Tempest?

[Guppy35]

Originally posted by hawker238
So why were the doodlebugs tipped and flipped and such instead of just being shot up?

BOth instances I mentioned involving Junior Collier of 91 and Terry Spencer of 41 Squadron were after they had run out of ammo.

Dan/Slack

[Jester]

Originally posted by thrila
442nd night fighter squadron destroyed 5 and the 425th 4, both flying P61's.  It's not a lot, obviously down to the difficulty of catching them.  I only just discovered P61's got some kills on V-1's myself.  The same article also mentioned  on night of July 15/16 as 2nd Lt Herman Ernst was lining up a shot on a V-1 a mossie zoomed by and got it.

VERY INTERESTING! Had never even heard that before and have did a lot of reading on the airwar during WW2! Did you get that somewhere off the web? Would like to read more about it. What is your source?

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by thrila
442nd night fighter squadron destroyed 5 and the 425th 4, both flying P61's.  It's not a lot, obviously down to the difficulty of catching them.  I only just discovered P61's got some kills on V-1's myself.  The same article also mentioned  on night of July 15/16 as 2nd Lt Herman Ernst was lining up a shot on a V-1 a mossie zoomed by and got it.

I think the date is wrong. Ernst, in the Osprey P-61 book, says that on the night of July 16-17 he dived on a V-1 doing 340mph and just as he was about to open fire all heck broke loose. He thought he had been attacked by a NF but was only the rear perplex blowing out. The next night he got his V-1. (pg 17-18) No mention of any Mossie being involved.

[thrila]

It's from an article in the British aviation magazine "Flypast" Jester.  There is a nice pic of a p61 with it's elevator/rudders burnt from an exploding V-1 too.

Milo the dates could be wrong, it has the story about the rear perplex blowing out on the 14/15.   On the 15/16 it says about the mossie , however Ernst went on to shootdown a different V-1 himself.  Either ospery or flypast have their dates out by a day.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by thrila
It's from an article in the British aviation magazine "Flypast" Jester.  There is a nice pic of a p61 with it's elevator/rudders burnt from an exploding V-1 too.

Milo the dates could be wrong, it has the story about the rear perplex blowing out on the 14/15.   On the 15/16 it says about the mossie , however Ernst went on to shootdown a different V-1 himself.  Either ospery or flypast have their dates out by a day.

In the Osprey book (written by Warren Thompson) there is mention of a flyoff between a P-61B and a Mosquito FB Mk.IV (same as modeled in AH). Some sources say that the results were inconclusive. However, according to records of the 422nd NFS, the Black Widow beat up the Mossie pretty good. Better rate of climb, faster at most altitudes, vastly superior rate of turn. Whatever the "official" results were, based upon this flyoff the P-61B was released for combat duty with the 9th AF. I wonder if there is anything else published on this "test".

As for intercepting "Divers" (V-1s), P-61s shot down quite a few, although I have not found any specific totals.

Confirmed air to air kills in the ETO/MTO total 58. No great shakes, but just remember that those 58 kills were obtained without loss to the guns of enemy aircraft.

P-61s saw a lot of night-time interdiction missions. Fitted with racks for bombs and rockets, they were used to pound German ground forces. They proved very effective during the Battle of the Bulge, effectively making life difficult for German night raiders. During the winter of 1944-45, P-61s ranged well into Germany.

Unfortunately, the P-61 squadrons had issues with keeping their aircraft flying due to an extreme shortage of replacement parts. Almost any equipment failure meant waiting days, even weeks to get a replacement. P-61s were at the bottom of the logistic priority list.

Northrop began deliveries of the high performance P-61C in July of 1945. It was capable of 430 mph, and could climb to 30,000 feet in 14 minutes. These were expected to dominate the night sky over Japan for the invasion that never came. Only 41 of these were accepted before Japan surrendered and the balance of the contract was cancelled.

My regards,

Widewing

[whels]

Originally posted by Angus
A RAF pilot I knew was chasing those in a Mustang III.
He said his Mustang was not quite fast enough to catch them down low, he would need some little extra alt, coming after them in a shallow dive.
They had to be shot at rather long range, because if they blew their 2000 lbs you would not want to be too close.

He said that those Griffon Spits and Tempests were a good bit faster, fast enough to chase them down.

some P51 B/Cs were modified with higher octain fuel and engine
adjustments for higher MAP. they could do 420 to 450 @ 4k. the V1 was only 370.

[MiloMorai]

Mossie NFs

"British defenses were weak at first but gradually improved, and the Mosquito night fighters were put to work intercepting the flying bombs at night. As the missile tended to go up in a big bang when shot up, Mosquito pilots learned to fly across its bow to perform a "soft kill", disrupting its automatic guidance and causing it to crash.

