Schräge Musik

[sinissa]

Schräge Musik, derived from the German colloquialism for "Jazz Music" (the German word "schräg" literally means "slanted" or "oblique"; it also has a secondary meaning of "weird", "strange", "off-key" or "abnormal" as in the English "queer"), was the name given to installations of upward-firing cannon mounted in night fighters by the Luftwaffe and Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II. This allowed them to approach and attack British bombers from below, where they would be outside the bomber crew's field of view. Few bombers of that era carried defensive guns in the ventral position. The ventral turret fitted to some early Lancasters was sighted by periscope from within the fuselage, and proved of little use - the fitting of a Sperry ball turret of the kind fitted to the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator would not have been practical as the British bombers had not been designed to use them-and sighting a target at night, for the ball turret gunner to aim at, might have been a problem as well.

This quote is from wiki. From few sources i readed that this inovation was used with such of sucess that no ally bomber surived to report back.

Now when i digged more of this,i found werry nice site.
http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/WW2guneffect.htm

Tabels and explanation on this side r something that is must see.

[TISO]

A chap named Fieseler (later aircraft designer) used it in the great war for shooting down antante bombers on the Balcan (Solun) front.

[wooden major]

the dorsal cannons also allowed the night fighter to approach and center himself between the faint blue exhaust stacks and fire from very close without being in danger of collision and trailing debris .a dead astern attack in pitch black conditions would cause such a close position before sighting that the cannon strikes would emperil the night fighter .

[Ricky]

Just a passing thought - the RAF bombers are often criticised for having .303 defensive guns, which lacked the range & hitting power of .5 or 20mm guns. However, at night the gunners were employed more as observers, with the best defensive tactic being to escapre through manouver rather than get into a shooting match. Most of this was due to the environment they were fighting in - at night it is harder to see your opponants, especially when factoring in weaponry like the Schräge Musik, so trading fire with a smaller, less observable opponant (who also has a lot of firepower) is a bad idea. Also, firing your guns shows off your position to anybody watching, which is a bad idea.

[Hubsu]

fire from very close without being in danger of collision and trailing debris

Not entirely accurate, as there probably was very little danger from trailing debris but falling debris is as dangerous as any thing that would want to midair the aspiring nachtflieger. For example Manfred Meurer (65 night victories) had a Lancaster he had shot down coming on top of his Heinkel and he was subsequently killed.

[TISO]

One of the real dangers in emplying this was possible hitting of the bomb bay which resulted in a huge explosion ussualy taking a nightfighter with it.
British bomber armament on Lanc and Hallibat (halifax) was quite satisfactory witgh exception of no guns being mounted in the belly. 303 calliber was good enough for night ops. where ranges of firing were mauch closer than during the daytime. There were some experiments with larger calliber (12.7mm and even 20mm guns) but those never went beyond experimental stage.
The main purpose of gunners was to scare away the fighter not shoot it down.

[Hoosier]

I might surmise that the obliquely-firing cannon angled overhead also did much to preserve a pilot's "night vision." A bunch of forward-firing cannon would ruin a pilot's night vision and I would expect he'd be night-blind for a few minutes after firing a burst.
Not so much a problem for the radar-operator as he would/should have his eyes glued to the radar sweep-screen.

Tim

[Ricky]

There were some experiments with larger calliber (12.7mm and even 20mm guns) but those never went beyond experimental stage.

IIRC some/all of the Canadian-built Lancs had .5 Browning mgs, but this doesn't really detract from your point.

[wooden major]

good point tim , but iirc , night vision comprimised by even one muzzle flash , would take several hours to return to optimum .only red light dosnt buggar night vision , thus we see all sub , tank and ship control interiors lit with only red light bulbs in all ww2 footage .night ighter pilots and night conning tower crews were very careful not to expose their eyes to daylight or any even white light bulb prior tp going on duty .

the ijn practiced night ops dilligently for years prior to the war and had a hand picked corps of crewmen with superiour night vision to serve at critical posts , this effort paid great dividends in early war night actions in the south pacific . the advent of improved allied radar finally cancelled out these advantages .

the demise of JFK.s pt 109 , run down and cut in half , in inky darkness , by an alert ijn destroyer watch , illustrated very well the superiour night fighting skills of the ijn ."profiles in courage " tells the story of young naval officer who loses his cozy washington DC post , by sleeping with a suspected nazi agent , then proceeds to lose his war ship by napping on watch ..and then comes away as a decorated hero ....haveing a dad who was formally the ambasador to the court of st james .

[canambridge]

And Daddy (Joe Kennedy Sr.) thought the war in Europe was lost and htat it would be necessary to come to terms with Nazi Germany.

[wooden major]

joe sr made good money in bootlegging and investing wisely ,,,he bailed out of the stock market in late 29' after getting a "hot "stock tip from a shoeshine boy ...when bootblacks and hat check girls are playing margins and options ,,its time to pull the plug ...

one lanc tail gunner saved his entire crew by bailing out and then head butting the prop of a close following zerstorer right before the german thumbed his gun button ,,,though i doubt that was the hapless gunners original plan .

[FNG]

that article and site is by an ex poster here

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=86

I miss his stuff as he was detailed and knowledgable

FNG