P-70 Nightfighter

[fcooke]

Gents - methinks your mixing up the P-61 black widow with earlier night fighter the P-70 Havoc. The P-70s may never have taken anything down but I would be shocked if the Widows did not.

[pontiouspilot]

Night bombing of anything but a city should be a fool's errand but in my game as Japan it certainly isn't. The massed allied 4 eng bombers are deadly, causing endless damage to airfields and troop concentrations even in face of significant night fighters. My opponent and I decided it was silly and banned it. I'm in DBB 28, July '43.

[rustysi]

I would be shocked if the Widows did not.

IIRC a Widow was credited with the last kill of the war.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: pontiouspilot

Night bombing of anything but a city should be a fool's errand but in my game as Japan it certainly isn't. The massed allied 4 eng bombers are deadly, causing endless damage to airfields and troop concentrations even in face of significant night fighters. My opponent and I decided it was silly and banned it. I'm in DBB 28, July '43.

TBH, I'm with you. It was no easy task during WWII to hit anything other than a city at night. Even that proved difficult enough for quite some time.

[Gridley380]

ORIGINAL: fcooke

Gents - methinks your mixing up the P-61 black widow with earlier night fighter the P-70 Havoc. The P-70s may never have taken anything down but I would be shocked if the Widows did not.

The P-61's did get kills (though not a whole lot); there was even a P-61 Ace.

[Macclan5]

Probably my mix up -

I stand corrected on the plane ....

My opinion / concurrence with Ranger Joe stands

[rustysi]

The P-61's did get kills (though not a whole lot);

I think the reason for that was by the time they came on the scene there just weren't too many axis planes up there at night.

[RangerJoe]

The P-61 Black Widow was very effective in Luzon. On the raid on the POW camp at Cabanatuan, it distracted the guards while the Rangers crawled up to the camp in daylight. At night, it patrolled above the roads to attack Japanese forces. In fact, the Rangers and POWs had to cross a couple of roads and there was no Japanese road traffic. While that may not have been the primary mission for the plane, it did you essential work to help make the raid an outstanding success.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

The P-61 Black Widow was very effective in Luzon. On the raid on the POW camp at Cabanatuan, it distracted the guards while the Rangers crawled up to the camp in daylight. At night, it patrolled above the roads to attack Japanese forces. In fact, the Rangers and POWs had to cross a couple of roads and there was no Japanese road traffic. While that may not have been the primary mission for the plane, it did you essential work to help make the raid an outstanding success.

My goof on thinking P-70 was the model reference for the Black Widow! Thanks for the correction on that!

And thanks for that interesting tidbit of history Ranger Joe! I can imagine that 4 x .50 cals and 4 X 20mm would clear a road pretty fast!

[Rusty1961]

ORIGINAL: latosusi

Which squadrons are available to be upgraded to this airplane?

Thank you in advance

If you intend to use it in night combat, don't bother. the NF interception routine is borked.

[RangerJoe]

Bother, it will disrupt night bombers.

[Alpha77]

ORIGINAL: pontiouspilot

Night bombing of anything but a city should be a fool's errand but in my game as Japan it certainly isn't. The massed allied 4 eng bombers are deadly, causing endless damage to airfields and troop concentrations even in face of significant night fighters. My opponent and I decided it was silly and banned it. I'm in DBB 28, July '43.

See this thread were the above fact is proven again:

tm.asp?m=4672727

[Alpha77]

ORIGINAL: fcooke

That's been my exp as well. RJ does make a point about creating disruption. Japan 'seems' to have better luck at night than the Allies do. But it is perception - no hard data to back it up.

Not my exp, I am playing as IJ PBM and Allied AI. The Allied 4Es in the PBM have mounted 2 smaller night raids (not a hundred planes mind you) which took out 2 air units on the ground (a Nick and Judy recon unit) and damaging 2 other fighter units.

Oth, the Japanese AI does also send in some smaller night raids vs. my Allied fields I never bothered about them as they perhaps damage 1 or 2 planes on the ground. Also did not bother to do night bombing as Allies. However I now may try it out...

I also think that night actions just another level of micromanagement, when there is already quite a bit of this for both sides without night attacks.

[RangerJoe]

Anti-aircraft artillery fires at night as well, ground radar helps it. Fortification levels also help barrage balloons.

[CaptBeefheart]

In my experience, night fighters get very few kills, but they do seem to reduce the effectiveness of night raids by quite a bit. Even 1/3 of a squadron of something without radar (Buffaloes or Mohawks, for instance) is useful.

Cheers,
CB

[RangerJoe]

Yes, even just a few. I like to divide the Blenheim IF into thirds. Some of them have even damaged enemy planes with not much experience or skill. In the beginning, the HQ air are nice for this.

[Rusty1961]

Don't waste too much time as the Allies on NFs.