No Place for Chivalry: RAF Night Fighters Defend the East of England Against the German Air Force in Two World Wars by Alastair Goodrum

Author:Alastair Goodrum [Goodrum, Alastair]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
Publisher: Grub Street
Published: 2005-09-18T21:00:00+00:00

In general terms, up to November 1940 aeroplanes used for night operations were usually painted in the standard RAF day paint scheme. When night fighter operations became common it was felt that black or a similar dark colour might be the most suitable for camouflage at night. As a result a black paint with an almost ‘fuzzy’ finish to it called ‘Special Night’ or ‘RDM2’ was applied first to under surfaces from September 1940 then overall by about mid November 1940. However, by the time the Blitz ended, Special Night was considered not to be the best colour for night fighters. This conclusion had already been reached in WW1! Flying experiments discovered it tended to turn a fighter into a dark silhouette and rather than it merging with the darkness it could, under certain conditions and at reducing ranges, actually make it more visible. Unfortunately no one seemed to have an alternative and it took many more experiments and almost another eighteen months before a replacement colour scheme was settled upon. It seemed that, contrary to expectations, disruptive patterns of grey seemed to render aeroplanes less visible under most conditions including the night sky. Thus in October 1942 it was promulgated that night fighters would be painted medium sea grey overall with a disruptive pattern of dark green on upper surfaces, hence the hard work referred to by Jack Cheney.

On my day off Joe Gunnill flew my beloved Z2184 on an NFT and over Goole the port fuel pump packed-up. By a clever bit of juggling with the interfeeds he managed to keep the port engine running and brought it back all in one piece.

Wonder of wonders, on October 31 the weather cleared up and patrols were on again. Three of the others were detailed for these while I was briefed to carry out a bomber affiliation sortie with a Lancaster from 44 Squadron at Waddington. Everything had been previously arranged with the Lancaster crew who were word perfect, so I cracked-off at 19.05 to rendezvous with them. By that time there was quite a haze over the aerodrome and the lights were very dim, even in the circuit.

To start with, the Lanc took off before it should have done but luckily I caught a glimpse of its lights as it left the ground. There then followed the most gruelling time I have had for many a long time as far as night flying goes. The Lanc proceeded to do turns, with about 40° of bank on, around the aerodrome at low speed. I must say the Boston stood up to it very well even though I must have been very close to stalling many times. Unfortunately I was unable to get to the exact range to carry out my orders and after an hour of trying I gave up in disgust and went home. I found out later that, although I was burning all my lights, not one of the bomber crew ever saw me even though I was in visual range all the time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.