P-70 Nightfighter

[latosusi]

Which squadrons are available to be upgraded to this airplane?

Thank you in advance

[btd64]

There's a squadron at pearl harbor which belongs to the 18th fighter group. I think it's the 9th squadron. Anyway it's the only one early on and it upgrades to the P-70....GP

[latosusi]

thank you

[fcooke]

Has anyone ever had any luck with P-70s?

[RangerJoe]

They best effect is to disrupt the bombers but I have had a P-40B shoot down a bomber at night . . .

[geofflambert]

Bombing at night is a fool's errand. Shooting down a bomber at night is great but that bomber shouldn't have been flying around at that hour. Later on the mass Allied raids had their effect, but until you have NFs with radar you can't really do much about it.

[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.

[spence]

Japan 'seems' to have better luck at night than the Allies do.

Probably relates to the high experience level of IJ aviators. It does seem that the gunners of IJ night bombers get the first shot in the combat replays even though they are using the Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeball when the night fighter is equipped with one or another of the various air intercept radars.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: spence

Japan 'seems' to have better luck at night than the Allies do.

Probably relates to the high experience level of IJ aviators. It does seem that the gunners of IJ night bombers get the first shot in the combat replays even though they are using the Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeball when the night fighter is equipped with one or another of the various air intercept radars.

Definitely. My non-NF Allied night CAP units were not able to shoot anything down until I made sure that every pilot was minimum 70/70 in Experience and Air. Even then they don't take down very many, but they do disrupt the formation.

The real night killers are my B-17Es. Just yesterday, one unit shot down 5 Claudes and 2 Zeros in a pair of night engagements over Port Moresby.

[geofflambert]

Someone uses Claudes for something other than trainers?

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Someone uses Claudes for something other than trainers?

The AI does, for a while anyway. Of course, so did the IJN historically, which supports my long standing argument that the AI is a far better approximation of the historical Japanese opponent than any human.

[geofflambert]

I guess the US should have scrounged up all the Jennys they could find and sent them up with a guy in back with a slingshot.

[RangerJoe]

I guess the US should have scrounged up all the Jennys they could find and sent them up with a guy in back with a slingshot.

Hand grenades and a BAR . . .

[Gridley380]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

I guess the US should have scrounged up all the Jennys they could find and sent them up with a guy in back with a slingshot.

Hand grenades and a BAR . . .

Or a 1911 from an L-4: http://lbirds.com/flying-l-birds-spotli ... ings-spain

[RangerJoe]

I wonder if they received an Air Medal for their aerial combat victory . . .

[geofflambert]

Presented by Goldilocks.

[fcooke]

I did have one of those Dutch observation get a kill once....single engine USN planes don't seem to get many kills.

[Macclan5]

I concur with Ranger Joe.

The real value of the P70 - which is 'a little later in the war' - other airframes - earlier airframes is night bombing disruption moreso than effectively shooting down night bombers.

Damage of any sort is a bonus as the plane may expire as an operational loss as opposed to a-to-a loss in tracking (I think this is correct).

There are a number of earlier night fighters that are extremely valuable notwithstanding easily measurable success.

The Blenhems in Singapore come to mind. P40B's in Manila (assigning a squadron thereof). Rangoon / Manadalay is another area of critical importance.

This is verses the AI of course - none the less at least 'some Japanese' players would engage in Night bombing tactics against early objectives I assume.

Simply deflecting a raid saves port / airfield / base damage that requires precious supply to rebuild; this presumes you want to maintain momentum in building fortifications for example.

[BBfanboy]

Good points Macclan5. [:)]

I had a plastic model of the P-70 Black Widow once - loved the look of it. With the big radome in the nose and the 4 X .50 Cals on the roof and 4 X 20mm under the belly it looks like a "can't miss" killer (centreline mounted guns being most accurate for the pilot). So one time I looked up info on the P-70 war record, only to find that it had almost no kills and rarely saw action. By the time it came along the Japanese just weren't doing much night operations of any kind over land. Too bad the P-70 isn't carrier capable!

[Macclan5]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Good points Macclan5. [:)]

I had a plastic model of the P-70 Black Widow once - loved the look of it. With the big radome in the nose and the 4 X .50 Cals on the roof and 4 X 20mm under the belly it looks like a "can't miss" killer (centreline mounted guns being most accurate for the pilot). So one time I looked up info on the P-70 war record, only to find that it had almost no kills and rarely saw action. By the time it came along the Japanese just weren't doing much night operations of any kind over land. Too bad the P-70 isn't carrier capable!

+1

Beautiful plane agreed. It may have been relatively operationally ineffective in the PAC Theater but I do believe it served as a platform for further developments.

Carrier Capable -

I have learned to treasure those AIRCENPAC and AIRSOPAC (memory) F6FNs squadrons that come in late 43 and through 44 as I recall [:D]

Of the thousands of 'carrier deployment questions' I have personally asked ( [8D] )and read in these forums - my enduring lesson is to subdivide the F6FNs squadrons and 'squeeze' them onto carriers late 43 onwards.

The AI is smart enough to send some night Betties against you; I am sure IJN fanboi's do so as well.

I sleep better at night doing so