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Blenheim Mk1 NF Question

S

swpierce

SOH-CM-2025
I am inquiring about one of the Blenheim Mk1 night fighters from the Reg's Hanger website. It is in desert camo with the squadron code letters VT. Can anybody tell me which squadron this represents?
 
It's a glitch. The skin is one of Will Hunter's for MAW that crept in somehow behind Greg's back. There's only one night fighter, the black one.
 
Well, I found with a little additional research that the VT code on the Blenheim is for 30 Squadron which was used as a fighter unit in Egypt before moving to Greece. I'm assuming no radar was available that early in the war in that theatre.
 
To be honest, nobody used the Blenheim MkI as a night fighter. We put together that package based on the sole example anybody has seen a picture of, which was with an OTU to boot! We did not find a single photo of another NF MkI. I don't think they were used really operationally - just for training and development. But as we don't have a completed MkIV - they really were used, albeit briefly - we put it in to give the people something to go hunting with!
 
ndicki said:
To be honest, nobody used the Blenheim MkI as a night fighter. We put together that package based on the sole example anybody has seen a picture of, which was with an OTU to boot! We did not find a single photo of another NF MkI. I don't think they were used really operationally - just for training and development. But as we don't have a completed MkIV - they really were used, albeit briefly - we put it in to give the people something to go hunting with!
Click to expand...

In December 1938, Nos 23, 25, 29 and 64(Fighter) Squadrons were already equipped with the Blenheim Mk IF night fighter, and Nos 600, 601 and 604 Squadrons of the Auxiliary Air Force were also equipped in January 1939.

During the Battle of Britain, RAF Fighter Command fielded six Blenheim Mk IF Squadrons in the night fighter role, although most of their limited success was gained by day rather than by night. One notable exception to this was the world's first air victory using airborne radar, achieved by a Blenheim of the Fighter Interception Unit over a Dornier Do 17 during the night of 2/3 July 1940.

Better success was gained by the Blenheim night fighters as the German night Blitz increased in tempo during the winter of 1940-1, although the number of victories was rapidly overtaken by that of the new Beaufighter, to which the Blenheim gave place to at that time.

The all black Blenheim which Nigel refers to, 'YX-N', belonged to 54 OTU, a fighter training unit whose job it was to produce night fighter crews for Beaufighter and Mosquito Night fighters (not Blenheims).

:wavey:Winjeel
 
Do you know much about the Mk1F in the Med? So far I have seen only 30 Squadron referenced (on-line) with very few details on their operations and results.
 
As far as is known, only 2 Squadrons of Blenheim Mk IFs were ever posted outside the UK. The first was 27 Squadron, based in India when it recieved it's Blenheims but shortly posted to Singapore, where it was massacred during the Malay Penninsula battles.

The other was 30 Squadron, based in the canal zone of Egypt. 30 Squadron was a composite Blenheim Squadron with both Mk I (bombers) and Mk IFs on strength. As far as the fighters go, probably their most famous operation was providing air cover (!) for the Sunderlands as they evacuated Commonwealth personnel from Crete. It's seems likely that was the last thing the Mk IFs did in the Med before the aircraft were upgraded (to Hurricanes if I remember correctly).

As a footnote to the previous post, once the Beaufighters took over as the main Night fighter force in England, the Blenheim IFs were used as night intruders over Europe, mainly hanging around German bomber airfields in the hope of catching out the unwary.

:wavey:Winjeel
 
Thanks for shining a bit of light on this. Not much detailed information available on the net on the early air war. Probably because so few actual participants managed to survive.
 
Richard (Winjeel) clearly has better sources of into than I do, but I would point out that by "night fighter" I don't mean the standard If variant flying at night, but the AI-equipped version... Which was somewhat rarer, although I have to take back the "nobody!"

Those profiles are of If type aircraft which fight at night, but are not AI-equipped. We looked at this pretty carefully at the time.
 
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