Last Stand at Hamburg

WEATHER: Nitefire
INSERTS: None
MIN.TIME: 12:15
RADAR: None (no map)

The German night fighter system
had proven effective "enough" in
the early stages of the war, com-
posed of hundreds of Himmelbett
boxes in which fighters were vec-
tored by ground controllers to at-
tack transient targets. This sys-
tem utilized two "Wurzburg-Reise"
ground radars for each defensive
zone; one tracked targets, the 
other tracked the nachtjagers.
The night fighters were held to
geographical reference points by
radio beacons. As targets were de-
tected, ground controllers could
ascertain which night fighters
could intercept, and would then
direct them to do so.
All of this came to an end on the
night of July 24-25, 1943. On this
night, 791 British bombers attacked
Hamburg. While en route to the city,
the bombers dropped "Window" - or
chaff - which was a shower of thou-
sands of tinfoil strips, cut in di-
mensions such that they reflected
German search radar waves. The German
defense was blinded, and Hamburg
burned. 4 major raids were conducted,
costing the British 59 aircraft. With
the Himmelbett system out of action,
Herrmann's Kommandos were thrown into
the battle; with 12 aircraft they
shot down 30 bombers during the rest
of the Battle.
ORDERS: Defend Hamburg from any further
bombing attacks. Note that this scenario
is played over Berlin, since Hamburg is
not a "city" as such in SWOTL.

