The changes were sufficient to give this Camel variant an apparently ‘comical’ appearance compared to the standard version hence the ‘Comic’ nickname and it became the standard British night fighter during 1918.Murlis Green took command of 151 squadron, a dedicated nocturnal unit, who operated Comic Camels over Europe to great effect. £12.02.
Few aircraft achieved so much, or stir the soul, like the Mosquito. Compared to the aircraft it replaced the Beaufighter was in a different league.
More importantly its powerful electronics allowed it to locate and destroy other fighters by night whereas its opponents could only be guided towards targets by ground based radar. It was something of a stop gap measure, though armed with four 7.92mm/ 0.31 In machine guns and two 20 mm / 0.78 In cannon. On the 23rd of July 1940 a Bristol Blenheim (from which the Beaufighter was derived via the Beaufort torpedo bomber) had achieved the first ever successful interception using the revolutionary technology of airborne radar. When the Luftwaffe retreated back across the Channel the Mosquito had the range to go hunting in foreign skies. The chaos and deliberately distorted reportage of ‘kills’ in wartime make the actual combat effectiveness of World War II hard to ascertain. GERMAN NIGHT FIGHTERS: AR234, DO217, TA154, HE219, JU88, JU388, BF110, ME62 (Schiffer Military) MANFRED GRIEHL. Ki-45s met resistance in Hanoi later that year with the same devastating result. The Ki-45 KAId, was developed specifically as a night fighter, and it was intended to equip them with centimetric radar (though this never happened). More important was the deadly armament carried throughout.
Because of the massive fire control equipment of the time, which required the use of three different radars, the Marine Corps F3Ds were deployed to Korea barely a year after the aircraft entered service and during the conflict scored more air-to-air victories than any other Naval type, despite there never being more than 24 aircraft in theatre. At first the three main crew members had no special equipment for night operations and relied on their eyes alone to find enemy aircraft in the dark. The above measures were intended to: Intercept German night fighters before they could "infiltrate" the Stream, disrupt scramble and recovery of night fighters. By a strange coincidence he was destined to be significant in the development of night fighting in general and the Sopwith Camel in particular… The Beaufighter was the best Allied night fighter until the advent of the Mosquito and operated at the time when the Luftwaffe was most active against the British Isles. The end of hostilities saw the withdrawal of the Comic Camel, despite its obvious and ongoing success, and night fighting would be essentially ignored by the RAF for the next twenty years. The front-firing 20-mm and 30 mm-cannon were powerful enough to damage or destroy Allied bombers within a few short bursts. The E was designed as a fighter bomber (The Bf 110F featured the new DB 601F engines which produced 993 kW/1,350 PS (almost double the power the original Jumo engines provided), which allowed for upgraded armour, strengthening, and increased weight with no loss in performance. Much larger and considerably slower than its principal opponent, the vaunted MiG-15, somewhat surprisingly the hefty F3D could out-turn the Soviet fighter.
Though this was, at least in part, a lucky victory it did prove that Zeppelins could be successfully intercepted at night and more attention was paid to doing so.
The Bf 110 served with considerable success in the early campaigns in Throughout the 1930s, the air forces of the major military powers were engaged in a transition from Messerschmitt omitted the internal bomb load requirement from the Ministry of Aviation directive to increase the armament element of the Ministry of Aviation's specification. Most important night fighter variant was the Beaufighter Mk VIF with the spectacularly improved AI Mk VIII radar which bore the brunt of RAF night fighting operations until the Mosquito appeared. During this time, two versions of the Bf 110 were developed, the E and F models. Three distinct versions of the Bf 110B were built: the B-1, which featured four 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine guns and two 20 mm MG FF cannons; the B-2 In late 1938, the DB 601 B-1 engines became available. The first nocturnal kill came in June, the first of over 600 before the end of the war. The end of hostilities saw the withdrawal of the Comic … Later in the war, it was developed into a formidable radar-equipped night fighter, becoming the main night-fighting aircraft of the Luftwaffe. 10 offers from £14.99. New improved sets could be accommodated, and the cockpit adapted to suit, with relative ease. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Paperback. Luftwaffe Night Fighter Units, 1939-45 (Aircam Airwar S.) Jerry Scutts.
Even with this impediment Beaufighters were responsible for 14 bombers destroyed on the night of the 10th May 1941, the heaviest loss experienced by the Luftwaffe during its nocturnal campaign against the UK. Ground-controlled interception began from mid 1941 and the 110 began to take its toll on By July 1942, the Bf 110F-4 was the first version to be designed specifically as a night fighter.
Over Korea the The F3D found itself increasingly outclassed as a fighter but the The Skyknights worked hard until they were eventually retired during 1970, a remarkable longevity of service for an aircraft of the F3D’s vintage. Heavy fighter/fighter-bomber, extreme range versions based on C-series, prepared to operate with external fuel tanks. Likewise the Messerschmitt 262 certainly deserves a honourable mention.Ki-45s were used as bomber escorts during the 1942 attacks on the Chinese city of Guilan where they were severally mauled by the P-40s of the Flying Tigers. One source* mentions that “In the next ten days the three Heinkel He 219A-0 pre-production aircraft [shot] down a total of 20 RAF aircraft, including six of the previously invincible Mosquitos. Intruder sweeps, loitering around enemy airfields waiting to pounce on returning aircraft, even dawdling about pretending to be a four engined heavy.