6000 kc/s was tried out in 1942. The shorter wave
transmission did not prove very reliable and was given up about the end of 1943.
Stern.
35. Finally a beacon of the Sonne type under the name "Stern" was designed for use on a V.H.
frequency. It, not unnaturally, only gave optical range and was, therefore, of no practical value
and was not developed.
Dora.
36. One P/W had seen documentary mention of Dora which he believed was a navigational aid
system and a precursor of Komet. He did not know whether it worked on the same principle but
the Komet experimental site at Kolby was on the former Dora site.
Komet.
37. In 1942 the question of navigation over the Atlantic stood in the limelight . As the He 177
was supposed to be coming into service shortly to enable K.G.40 to reach further West, the
need for navigational equipment of longer range became acute.
38. A year or so earlier Professor von HANDEL had categorically stated in a lecture that a
long-range navigational system based on pulse would inevitably be extremely inaccurate.
In view of Professor von HANDEL's views on pulse systems, an improved form of Sonne
which would give much greater ranges and be less susceptible to night effect was given high
priority.
39. The system evolved was called "Komet" and experimental stations were erected at
Bordeaux and Kolby (see A.D.I.(K) 364/1944). The ground station called for an array of no less
than 127 masts and 19 control huts in order to cover a 90° sector. It worked admirably provided
a 10° sector only was covered, but as soon as the planned 90° sector was put into operation,
mutual interference between the masts arose and the various lobes radiated were no longer of
symmetrical pattern, with the result that large errors crept in.
40. Research on this delayed the project considerably. After the invasion when long distance
reconnaissance in the Atlantic was no longer practical politics, the Komet system was given up
without ever having been effectively used. The development people were the more pleased to
dispense with it since it left the German radio research and industry free to deal with other more
urgent matters.
41. The beacon was to operate on frequencies of 5000, 9000 or 12,000 kc/s received on the
FuGe 10K, and it was estimated that ranges up to 3000 km would be obtained. The system
employed was to be similar to that used in the Sonne but instead of obtaining one reading per
minute, oscillation of the beam was to be speeded up to give 100 readings par minute.
42. The true bearing of the aircraft was automatically recorded by the FuGe 124 which was
known as the Kometschreiber. The recording took the form of a series of vertical lines, one for
each reading, printed on a strip of paper. At the same time as the lines were printed the
Kometschreiber recorded the section of the swept area in which the aircraft was flying, thus
giving what amounted to a rough position.
43. The fine reading was obtained from the length of the recorded lines. Any inaccuracies due
to night effect could be easily eliminated by averaging the length of the lines, as recorded, on
the paper strip, by eye.
Erika.
44. Erika was a navigation system (see A.D.I.(K) 364 and 409/1944.) which had already
reached the development stage in 1942 but its operational employment was of brief duration
and it was soon discarded in favour of Bernhard.
45. Erika was based on the principle of a V.H.F. (30 - 33 mc/s) beam oscillating rapidly over a
segment of about 60 – 90°. The beam was phased, a different phase being picked up in different
sections of the segment and read off in relation to a standard phase producer in the aircraft. In
order to obtain a fix, two such Erika stations had to be received and to receive each station no
less than two E.B.L.3's were necessary making a total of four receivers.
46. The range presentation unit in the aircraft, FuGe 121, took the form of a clock-face with a
needle indicator and calibrated, P/W thought, from 0 -100. A specially prepared map was
required to establish bearing.
47. A disadvantage of Erika was the vulnerability to jamming, interference signals modifying
the phase and thereby giving inaccurate readings. The great weight, carried and the bulk of the
four receivers, which were particularly cumbersome in the relatively small aircraft in use in the
G.A.F. made its widespread use impracticable.
Bernhardine.
48. This system was first introduced in 1942 for use by bomber aircraft, but was later dropped
in favour of the Benito and Egon control systems. With the increasing British jamming during
night raids it was reintroduced for use in night fighter commentary (see A.D.I.(K) 125/1945,
paras.5 to 29), which it was thought could only be jammed with great difficulty.
49. The term “Bernhard” was used for the ground stations whilst the airborne recording
equipment was called Bernhardine or FuGe 120. The latter made use of the E.B.L.3. receiver as
the transmissions lay in the 30-33 mc/s band.
50. At the time of the German capitulation, the following three transmitting stations were in
operation, the first two, of which could transmit commentary.-
-Thisted, on N.W. coast of Denmark.
-Bretstedt, N. of Husum, Germany.
-Trebbin, S.E. of Berlin.
51. A further station near Breslau had been almost completed when it had to be dismantled on
account of the Russian advance. Additional stations were in the course of construction near
Kassel, Munich, Pilsen and Vienna.
52. The Bernhardine system was looked upon as a considerable improvement on Erika. It gave
360° coverage as compared to 60/90° with Erika and, whereas from the jamming aspect stray
signals could disturb the phase of Erika causing false indication, in the case of Bernhardine,
interference merely resulted in no reading being possible, and furthermore to attain this through
360° a very powerful jamming transmitter flying near the ground station would be needed.
53. The Bernhardine system was not regarded as unjammable but it was thought that use of
high power and aerial gain would render jamming by airborne means impracticable.
54. In addition to the E.B.L.3 receiver, the airborne Hellschreiber FuGe 120, also called the
Bernhardine, which gave both bearing and commentary was employed. According to P/W the
FuGe 120 was large and weighty and the first improvement aimed at was to reduce the weight
and provide a set which occupied less space in the aircraft. To this end an attempt was made to
eliminate the use of paper strip for the Hellschreiber and a rotating "Folienschreiber" a
cellophane paper moving over a sticky carbon surface which constituted a self-eraser - was
employed. This projected recording method proved a failure and the use of paper strip had to
be reverted to. According to documents the type using paper strip was known as FuGe 120a,
and the self-erasing recorder FuGe 120b.
55. A smaller model, the FuGe 120k, to operate on the paper strip principle which constituted
the latest improvement, was still in the development stage at the conclusion of hostilities.
Previously the ground transmitter broadcast simultaneously from the upper and lower aerial
arrays on two frequencies close enough to one another for them both to be received on one
channel of the E.B.L.3. One lobe was used for coarse D/F, the other for fine. The two
frequencies were then separated by a filter before being fed into the Hellschreiber. The FuGe
120k was designed for use with a ground transmitter operating only on the coarse D/F
frequency. The filter could therefore be dispensed with and considerable weight saved in the
airborne set at the expense of some accuracy in D/F.
56. With the loss of D/F accuracy the sharp “V” in the vertical printing indicating the reading
(see diagram A.D.I.(K) 125/1945 para.18) became a gap about 4° wide. To facilitate the
reading of the centre of the gap by eye, and to reduce the size and weight of the apparatus, the
vertical lines referred to above were superimposed on the scale which could then only be read
in the gap. This allowed the paper strip to be considerably narrower.
57. The FuGe 120k was designed primarily for use in single seat jet aircraft but was also to be
embodied in the Ju.88 where space was at a premium, as soon as sufficient numbers of this set
were available.
Hermine.
58. The Hermine system was originally developed, in response to a tactical requirement
formulated during the second part of 1942, as a navigational aid for the purpose of giving an
approximate bearing to single-engine night fighters engaged on “Wilde Sau” operations.
59. By the time the initial difficulties in development had been overcome Wilde Sau night
fighting had almost ceased; it was found however that Hermine could be used to advantage by
day fighters, and it came into operational use.
60. An accuracy of ±5° was assumed, but it was found in practice that this could be improved
upon to ±3° by experienced pilots.
61. Thirteen or fourteen ground stations were in operation by Easter 1945 which, P/W claimed,
gave complete coverage of the Reich. It was intended to fit two Schlechtwetter (bad weather)
Fighter Geschwader with the necessary airborne equipment, and this program had been onethird
completed by May 1945. One P/W had heard that ten to fifteen Me.262's of K.G.51 were
amongst the aircraft so equipped.
62. The following may be added in modification of the description of the Hermine system
given in A.D.I.(K) 125/1945, paras.59 to 62. The Hermine rotating beacon transmits a
continuous tone on which is superimposed a speaking clock which counts from 1 to 35, each
figure representing tens of degree. Over an angle of about 15° the continuous tone falls to a
minimum and rises again. During this period the voice appears to become more audible and the
pilot can estimate where the minimum of continuous tone occurs, and so obtain his bearing
from the beacon.
63. The beacon recognition is given by means of a self-evident code name for example,
"Berolina” for Berlin – which is spoken by the voice in place of 000°.
64. The airborne equipment is the FuGe 125 consisting of the E.B.L.3 with the Tzg
(Telephoniezusatzgerät) which enables the 30.0 - 33.3 mc/s transmission picked up on the
E.B.L.3 receiver to be heard in the pilot's headphones. Though the Hermine beacons were fully
operational there was a scarcity of FuGe 125 sets, as a result of which practical experience of
this system was too limited to judge of its efficiency or to lead to further improved tactical
requirements been formulated.
PULSE SYSTEM.
Ingolstadt
65. All the P/W had heard reference to Ingolstadt and agreed that it was a long-range
navigational system.
66. One P/W thought that Ingolstadt was the cover name for a pulse navigation system using
hyperbolic curves and similar to British Gee; it was originated by Telefunken in 1938 but was
then turned down by the R.L.M. In his recollection the original Telefunken idea derived from
theoretical discussions at an international conference before the war.
67. As mentioned earlier under the heading of Komet, Professor von HANDEL maintained that
owing to the incidence of mutual interference between direct and reflected waves the system
was impracticable at long range. In consequence of von HANDEL’s view the system was
dropped.
68. Much consternation and annoyance was occasioned in 1944, when it was found that the
Allies were successfully operating a similar system.
69. Truhe is the cover name used to describe navigational aid system, using ground stations,
similar to those of British Gee. In effect the British Gee stations were also used, the airborne
sets being almost identical with the British Gee boxes.
Truhe.
70. There is no very distinct difference between "Truhe" and "Hyperbel". The latter term was
originally coined to denote our Gee. It was also used when German aircraft equipped with
British Gee sets made use of British ground stations.
71. The British Gee chain was used successfully but it was realised that so soon as the
Germans lost an aircraft, over England, a change would be made. The German "Y" service
monitored the British ground stations to follow any change in Gee phasing and passed advice of
such change to their aircraft by W/T.
72. Truhe referred to the German system which was ultimately to cover the 20 to 100 mc/s
band and employed various types of ground transmitters including Feuerhilfe, Feuerstein,
Feuerzange and Feuerland. All these transmitters could also be used to jam our own Gee,
further details of which will appear in a subsequent report on German Radio Countermeasures.
The original 46 to 50 mc/s system was known as Truhe I and the new 30 to 60 mc/s system as
Truhe II.
73. A chain of Truhe stations was built around Berlin, primarily for training purposes and there
were in addition groups of ground stations in the Schwarzwald and in Pomerania. The last
named was intended for operations against Russia and it is not known if the stations were
destroyed before their capture.
74. The airborne sets which were known as FuGe 122 covering 46-50 mc/s and FuGe 123
covering 25-75 mc/s were replicas of the British Gee boxes and according to P/W were
equivalent to British R.1324 and R.1355. These German sets were slightly smaller and more
compact than the British sets.
75. Truhe was used by F.A.G.2 and K.G.66, but up to the time of capitulation only a few
FuGe 122 and FuGe 123 sets had been produced and only one R.F. box for the latter set.
Baldur.
76. The Baldur range-measuring system is comparable to the British G.H. and appears to have
been imitated from it. It was referred to by P/W as “Egon in reverse" and was the only
navigational system developed by the German by means of which an aircraft could measure
distance from a known source as opposed to fixing itself by a position line. As the G.A.F. staff
were still thinking in terms of a grandiose bomber policy as late as June 1944, it was intended
for use by bomber aircraft for pinpointing targets and for accurate blind bombing.
77. The wavelength employed was in the neighbourhood of 2-4 meters and fell in the SN 2
band.
78. Only two experimental transmitters, both located in Lower Silesia, were erected and one
P/W maintained that this system never progressed beyond experimental trials by the
manufacturers. It was eventually relegated to low priority owing to the virtual cessation of
