(Gordon) wrote:

My specialty is WWII nightfighting and I can say that, particularly in the
first half of the war, as many a/c were lost or abandoned due to weather (or
collisions in poor visibility) than to enemy action. One night off the top of
my head, a small RAF bomber force had to all abandon their aircraft due to viz
over their bases - something like 5 Wimpys, I think. On more than one occasion,
a Mosquito raid that lost no aircraft due to enemy action had to abandon their
aircraft upon return because there was no clear landing field. Such events were
not rare on either side and veteran nightfighter pilots uniformly considered
the weather every bit as much of an enemy as the other team.

I can think of a time or two that I would've loved to "abandon the
A/C" in Can't-See-**** conditions had I been wearing a chute.
One of my former bosses flew Huns in 'Nam and used to poo-poo
us lowly charter jockies when we'd complain about launching from
a short runway way over gross at night and in bad weather (of course,
he hadn't flown in ages and it was our asses on the line and not
his!) Granted, we weren't getting shot at but the risk was probably
just as great because we weren't launching from a nice 10,000 ft. long
runway with barriers and emergency equipment/personnel at the end
in a jet equipped with an ejection seat and the best maintenance
that money could buy. In any event, other than NDB's, what type of
instrument approaches were generally available back in WW2?

-Mike Marron