What is Type F?

[Chris Goss]

This was in a 488 Sqn combat report:

"At this time the e/a fired off another flare. The e/a was flying away from the dawn and on looking through night glasses my Nav thought it was probably a Mosquito; no resin lights, IFF or Type F were showing."

What is a Type F?

[MW Giles]

See AIR 20/5808 Use of infra-red methods for identification (AGLT type F and Z)

I have not seen this file

Type F is involved in the IR detection of aircraft. But I do not know what it involves, I suspect it is something on a Mosquito that shows up on IR

Type Z was the twin rings seen on the bomb aimers dome on the nose of late war Lancasters to alert an AGLT gunner that he is about to fire on a friend.

Martin

[AndreasB]

Edgar Brooks
29th Mar 2012, 16:43

Research, in Kew, continues, and many files remain, but discoveries, so far, are that there were two infra-red recognition systems in use during mid/late WWII, types "Z" & "F." "Z" was used on bombers, and was not "Village Inn," though it was allied to it. "F" was used on fighters, initially just twin-engined, but later extended to some single-engined.
Findings, so far, are that "Z" included forward "firing" IR lamps, which could be picked up by the tailgunner of a preceding bomber, if he had an IR scope attached to his guns.
The exact set-up of "F" still remains to be found, but, on at least two papers, in a file on both systems, there is mention of the length of time that resin lamps should be used, which tends to confirm that, by mid-to-late war, they were part of the IR set-up. The lamps were supposed to flash a Morse letter ("E" was found to be unsuitable,) which could be changed at certain intervals.
A 1942 recognition leaflet contains a section on resin lamps, with the warning that they are not to carried more than a few miles off the coast of the U.K., which also indicates that, by then, their use was now secret. It also says that some fighters are carrying them as an extra tail lamp on the trailing edge of the rudder.
"Village Inn" was a radar-equipped rear turret, which could detect enemy, and friendly, aircraft, with the gunner using the scope to interrogate them for the forward-exposing IR lamps, from a reasonable range. As well as the IR scope, V.I. included a gyro gunsight (type IIC, while fighters carried IID,) which enabled the gunner to engage an enemy at deflection angles, without the need for night vision-destroying tracer.
A friend of mine, about 20 years ago, put a request into Aeroplane Monthly, asking about resin lamps, and, at first, only got letters from former pilots, complaining about how useless they were as formation lights, because they were so dim; he finally heard from a man, still working in the industry, who told him all about the lamps and the IR scopes, which were fitted to Mosquito nightfighters but removed, and locked in a cupboard after each sortie. He also said that bomber pilots were never told of their true purpose, so that, if captured, they didn't inadvertently give away the information.

https://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-367203.html


All the best


Andreas

[Chris Goss]

Thanks both very helpful