German bomber operations and the pressure of more urgent demands on radio research and the
radio industry.
79. The airborne equipment was known as the FuGe 126 which was made up of a transmitter to
interrogate a ground responder beacon, a receiver and a presentation unit. The receiver and
transmitter were SN 2 units, though P/W thought they might have been slightly modified for
use with Baldur.
80. From documents, the presentation unit appears to have been a modification of the
Würzburg range measurement tube, and the accuracy is given as ± 100 meters at all ranges, but
this was thought to be purely theoretical and P/W doubted whether it would have been possible
to achieve this accuracy in actual practice.
81. A smaller airborne set, the FuGe 126k (k = klein = small) was built for use by single-seat
aircraft. In reducing the size and weight of the set, and making it pilot-operated, accuracy had
to be sacrificed. P/W, who was responsible for putting up the tactical requirements, considered
a clock-face presentation to be the ideal solution. It was expected that the accuracy of the
FuGe 126k would then be of the order of 500 meters independent of range.
Baldur - Truhe
82. It was planned to experiment on a combination of Baldur and Truhe (Gee) for use by
bombers. The intention was to use a hyperbolic grid line of Truhe for the target approach. This
could be pre-set, and the pilot could fly along it by keeping the blip centralised, and could
ascertain his exact position along the line by measuring his distance from a Baldur beacon. This
system was considered simpler particularly for a single-seater aircraft, than the method of using
two hyperbolic grid lines or two distances from Baldur beacons. The first experimental sets
were to be ready in the autumn of this year.
Baldur - Bernhardine
83. A further project was a combination of Baldur and Bernhardine to give simultaneous
bearing and range. The range indication was to be obtained by the pilot pressing a knob when
the range would appear in kilometres on a dial. This system was suggested for use by both day
fighters and bombers.
GROUND CONTROL SYSTEMS,
Benito.
84. The Benito system of control using FuGe 16, known to the Germans as "Y", is too well
known to warrant description. The following paragraphs deal with recent developments.
85. When operating the bomber Benito procedure with the narrow beam. (0.3°) essential for
azimuth accuracy, it was easy for the bomber pilot to get on to one of the side lobes in error
since these were only about 3° from the main beam.
86. In order to minimise the possibility of mistake and to relieve the pilot of the strain of flying
on a beam, an automatic device, the FuGe 28a, was in use which was the improved and final
form of the old Y-Gerät of 1941. Documents dated about June 1944 show that it was used in
conjunction with FuGe 17, but P/W thought that it had been modified for use with FuGe 16ZY
as well.
87. The procedure was that the bomber pilot flew on instructions conveyed over the FuGe 17
until it had been established by ground D/F stations that he was on the true beam, when the
code word "Bako" would be given whereupon the pilot would switch on the FuGe 28a which
took over control of the automatic pilot and kept him on the beam.
88. P/W gave the accuracy of range measurement with the Bomber Benito procedure as only
± 1 km. at maximum range.
Egon.
89. The original Egon procedure which involved the use of two Freyas, the one for rough
positioning and the other for fine positioning - later became known as "Egon Einstand" (One
location) to differentiate from an improved system termed “Egon Zweistand”
90. Egon Zweistand was evolved to offset the inaccuracies in azimuth D/F, and cash in on the
range accuracy of radar. With Zweistand a third Freya was introduced, placed some
considerable distance from the other two Freyas in order to give a distance cut. It was intended
for use by bomber aircraft operating over England or on long range sea missions.
91. The original Zweistand system, which was first tried out in Italy by a Schlacht unit, was
somewhat primitive in that the readings from the extra Freya were telephoned through to the
plotting centre and worked out before being plotted on the Seeburg table.
92. To eliminate the delay thereby involved a landline connection was introduced to feed the
Freya pulse to the C.R.T., which then had two blips showing ranges from the two Freya sites.
The vulnerability of landline to disturbance and destruction later led to the development of a
W/T transmitter and this method was employed successfully in operations.
93. Since the Freya pulse was not strong enough to trigger off the FuGe 25A at ranges
exceeding 250 kilometres, it was planned to supplant the Freya by extra powerful
Wassermanns, and thereby increase the effective range of Egon Zweistand to 350 kilometres.
94. A further line of development was the provision of a new type of control table giving the
exactitude of plotting necessary for pinpoint bombing. This control table, which was under
development at Rechlin, made use of complicated mechanical apparatus for accurate projection
of the position of the bomber. One of these tables was destroyed in the course of a daylight air
attack on Rechlin in February 1945; two other tables were in existence at the time of the
capitulation, and were located somewhere in Western Germany.
95. Egon when first introduced was received with some scepticism by the crews, as it was felt
that it was too vulnerable to jamming. After it had been used operationally without being
jammed in the attacks on London in March 1944, the procedure was adopted with greater
confidence, and it gained a good reputation. As recounted in A.D.I.(K) 343/1945, Egon was
always favoured by the R.L.M. technical development section in preference to Benito control.
96. A drawback of the system was its restricted range at low altitude, which according to P/W
was the reason why it was not used in conjunction with V.1 operations.
Nachtlicht
97. The Nachtlicht system was the first method of control not using R/T speech to be
improvised by the Germans, and had been tried out during the raids on London in the spring of
1944.
98. It had been observed that the red signal lamp of the FuGe 25A was illuminated when the
aircraft was being swept by a Freya, and it was suggested that use could be made of this as a
means of transmitting morse signals from the ground. A Freya operating on a special
wavelength, which P/W thought was 2.55 meters, was set up on the Channel coast and was used
to send simple instructions to the aircraft attacking London by means of visual morse
indications on the lamp of the FuGe 25A.
99. The primitive method of giving distant control indications was the forerunner of
"Nachtfee", "Barbara" and "Barbarossa".
100. Luftkurier was the first development of the Nachtlicht idea. It was primitive device
intended to give visual indication to the pilot by means of a pointer which was started and
stopped by the reception of pulses.
101. P/W thought that Luftkurier was first tried out by K.G.66 on the Freya band, but it was so
easy to jam by the addition of extra pulses that it was never developed.
Nachtfee
102. Nachtfee was the term used to describe a system for the transmission of control
instructions to a pilot in the beam of the controlling Freya through the medium of a C.R.T.
indicator similar to the Lichtenstein range tube. The airborne equipment used was known as
FuGe 136 and weighed 12 kg.
103. The original purpose of Nachtfee was, to provide a solution to the jamming of R/T control
systems, and it had been used operationally by the Pathfinders of K.G.66 for mines in the
Scheldt estuary. It was to be adapted for use by night fighters to overcome our jamming of the
night fighter commentary.
104. Nachtfee was a system using the FuGe 25A as receiver.
105. The presentation screen in the aircraft was inscribed with various commands both on the
inside and outside of a circular time trace. There was a stationary zero blip in the 12 o'clock
position, and when an instruction was radiated the pulses received caused a second blip to
emerge from the first and travel round the C.R. tube in a clock-wise direction, presumably by a
slight change in p.r.f. This blip came to a stop and the command corresponding to its position
could be read off on the inside of the time trace where a total of about eight different
instructions were inscribed. It took from one to two second, for the blip to travel round the
tube.
106. It was thought that the further eight commands inscribed on the outside of the time trace
were denoted by the blip making a complete circle starting round a second time before coming
to rest at any one of the eight sectors. In this way a total of sixteen different orders could be
given. For night fighters such instructions as "turn left/right", "climb", "dive”, etc. appeared on
the inner side and figures for transmitting bearing on the outer side of the trace.
107. This system was used operationally, but it was found that, apart from the susceptibility to
jamming, other pulse transmissions could interfere by unlocking the system and thereby cause
wrong positioning of the indicator blip.
108. Another pronounced objection to the Nachtfee lay in the fact that it was necessary for a
member of the crew to watch the C.R.T. indicator uninterruptedly for missing one blip
indication might give the message a false value. It was not therefore possible to use it in singleseater
aircraft.
Barbara
109. This apparatus, also called FuGe 138, consisted of an attachment to the FuGe 25A
receiver and only weighed 2 kg. This unit contained an audio filter which allowed the pilot to
hear morse signals superimposed on the Freya interrogator transmission if they were emitted on
a suitable audio frequency usually about 800 cycles. By keying other morse signals on different
audio frequencies and equipping aircraft with suitable filters, more than one aircraft could be
controlled by a single Freya.
110. Barbara was to be used for Egon control of ground-strafing aircraft and bombers but not
for night fighters.
111. In the Germans' opinion there were three disadvantages, namely that the Allies could
intercept and make use of signals so transmitted, that the aircraft had to be in the beam of the
Freya if it were to receive, and so an aircraft "lost" by the Freya owing to jamming could not be
communicated with and finally that, though intended for single-engined aircraft, fighter pilots
rarely had sufficient command of morse to be able to use this type of control.
Barbarossa
112. Barbarossa was a set designed to meet the same requirements as Barbara but to remedy
two of the drawback mentioned in the last paragraph.
113. The instructions to the aircraft were to be transmitted by code pulse modulations which
were passed through a "pulse filter" in the airborne set and a written indication obtained on a
Hellschreiber. The pulse filter and Hellschreiber unit were attachments to the FuGe 25A and
were known as the FuGe 139. This apparatus was in development at Rechlin under the
supervision of Stabs.Ing. von HAUTEVILLE.
114. With this arrangement pulse modulations could not be read by the Allies, and for spoof
purposes in order to produce a wrong indication we would have had to know the exact type of
modulation accepted by it. Visual indication was also quicker and did not depend on knowledge
of morse.
115. This scheme was only in a very early stage of development and P/W were unable to give
details. It was hoped that in due course it would be possible to develop matters a stage further
and find a means of transmitting scrambled speech instead of morse, but P/W understood that
the question of pulse modulation for speech transmission had not been solved.
Rübezahl
116. Consideration had been given in 1945 to the introduction of a crude system of navigation
which could be only used within the boundaries of the Reich. This was to go under the code
name of Rübezahl, and the fact that it was seriously considered and actively supported by the
P/W responsible for Navigational Aids on the G.A.F. signals staff is an interesting reflection of
the depths to which a combination of Allied jamming under-trained fighter had forced German
technique.
117. It was expected that in the course of the summer of 1945 thousands of 162 Volksjäger
would be available for the protection of the Fatherland. They were to be equipped with
FuGe 24, which was to become the standard G.A.F. R/T set as described in A.D.I.(K)
343/1945. This set did not for the present give Benito control facilities and indeed as they were
short-range, high speed, fair-weather aircraft it was not certain that Benito control would be
essentially needed.
118. It was essential that their relatively inexperienced pilots should have a simple means by
which they could locate their approximate position without any additional navigation
equipment having either to be manufactured or carried in the aircraft. It was therefore decided
to develop a system which could be used with FuGe 24.
119. In order to direct the Volksjäger pilots to their target, recourse was to be had to the night
fighter system of broadcasting a commentary, and this commentary was to be combined with
the primitive navigation system Rübezahl.
120. It was therefore planned to set up ground transmitters over Germany at 30 km intervals.
The transmitters were to be beamed upwards, so that at 6,000 meters the polar diagram was
about 40 km in diameter and lobes from neighbouring transmitters just overlapped, thus
covering the whole area. Each transmitter emitted a plain language recognition signal in the
form of the name of its district, e.g. Halle, Magdeburg, etc.
121. All transmitters were to be operated on the same frequency so that to locate himself the
pilot merely tuned his FuGe 24 to the frequency for the day. The ground transmitters were to be
adapted from the FuGe 15 transmitters which had been manufactured in quantity as described
in paras. 23-39 of A.D.I.(K) 343/1945 before it was found that the FuGe 15 was unsuitable as
an airborne R/T set. They were renamed Bs.15 (Bodensender).
122. Later it was believed that the night fighters which were also to carry FuGe 24 (see
appendix 1) would also use the Rübezahl commentary as yet another alternative source for
vectoring themselves to the bomber stream."

