Germans Experiment in Flying Searchlights

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 121, 23 May 1940, Page 8

Germans Experiment in Flying Searchlights

DOUBT CAST ON VALUE LONDON, April 30. British pilots visiting Germany have commented on the contribution to th< decorative scheme of the enemy’s ai defences afforded by coloured search lights. One theory is that orange o violet light penetrates clouds and mi: more easily. Another, that it cnabl. anti-aircraft gunners to identify frien and foe by painting their own aircra in “sympathetic” colours. Now there is a suggestion that th German Air Force has been experimenting in a new direction—fitting searchlights into aircraft. The idea is that the crews of night bombers could thus see their objectives from tho air, In spite of rigid black-out. Alternatively, with searchlights fitted to fighter craft, defending pilots would be able to pick up hostile bombers, even though they wore not detected and held by the ground defences. The idea of showing a powerful light from an aircraft in action is in opposition to accepted tactics of air fighting. A first principle, applicable to fighter and bomber aircraft alike, is to remain unseen by the enemy as far as possible. The orthodox method of illuminating a target from the air is by dropping parachute flares, while fighter pilots engaging raiding bombers by night can rely on the co-ordinated searchlight defences to light-up their quarry. German ground searchlights have frequently been “doused” as a result of the fire of raiding British bombers, aiming their guns down the beam of light. And no German pilot is likely to relish advertising his exact location by shining a tell-talo searchlight in the presence of enemies, whether hidden in tho darkness around him or on the ground below.