The topic has come up before on other occasions and thought I would add my opinion on night fighting in AH.
OPINIONMy view which I’m sure some agree with while others do not is that night flying and fighting in AH is great eye candy (especially the sunsets and sunrises, twinkling stars and moon are nice) but frustrating if you’re looking for enjoyment in aerial combat. For me I think this has to mainly do with the inability to see other aircraft in the dark.
RANDOM SUGGESTIONSHere’s is a list of ideas that might help spice up night fighting in AH. I haven’t thought through their implementation so here they are for what they are worth! Looking forward to your comments and ideas!
Searchlights and Flares for Illumination
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Perhaps ways of illuminating aircraft could be introduced through searchlights and flares.
- Searchlights could be placed around fields, cities, factories, etc. Perhaps they would be placed at intervals of distance from these “targets” in some form of perimeter. Up to 36 lights could be deployed (typical US AAA battalion had 36 searchlights divided into 4 sections of 12)? I don’t have any info on how flak batteries and searchlights were deployed.
- Searchlights would be activated by radar detection of incoming a/c and would begin scanning the sky in the general direction of the a/c. Searchlights could fix and track an a/c depending on algorithm of frequency an a/c gets “scanned” by a searchlight, the degree and amount of evasive (or lack of) maneuvering of the a/c, and the number of enemy a/c that are over or crossing the “target” area.
- Searchlight batteries are destroyable.
- Searchlights would have some form of blinding effect on pilots and crewmen making it hard for them to see outside or down.
- Flares would be lobbed up by AAA around these “targets” areas and temporarily light up the area allowing dot and airplane silhouettes to be seen. Another way to simulate this is by having icons for planes show up for the amount of time they are illuminated by the flare.
- Flare activation would be basically the same as what is used for AAA today.
Historical Excerpts & Tidbits for the Above:
- ON THE GERMAN WILDE SAU TACTIC- To combat the widespread use of Window it was decided to light up the skies as brightly as possible during an air raid. Along with the fires started from bombing this provided enough illumination to allow single-engine day fighters to attack enemy bombers. Above a pre-arranged flak free altitude usually 15,000 feet (4570m) these fighters would patrol waiting to pounce on bombers now clearly silhouetted.
- MORE ON WILDE SAU- Less than a week later on the night of August 23 the Wilde Sau concept was fully realized in the skies over Berlin. Nearly an hour before 727 British bombers reached the capital every available fighter was already en route to defend Berlin. On the ground searchlights lit up the sky brilliantly and gun batteries had been issued incandescent rockets to launch, providing even more illumination. Between the flak guns and night fighters 56 of the attacking bombers were shot down.
- RAF ACCOUNT OF NIGHT BOMBING MISSION- ”A blue masterbeam searchlight settles on our rear turret. Immediately its associated white searchlights form a cone around us. The pilot is blinded. He is not wearing his goggles. He cannot use the anti dazzle screen which is fitted to the goggles. The rear gunner who has been wounded by flak once before is shouting to the pilot to get us out of the searchlight beams. We have very little time before our height and course is predicted. Can't shake them off. They are hitting us. A metallic rattling sound. The starboard engine is hit. The pilot in desperation pulls the nose up and up. There is the inert sensation before a stall, then we are cartwheeling over...He has STALL TURNED the bomber and we are now diving in the opposite direction. The searchlights lose us but will the aircraft stand up to the strain?”
- P61 PILOT ACCOUNT- Modena recalled his most frightening experiences during his days of piloting the P-61 were getting shot at and being caught up in search lights. “That was probably worse than being shot at,” he said. “Because when you were in search lights you couldn’t see anything.”
- SEARCHLIHG BATTALION ORG- Searchlight battalions generally consisted of about 800 men and 36 searchlights divided among four batteries (HQ, A, B, and C). Each battery A – C had 12 lights divided among three sections (four lights per section). In addition, some were outfitted with gun-laying radar sets, notably the SCR-268 and SCR-584 units.
- SEARCHLIGHT OPERATION- These behemoths [searchlights] were conceived to light up the sky, searching for hostile planes. U. S. Army AAA searchlight battalions used them in conjunction with radar sets and machine guns to shoot down enemy aircraft in both the Pacific and European Theaters. The radar would pick up the target, relay instructions to a primitive computer attached to the light, which would track the target and, finding it, illuminate it.
Introduction of Night-Fighter Plane Set
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IJAAF:Ki-45-Toryu Model Hei, Nakajima J1N1-S Gekko "Irving"
LW: Bf 110G-4, Ju 88G-6, He 219A-5 Uhu (Owl)
RAF: de Havilland Mosquito Mk.XII, Mosquito Mk.XIII
USAAF/USN: P-61 Black Widow, P-38M, F4U-2
- These night-fighters would only be available at dusk-dark-pre-dawn hours.
- Implement the airborne radar features of these aircraft by allowing dot dar for forward 30 degree cone infront and at some limited distance (D10k?) of these fighters no matter their place on the map. The dot dar would include alt info as well.
- Another more interesting way of doing this is actually implementing the oscilloscope views of the airborne radars carried by these planes.
Reduction of Icon Range for Night
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This sounds counter-intuitive to the “finding the enemy easier” equation but if night illumination and night-fighter plane sets were introduced this would be in order to definitely give more credence for the use of night fighters. Perhaps the icon range would be reduced to D200 in darkness assuming that a/c aren’t under the illumination from searchlights or flares.
ConclusionCan you imagine these planes flying about in the AH darkness hunting bombers, unwary day-fighters and finally each other in the night as searchlights and flares light up the night sky?
Anyhow, these are just some thoughts to spice up the AH nighttime and make it more exciting to fly at night and to help make it easier to find the enemy at night while maintaining a sense of night air combat realism.