Bruce Dennis · #3 30th October 2018, 10:57

"SECRET A. D. I. (K) Report No. 369/1945
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FROM P/W
AS THE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT AS YET BEEN VERIFIED, NO
MENTION OF THEM SHOULD BE MADE IN INTELLIGENCE
SUMMARIES OF COMMANDS OR LOWER FORMATIONS, NOR SHOULD
THEY BE ACCEPTED UNTIL COMMENTED ON AIR MINISTRY
INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OR SPECIAL COMMUNICATIONS.
RADIO AND RADAR EQUIPMENT IN THE LUFTWAFFE – VI.
Target Homing for Night Fighters.
German early warning Ground Radar.
1. This report is the sixth of the series dealing with radio
and radar equipment in the Luftwaffe. As in the case of the
previous five reports (A.D.I.(K) 343, 357, 362, 363 and
365/1945),it is based on interrogation of General
Nachrichtenführer MARTINI, Director General of Signals, and
some members of his staff, and has been supported by a number
of relevant documents of recent date which were in the
possession of the General's Chief of Staff.
POLICY AND REQUIREMENTS
2. Members of General MARTINI’s staff have often repeated
a catch phrase "Aller Funkverkehr ist Landesverrrat" - all
radio traffic is treasonable, and the G.A.F. were only too
well aware that a transmission of any type could be listened
in to by the Allies and then D/F'd. They were, therefore,
fully aware of the opportunities of homing on to
transmissions from Allied aircraft and so when airborne
countermeasures against the Freya ground installations were
first taken by the Allies, Köthen developed an apparatus
which would enable a German night fighter to home on to the
source of the jamming transmission.
3. This equipment was called Freya-Halbe (Halbe = half
signifying that it was a radar apparatus equipped with the
receiver half only and not the transmitter), and it was
tried out at Werneuchen in early 1943. The trials were
successfully completed by about June of that year and it was
then demonstrated to the authorities for use by the G.A.F.
night fighter units.
4. At that time, however, the German night fighter force was
commanded by General KAMMHUBER who was the creator of the
Kammhuber line and whose night fighter organisation relied
essentially on ground-controlled night fighter aircraft
operating in comparatively limited boxes. The suggestion of
homing on to jammers was turned down by KAMMHUBER out of hand
because he was a rabid opponent of any form of freelance
night fighting and insisted on strict adherence by his
aircraft to the limits of their box.
5. With the discovery of Monica and the development of the
Rosendahl and later the Flensburg homers on to Monica,
KAMMUBER still maintained his obstinate stand against any
departure from the box system of control. It was, therefore,
not until General SCHMIDT assumed the control of the night
fighting force in November 1943 and proceeded to introduce
freelance methods that D/F homers on to transmissions from
the bombers could be used operationally.
6. Although the technical experts were satisfied that the
homers on to transmissions of metric wavelengths were
successful, aircrews seemed to be unable to use them well and
results obtained were never wholly satisfactory. Exactly the
same applied to Naxos for homing on to H2S is its early days,
particularly when a number of minor troubles were still being
encountered with its electrical parts and, though it was
available in January 1944, for the first three or four months
comparatively little use was made of an excellent homing
device.
7. By about Easter 1941 the early troubles of Naxos were
overcome and crews began to gain confidence in its use; with
the success of Naxos reliance on all types of homing apparatus
increased. At this stage, however the R.A.F. had almost ceased
to use Monica and Naxos remained the only important set of its
type.
8. In view of the change of policy governing night fighter
operations experimental D/F receivers known as X-Halbe were
designed capable of adaptation to any metric wavelength which
might be used by the Allies. In addition one of the tactical
requirements laid down after 1943 for all future A.I. sets was
that provision should be made for the switching off of the
transmitter portion so that the receiver could act as a homer
on to any airborne jammers employed by the Allies. Naxos and
Korfu Z which covered the 1.5 cm. to 20 cm. band already
existed.
9. As R/T and W/T Jamming became more intense and even
ground control by commentary broke down, increasing use was
made of homing on to the bomber stream by means of receivers
of the Naxos type but there remained always the serious
disadvantage that these receivers did not supply range. It was
claimed that both Naxos and Korfu were so sensitive that the
bomber stream could be picked up at a range of 200 km. and
that in consequence useless chases often ensued. Estimates of
range had to be made by deduction and even in the case of
experienced crews the estimate of range by indirect means was
not always reliable.
10. Short mention is made below of another form of homing
device, the Kiel Z, which attempted to use the infra-red
radiations from the exhaust stubs of the bomber. A fuller
description of the Kiel Z was given in A.D.I.(K) 390/1945,
paras 41 to 48.
FREYA-HALBE.
11. The Freya-Halbe, officially known as the FuGe. 221, was
designed early in 1943 to home on to airborne Freya jammers
but owing to KAMMHUBER's opposition to freelance night
fighting was not adopted. Towards the end of 1943 when freelance
operations were introduced it was proposed to install
the twenty-five Freya-Halbe sets which had been manufactured
but, when they were indented for, it was found that the makers
had used various parts for manufacturing other apparatus and
that the sets had been virtually consumed as spares. Freya-
Halbe was, therefore, never used on operations.
ROSENDAHL-HALBE.
12. The first Monica set obtained by the Germans was
recovered from a British four-engined bomber which was shot
down over the town of Rosendahl in Holland and the name of
Rosendahl or FuGe. 221.A was then given to the D/F equipment
developed for homing on to Monica.
13. According to one of the P/W who had flown the trials with
Rosendahl, it was quite successful, and gave good D/F until
the night fighter came within 4 km. of its target, after which
the D/F became unreliable. For this reason the general
introduction of Rosendahl-Halbe was delayed.
14. It was ultimately discovered that the polarisation of
the receiver aerials was at 90° to that used by the bombers
and it was assumed that this was the cause of the poor D/F. For
some technical reason it was not found possible to twist the
aerial through 90° in order to obtain the right polarisation
and by the time that these difficulties had been overcome the
R.A.F. use of Monica had ceased.
15. An interesting experiment was carried out with Rosendahl-
Halbe when a set of Rosendahl aerials was mounted round a 150
cm. searchlight. The idea was to align the searchlight beam on
to an aircraft transmitting Monica. Considerable difficulty
was encountered in getting the searchlight beam and the axis
of the receiving lobe to coincide and by the time this had
being achieved R.A.F. bombers were no longer using Monica.
16. The Flensburg, officially known as FuGe.227, was another
attempt at solving the problem of producing a homer to D/F on
to Monica transmission. Difficulty was encountered with D/F
properties but the set was satisfactorily selective and could
discriminate between a large number of signals by tuning to
both the r.f. and p.r.f. It was used to a limited extent in
night fighter operations.
17. With the cessation of the use of Monica the original
Flensburg became known as Flensburg I and a series of other
F1ensburgs, numbered from II to VI, were manufactured to cover
the frequencies used by the mandrel screen and other Freya
jammers. The frequencies as given in documents were:-
Flensburg I 1.3 m. to 1.75 m. against Monica.
Flensburg II 1.7 m. to 2.6 m. against Freya A and B
band and Jagdschloss jammers.
Flensburg III
Flensburg IV
2.3 m. to 3.8 m.) against SN 2 and Freya
3.8 m. to 5.0 m.) C frequency jammers.
Flensburg V 25 cm, band against 25 cm. P.P.I. ground
radar jammers.
Flensburg VI 50 cm. band against Würzburg jammers.
18. It was not known to what extent these additional
Flensburgs had been used in operations. They were considered
to be a successful solution to the homing problem except for
the fact that the large aerials, particularly on the Freya
frequencies, reduced the speed of the aircraft considerably.
A.G.L.T.
19. The interrogation of British prisoners of war had
provided information with regard to Village Inn and some
details of it were known. It was thought to operate on a
centimetre wavelength and pieces of equipment had been found.
Nevertheless, P/W were convinced that though preparations for
using it had been made it had not yet been employed
operationally.
X-HALBE.
20. This was the designation of the airborne receiver which
could be adapted for D/F'ing any new metric radar that was
observed by the monitoring service.
NAXOS.
21. The Naxos, known as the FuGe.350, was a detector set
which received all transmissions on the 8 to 12 cm, band but
could not discriminate between different wavelengths in the
band.
22. The problem of producing a homer on to a beamed
transmission rotating at 60 r.p.m., as in the case of H2S, was
first tackled in March 1943, some two months after the
discovery of H2S. Little progress was made until an engineer
hit on the idea of getting continuous presentation of the
signals received by employing aerials rotating about twenty
times faster than those of the transmitter. The G.A.F. signals
staff were so impressed with the ease with which it was
possible to home on to a slowly rotating beam such as that of
the H2S that one of the requirements for the Berlin A was that
its rate of rotation in searching should be very high to
ensure that the Naxos solution to the homing problem could not
be employed against it.
23. The first trials with the Naxos were flown in December
1943 at Werneuchen and the first operational Gruppe to be
equipped with the set had it installed in all their aircraft
by the 25th January 1944.
24. A whole series of Naxos sub-types were produced and of
those the following were mentioned:-
Naxos Z. = (Zielanflug = Target Approach): was the original
homing device operating on the 8 to 12 cm. band; it could
not differentiate between frequencies in the band so that
if there was more than one H2S aircraft in the
neighbourhood, a confused picture was obtained.
Naxos ZR. (R Rückwärts = Backward): employed aerials placed
both above and below the after part of the fuselage of the
Ju.88 and served as a backward warning device for the
approach of British night fighters using Mark VIII or Mark
XI on the 9 cm. wavelength.
Naxos ZX. (X = X-band = 3 cm. band): was the 3 cm.
equivalent of the original Naxos Z. It operated on the 2.5
cm. - 4 cm. band.
Naxos RX. was the 3 cm. equivalent of the Naxos R and was
used as a backward warner against 3 cm. A.I.
Naxos ZD. was a combined homer for both the 9 cm. and the
3 cm. bands. The 3 cm. aerial rotated on the same axis but
above the 9 cm. aerials.
25. As stated, the value of Naxos was first appreciated by
crews in the early summer of 1944 when the increase in British
jamming had reached such a pitch that communications with the
ground were affected and it was difficult to find the bomber
stream. The picture obtained by Naxos, however, was nonselective
and it was not always possible to home on to a
single aircraft unless the aircraft in question was separated
from the others in the stream. On the other hand Naxos made it
easy to locate the bomber stream, which at that period was the
main preoccupation of the G.A.F.
26. Although estimate of range could be gained if the height
at which the bombers were flying was known, since, by climbing
and determining at what point the Rotterdam signals were no
longer picked up, the night fighter aircraft could judge the
distance of the transmitting aircraft. A full description of
the method of approach employed appeared in A.D.I.(K)
125/1945. paras. 93-98.
KORFU Z.
27. The original Korfu set, otherwise known as the FuGe.351,
was a development of a superhet receiver designed for
frequency modulated 9 cm. carrier communications purposes.
After the discovery of H2S it was adapted for use by the
German "Y" service and towards the end of the war was further
modified for use as an airborne set and then became known as
the Korfu Z or FuGe.351Z.
28. The aerials employed were of the Naxos type and gave the
relative bearing of the transmitter but the advantage of the
Korfu Z lay in the fact that it could be sharply tuned and
could, therefore, home on to individual aircraft.
29. It was also hoped that with the help of the Korfu Z night
fighters would be able to differentiate between H2S and 9 cm.
A.I. which the Germans presumed used different sections of the
9.0 to 9.3 cm. band. In this connection, as mentioned in
A.D.I.(K) 363/1945, it was hoped in due course to produce the
Berlin and other German "9 cm. " radar on the 8.6 to 8.9 cm.
band in order to aid German night fighters to differentiate
between British and German aircraft.
30. The Korfu Z was to have been ready by mid-summer of 1944
but its advent was delayed by the shortage of magnetrons, all
available specimens of which were required for the ground
Korfu used by the "Y" service. So far as was known the Korfu Z
was never used operationally.
Kiel Z.
31. The Kiel Z was manufactured by Zeiss and known officially
as the FuGe 280. Infra-red radiations from the exhaust stubs
of aircraft were picked up in a parabolic mirror and focused
on to an Elac lead sulphide cell. The field of view in a cone
of ± 10° was scanned. A wider field of view could be obtained
by moving the entire scanner by hand in the same manner as
employed with the Berlin M.1.A.
32. Shortly before the end of the war a number of Kiel Z sets
were tried out in operations but it was found that, although
they gave a range of about 4 km. on a four-engined bomber,
various difficulties arose. Infra-red radiations from the moon
and stars formed "permanent echoes" on the cathode ray tube
used as viewing screen, and were not always easily
distinguished from a moving aircraft. In addition, if the
target aircraft was between the fires caused by the raid and
the night fighter aircraft, the target was obviously quite
indistinguishable against the background of the fires.
33. Night fighters equipped with the Kiel Z were also to
carry the FuGe 218 Neptun R3 backward warning radar so that
they at least had warning of British night fighters
approaching from the rear.
FALTER
34. Falter was an infra-red telescope of the Bildwandler type
used by German night fighters for homing on to British infrared
recognition lamps. Reference to Falter appeared in
A.D.I.(K) 365/1945, paras. 72-76. It was not known if it had
been used operationally.
A.D.I.(K)and S.D. Felkin
U.S. Air Interrogation. Group Captain
2nd August 1945"

