P-61s IN EUROPE
‘GREEN BATS’ and the
BLACK WIDOW Some felt that the P-61 Black Widow was too slow and unwieldy to be an effective night fighter, but the USAAF’s 422nd Night Fighter Squadron, the ‘Green Bats’, used it to good effect WORDS: WARREN E. THOMPSON
f 14 US Army Air Force squadrons that used the Northrop P-61 Black Widow in World World War War Two, the highest-scoring was the 422nd Fighter Squadron in Europe. Part of the Ninth Air Force, it notched up an outstanding 43 kills — onethird of the total amassed by all P-61 units — as well as bringing down fi ve V1 fl ying bombs. T ree ‘Green Bats’ pilots made ace. Much of that success was down to timing, as the unit fl ew during the Battle of the Bulge, in which campaign it claimed the lion’s lion’s share of those successes. Tis all came after an inauspicious start. Formed in Orlando, Florida on 1 August 1943, the 422nd deployed to Charmy Charmy Down, Down, Somerset Somerset ( AF Station 487) on 7 March 1944. However, How ever, it did so without aircraft. With the P-61s delayed, its crews had to learn the theatre with RAF units. When the Black Widows arrived at Scorton, North Yorkshire (Station 425) in late May, just days were left before the Allied invasion of Europe. Combat-readiness could not be achieved in time for D-Day. Even afterwards, it would take some time to work up in the night fi ghter role. Instead, the 422nd took on a new menace. In their fi rst days of combat, flying from Ford in West Sussex, its aircrews went after V1s coming across the English Channel in the so-called ‘anti-diver’ ‘antidiver’ patrols. Future Black Widow aces Lt Herman Ernst and his SCR-720 radar operator (R/O) Lt Edward Kopsel claimed the Black Widow’’s fi rst ‘Doodlebug’ kills of the Widow war on 15 July. Ernst remembered an early V1 engagement. “We were cruising at 7,500ft and suddenly spotted a ‘diver’ down low at 2,000ft. I dropped the nose of my Widow and pushed the throttle forward in an e ff ort ort to close the gap as quickly as possible. T e V1 was moving at about 340mph. All of a sudden, there was a loud boom and a tremendous amount of noise in the cockpit, to the extent I could not hear a word that my R/O was screaming. I thought a German fi ghter had shot us down and here I was on my very fi rst mission. “Seconds later, I realised that the aircraft was still responding, but the noise level was terri fic. I aborted the mission and fl ew back to our English base. After we landed, we discovered that the Plexiglas tail cone had blown out and it was the high-speed dive that had done it. We corrected fl at piece the problem by putting a fl of Plexiglas over the opening and everything was back to normal. “Te next night we went out again and it wasn wasn’t ’t long before we spotted s potted another one. T e scenario was the same as last night — dive down, overtake and fi re. T is time we closed the gap, lined it up and fi red several rounds of 20mm. Being as close as
O
LEFT: Lt Her Herman man
Ernst po Ernst pose sess fo forr th the e came ca mera ra in hisP-61 hisP-61,, 42-5547 Borrowed before ore flying Time, bef a mis missio sion n fro from m one of th the e 42 422n 2nd’ d’ss French Fren ch bas bases. es. Ern Ernst st had ha d a to tota tall of five manned aircr aircraft aft kills kil ls in PP-61 61ss along al ong wi with th on one e V1 destroyed. HERMAN ERNST
OPPOSITE:
Lt Bob Bol Bolind inder er flies P-61A-10-NO 42-5565 Double Trouble on a po post st-maintenance mainte nance check ight ht wi with th hiscrew flig chieff in the gunn chie gunner’ er’ss seat. sea t. Bol Bolind inder er sc scored ored four fo ur ki kills lls,, th thre ree e of them occurr occurring ing on th the e ni nigh ghtt of 17 Decemb Dec ember er 194 1944, 4, jus justt afte af terr th the e st star artt of th the e Battle Bat tle of the Bul Bulge. ge. BOB BOLINDER
we were, the rocket blew up and I did not have a chance to keep out of the debris… I was lucky to make it back to base.” Tat base changed in late July when the 422nd became fully operational. It moved to France, fi rst to Maupertus near Cherbourg and then Châteaudun. Night interdiction sorties proved the big, stable Black Widow’s Widow ’s eff ectiveness ectiveness as an air-toground platform using its four 20mm cannon. However, However, aerial targets were at a premium by night. Between July and mid-September the P-61s shot down three manned aircraft before relocating to Florennes, Belgium.
