BOXART STORY

#82163

Moskitojagd

During World War II, both Germany and

Great Britain came to use night bombing as

a significant part of their war effort to damage

or destroy the enemy's production and logistic

targets, as well as to break the morale of the

enemy population. In doing so, the two air forces

addressed similar technical problems. One of

these was finding a target in night conditions

and marking it for other bombers.

A pioneer in this respect was the German

bomber unit KGr. 100 (later I./KG 100), which

from the autumn of 1940, during raids on Great

Britain, searched for targets using electronic

equipment and marked them with flares. This

tactic so intrigued the British that, despite

opposition from Arthur Harris, Commander

of Bomber Command, it was adopted by the

RAF. The crews tasked with marking targets

in Germany were placed under the command

of the Path Finder Force (PFF), which began

operations in August 1942 with five squadrons.

Their armament included Wellingtons,

Mosquitos, Lancasters, Halifaxes and Stirlings.

In January 1943, these specialized units

were concentrated in No. 8 (Pathfinder Force)

Group, which gradually grew to 16 squadrons.

These units were always the first to receive

the new bomb aiming systems (Gee, Oboe and

H2S). If the Germans managed to shoot down

a Pathfinder crew, it greatly hindered the

accuracy of the bombing raid. The Pathfinder

planes and especially the fast Mosquito were

among the most prized trophies among German

night fighters. These fast twin-engined aircraft

also performed night bombing duties and

40

INFO Eduard

were successfully deployed as long-range

night fighters. Their target were German night

fighters and thus the hunter becomes the

hunted. Interception of Mosquitos (German:

Moskitojagd) were often fruitless and frustrated

German pilots, whose machines were not up to

the performance of these British twin-engined

fighters, saw only condensation lines or no

enemy at all.

On the German side, the number of night

bombing attacks on Great Britain gradually

declined and efforts to defend their own

territory with anti-aircraft artillery and night

fighters using radar stations increased.

From the summer of 1943, the Luftwaffe also

deployed to night combat single-engine day

fighters without radar equipment, whose

pilots searched for targets following radio

instructions from ground controllers. This

tactic was given the designation Wilde Sau

(Wild Boar), but by early 1944 these units

were increasingly being assigned to daytime

combat against American bombers. A new

unit tasked with continuing Wilde Sau tactics

and experimenting with the use of radar on

single-engine fighters was 1./NJGr. 10 under

the command of Hptm. Friedrich-Karl “Nasen”

Müller. He was the most successful fighter of

the Wilde Sau units, achieving 30 victories in

52 combat sorties. For details on Müller and

his aircraft, which is pictured in combat with

Mosquito on Adam Tooby's boxart, see Neil

Page's article in INFO magazine 11/2019.

Müller's aircraft was equipped with the

DB 605 AS engine, which increased power gave

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Adam Tooby

a better chance of intercepting and destroying

the fast Mosquito at high altitudes than the

conventional Bf 109 G-6 and G-14. Müller´s

machine also had the armoured headrest

removed for weight reduction and a better view

from the cockpit. During July 1944, Müller's

pilots managed to shoot down three Mosquitos,

but their commander had to wait until the

night of 23-24 August to also shoot down the

Wooden Wonder. His target was the crew of the

Mosquito B Mk.XX (KB242) from No. 608 Sqn

RAF, with Canadian F/Lt Stuart Douglas Webb

at the controls. Their machine was hit by flak

during a raid on Cologne. Müller attacked the

damaged Mosquito near Eindhoven and after

the fourth attack the British machine went into

a spin at 25,000ft, which Webb recovered at

9,000ft.

The aircraft had a destroyed elevator trim,

damaged hydraulic lines and a non functioning

airspeed indicator. Webb, however, managed

to get the aircraft to Woodbridge Base. Before

approach, his hydraulics failed completely and

during the hard landing with the landing gear

retracted, the tail section of the aircraft broke

off after being severely damaged by Müller's

fire. A few months later Stuart D. Webb was

sadly killed in a plane crash on 10 November.

He became one of more than 3,700 PFF

airmen who lost their lives. During World War

II, Pathfinder Force crews flew 5,490 sorties

against 3,440 targets. They fulfilled the motto

of their No. 8 (PFF) Group, “We guide to strike”.

November 2023