Bruce Dennis · #4 30th October 2018, 12:32

"SECRET A. D. I. (K) Report No. 599/1944
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FROM P/W AS THE
STATEMENTS HAVE NOT AS YET BEEN VERIFIED, NO MENTION OF THEM
SHOULD BE MADE IN INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OF COMMANDS OR LOWER
FORMATIONS, NOR SHOULD THEY BE ACCEPTED UNTIL COMMENTED ON AIR
MINISTRY INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OR SPECIAL COMMUNICATIONS.

G.A.F NIGHT FIGHTERS.
R.A.F. BOMBER COMMAND COUNTERMEASURES
AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON GERMAN NIGHT FIGHTER TACTICS.
1. The information contained in this report was obtained from a pilot
and W/T operator of 7/N.J.G.4 and a W/T operator of 5/N.J.G.1 who were
captured after a night operation over Western Germany on October 6th.
2. These are the first prisoners from operational night fighter units
to have been interrogated since the German night fighter force retired
behind its own frontiers, and although none of them had more than seven
operations to call upon for their experience, they were able to provide
a fairly complete picture of tactics now being employed.
3. If these two units can be taken as representative, it is evident
that the German night fighter force, rather than calling the tune in the
interception of R.A.F. night attacks, is now being forced more and more
to improvisation. Its tactics are being governed to an increasing extent
by the effective countermeasures against its Radar and signals system,
and the Germans are quickly reaching a point where they must choose
either a radical change in their methods of interception or continued
improvisation on the present lines.
4. The present report outlines the tactics now being employed by
II/N.J.G.1 and III/N.J.G.4 and shows how, with their signals systems and
interception equipment seriously upset by R.A.F. countermeasures, those
units are groping for a solution to their ever increasing problems of
intercepting the bomber force.
TACTICS OF INTERCEPTION.
Methods Employed.
5. Whilst II/N.J.G.1 is flying free-lance patrol (Ungeführte Zahme
Sau) from the Cologne area III/N.J.G.4, unlike other night fighter units
recently examined favours Geführte Zahme Sau. This method depends on
D.R. navigation by the aircrews, and on simultaneous tracking by the
ground control at Gruppe headquarters, with the addition of a measure of
signals control from the same source.
6. Some of the aircraft of 7/N.J.G.4 are also flying by the old type
of Himmelbett (G.C.I.) control, the system of the night fighter box
controlled by a plotting table, using data from two Würzburgs. On each
night the number of aircraft which may fly by that method - usually two
or three - is announced, and any of the less experienced crews, within
the limits of the permitted number, may do so if they wish.
7. Other forms of control, such as Egon or "Y", are not practised in
the two units under review.
Early Warning and Readiness.
8. Since the night fighters have retired to Germany at least those
units based on the western borders have been robbed of the greater part
of their early warning system, with the result that the aircraft, at
least of the two Gruppen examined, cannot be put into the air at such an
early stage of an impending attack as was previously the case.
9. Recently, therefore, crews have been kept at immediate readiness
night after night from dusk until dawn, whatever the weather. Even when
the nightly met. briefing indicates that flying conditions make night
fighter activity impossible, that state of readiness must continue.
10. In cases where an attack was known to be underway but the probable
course of the bombers had not been established, the night fighters have
in the past been put up and ordered to orbit a given point near the base
airfield, the aircraft being stepped up to 3,000 metres at intervals of
100 metres whilst orbiting. When the point of interception had been
decided upon, the aircraft were given an initial bearing by the Gruppe
commentary.
11. Since the retreat to Germany, there has been little or no orbiting
of the airfield or of beacons by the aircraft of these two units. These
P/W were insistent that no standing patrols are now flown, and that the
night fighters do not take off until warning of an impending attack is
received; occasionally, however, crews are kept in their aircraft at
immediate readiness until the situation has been clarified.
12. Upon receiving the first warning from Divisional Headquarters, the
aircraft have recently been directed immediately on to a bearing to meet
the bomber force. In III/N.J.G.4 at Mainz/Finthen, the whole of the
Gruppe - an average effort of 25 aircraft - is usually airborne within
20 to 24 minutes, the first aircraft taking off within about 8 minutes
of the first corning.
Weather Conditions.
13. The daily briefing of aircraft consists mainly of a summary of
weather conditions for the ensuing night, and when the "Weather Frog"
reports the prevalence of clouds, the main topic is the possibility of
the degree of icing conditions, the worst enemy of the night fighter.
14. In the opinion of P/W, the Germans have never found a satisfactory
de-icing system for the night fighters; the Me.110 is without de-icing
equipment, whilst the Ju.88 is fitted with the "Kärcher Ofen" - a
petrol-burning heater unit - which, however, is not efficient at high
altitudes.
15. If a cloud layer is deep and dense, but without icing conditions,
the night fighters will operate even if the cloud base at their own
airfield is as low as 100 metres; after operations a landing can if
necessary be made at another airfield where conditions are more
favourable.
16. In considering the expedience of operating in icing conditions, the
depth of the ice layer will be taken into consideration; it is possible
that the night fighters may risk climbing steeply through an icing area,
if it is not too thick, to operate at higher and clearer altitudes. If
the bombers are penetrating below a cloud and ice layer, the night
fighters will most certainly be sent up to intercept.
17. In this connection P/W were told of a recent Bomber Command attack
on Essen, when cloud was at 10/10ths between 3,000 and 7,000 metres and
when no German night fighters were put up. Each of these P/W immediately
gave his opinion that the non-appearance of the night fighters was
certainly due solely to icing conditions.
Navigation.
18. During recent weeks when the period of early warning has been
considerably reduced, all crews of a Gruppe are given the same initial
course before taking off; thus, once all aircraft of the Gruppe are
airborne, they are strung out on one and the same track in a form of
line ahead.
19. The crews fly by D.R., and the loose formation is simultaneously
tracked on a map at Gruppe headquarters. If, in the light of the
movements of the bomber force a change of course is necessary, a new
bearing will be given to all aircraft simultaneously through the Gruppe
commentary.
20. All crews are given strict orders to navigate by D.R., and to
accept the Gruppe orders if these differ from their own calculations, so
that the tracker at Gruppe headquarters can be reasonably certain that
the night fighters are in fact where he believes them to be. The older
crews, in spite of this order, are given to "cutting off corners" in the
hope of making a quick interception; in such cases the Gruppe
commentaries is obviously useless, and such crews must thereafter depend
on the Divisional or Reich commentaries and fly free-lance patrol.
21. These crews who stick to their orders are finding D.R. navigation
extremely difficult, since this duty falls on the W/T operator, who has
his signals and Radar duties to attend at the same time. It is therefore
unlikely that the initial formation will be maintained much longer than
the completion of the first leg.
22. If this tactic works according to plan the string of night fighters
should be brought up to the bomber stream on a parallel or nearly
parallel track. At the correct moment, and in accordance with D.R.
tracking at headquarters, the night fighters will be given a new bearing
which turns the whole line on to the bomber stream in a broadside. By
this method at least some of the night fighters must contact the bomber
stream with the aid of their S.N.2 equipment.
23. According to P/W, navigation by the night fighters is at present of
a low standard, particularly in cloudy weather when ground visual aids
are not available. It is evident, however, that the Germans intend to
continue operations on these lines, for in III/N.J.G.4. which is
equipped with the Ju.88, the crew is to be augmented by a Navigator/W/T
Operator, whilst the present W/T Operator will be solely responsible for
the Radar equipment.
24. A few weeks ago several experienced observers from bomber units
arrived at Finthen, and these men are at present being instructed in
night fighting navigation. With the crew of four, the Radar operator
will be placed next to the pilot and the Navigator/W/T Operator will sit
to back to the pilot whist the B/M will sit - or squat - in the
remaining space.
Contacting the Bomber Stream.
25. It is perhaps worth noting that the pilot of III/N.J.G.4., who had
made seven operations, had never succeeded in contacting the bomber
stream, and the Gruppe itself had only claimed one victory since August
8th; that victory was when we attacked Darmstadt or Frankfurt in mid-
September.
26. All P/W agreed that the only way to contact the bomber stream is to
obey the Gruppe commentary until such indications as target markers,
German night fighter flares, Flak and searchlight concentrations or
aircraft going down in flames are seen. Unless the flares are spoof, the
bombers will sooner or later be contacted by these means.
27. According to P/W, crews are wary of flares, as they have learnt
that these may spoof target markers put down to draw unsuspecting night
fighters into a Mosquito trap.
28. Providing that the S.N.2 is not too badly jammed by Window, the
final contact by the night fighter is made by variations of height of
about 1,000 or even 2,000 metres whilst making use of the search gear;
this tactic usually commences at as much as 50 km. from the bomber
formation, in the hope that a straggler may be picked up. Another reason
for this change of height is that in recent raids the heights given by
the commentary have been extremely inaccurate, and the height has
frequently been corrected on suggestions from such night fighter crews
as have made contact with the bombers.
29. The aim in theory is to intercept the bomber stream at its head;
this is the only part of the stream of which the precise position is
given in the commentary and crews do not, therefore, attempt any finesse
regarding the point of entry into the stream. In the words of the
present pilot: "We are damned glad to get into the stream, no matter how
we do it".
30. Lectures are, of course, given to crews on how to avoid Window and
tail warning devices, but P/W pointed out that under present conditions
the theory of the lecture room is extremely difficult to put into
practise, and a hit or miss method of entry is all that can be hoped
for.
Attack.
31. The range at which the night fighter opens fire with its forward
armament is determined by the pilot himself; whilst some will close in
as near as 50/60 metres, the more cautious will open up at a range of
200/250 metres. P/W considered, however, that the normal range might be
taken as l00/150 metres.
32. Recognition of the target aircraft is usually by the silhouette in
light conditions or moonlight, and by the four exhaust flames in
darkness.
33. The present P/W repeated the statement made by previous P/W, namely
that the only effective evasive tactic for a bomber about to be attacked
is a steep diving turn to port or starboard - preferably the latter -
which is on the night fighter pilot's blind side.
34. These P/W could add nothing to previous cements on the Schräge
Musik upward firing armament, but they stated that once this armament
could be brought to bear it was extremely effective; one officer had
claimed a kill with two rounds from the 20 mm. cannon.
35. They stated that the Ju.88 G-1 carried one drum of 50/60 rounds for
each cannon; in that type of aircraft the drums cannot be charged in the
air, but this quantity of ammunition is ample for one sortie.
36. In this connection, P/W had heard that some night fighters are now
being armed with two 30 mm. upward firing cannon in place of the 20 mm.;
with this new armament the barrels protrude 12" to 16" above the
fuselage and at an angle of 85°.
Flak.
37. With two exceptions - orbiting areas and airfields where aircraft
are taking off and landing - there are no restrictions imposed upon the
Flak in any part of Germany. Night fighters which chase a contact
through a Flak area, therefore, do so at some risk to themselves.
38. Old and experienced crews who flew in the days when the use of the
FuGe 25a or Verey signals enabled them to quieten the Flak are unhappy
about present day conditions, but P/W claim that younger crews who have
never known any but these conditions are not particularly perturbed. P/W
added that of course a night fighter would only enter a Flak area if it
already had an S.N.2 contact; no night fighter would venture
unnecessarily in such areas.
39. In orbiting areas, the night fighters will be given a ceiling of,
say, 3,000 metres; any unidentified aircraft above that height will be
fired on in spite of the night fighters below. The Flak units are
usually informed of orbiting areas in advance by the Flak Liaison
Officer attached to the night fighter unit.
40. Flak areas in the neighbourhood of airfields occupied by night
fighters are forbidden to the aircraft when taking off or landing.
I.F.F.
41. For a considerable time there has been a popular belief amongst
night fighter crews that the R.A.F. is homing on to FuGe 25a
transmissions, and crews of II/N.J.G.1 and III/N.J.G.4, including the
present P/W, were no exception.
42. It is difficult to understand how the belief has arisen, since
crews were officially told that the R.A.F. has no equipment with which
to home on to the FuGe 25a, and orders are that the apparatus must be
kept on at all times during flight.
43. In spite of these orders many crews are still switching off their
FuGe 25a during sorties, and when on one occasion one of the present
crews was shot down by Flak, they had the instrument turned off at the
time. At the subsequent enquiry one of the first questions asked
concerned the FuGe 25a, but the crew, fearing punishment, maintained
that it had been switched on all the time.
44. In addition to the fear that R.A.F. aircraft can home on to
FuGe 25a, night fighter crews, including these P/W, have serious doubts
as to its efficiency as an I.F.F. instrument.
45. On one of their earlier operations one of these crews was shot at
by Flak in spite of the FuGe 25a being turned on, and almost immediately
after the W/T operator witched it off the Flak stopped firing. Other
crews in both units have repeatedly been fired on both with the FuGe 25a
on and off, with the result that the majority has come to the conclusion
that as far as the Flak is concerned it does not matter whether the
FuGe 25a is used or not and that it is therefore better to leave it off
and enjoy the added advantage of not being homed at by R.A.F. aircraft.