On rare occasions the Northrop night fi ghters saw action just before nightfall. Prior to the Battle of the Bulge, on 24 October 1944 squadron commander Lt Col Oris B. Johnson
that time had moved to Belgium and was very close to German soil, so there was no telling what the Germans might throw up at night. “I kept at my normal altitude over the area I was assigned to patrol, 10,000ft, and I immediately responded to the call from GCI. I dropped down to the altitude they said the enemy aircraft was, but didn didn’t ’t notice any activity and returned to my original altitude. Minutes later, GCI told us they were picking up several more blips, this time at 5,000ft. I quickly rolled over and down to close on the intruders’ location. T is time it was the real thing: three Fw 190s loaded with bombs, on a straight and level course, flying at 250mph. “We wasted no time as I headed into the middle of the formation, and within seconds the German pilots sighted us. Two Two of the enemy fi ghters broke off sharply, sharply, but the lead aircraft stayed on course. I closed rapidly to
‘We closed the gap, lined it up and fired several rounds. The V1 blew up and I had no chance chance to keep out of the debris debris’ ’ and Capt James Montgomery were patrolling in their P-61, No P-61, No Love! No Nothing! Johnson Johnson recalled, “At 18.05hrs, GCI [the ground-contro ground-controlled lled intercept station] radioed that they had picked up multiples coming from the east at 4,000ft. T e squadron by
about 1,000ft dead-astern and put my sights squarely on the fuselage and wings. Two Two short bursts from my 20mm found their mark, but were not fatal. T e Fw 190 absorbed the hits in his right wing and drifted into a slow turn to port.
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P-61s IN EUROPE
RIGHT: Tw Two o of th the e 422nd’s aircr aircrews ews — from fr om le left ft to ri righ ght, t, John Anderson (pilot (pi lot)) and Jam James es Mogan (R/O) flew in Tennessee Ridge Runner , whi while le Robert Rob ert Elmor Elmore e (pilot) (pilo t) and Leon Leonard ard Mapess (R/O Mape (R/O)) crewed Shoo Shoo Baby . JOHN ANDERSON
scene ne BELOW: A sce from the 422 from 422nd’ nd’s period per iod at Sco Scorto rton, n, North Yorkshire, with wit h Lt Her Herman man Ernst’s Borrowed Time bey beyond ond the Black Bla ck Wid Widow ow in the fore foregroun ground. d. Among the aircr aircraft aft in th the e di dist stan ance ce ca can n beseen besee n No604 Squadron Squad ron Mosq Mosquito uito night fighter ghters, s, two Typho Ty phoons ons and an Oxford. JOHN ANDERSON
“By this time”, Johnso Johnson n continued, “the range had narrowed down to 500ft, and the next fi ve-second burst delivered the lethal blow blow.. Hits were observed all over his fuselage with black smoke pouring from his engine.
intruders had disappeared into the darkness.” Missions involving single kills occurred during October and November Nove mber,, but in December things began to hot up. Eighteen kills were
‘Fire was opened with one long burst, which caused the Bf 110 to explode’ Te doomed 190 nosed down into a
near-vertical dive and exploded upon impact with the ground. We didn’t see a parachute and the other two
scored that month, the fi rst ‘big night’ for the Black Widows being 17 December when the 422nd shot down fi ve enemy aircraft.
