World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
16 Oct 2010 12:17:52 PM

Messerschmett Bf 110 belongs to a NJG Gruppe
you can just see the Night-Fighter insignia
under the pilot's cockpit.
Not able to see any aircraft codes on the
side of the fuselage.

2.  Bill says:
8 Mar 2014 06:01:04 PM

THE NIGHT FIGHTERS:

Night-fighter units were made up of Messerschmitt
Bf-110, Junkers Ju-88Cs and Dornier Do-217s they operated along with anti-aircraft artillery (flak),searchlights, and radar stations, this covered an area to Denmark, to the northern part of Germany, into Holland, Belgium, Eastern France up to the Swiss border.
File photograph shows this Bf-110 is not equipped with Lichtenstein airborne radar. Aircraft also used were single-engine Messerschmitt Bf-109s and
Focke-Wulf FW-190s or any other type of aircraft that could be used in the night-fighting role...

LAST DAYS: FOR THE FATHERLAND

In spite of bombing, Messerschmitt was still able to produce less then fifty (50) Bf-110 night-fighters in March 1945, with a total of 6,050 versions built

3.  Bill says:
9 Mar 2014 07:38:55 PM

GERMAN NIGHT-FIGHTER FORCE:

Did you know that at the start of World War II the Luftwaffe along with the other air forces in Europe didn't have a trained night-fighter force.

FIRST OF THE MANY:

Bf-109s and Bf-110s were the first aircraft used for night missions, later modified bombers like the Ju-88 and Do-17 and Do-217 carried heaver armament and equipped with early Lichtenstein airborne radar to intercept Allied bombers over Europe. Single-engine fighters Bf-109s & Fw-190s were modified to carry airborne radar working with ground-based radar.

THE HUNTER BECOMES THE HUNTED:

The air war wasn't always one sided the Allies had night-fighters of their own, like the RAFs Mosquito and Beaufighter twin-engine fighters.
The British had success hunting down the German night-fighters, while the Germans were able to wreck havoc with the British heavy bombers.

By 1945 many of the Luftwaffe's most experienced pilots and crews had been killed, wounded or missing in the air battles, the replacements lacked both training and experience and suffered heavy losses. Flight instructors were pulled from the few training schools left to make up the losses.
Faced with fuel shortages that grounded many of its aircraft, only the best crews remained operational until wars end, even Heinkel's He-219
Owl and Messerschmitt Me262 jet night-fighter couldn't stop defeat.