SIGNALS TRAFFIC.
Gruppe Commentary.
46. The Gruppe commentary of both units reviewed was put out on the
3000/6000 Kc/s. frequency band and was received by the aircraft on the
FuGe 10-P. In III/N.J.G.4 there were usually one main and two
alternative frequencies; until quite recently it was usually found that
the main frequency was not jammed.
47. The W/T operator of I/N.J.G.1 stated that on such occasions as the
Gruppe R/T commentary was jammed he could call his control with the
codeword "Schwingen sie Hammer", whereupon the commentary continued in
Morse on the same frequency; in this way W/T operators could often hear
the Morse Commentary through the jamming.
48. The Gruppe commentary was put out by II/N.J.G.1 from a mobile van
equipped with FuGe 10 and FuGe 16 with the addition, P/W thought, of an
amplifier. The FuGe 16 was however, more often than not u/s, and the
airfield transmitter was used when starting and homing.
49. In III/N.J.G.4 there was also a mobile van, but in P/W’s experience
this was never used and the airfield transmitter was the source of the
commentary put out by that Gruppe.
50. Up to the beginning of October 1944 the two units under review,
although suffering considerable inconvenience from British jamming of
their channels of R/T and W/T control, were able to circumvent the
jamming fairly successfully by the employment of large numbers of
alternative frequencies and differing sources of control.
51. On the night of October 2nd and 3rd, however, the R/T operator of
II/N.J.G.1 found that the whole of the medium frequency band of the
FuGe 10 was jammed, as was the whole of the V.H.F. frequency band. After
some ten minutes of trying to pick up the Gruppe, Divisional and other
commentaries, he switched over to the M/F band and picked up the
commentary on one of the Reichluftflotte beacons.
52. Upon returning from this sortie, this W/T operator found that the
eleven other crews of the Gruppe who had operated on that night had
experienced the same difficulty, and the Gruppe Signals officer
thereupon demanded a written report from each W/T operator.
53. The jamming noise on both the 5000/6000 Kc/s. and the 38.4/42.5
Mc/s. bands was described by P/W as sounding rather like a kettle
boiling, with the lid rattling in a high pitched tone.
54. Instructions in Morse on the 5000/6000 Kc/s. band can be heard
through the jamming when the aircraft is over or near its ground
control, and for this reason III/N.J.G.4, which has only operated
recently within an area of 150 km. of its base at Mainz/Finthen, has not
been troubled to such an extent as II/N.J.G.1, which has been operating
much further afield from its control at Köln/Ostheim.
55. W/T operators of that Gruppe have found the FuGe 16 useless,
because within two or three minutes of the first words being spoken in
an operation, the whole frequency band is jammed; in many aircraft,
therefore, the FuGe 16 as no longer carried as being useless extra
weight.
56. The whole M/F band was also jammed with a high pitched whistle, but
these P/W claimed that they could still hear the Reichluftflotte
beacons. They stated that the latter beacon commentaries were now the
only real source of control left to the night fighters, and that once
these had been effectively jammed, the whole signals system would
completely break down.
Beacon Commentaries.
57. The Reichluftflotte W/T beacons in Central and West Germany – those
with names - only operate, according to P/W, during British night
attacks. These beacons transmit the Reich commentary in Morse in the
following sequence:-
(1) Dash - for D/F’ing
(2) Beacon characteristic.
(3) Letter C - called the Trennung,
separating signal.
(4) Commentary:
(a) A single figure denoting height of head
58. Early in October, W/T operators were told that one of these beacons
in each Jagd Division was to transmit instructions to the aircraft under
its control in a special code, in addition to the normal Reich
commentary. Thus, for example, if a bomber stream were flying towards
Hannover and part of the force detached itself on a southerly course,
Jagd Division 3 would call in the night fighters under its control
through the medium of this beacon to deal with the new situation.
59. In case of all R/T and W/T channels being jammed or otherwise
disturbed, homing instructions to the aircraft were also transmitted
through this medium.
60. The code for these beacons was changed at the same time as the Funk
Befehl (Tactical W/T Code), which on an average was about once a week.
This beacon code consisted of single letters some of which with their
meanings one of the present P/W was able to remember:-
C = Zurückkehren (Return).
B = Fliegen Sie nach 649 (Fly to 649)
649 The code number is that of an airfield.
MOS = Mosquito attack; when aircraft of
631 Ju.88 and ME.110 units hear this,
they return to base, or they may
be ordered to land at the nearest
airfield.
AGZ = Angriffsziel 631 (Target 631). The
number in this case is that of
Darmstadt airfield, meaning that
Darmstadt is the target of the
bombers.
61. Another single letter, which P/W could not remember, signified
"Tune in to frequency of Jagd Division 1". Upon receiving this
instruction, the W/T operators would first try the short wave frequency
of J.D.1 and, if unable to receive the latter, would go over to the
frequency of the high powered beacon of that Division.
62. This contingency would occur when there was no bomber penetration
in the territory of Jagd Division 3, and when an attack was taking place
over the territory of J.D.1. The W/T operators of units of the 3rd
Division would remain tuned in to the last Division beacon until ordered
to revert to their own divisional beacon.
63. In Mosquito attacks when these are recognised as such, no
commentary is broadcast by the beacons.
64. The beacon used for the 3rd Division's code instructions was
Kurfürst, and up to October 6th this beacon had not been disturbed,
neither had its position been moved; P/W had been told, however, that it
was shortly to be moved further East.
65. The beacon Ida has, according to P/W, been moved from its former
position to a point S.S.E. of the visual beacon Ida, and now stands
approximately at pinpoint 50° 30’ N., 7° 45’ E.; the beacon Kuli since
being overrun by Allied advance, has not been replaced.
66. Spoof R/T instructions have a limited success amongst the less
experienced W/T operators, but those operators soon learn by experience
to recognise a strange voice almost immediately; since the complete
jamming of R/T from early October, however, this question hardly arises,
at least in Western Germany.

COUNTERMEASURES AGAINST S.N.2.
Window.
67. The present P/W confirmed the effectiveness of Window countermeasures
against the S.N.2 search equipment. Operators are now being
told that Window is completely effective if the night fighter is at a
range of more than 2,000 metres from a target aircraft; at ranges of
less than 2,000 metres a skilled operator can distinguish between the
Window blips and that of the bomber.
68. The theory is that the night fighter closes in on the Window at a
higher speed than on the bomber, and that the Window blips would
therefore travel quickly down the S.N.2 display, whilst the aircraft
blip would remain more or less stationery. These P/W, however, were of
the opinion that an operator would have to be gifted with a high degree
of skill to be able to follow these suggestions, unless, of course, the
Window cloud was not too dense.
69. They stated that if Window were only thrown by the bombers, it
would be comparatively easy to home on to the Window cloud and thus find
the bomber stream, but since the high-flying Mosquitoes had also taken
to throwing Window the night fighters could no longer depend on finding
the bombers by that method.
70. Thus, in the present circumstances in which Window clouds are
widely spread and do not necessarily indicate the presence of the bomber
stream, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to home on to the
bomber stream with S.N.2. alone when Window is present; night fighter
crews are, therefore, depending more and more upon the visual
indications described earlier in this report.
71. One P/W stated that with the S.N.2 jammed by Window, it frequently
happened that a crew would only know that they were in the bomber stream
from the air disturbance caused by the slipstreams of the bombers.
72. The question has been asked whether it is likely that as a result
of jamming of the S.N.2, the Lichtenstein will be re-introduced to the
night fighter units. This has not so far occurred in II/N.J.G.1 and
III/N.J.G.4 and these P/W thought it highly unlikely, since the
Lichtenstein had in the past been just as thoroughly jammed as is the
S.N.2 now.
Electrical Jamming.
73. The Germans are firmly convinced that the R.A.F. is jamming the
S.N.2 electrically. One of the present P/W had himself experienced what
he thought to be such jamming, and had reported this on his return; he
was told that it was caused by a "Rauschsender" (Noise Jammer).
74. The other W/T operator had also been told the same story early this
year, but he then understood that the effect of the jamming on the
display was inconsiderable. In August, this P/W was told officially that
it was possible to home, albeit inaccurately, on to the jammer aircraft
by switching off the S.N.2 transmitter circuit and using the receiver
only.
75. The jamming produced "grass" on both sides of the trace of both the
range and bearing tubes, and he was told that the "grass" extended above
or below and to left or right of the trace, according to the range and
bearing of the jamming aircraft.
76. On the night of October 7th, this P/W experienced a similar display
on the S.N.2, and made an attempt to home on to what he thought to be
the jamming aircraft, but without any result.