Capt Robert Elmore, whose R/O was Lt Leonard Mapes, recalls: “ We were over 1st Army positions right after midnight and I remember it was a black night, overcast without a star to be seen. I fi rst started noticing activity from the brilliant searchlights on the ground, shining west. At that time [our] GCI ‘Marmite’ started seeing several aircraft come into our area and one of them passed overhead going in the opposite direction. “‘Marmite’ vectored us onto a target and Lt Mapes immediately found it on his scope. He directed me until I was to get a visual on it. Wee came in below it and identi fied W it as a Ju 88. We dropped back, got directly behind and fi red a short burst of 20mm. T e enemy aircraft went into a diving turn as we saw two parachutes open. T is had been a textbook kill with no evasive action by the Ju 88 pilot.” Five days later Elmore and Mapes were out again, covering an area between the Meuse river and St Vith. Tis time they would run into more difficulty culty.. Mapes recounted: “After some time on patrol, our GCI vectored us onto a bogey at 7,000ft with a range of eight miles coming head-on. I got radar contact at 8,000ft and completed the head-on interception by directing Capt Elmore to 1,000ft astern, where he was able to get a visual but could not get a de finite identification due to the bogey’s position with respect to the moon. “We pulled off to to one side and at 500ft identified the bogey as a Bf
110, fl ying on a course of 300° at 800ft. His airspeed was only 190mph. Dropping back to dead-astern at 100ft, fi re was opened with one long burst from the 20mm cannon, which caused the 110 to explode in mid-air. “It had been another easy victory for the P-61, but we were far from getting free of the encounter. Flying through the debris and fl ames from the explosion caused Cat A damage to our Black Widow. Our left engine was on fi re; however, Capt Elmore maintained control of the aircraft. We were going to bail out but it appeared that the left engine fi re was burning out in the dive [Elmore initiated] to accomplish [that]. Finally it did go out but the engine was inoperative. “On one engine, which was not running 100 per cent, we were ready to return to base when we were advised that all the [nearby air fields] were socked in at zero-zero [visibility]. We were informe informed d that a Royal Air Force Force base in Brussels had barely minimum ceiling so we headed for it. We had never been there before but found the base through my radar interpretation. GCI was a big help. At the time, we were very very low on fuel and the ceiling was around 100ft, but with his excellent flying ability Capt Elmore got us on the ground. Our P-61 was junked, junk ed, but the durability durability of this aircraft with only one Pratt & Whitney engine, along with Elmore’s flying skill, had shown us safely to the base.” During the Battle of the Bulge, other units sent a couple of crews and aircraft up to help the 422nd. Among
them was a senior R/O from the 12th Air Force’s 416th NFS, Lt Earl R. Dickey, who had fl own in Mosquitoe Mosquitoess down in the Mediterranean theatre and seen a lot of action. Now he was to encounter a Messer Messerschmitt schmitt Me 262 jet fi ghter for the fi rst time.
“Late one night”, Dickey recalled, “we were vectored by ground control to intercept a bogey that was fl ying at a very high cruise speed and making mild evasive turns. Obviously Obviously,, the enemy pilot was not aware of any interception action from Allied night fighters. My target blip, in elevation and azimuth as well as range, was very clear as we turned in behind. We had to continually increase the power
settings on our P-61’s engines to keep from dropping behind. Finally Finally,, at absolute maximum cruise power, we were able to match the speed, but not better it. “After observing the casual, curving flight path of the intruder, I asked my pilot to take up a southerly heading and hold it so we could close in on fl ying a straight path in the him by fl general direction he was headed. Wee were fl ying at a slightly higher W altitude, approximately 10,000ft, as I recall. Sure enough, we were able to slowly close on the bogey and still keep him from leaving the radar scope left and right. His altitude was fairly constant. We closed to within a mile without incident. T e weather was hazy and he was not showing lights, so we had no visual at that
Three Thre e Bla Black ck Widows fro Widows from m the ‘Gree ‘G reen n Ba Bats ts’’ on a training traini ng missi mission on out of Sco Scorto rton. n. Lead Le adin ing g th the e tr trio io is 42-5564 Jukin’ Judy ; neares nea restt the cam camera era is 4242-553 5536 6 Husslin’ furthe thest st Hussey , and fur away awa y 42-557 42-5573 3 Lovely Lady . ABOVE:
JOHN ANDERSON
LEFT: Wh When en Lt
Herman Erns Herman Ernstt got too to o cl clos ose e toa V1 before press pressing ing the tri trigge ggerr, the explos exp losion ion was big enoug eno ugh h to bu burn rn of off f most mo st of hisP-61 hisP-61’’s fabr fa bric ic an and d doa lot of str struct uctura urall damage dam age.. He was nevert nev erthele heless ss abl able e to land saf safely ely.. It was the firs rstt ki killof llof a V1 during dur ing the ear early ly part pa rt of th the e 42 422n 2nd’ d’ss tour. HERMAN ERNST FAR FA R LEFT LEFT:: Gun camera film wa wass
practically useles practically uselesss at nig night. ht. How Howeve everr, this was tak taken en by Ra Raym ymondA. ondA. Anders And erson on on the night nig ht of 21 Ma Marc rch h 1945 19 45 wh when en he sh shot ot down do wn a Do 21 217. 7. RAY ANDERSON
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P-61s IN EUROPE
Right after a bliz blizzar zard, d, the these se Black Widow Widowss are ar e li line ned d up at Florenness ready Florenne togo ona ni nigh ghtt mission. miss ion. Crew chiefs chi efs and oth other er personnel perso nnel hav have e cleane cle aned d the sno snow w from fro m the air aircra craft. ft.
