This is coolbert: The old adage, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray", is as true in warfare as it is in any other field of endeavor. A perfect example of this is the radar system code named "Monica". This was a radar system developed by the British during World War to provide it's bomber force with warning of the approach of German night fighters. Early on in the war, the British abandoned the practice of daylight bombing in favor of night time bombing. Seems the English had found out that losses for the bomber force were prohibitive during daylight. To counter the night time bomber force of the British, the Germans developed and employed successfully night fighters, which were able to intercept and shoot down bomber aircraft of the British strategic night time bomber force.

Now, for both sides, just locating the enemy during the time of darkness was the hardest and most difficult task. The night fighters had to be directed to the target from the ground and then search the night sky for the British attackers. And the British bombers had to pick the night fighters out the black sky to present targets for the defending gunners of the bombers. Aircrews of both the fighters and bombers were posed with a very difficult task. At some point during the war, the British began to equip their night bomber force with the "Monica" radar. Would look rearwards at approaching aircraft and give warning at the approach of German night fighters. Give the gunners on the British bombers a heads-up and allow them to prepare. So the belief was.

Rather than aiding the British and making the job of locating incoming attacking German aircraft, "Monica" simplified the task of locating the British bombers for the Germans!!! The Germans very quickly discovered what "Monica" was all about and equipped their night fighters with a radio receiver [Flensburg] tuned to the transmitting frequency of "Monica". This radio had a directional antenna that allowed the German pilot to "home" on the bomber force and know almost instantaneously where the British bombers were. It was as if the British had put searchlights on their darkened aircraft, turned the searchlights on in a darkened room, so as to see around better! Any observer in the room could instantly see where the searchlight was coming from and know where the target [British bomber] was. NO MORE tedious and time consuming searching of the darkened night sky!!! Rather than helping the British, their own system was leading the German night fighters to them!!!

"Similarly, when the RAF deployed a tail warning radar named "Monica" on their bombers in June 1943 as a means of warning the pilot that an attacker was on his tail, the Germans quickly invented a device named "Flensburg" to home in on Monica emissions. This was particularly ironic, as Monica had been so prone to false alarms due to other bombers in the stream that it was of little use in the first place."


As a consequence, the German night fighters developed weapons and tactics that proved to be very effective an allowed them to destroy a devastating percentage of the attacking British bombers. Night fighters, upon locating the bomber force, would attack by flying underneath a bomber and shooting upward with a specially designed and mounted cannon! The British did not have an answer for this tactic and weapon.

"In the autumn of 1943 an ingenious Luftwaffe Fitter devised a prototype of the deadly Schrage Musik or "Jazz Music" which consisted of a pair of fixed upward-firing cannon mounted in the fuselage behind the fighters cockpit. The pilot only had to slid beneath the bomber and fire a short burst which was almost always lethal. Very few Bomber Command crews knew what had hit them after being attacked with Schrage Musik, the few survivors that managed to get escape home after being attacked, simply were not believed. It was not until after the end of the war that British aircrews learned of the existence of Schrage Musik."

Click here and here to see interesting site about German night fighters.

"Monica", rather than helping the British, had the opposite effect from what was intended. And this was found out only through much error and loss of life and aircraft!!

coolbert.