MUTUAL INTERFERENCE OF S.N.2's.
77. The S.N.2 of one night fighter will interfere with reception in
another if the two aircrafts are within S.N.2 range of one another. The
disturbance takes the form in the S.N.2 display of continuous wiggling
lines on both height and range tubes; for this reason an eliminator
circuit has been installed, controlled by a knob in the bottom left-hand
corner of the S.N.2. panel, and W/T operators have instructions to make
use of this knob if interference occurs.
78. According to these P/W, it is generally accepted that the
eliminator makes not the slightest difference; neither of these two W/T
operators had themselves used it.
79. It was stated that, providing there are not more than two other
aircraft using the S.N.2 within S.N.2 range of a given night fighter,
the aircraft blip can be read through the disturbance an the display,
but within a range of 2,000 metres, even the interference produced on
the display by one other S.N.2 night fighter is such that the aircraft
blip is extremely difficult to see.
80. As on example of mutual interference, the W/T operator of
II/N.J.G.1 had heard that about two months ago 40 to 50 night fighters
equipped with S.N.2 were sent to intercept some bombers over the Ruhr.
The S.N.2's of the night fighters interfered with one another to such an
extent that not a single contact was made. P/W himself had not taken
part in this operation, but was told about it on the following day.

NAXOS.
A Lecture on Naxos.
81. Early in 1944, one the present P/W attended a lecture given to
I/N.J.G.4 at Florennes by an officer from Werneuchen. The lecture was
accompanied by a film, which showed the development of the Naxos display
as the aircraft closed in on its H2S target.
82. The lecturer claimed to have made the film himself under
operational conditions, and furthermore claimed to have shot down two
H2S aircraft with the sole aid of Naxos; it was emphasised that,
although the aircraft carried S.N.2 in addition to Naxos, the former was
switched off throughout the flight.
83. The film showed the Naxos display initially with two spots of light
when the first contact was made at a range of 70 km. As the Naxos
aircraft closed in, the spots multiplied and spread round the circular
traces of the tube; the circle was completed when the aircraft was
directly below the H2S aircraft and at a range of 50 metres.
84. The lecturer was most enthusiastic as to the possibilities of the
Naxos and foretold that it would displace all other night fighter aids
in attacking H2S aircraft.
85. The type of Naxos shown in the film was the "Z", and the lecturer
mentioned two newer and improved types known as the "Naxos-Post" and
another which P/W had forgotten.
Equipment in I/N.J.G.4.
86. In April 1944, two of the present P/W were at Werneuchen, where for
about a month they carried out flight tests on Ju.88's equipped
variously with Naxos, S.N.2 and Flensburg. Of 20/24 aircraft which P/W
tested in that time, about 16 or 18, equipped with both Naxos and S.N.2,
were delivered to I/N.J.G.4; the aircraft which had no Naxos had both
S.N.2 and Flensburg.
Equipment in II/N.J.G.1 and III/N.J.G.4.
87. It has already been reported that II/N.J.G.1 is equipped throughout
with the Me.110, with the exception of one Ju.88 G-1 in the Gruppenstab;
this latter aircraft was equipped with the Naxos, but had been u/s since
early September.
38. Crews were told that the Me.110 was slow enough without having its
speed further reduced by the Naxos, but they were nevertheless led to
believe that their Gruppe was soon to be equipped with the Ju.88 in
order that Naxos might be employed. Up to the 6th October there was no
sign of the Ju.88's.
89. In III/N.J.G.4 some of the Ju.88's had begun to be sent some weeks
ago to, P/W thought, Werneuchen to have Naxos installed. On October 4th
or 5th, at least one of these aircraft had been returned to Finthen
equipped with Naxos.
Leader Aircraft.
90. When, up to mid-August, II/N.J.G.1 was based at Deelen, the Naxosequipped
aircraft flown by the Gruppenkommandeur was employed as a
shadowing aircraft to home on to H2S transmissions of incoming bombers
and to report their position and composition to the Gruppe.
91. This shadowing aircraft was known as the Führer (Leader), or
sometimes the Aufklärer, (Reconnaissance), and at the first indications
of an R.A.F. attack it took of early - before the remainder of the
Gruppe - and made contact with and flew with the bomber stream.
93. The Division in turn passed such information as was necessary to
the night fighter Gruppen under its control, and this information was
received by the latter on the Tannoy system.
94. When the night fighters took off to intercept the bombers, the
information from the leader aircraft was put out in the form of a Gruppe
commentary; the night fighters could not communicate with the leader
aircraft. P/W did not know if the ordinary commentary was ignored and
all dispositions were made solely on the basis of the shadowing
aircraft's reports, or if other sources of information were used
simultaneously as a basis for the Gruppe commentary; he rather inclined
to the former.
95. Reports by the leader aircraft continued during a raid and included
details such as flares laid, Flak being encountered, and any aircraft
shot down in flames.
96. Once the interception force had been led to the bomber stream with
The help of the leader aircraft, the latter dropped flares of varying
combinations of colours to mark any turning points of the bomber stream,
at the same time informing the Divisional headquarters. The night
fighters were simultaneously ordered by their ground control to fly on
to the flares, or to fly on a specific bearing from these flares.
97. The pilot from III/N.J.G.4 believed that in some units the jammer
aircraft communicate direct with the night fighters under their control,
and issue vectoring orders to them. In all cases however, once the night
fighters have been brought up to the bomber stream, the leader aircraft
is informed by the Division, and thereafter it assumes the function of
an ordinary night fighter.
Night Fighter Flares.
98. These P/W had heard that the Führer aircraft procedure was falling
into disrepute, because on occasions considerable time had been lost
between take-off of the leader aircraft and that of the reminder of the
night fighters, so that in consequence the night fighters had frequently
failed to contact the bombers.
99. This story is perhaps strengthened by thy fact that more recently,
at least in III/N.J.G.4, al1 Ju.88’s have been carrying three or four
flares on each sortie. When a night fighter makes contact with the
bombers, three flares are dropped in or near the bomber stream as a
signal for other night fighters that the bombers have been contacted;
the flares indicate the position of the stream.
100. Until early in October these flares were always composite whitered-
white, each colour burning for one minute in a varying sequence
which was changed from night to night. Just recently, however, crews
have been told that new colour combinations of red, white, yellow and
green would shortly be coming into use.
Single-engined Fighters with Naxos.
101. Whilst at Werneuchen one of these P/W saw Me 109’s and F.W. 190’s –
which they heard were destined for a "Wilde Sau" unit - equipped with
Naxos. In the F.W. 190 the Naxos dome was fixed to the after part of the
sliding part of the cockpit cover. P/W could give no further information
and had not noticed how the aerial array was mounted, but he was certain
that the dome moved back with the cockpit cover.

FLENSBURG.
102. Neither II/N.J.G.1 nor III/N.J.G.4 have any aircraft equipped with
Flensburg, but during the first week of October two new Ju.88 with both
Flensburg and S.N.2 were delivered to the 7th Staffel. P/W did not know
the reason for this delivery, and he had understood that the Flensburg
had fallen out of use.

REACTIONS TO MOSQUITO INCURSIONS.
103. The R.A.F. Mosquito incursions are giving the Germans cause for
some serious thought and, according to P/W, much inconvenience and
disturbance is being caused both by the intruders and the small
attacking forces.
104. Intruders over airfields are, of course, a considerable cause of
disturbance, and it is very seldom that a night fighter crew can land on
its base in peace. Added to this, there is always a sense of uneasiness
amongst crews during sorties, with the result that their efficiency is
much impaired.
105. One of the present P/W - the pilot - went so far as to say that he
would shoot at any twin-engine aircraft without waiting for a
recognition of type, which is strictly against the present rules.
106. The same P/W was of the opinion that at present it is often
impossible for the ground warning system to establish whether a
penetrating force is composed of Mosquitoes or heavy bombers, and that
as a result the night fighters must be put up, if only as a precaution,
until such a time as the true composition and intentions of the force
are established.
107. When a penetration force has been identified as a Mosquito
formation, the Me.110 and Ju.88 night fighters are not put in the air,
and the Reichluftflotte W/T beacons do not transmit a commentary. It was
suggested by P/W, however, that He.219's were being-put up to intercept
Mosquitoes.
108. It has often happened recently that night fighter units have been
put in the air to intercept large four-engined bomber formations which
have only later been identified as smaller Mosquito formations. This has
resulted in much waste of effort, to say nothing of petrol, since the
night fighters were recalled as soon as the attacking force was
identified.
109. In a recent lecture to III/N.J.G.4, crews were told that a small
formation of Mosquitoes could with the help of a special apparatus and a
low speed, lead the Germans to believe that a large formation of fourengined
bombers was underway; crews were given no details of this
special apparatus.
110. It is interesting that of the seven operations which the W/T
operator of II/N.J.G.1 had made, no fewer than three were false calls
caused by Mosquitoes. In these sorties the crews had been sent up to
intercept four-engined aircraft, and after having been airborne for 1 to
11/2 hours they had been called back to base and told that the supposed
heavy bomber force was only a Mosquito formation. The W/T operator of
I/N.J.G.4 had made six operations, and of those two were similarly false
calls for Mosquitoes, on which the night fighters had been recalled
after having been airborne for 3/4 - 1 hour.
111. On one occasion early in October, on the other hand, the aircraft
of II/N.J.G.1, at that time based at Düsseldorf, had been stood down
after an early warning of a "Mosquito penetration". Soon afterwards,
however, cascades of flares were seen falling near the airfield and it
was thought that the airfield itself was about to be attacked.
112. The attack was, in fact, on München/Gladbach, and Oberleutnant LAU
thereupon took off alone at about 2300 hours. That officer shot down two
four-engined bombers and landed again after having been airborne for 22
minutes.
113. The two W/T operators amongst these P/W were sufficiently cooperative
to compile diaries of the sorties which they had made;
although naturally they could not remember dates with any degree of
reliability, their notes include an indication of the inconvenience and
waste of ill-spared fuel of which the Mosquito incursions are the cause.

