The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-06-04
Night Fighter Pilots Can See Better In Dark
Commanding Officer of British Night Batters Is Un- able Give Any Explanation for That

officer of the night fighter station told me, "but it's Q fact.
 That's just one of the many strange things the British have learned in their nine months of hard work trying to beat the Ger man night bombing attacks.
 We encourage night fighter crews to think out night bombing problems themselves" the commanding of- ficer said. we get them to talk ing about 1t among themselves. The keener their interest in their job the better they see at night. Curious but true."
 Ihe biggest discovery made by the night-fighter chiefs was that the night organization had to be sep- arate from the day fighter groups, It wasn't only that night fighters had different technical problems 1t was psychological.
 Before Separation
 This sort of thing happened be- fore the organizations were separ- ated. Two fighter pilots would be assigned to 0 station. One would 50 on day shifts and shoot down q number of planes. The other would be put on night duty. He would fly night after night without scoring Q single victory. Soon he would be disgusted with his as- Signment.
 "So we decided to establish sep- arate night stations" the comman- der said. Might fighting Is not so attractive as day work. There is 6 bigger strain, greater danger of crash landings and the boys some. times think they are giving Up Q great deal - as they are.
 "A lot of pilots who had had Q bit of fun in the day battles last autumn wanted to go back to day work after their first expereince with night fightings. They had to be convinced that one plane shot down at night was worth five In the day.
 "As we got more successful with night interception they became more interested"
 Extra Benefits
 The officer said that night fight. CTS are given extra benefits to com- pensate for the arduous nature of their work.
 If the boys come down tired,' he said, they get a hot meal at once. We have Q bus or car waiting to take them to mess. We don't let them tramp a mile or two across the airdrome after e night in the air.
 If they want e hot bath, they get 1t. We encourage them 10 sleep late and take as much leave as pos- sible.'
 That doesn't mean that night fighters are pampered, nor are they all young. The commanding of- ficer of the station who pilots his own beau night fighter is 38. "Tim- Der Toes" one of the stations legendary figures, was about 50.
 Timber Toes" lost Q leg flying in the World War but managed to make an artificial ono do almost aS well. He won place as & gunner in 6 Boulton Paul defiant night fighter. He almost wore out his pilot and mechanics in his desire for practice. When he got 4S hours leave no went to Q bomber sta- ton and took Q place in the rear turret of Q bomber and flew over Germany, hoping to get & crack at the Germans.
 When he came back to his station he found the squadron had done only three hours flying In his ab- sence. He indignantly told every body that that was no way to win the war.
 One night Timber Toes' was hob. bling across the airelrome when q German plane dropped a stick of bombs. One of them got the one- legged flyer.