The flying bomb launch sites in northern France were soon overrun, but then the Germans began to launch the flying bombs from Heinkel He-111s operating out of the Low Countries. Although service entry of the NF.30 had been delayed due to various teething problems, they were available to be put to use hunting down the He-111s. This turned out to be a tricky job, since the heavily-laden He-111s flew so slowly that the Mosquitos had to slow down themselves, making them vulnerable to defensive fire.

However, the Heinkels suffered high losses, and the Germans were forced to give up the effort. By the time the flying bomb campaign fizzled out in the winter, the Mosquitos had shot down 600 V-1s. Unfortunately, the Germans had switched to V-2 rockets by that time for which there was no defense. The missile attacks were finally ended by the surrender of Germany in May 1945. "

Many of the NF Mossies and Beaufighters were directed by AWAC Wellingtons flying off the Dutch coast.


NF Mk 30 (Merlin 72 or 76).

High altitude development of NF XIX with two-stage Merlins. AI Mk X. First flew March 1944. Fuel: 716 gal., 453 with useful load. Weights: MM686: tare 15,241, loaded 21,715, loaded (with 2x50 gal tanks) 22,510, loaded (2x100 gal tanks) 23,275. Loaded with Nitrous Oxide installation 21,913; loaded with Perfectos and 2x100 gal tanks 23,650; loaded when tropicalized and carrying 2x250lb bombs 22,731. Loaded desert equipment and 2x100 gal tanks 23,496lb.
First Mk 30 trial installations aircraft was HK364 (SCR720 radar) which weighed: tare 15,156, normal loaded 21,105, with 2x50 gal tanks 22,413lb. Performance tests cf. Mk XIII were conducted with a Mk 30 at AAEE revealing: still-air range at recommended cruising speed 1,180 miles at 30,000ft; still-air range continuous cruising F.S gear 1,010 miles, max speed F.S gear 424mph at 26,500ft, 400mph at 13,500ft, 338mph at S.L. Initial climb 2,250 fpm, operational ceiling 35,000ft; cruising speeds 220mph at 30,000ft, 288mph at S.L., 380mph in F.S at 30,500ft.


Tempest

In early July Beamont tested a Tempest with 150 fuel. He did 415mph at 500ft. His Wing started using the 150 fuel regularly.

[Karnak]

The Mosquito NF.30 was the finest night-fighter of WWII.

[Angus]

I have somewhere a tale of mossie pilots chasing down V-1's in utter darkness.
Those guys were also playing cat and mouse with the German nightfighters over Germany.
I'll see if I find some nice piece of that and type it up.
Or, Karnak, maybe time to start a Mossie thread?

[Karnak]

One word:

Moskitopanik

[bunch]

Originally posted by Angus
I have somewhere a tale of mossie pilots chasing down V-1's in utter darkness.
Those guys were also playing cat and mouse with the German nightfighters over Germany.
I'll see if I find some nice piece of that and type it up.
Or, Karnak, maybe time to start a Mossie thread?

IIRC, it is in the book Terror in the Starboard Seat[/i]...
...I could argue that the P-61 was the better nightfighter, owing to it's K:D

[Guppy35]

I read somewhere that the speeds on the V-1s varried with the highest recorded speed being 440mph with others coming across as slow as 300mph.

Lots of photos of toasted Mossies and Spits from getting in too close when they went up.  Fabric covering gone and paint burned away on those that came home.

Dan/Slack

[Kegger26]

Originally posted by Widewing
In the Osprey book (written by Warren Thompson)
Widewing

 I know with the lies being told here lately this is going to sound like a load of BS. But I use to date his daughter Shannon. His son is a Shelby County Sheriff Deputy. He lives in Germantown Tenn, his daughter lives just down the street. I was posted at a Millington NAS, which was just being closed down. He is a great guy. Really into airplanes. Yet he has never learned to fly himself. We really hit it off. However me and his daughter didnt do so well. She already had two kids at the time....it was a bit of a mess.

-Keg.

[bunch]

Next new thread in O Club will be "O Club lies starring Kegger"
just joking of course

[Guppy35]

This is probably blatant showing off, but since we're talking V-1s as part of this thread

The pride of my WW2 aviation history library/collection is the logbook of an RCAF Spit pilot given to me by his widow.  His claim to fame was that he shot down the first V-1 in daylight on June 16, 1944.  So here's a scan of his logbook page for the first 18 days in June 44, noting D-Day and what the average Spit XIV pilot was up to.

Note the scramble and 1 destroyed on June 16th.  Also interesting to see the Spit XIV drivers were shooting up ground targets during that time frame on the continent in support of the invasion.

Dan/Slack