ABOVE:
JOHN ANDERSON
distance and continued to gradually close successfully, successfully, with the GCI still tracking until we were within range of our 20mm cannon — still no visual identification. “Just as we had agreed to fi re on the aircraft without a visual [but] with GCI approval… the target left us like we were standing still. On my scope, it chandelled right and climbed out of range, o ff my my scope. Wee were later informed that we had W got close enough to trigger the early tail warning thought to have been incorporated into the Me 262. T is meant we had a good chance of hitting him with our 20mm from the minimum range we had reached behind him, if only we had had a few seconds more.”
around Bonn, Germany. Germany. It was about 23.00hrs before we hit our area. Te overcast was at 4,000ft with a beautiful, moonlit, clear sky above. “Suddenly, I picked up a bogey on my radar that was high above us and travelling at a terri fic speed. Just as it was about to pass over us, Capt Elmore put us into a hard 180° turn. I could not fi nd it on my radar and looked out above us. T e sight was unbelievable! It appeared to be shaped like a wedge of pie, with a long plume fl ame coming from its rear end. of fl
“I kept watching him and calling out where he was over the intercom. He appeared to be in a tight circle
‘This strange aircraft broke off and went into a vertical climb with a long plume of fl ame... ame... we agreed it was a new Me 163’ Elmore and Mapes were fl ying a night mission on 15 Nov November ember 1944 when the most bizarre bogey t hey had yet seen showed up. Mapes said: “We were fl ying what was known as a ‘Freelan ‘Freelance’ ce’ intruder mission
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directly above us. About the time that Capt Elmore got a visual, the flame died down to a glow and it started to spiral down on us. I could see intermittent bursts of fi re from the nose and knew it was cannon or
machine gun fi re. I relayed this on and we began taking violent evasive action. “Suddenly,, this “Suddenly t his strange aircraft broke off and and went into a vertical climb, again with a long plume of flame… After several manoeuvre manoeuvress like this, we agreed that it was a new German Me 163 rocket [ fighter]. We never could get in a position to fi re on it because of its tight spiralling and rapid climbs. Finally, it left the area and we never saw it again. Although we never fi red a shot at it, it was a very impressive sight. T is had been the fi rst night sighting of the Komet by an American night fi ghter squadron. If the 163 had decided to take us on, it would have been a challenge to stay away from his two 30mm MK 108 cannon. cannon.”” Te squadron achieved 11 confirmed kills between 24 and 27 December 1944 alone. On one occasion, Ernst and Kopsel were Borrowed Time flying in Black Widow Borrowed with 422nd NFS intelligence o fficer Lt Phillip Guba riding in the gunner’s seat. Ernst recalled, “W “Wee were fl ying at 8,000ft in a westerly direction toward our base when I noticed an aircraft below us at 2,000ft with its red and yellow navigation lights on. Believe fl ares. I it or not, it was dropping fl
AEROPL ANE JULY 2016
LEFT: Conditions at
peeled off and and quickly reached the unidentified bogey, approaching from the rear. I pulled in behind him at a distance of about 1,500ft. With the help of the night goggles, Lt Guba was able to identify the aircraft as a Ju 88. By this time, the enemy aircraft had altered course to the true north and was fl ying straight and level at 2,000ft with an air speed of 250mph.
