Operational History
In common with all other air forces of the time, the Luftwaffe did not possess an organized night fighter force at the outbreak of war. Although 5 Staffeln of Bf 109's and Bf 110's were designated as dual day/night fighter units, no specialist aircraft or trained crews existed and all night fighting took place on an ad-hoc basis by existing front line units.
By 1940 it was clear the Bf 110 twin engine fighter was more suitable for night defense duties, and in mid 1940 NJG 1 was formed from a cadre of experienced Zerstörer crews. Based at Ziese, Holland, the unit were part of the 1st Night Fighter Division under Oberst Josef Kammhuber. With little technical equipment or training, interceptions of night flying RAF bombers were sporadic through the year, although by October the first Himmelbett zones were in place to aid the aircrews with radar guidance and radio assistance from the ground.
Stretching across the approaches to the vital industrial targets in the Ruhr, each 'Himmelbett' zone had a searchlight battery and two Würzburg radar, one of which linked the fighter to a ground control, and one to a master searchlight to illuminate the bombers. The plotting control room enabled the single night fighter manning each zone to be vectored towards the bombers. The system first became known as 'Helle nachtjagd' and was evolved in to 1941 to include the longer range Würzburg radars, the short range Freya, and a single NJG 1 night fighter allocated to each 30 mile square zone.
Simple though the interception system was, NJG 1 did obtain a certain degree of success in 1941. Many future Night Experten would learn their trade in these early days, such as then-Oberleutnant Helmut Lent, who with 6./NJG 1, claimed his first kill in March 1941. By the end of 1941 Lent (with 20 kills) and Werner Streib (22 kills) would be the top scorers of NJG 1.
However, the need for an airborne radar interception system became increasingly obvious. The first Ju 88C fighters, equipped with Lichtenstein FuG 202 UHF-band airborne radar were delivered to I./NJG 1 at Venlo early in 1942. This allowed the crews to track a target over a range of 3,500 to 6,100 yards, the image appearing as a 'blip' on two cathode ray tubes.
NJG 1 also started receiving the upgraded Bf 110 G-4 in February 1942, able to be fitted with numerous 'conversion kits', giving the Geschwader flexibility in weapons, fuel capacity and engine performance. In 1942 the Dornier Do 217 J was also trialed in service with NJG 1; however the lack of performance made the type unpopular with crews.
Read more about this topic: Nachtjagdgeschwader 1
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