5/N.J.G.1.
114. (1) On 27th august, 1944. Took off from Deelen at about 2230
hours. This crew was ordered to fly direct to the W/T beacon
Quelle, because, it was said, a bomber force approaching the
Weser estuary from the North Sea was likely to fly to the
Hanover/Brunswick area.
This aircraft, about the fifth to take off from Deelen,
flew for a time on D.R. whilst the W/T operator listened to
the Gruppe commentary. He then switched over to the W/T beacon
and used that commentary.
The pilot made a left-hand turn and at the same time
heard on the beacon commentary that the bombers were heading
for Hannover. By this time, however, petrol was running low
and the crew decided to break off; they landed in Oldenburg.
The S.N.2 was u/s from time of take—off.
This crew only learned afterwards that they had been
directed by the Gruppe commentary to fly to Mannheim, where an
attack was taking place, but since by the time the Mannheim
attack had been identified they had switched over to the
beacon commentary, they had not heard this order to the
Gruppe.
During the afternoon of the day following these raids, an
operations officer of Jagd Division 3, Hauptmann KNICKMEIER,
came to Deelen and gave all the crews a talk on the raid of
the previous night. He told them that the night fighter sortie
had been a failure because as soon as he knew that Bomber
Command were making two penetrations he had ordered all
aircraft of II/N.J.G.1 to break off from the more northerly
penetration and to make for the other bomber stream going for
Mannheim.
This, he stated, had 1ed to some confusion and,
therefore, in the future the night fighters would be allowed
to continue to fly according to their first orders, and no
attempt would be made to divert them to intercept any
subsequent attack.
(2) Early September. Took off from Düsseldorf at 2225 hours.
Objective Stettin - Kiel. Commentary gave false direction of
penetration as Weimar. No interception. Landed at Jüterbog.
(3) Mid-September. Took off from Deelen at 2350 hours.
Mosquito attack. Landed at Deelen after 1/2 hours.
(4) Mid-September. Took off from Deelen about 2300 hours.
Mosquito attack. Landed at Deelen.
(5) End September. Took off from Düsseldorf about 2230 hours.
Mosquito attack. Ordered to W/T beacon Christa. Landed at
Mainz/Finthen. S.N.2 mutual disturbance.
(6) October 2nd or 3rd. Took off from Düsseldorf at about
2230 hours. Heavy bomber penetration with München-Gladbach as
objective. S.N.2 contacts near Münster. Enemy aircraft bombed
through gaps in cloud from 4,200 metres. Commentary gave false
height. Saw four 4-engined aircraft, but could not close in
because they disappeared into cloud. White, red and green
cascade flares. Heavy Flak; several aircraft seen going down.
Landed at Gütersloh after 21/2 hours.
(7) See A.D.I.(K) 365/1944.

7/N.J.G.4.
115. (1) August 7th or 8th. Airborne landings in Seine Estuary.
Took off at about 2300 hours. No contacts; ordered to return
after 11/2 hours.
(2) August 9th. Ordered to W/T beacon Mücke, shot down by own
Flak and bailed out over Nassolt.
(3) End August; Took off from Twente. Mosquito attack.
(4) Mid-September. Took off from Mainz/Finthen at 2300 hours.
Flares at Frankfurt or Darmstadt - apparently Mosquitoes.
Ordered to land after 11/2 hours. No contacts.
(5) About September 20th. Took off at about 2200 hours.
Bombing in Frankfurt area. Saw 4-engined aircraft on opposite
track held by searchlights, but did not go after it as it was
at a greater height. Window upset S.N.2.
(6) October 6th. Took off from Finthen at about 2000 hours
in direction of Kaiserslautern. S.N.2 electrically jammed;
tried to home on jammer without success. Got lost and shot
down by U.S. Flak.

Ground Attack.
116. At the closing stages of the French campaign some of the night
fighter units, including II/N.J.G.1 and III/N.J.G.4, were given the
extra duties of attacking ground targets with their forward armament -
duties which proved both expensive in aircraft and unpopular with the
crews.
117. Since their return to Germany, neither of these two units had
attacked ground targets, but on the night of October 6th an order was
re-introduced into II/N.J.G.1 to attack ground targets if any suitable
objectives were seen.

A.D.I.(K) S.D.Felkin,
2nd November, 1944. Wing Commander."

Bruce Dennis · #5 30th October 2018, 12:48

Item 34 onward:

"SECRET A. D. I. (K) Report No. 700/1944
THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FROM P/W AS THE
STATEMENTS HAVE NOT AS YET BEEN VERIFIED, NO MENTION OF THEM
SHOULD BE MADE IN INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OF COMMANDS OR LOWER
FORMATIONS, NOR SHOULD THEY BE ACCEPTED UNTIL COMMENTED ON AIR
MINISTRY INTELLIGENCE SUMMARIES OR SPECIAL COMMUNICATIONS.
GERMAN NIGHT FIGHTERS.

A REVIEW OF CURRENT GERMAN TACTICS.
1. Three recent A.D.I.(K) Reports, Nos.508, 599 and 620, have
described current German night fighter tactics in some detail and have
shown how the night fighter force, robbed of much of its early warning
and at the same time the victim of extensive radio countermeasures was,
up to the beginning of October 1944, forced into improvisation in its
tactics.
2. This report has been compiled with the object or examining the
extent to which the Germans have varied their tactics during October and
November to meet the continued and successful countermeasures employed
by R.A.F. Bomber Command.
3. The present information has been obtained from a pilot, a radar
operator and a W/T operator of 3/N.J.G.2 shot down in Holland on the
night of November 29th, and from a pilot of the same Staffel shot down
in Belgium on the following night.
4. These prisoners confirm the fact that the situation at the end of
November remained much the same as in early October; the following
paragraphs therefore, whilst adding little to present knowledge of
German tactics, have their value in showing the situation as it was on
the more recent date.
Present Use of SN 2.
5. A re-examination of the conditions under which the night fighters
are operating their search equipment shows that, at least in the
neighbourhood of a bomber stream, interference by jamming is such as to
render the SN2 completely useless. Resort to the alternative frequencies
- of which there are two - had in P/W's experience made not the
slightest difference; he described the disturbance as taking the form of
grass on both sides of the traces on the range and bearing tubes.
6. These P/W expressed the opinion that of late Bomber Command has
been making less use of window in favour of airborne jammers known as
Rausch-Sender (see A.D.I.(K) 599/1944 paras.73 - 76); little
interference from Window has in fact been experienced recently by crews
of I/N.J.G.2.
7. Like their predecessors, the present P/W were not seriously
disturbed by the prospect of Window jamming; recent recommendations had
laid down that under certain conditions the aircraft blip could be
distinguished through the Window disturbances by the difference in their
relative rates of movement down the SN 2 display.
8. In some of the aircraft of I/N.J.G.2 an attempt has been made to
reduce the effects of electrical jamming by mounting the SN 2 aerial
diagonally instead of vertically; these P/W had, however, no first-hand
knowledge as to whether this expedient did or did not improve the
situation.
9. An indication of its lack of success may be that during October the
Gruppe Signals Officer had told the new aircrews that a new version of
SN 2 was in course of development but that meanwhile they would have to
make the best of present conditions and take advantage of periods when
jamming was not present.
10. The Signals Officer did not divulge the name of the new apparatus,
neither did he tell the crews when they could expect it to be introduced
into operations; gossip in the Staffel had it that the new apparatus
would be the SN 3.
11. The Gruppenkommandeur of I/N.J.G.2, Hauptmann RATH, now publicly
claims to have been a life-long adherent of "cat's eye" night fighting
and avers that all his victories have been achieved without the use of
search equipment.
12. It is perhaps worth repeating that, as far as these prisoners knew,
there is no question of re-introducing the Lichtenstein; one P/W, stated
that that apparatus has completely fallen out of use and is not even
employed in training.

SN 2 as Tail Warning.
13. Since the introduction of SN 2 into operations, all prisoners
interrogated have stated that that apparatus in its present form is
capable of giving a tail warning, although at a comparatively shorter
range than its forward capabilities.
14. In I/N.J.G.2 there has recently been a further development in the
improving of the tai1 warning; at the beginning of November new
deliveries of Ju.88 G-6’s began to arrive with an aerial array for tail
warning installed at the extreme end of the aircraft tai1 unit.
15. This array consisted of one dipole carrier similar to those used
for the normal SN 2 forward array, but with the dipoles placed in a
horizontal position.
16. By the end of November, the Gruppe possessed some ten aircraft
equipped in this manner; these P/W had themselves had no experience with
this innovation but had understood that a picture only appeared in one
tube of the SN 2 display - they thought the azimuth tube.
Naxos and H2S.
17. Some time in early October, crews in I/N.J.G.2 began to complain
amongst themselves that something had gone wrong with Naxos; whereas
until that time it had been considered entirely efficient, and they had
always been able to count upon obtaining large numbers of H2S contacts
from a raiding force, they had now begun to obtain so few contacts as to
arouse the suspicion that the R.A.F. had come to known about Naxos and
was playing tricks with it.
18. Up to the end of November, nothing had been said officially by any
of the senior officers, but the opinions of radar and W/T operators may
be summarised as
(a) that H2S is not being used to the same extent as formerly,
(b) that the R.A.F. has an H2S of a new type or with a new frequency,
and
(c) that in some way Naxos is being jammed.
19. Of the 25-30 aircraft it the Gruppe, about half are equipped with
Naxos.

Flensburg.
20. About ten of the aircraft of I/N.J.G.2 are equipped with Flensburg
and according to these prisoners it frequently occurs that Ju.88-G is
delivered with this apparatus installed.
21. Crews are at a loss to understand why the Flensburg is still being
delivered since the apparatus has fallen out of use. At one time
attempts were made to remove the internal part of the equipment to save
weight in the aircraft, but a sharp reprimand came from higher quarters
and it was duly put back. At all events, official instructions on
present intentions with the Flensburg are entirely lacking.
22. It is perhaps worth repeating that the present radar operator P/W
had been told by one of the experienced W/T operators of a possible use
of the Flensburg as a warning of enemy aircraft.
23. It was said that a Monica signal always appeared within two limits
on the Flensburg display; any signal appearing on either side outside
those limits was an indication of either a ground radar pulsation, that
from an SN 2 or from Allied A.I.
24. There was said to be no method of distinguishing between the three
types of signal, but it would be possible to obtain an indication of
whether a transmission originated from below, above or at the same
level. In this way, it was claimed, Flensburg at least gave an
indication that another aircraft, possibly a Mosquito using A.I., was in
the vicinity.
25. One of the present crews had Flensburg installed in their aircraft
but they had never taken an opportunity to try out the recipe described
above.

SIGNALS TRAFFIC.
German Reaction to Continued Countermeasures.
26. The fact that at the beginning of October the German night fighter
force was reduced to only one reliable signals channel - the high
powered W/T beacon commentaries - was reported in A.D.I.(K) 599/1944
para.46 et seq. The present interrogations, whilst producing little that
is new, have once again confirmed that the situation with night fighter
signals was as previously reported and, in fact, remained little changed
at the end of November.
27. In I/N.J.G.2 the W/T operators had been experiencing exactly the
same difficulties as in the other units recently examined; the present
P/W stated that they too had found the Divisional and Gruppe
commentaries on the M/F and H/F bands seriously jammed from about the
middle of September, and they too had been forced to resort to the
Divisional commentary put out by the high-powered W/T beacons.
28. On rare occasions, it has been possible to hear the Gruppe morse
commentary (Gruppen Tastführung) through the jamming but results are in
the majority of cases so uncertain that operators waste no time and go
straight over to the beacon commentaries; the latter present no
difficulties.
29. These P/W described the jamming note on the Fu.Ge.10P frequencies
as being a rising and falling whistle. The VHF frequency band of 38.4 -
42.5 Mc/s has fallen completely out of use for the purposes of
commentaries, but in the FuGe.16 was still used at take-off and for
landing at the base of the unit at Kassel.
30. Thus, the present situation is that the night fighter Gruppen can
no longer operate as units, but each individual crew must judge the
situation for themselves from the information given by the beacon
commentary and must themselves decide whether they shall attempt to
intercept the bombers or give up the chase; if the search equipment is
jammed, and the homing equipment produces no reactions, then the night
fighter operation is reduced to the level of a Wilde Sau sortie.
31. One further complication which arises when the Gruppe commentary is
inaudible is that crews listening to the Divisional commentary from the
high-powered beacons often miss orders given to aircraft of the Gruppe,
with the result that recall orders are frequently not heard and much
effort is wasted in aircraft flying about aimlessly.
32. Eventually, when the attack is over and jamming has been withdrawn,
crews will return to the Gruppe frequency and then belatedly hear the
orders to return to base.
33. It is perhaps worth adding that the aircraft of I/N.J.G.2 have not
been flying by the Himmelbett (Würzburg-Freya controlled) method.