the bases in France were crude. Future ace Lt Paul A. Smith (who claimed five manned aircraft and one V1) shaved next to his tent along the flightline in the late summer of 1944. JOHN ANDERSON
“At that moment, we were spotted and the German pilot initiated violent evasive action. I still had him in my sights and the gap was steadily closing. From 500ft directly behind, I gave him a short burst. I observed many hits over the target’s fuselage. Te Ju 88’s dorsal turret opened up on us as I moved over to the right side to avoid overshooting. I dropped slightly low and, lining him up again, squeezed off three three short bursts. T e hits caused both of the 88’s engines to explode and the aircraft fell away to the left and down. It impacted the ground in a huge ball of fi re. A second before it hit, I vividly remember seeing it fi re off another another red fl are. Tose 20mm cannon we were armed ffe with mutilated any of the Luftwa ff aircraft and the aircrews didn’t didn’t have
much of a chance to get out, plus we were fl ying at such low altitudes.” Te Battle of the Bulge was productive for the 422nd and the other Black Widow unit involved, the 425th NFS. Aside from nocturnal air-to-air engagements, both carried out a significant number of daylight stra fing sorties against German forces. But once the enemy retreated from the Ardennes in January 1945,
ffe aircraft seldom ventured Luftwa ff over Belgium. T e 422nd increasing increasingly ly found most ‘trade’ in German skies. On the night of 20-21 March 1945, P-61 pilot Capt Raymond Anderson received a call from ‘Marmite’ saying that an unidenti fied aircraft was headed in their direction. After several vectors, they picked up the bogey one-and-a-half miles out. It was already engaged in violent evasive
BELOW: Double Trouble over the
English countryside during a flight from Hurn in June 1944. BOB BOLINDER
P-61s IN EUROPE
RIGHT: P-61 42-5558 No Love! No Nothing! , th the e aircraft aircr aft assig assigned ned to the 422 422th’ th’s comman com mander der Lt Col Oris John Johnson, son, here has Lt Bob Bol Bolind inder er in the coc cockpi kpit. t.
opening. Seconds later, the aircraft was witnessed hitting the ground in a massive explosion. Te advance of Allied forces saw the 422nd leaving Florennes in April 1945, bound for Strassfeld near Euskirchen in mid-western Germany. Te P-61s were only stationed there for a few weeks, moving eastwards to Bad Langensalza, their location at the time of VE Day Day.. For some months they remained in Germany on occupation duties, now stationed at Kassel. T e unit went back to France before disbandment in September, its job as a night fi ghter outfit done.
IWM/ROGER FREEMAN COLLECTION
Framed Fra med by the ta the tail il of a th thir ird d P-61 P61 are 4242-553 5536 6 Husslin’ Hussey (left) (le ft) and 4242-556 5564 4 Jukin’ Judy .
BELOW:
NATIONALL ARCHIVES AND NATIONA RECORDS ADMINISTRA ADMINISTRATION TION
action. After losing contact several times, they locked on again, Anderson getting a visual with the aircraft’s twin exhausts and twin tails. Getting
straight and level. Anderson lined up the target and fi red a long burst with his 20mm cannon. T e Dornier immediately burst into fl ames with
‘Turning and diving, the Black Widow crew saw a wing come off the Do 217’ closer, it was identi fied as a Dornier Do 217K-2. At this point the enemy pilot quit the evasive action and began fl ying
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debris falling o ff . Turning and diving to avoid a collision with the Do 217, the Black Widow crew saw a wing coming o ff it it and a parachute
Assessing the Black Widow’s Widow’s eff ectiveness ectiveness in the European theatre brings inevitable comparisons with the night fi ghter variants of the Mosquito. Mosqui to. Both, naturally naturally,, had their strengths and weaknesses. One aspect of the American aircraft that ‘Green Bats’ crews had to address was the lack of its intended top turret. Only 37 of the fi rst 45 P-61A-1 models had one, while the -5 was produced without a top turret, as priority for this item went to B-29 Superfortress production. Later models reinstated it, but, thanks to the 20mm cannon, the 422nd NFS had all the fi repower it needed.
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