Night fighter
In the midst of the battle, I./NJG 1 lost group commander Meurer—with 65 claims—the third highest scoring night fighter of the war at the time in January 1944. He utilised the Schräge Musik weapon too close to a British bomber which exploded and took Meurer with it. In March 1944 another fighter leader, Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld was killed on day 12. During the following weeks Bomber Command selected southwest Germany as its main area of operations, allowing for their return over neutral Switzerland. The responded by transferring II. and III./NJG 1 to France. III./NJG 1 operated from Laon from 20 April. Night fighter operations over France proved costly for the . Bomber Command flew on moonlit nights and was provided with strong Mosquito fighter support. pilots hardly managed to engage the bomber streams.