Showing posts with label "Black Widow". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Black Widow". Show all posts

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Black Widow

Toward the end of WWII, Northrop produced a night fighter called the P-61.  It was given the name "Black Widow" after the venomous spider.  Wikipedia writes that no P-61 ever engaged in combat with a German jet fighter.  The following photograph of my Dad standing beside a P-61 is shown below.


It was 1946.  It was taken at an airfield near Munch.  On the back of the photo my Dad wrote:

"P-61 with a Jet-German Plane to its credit.  Also called "Black Widow".  Send more pictures in next letter."

Trying to enlarge the picture, I could only produce the following:


It is not very clear, but he is pointing to a marking on the plane that he interpreted as a "Jet-German Plane".  This would seem to suggest that this P-61 took credit for a German jet fighter?  The picture is a clear documentation that at least one P-61 took credit for this activity.

The 424th Night Fighter Squadron, Oberpfaffenhofen Air Depot, near Munich used the P-61.  Does any one out there have information regarding this squadron of the 9th Air Force.  My Dad seemed to think that this P-61 took down a jet.  He was there.