page_title: Operational history of the Luftwaffe (1939–45)
section_title: Development of night fighting
hierarchical_section_title: Operational history of the Luftwaffe (1939–45) / Development of night fighting
caption_attribution_description: English: A Bf 110G-4 Night fighter at the RAF Museum in London. The antennas on the nose are of a FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 radar set (ITU-classificatio: Radiolocation land station in the radiolocation service). Clearly visible are the openings for two 20mm cannons in the lower nose and two 30 mm cannons in the upper nose.
context_page_description: During the Second World War the German Luftwaffe was the main support weapon of the German Army. It fought and supported the Wehrmacht's war effort throughout the six years of conflict and contributed to much of Nazi Germany's early successes in 1939–1942. After the turn in Germany's fortunes, it continued to support the German ground forces until the German surrender in May 1945.
context_section_description: Although night fighting had been undertaken in embryonic form in World War I, the German night fighter force, the Nachtjagd, had to virtually start from scratch when British bombers began to attack targets in Germany in strength from 1940 as far as tactics were concerned. A chain of radar stations was established all across the Reich territory from Norway to the border with Switzerland known as the "Kammhuber Line", named after Generalleutnant Josef Kammhuber, and nearby night fighter wings, Nachtjagdgeschwader (NJG), were alerted to the presence of the enemy. These wings were equipped mostly with Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88 aircraft, which would later be outfitted with the Lichtenstein nose-mounted radar.
  The Messerschmitt Bf 110 was the most successful night fighter that served in the Luftwaffe. Among the most notable night fighter aces were Helmut Lent, who shot down 110 enemy aircraft and Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, who shot down 121 enemy aircraft. Lent mostly flew in the Bf 110 (and variants of the Ju 88), while Schnaufer flew the Bf 110 exclusively. The Bf 110's main strength was its ability to carry heavy armament in its nose section. The later G series was fitted with 20 mm MG FF/M cannons and sometimes with two 30 mm MK 108 cannons. Starting in Mid'1944 the Bf 110 G-4 night fighters entered serial production with two MG FF/M as the Schräge Musik 'off-bore gun' (upward firing) system for attacking Allied bombers from underneath with several units field modifying their Bf 110 with this system some time earlier. The Schräge Musik cannons were typically mounted in the rearmost glazed area of the cockpit in the Bf 110 or in the fuselage behind the cockpit on other machines. Several Dornier Do 217, Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 219 carried similar installations. To compound the British night bomber problems the Avro Lancaster, Handley Page Halifax and Short Stirling did not carry ventral ball turrets under their fuselage, making them vulnerable to this kind of attack.
  During the 1942–43 timeframe, the formerly all-black night fighter camouflage used by Luftwaffe night fighters had yielded to a light-color camouflage scheme that took advantage of the skyglow over German cities at night — this generally comprised the use of the Luftwaffe's usual Hellblau light blue undersurface color for diurnal-flown aircraft, and a light gray base coat over the upper surfaces to match the skyglow over the German cities they were tasked with defending. The light gray base color usually had irregular patterns of darker gray splotches or irregular wavy lines spread over the light gray areas to increase the camouflage effect. Later in WW II, Luftwaffe night fighters, like some of the Kampfgeschwader-flown He 177A heavy bombers being used at night, switched back to a black coloration for the undersurfaces and vertical sides of the airframe, while retaining the light gray with dark gray-color disruptive patterns established in the mid-war period.
  During mid-1943, a Luftwaffe bomber pilot, Major Hajo Herrmann devised a new plan for night attacks. Bombers were silhouetted over the target areas from the fires below and searchlights, which would make them vulnerable to attack from above. Three Jagdgeschwader, (JG 300, JG 301 and JG 302) were tasked with these operations codenamed as Wilde Sau attacks. The units were equipped with Bf 109 G-6/N and Fw 190 A-5/U2, both aircraft versions were modified for night use and some of them were fitted with a Naxos passive radar detector. The FuG 350 Naxos-Z detector set could track enemy H2S radar transmissions from a range of thirty miles, which enable the German fighters to "home in" on British Bombers. Herrmann's tactics were reasonably successful, but the 30 Jagddivision only saw action until it was disbanded in March 1944.
  In early 1944, to counter the Luftwaffe's NachtJagdgeschwader, the British operated Mosquito night fighters in the bomber support role, with RAF Bomber Commands 100 Group. These units were tasked with harassing the German night fighter airfields, and disrupting their operat
caption: A Bf 110 G-4 night fighter at the RAF Museum in London, in skyglow-influenced lighter night camouflage colors.
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