, most of them being based in Holland. The early night-fighting technique had been for their pilots to attempt to find the R.A.F. bombers in the beams of searchlights over the target cities. This had rarely proved successful because of the German Flak barrages. The commander of the German night fighters, General Josef Kammhuber, then established a continuous belt of searchlights behind the coast, barring the way to the main bomber targets. The night fighters could thus hunt the bombers free from the danger of Flak. This move brought little improvement, however; the bombers were usually through the belt of searchlights before the German fighters could complete their interceptions. More technology was required. During 1941, Kammhuber was able to establish along the coast a chain of radar 'boxes', areas of sky in which fighters could be controlled from ground stations on to individual bombers passing through the boxes. If the fighter had not completed his interception before reaching the limits of the radar box, it could continue the chase into the searchlight belt which was situated as the next line of defence. The German fighters were next fitted with airborne radar sets and then their chances of successful interception really increased. These developments were now mostly complete. For most of the war to date, the rate of loss for night bombers had remained at a little below 2 percent. The coming period would show a sharp rise and it was the German night-fighter force, particularly the units stationed in Holland, which was responsible for this.
Turning to daylight operations, the recently increased use of 2 Group's Blenheims in low-level attacks on shipping off the coasts of Europe, the costly Channel Stop, and the controversial fighter-escorted Circuses all continued. Attempts to raid inland targets in the expectation that the Germans had not left sufficient day fighters to defend the West produced heavy casualties. Similar attempts to breach the daylight defences by using small forces of the new four-engined bombers brought the same result. The tactical rules of daylight bombing remained unchanged. Unescorted bombers could not survive on any penetration in clear weather.
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HANNOVER
30 Hampdens and 25 Whitleys; bombing results were not observed. 4 Whitleys and 1 Hampden lost.
HAMBURG
43 Wellingtons; 2 lost. Fires in the city and shipyards were claimed. Hamburg reports 4 large fires, 1 person killed and 6 injured with no particularly remarkable incidents.
Minor Operations: 7 Stirlings and 2 Halifaxes to Berlin of which 2 Stirlings and 1 Halifax were lost. 2 Wellingtons to Emden.
Total losses for this night: 10 aircraft out of 109 dispatched (9.2 percent).
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2 Fortresses to Hamburg encountered thunderstorms and icing. 1 of the Fortresses bombed Emden. There were no losses.