RECONNAISSANCE AND LEADER AIRCRAFT.
Definition.
34. The prisoners were able to clarify the question of the so-called
formation leader (Verbandsführer) described somewhat inadequately by
previous P/W and reported in A.D.I.(K) 599/1944 paras.90-97.
35. It transpires that two separate categories of aircraft with totally
differing functions are employed; one, known as the Aufklärer
(Reconnaissance) has the duty of taking off before the main formation
and of contacting and reporting on the composition and movements of the
bomber stream.
36. The other aircraft, the Verbandsführer, is the leader of a night
fighter formation and, in an attempt to keep the unit together, that
aircraft transmits periodical D/F signals, on to which the others are
supposed to home, and which in theory have the effect of keeping the
formation together.
37. Neither system has recently been working satisfactorily, largely
owing to the jamming of signals channels. Nevertheless, in I/N.J.G.2
nightly preparations were made for putting reconnaissance and leader
aircraft up, should Divisional Headquarters decide that it was
necessary.
38. The functions of these two aircraft described in turn below.
Verbandsführer (Formation Leader).
39. The Verbandsführer aircraft it normally flown by an experienced
senior officer such as the Kommandeur or a Staffelkapitän, and his
aircraft always takes off with the main force of the Gruppe.
40. When ordered to take off, the aircraft of the Gruppe fly an initial
course in the normal manner. Thereafter the duty of the Verbandsführer
is to transmit a periodical D/F signal of two minutes duration at 10, 15
or 20 minute intervals, together with a pre-arranged single code-letter;
the aircraft of the formation are expected to home on these signals and
thus maintain a compact formation.
41. The code letter and the exact times at which the D/F signals shall
be transmitted are arranged at nightly briefings.
42. In I/N.J.G.2 the D/F signals were given on the long wave band of
the FuGe.10, with the addition of short-wave R/T or W/T instructions by
the Verbandsführer to the formation on changes of course and height;
only the leader aircraft was permitted to transmit.
43. The leader aircraft supplemented the R/T orders by the firing of
prearranged verey signals as a guide to the bomber stream.
44. The Verbandsführer system had one serious disadvantage in that the
D/F signals when given at the longer intervals, had the effect rather
of scattering the formation after the first leg of a course from base,
since the aircraft of the formation were apt to zig-zag across the
leader's track at each succeeding D/F signal.
45. Up to the middle of September the Verbandsführer procedure could be
said to be operating fairly satisfactorily, but when jamming of the
frequency bands of the FuGe.10 commenced, its operation became
impossible and in I/N.J.G.2 the procedure was dropped.
46. Divisional orders to operate a Verbandsführer still stand, and a
routine daily briefing on procedure and callsigns was still held with
I/N.J.G.2; Hauptman RATH, the Kommandeur, openly admits, however, that,
under present conditions he has no intention of operating a
Verbandsführer and by holding the briefing he is merely obeying
Divisional orders in the spirit.

Reconnaissance (Aufklärer aircraft).
47. The duty of the Aufklärer aircraft is to make contact with the
bomber stream with the help of ground control, Naxos and SN 2, and then
to report directly and solely to Divisional headquarters on its
composition and movements. The Aufklärer is usually one of a number
detailed daily from the ordinary night fighter Units.
48. In I/N.J.G.2 the crews of from one to three aircraft equipped with
Naxos were briefed nightly to stand by for Aufklärer duties; orders to
take off came from the Division, and once airborne the aircraft operated
entirely under Divisional control on a special frequency known as the
Aufklärer Welle.
49. Once the Aufklärer had served its purpose of contacting and
reporting on the raiding force, that aircraft, on orders from the
Division, assumed the duties of a normal night fighter.
50. It usually happened that orders to the Aufklärer to take off
preceded those to the main force by anything from ten minutes to one
hour; the Aufklärer detailed in I/N.J.G.2 were sometimes ordered up
singly, whilst at other times two or three took off together. If no
orders came from Division, then the Aufklärer took off with the main
force and operated as normal night fighter.
51. Since the beginning of October, the Aufklärer aircraft, although
briefed and standing by nightly, had not been ordered up by Division.
These P/W were of the opinion that of late the channels of “Y” control
had been so seriously disturbed as to make the procedure impossible in
Western Germany. Additionally the air situation had recently been so
confused that nothing more could be done than to order the main force of
night fighters to take off at the last moment - and very often too late
to be of any use.

TACTICS OF INTERCEPTION.
52. The following paragraphs of necessity take the form of notes and
additions to the account given in A.D.I.(K) 599/1944. The methods used
in I/N.J.G.2 have been found to follow the same principle as those used
by other units; the present P/W were, however, able to clarify several
points and to enlarge upon others.
Readiness.
53. Standing patrols were not flown by I//N.J.G.2; as with other units
examined recently, a met and signals briefing was held each evening and
crews remained at readiness in the crew-room during the whole of the
night or until such a time as they were called on the Tannoy laid on in
the room.
54. The aircraft were lined up at a dispersal and the engines were only
started up after a crew or crews had been called to take off. In this
case the first aircraft could be away within 8 minutes of the crew being
called; it had occasionally happened that crews were detailed to sit in
the aircraft, but with the engines still.
55. Should an order to take off prove to be a false alarm and the
aircraft be ordered to return, crews resumed their original state of
readiness and the fuel tanks of the aircraft which had returned were
immediately topped up ready for another start.
56. In the case of double sorties being flown, crews who returned to
their base airfield after the first sortie resumed their original state
of readiness. Such aircraft as landed on other night fighter bases,
however, were temporarily attached to the unit which they visited, and
received signals briefing as though they belonged to that unit.
Take-off.
57. There is no predetermined point at which the night fighters are put
up to meet a raiding force, and sources of early warning of bomber
penetration are, of course, unknown to the majority of operational
crews.
58. In the experience of these prisoners, the order to take off was
occasionally accompanied by a note as to the position and direction of
the bomber force, but often, as on the last sortie of the 4R + RL on the
night of November 29th, the night fighters were simply ordered to make
for a given high powered W/T beacon and to await further orders.
59. In the days before the Gruppe commentary was jammed, the aircraft
were went to assemble over or near their base airfield, after which
orders were given as to course and height to meet the bombers. Under
present conditions, each crew or batch of crews ordered into the air is
given an initial course which takes them to a beacon, or which is
calculated to bring them directly to the bomber stream. If, after the
first leg, no contact is made, the crews must do the best they can from
the beacon commentary.

Navigation.
60. Navigation in I/N.J.G.2 follows the general practice amongst German
night fighters in that an attempt is made to navigate primarily by D.R.
with the additional help of ground navigational aids; it was stated that
at present the only reliable aids were the visual and radio beacons.
61. One of the present P/W had the idea that some aircraft of the
Gruppe, including those of the Kommandeur and Staffelkapitäne, were
using Bernhardine as an additional aid, but he could give no further
details. He had understood that the method of determining a position was
by means of a succession of sine curves along a horizontal base, with a
series of figures at the points where the curves struck the base line.
Contacting the Bombers.
62. These prisoners repeated that no attempt is or can be made to
operate in any specific part of the bomber stream, and under present
conditions crews are content to have found the bombers at all, no matter
how or where.
63. Once in the stream the night fighter crew will attempt to remain
there, and it is only if chased off by a Mosquito or through lack of
fuel or other defects to the aircraft, that the pilot wi11 deliberately
leave the stream again.
64. The commentaries are broken off as soon as an R.A.F attack has
finished - at least as far as the recent shallow penetrations have been
concerned – and the question as to whether the returning bomber shall be
followed on their homeward track lies entirely with the night fighter
crews, and depends largely upon the amount of fuel remaining in the
aircraft.
65. There are no restrictions as to how far beyond the German border
the night fighters shall fly, but these P/W pointed out that after the
bomber attack is over, the night fighter has no commentary to help him.

I.F.F.
66. At the beginning of November the Signals Officer at I/N.J.G.2
announced that the R.A.F. had equipment for homing on to FuGe.25a
transmissions; he nevertheless told crews that the order to keep the
I.F.F. switched on must stand, but he added the order that the apparatus
should be turned off when leaving German territory.

Armament - German and R.A.F.
67. The rear armament of one M.G.131 in the Ju.88 G-6 is intended
solely for defensive purposes. The majority of crews felt that this
armament was an unnecessary extra weight, and these P/W themselves had never heard of a case where it had been used in combat.
68. As far as R.A.F. armament is concerned, crews in I/N.J.G.2 at least
have no knowledge of the use of radar aids by R.A.F. gunners. These P/W
stated, however, that tracer fire from a bomber has distinct deterrent
effect upon all but the most hardened night fighter crews.

Petrol.
69. There has been no noticeable shortage of petrol in I/N.J.G.2 and
according to these P/W there have been no orders to economise. The sole
indication of any shortage was a recent restriction in SN 2 practice
flights by day.

Night Rocket Phenomena.
70. The question has been asked as to whether the Germans are using jet
propelled aircraft at night. These prisoners had not heard of the use of
this type of aircraft and were inclined to ridicule the suggestion.
71. They themselves had seen rocket traces at night and had attributed
these to rocket Flak; they had had to draw their own conclusions,
however, since officially they were told nothing.
72. One of the present pilots had twice encountered enormous flaming
masses over Berlin some time ago; he had at first thought these to be
aircraft going down in flames, but on the second occasion he was close
enough to make a careful observation and could see that the rate of fall
was too slow for a crashing aircraft. Again, he had been told nothing
officially.

THE NIGHT FIGHTER'S DIET.
73. The fact that night fighter crews must now depend more and more
upon good night vision has prompted an enquiry into the measures being
taken by means of diet and drugs to maintain a standard of night vision
in I/N.J.G.2.
74. The familiar black pills formerly distributed to night fighter and
bomber crews in the G.A.F. were absent in this unit. The normal diet of
the night fighter was given by one of the present P/W as follows:-
Breakfast: 30 grammes of butter,
White bread,
One egg,
50 grammes of sausage,
½ litre of fresh milk,
Ersatz coffee.
Lunch: Soup; varying from meat and vegetable to
noodle.
Meat and 2 veg.,
Pudding (occasionally}.
Supper: 45 grammes of butter,
80 grammes of sausage,
Black bread,
Jam or artificial honey,
8 cigarettes
75. When returning from a sortie, the night fighter is given the
following special issue:-
25 grammes of chocolate,
25 grammes of coffee beans (real),
2 packets of boiled sweets,
1 cake of dried fruit,
Biscuits.
A.D.I.(K). and U.S. S.D. FELKIN
Air Interrogation. WING commander
30th December 1944"

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Useful website for Luftwaffe losses in the East	Laurent Rizzotti	Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces	2	6th October 2014 23:38
New Luftwaffe Books: 2014-05-01	leonventer	Books and Magazines	7	7th May 2014 11:17
LUFTWAFFE 39/45	cliffnemo	Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces	10	26th March 2010 14:03
Books FS - WWII Luftwaffe Stuff	BlackWolf3945	On Offer	1	13th November 2006 06:21
ostvölkische Einheiten/eastern units of the Luftwaffe....	Michi.	Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces	2	27th October 2006 21:20