The P-61 Black Widow That Hunted Japanese Bombers Alone They Never Saw It Coming | WW2 Documentary

The P-61 Black Widow That Hunted Japanese Bombers Alone They Never Saw It Coming | WW2 Documentary.
Why Major Carroll Smith used radar to hunt Japanese bombers in total darkness during WW2 — and destroyed 4 aircraft in 80 minutes. This World War 2 story reveals how the P-61 Black Widow's secret radar made night invisible.

December 29, 1944. Major Carroll C. Smith, 418th Night Fighter Squadron pilot, sat in his P-61 Black Widow at McGuire Field, Mindoro. Twelve Japanese bombers were heading toward American airfields under complete darkness. Smith launched with Lieutenant Philip Porter operating the revolutionary SCR-720 radar. Every conventional fighter pilot said night interception was nearly impossible. Japanese bomber crews called darkness their greatest protection.

They were all wrong.

What Smith and Porter discovered that night wasn't about visual combat. It was about hunting with invisible radio waves in a way that contradicted everything daylight pilots knew. The SCR-720 radar could detect aircraft five miles away in total darkness. As the mission unfolded over the black waters north of Mindoro, other night fighter crews monitoring radio channels began to understand what aggressive radar intercepts could achieve.

This technique spread through night fighter squadrons across the Pacific Theater, pilot to pilot, radar operator to radar operator, protecting invasion forces and enabling critical operations like the Lingayen Gulf landings. The 418th Night Fighter Squadron became the highest-scoring P-61 unit in the Pacific. The principles of radar-guided night interception discovered over Mindoro continue to influence modern fighter tactics today.
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