After the Germans started bombing by night, the need for a dedicated, radar-equipped night fighter became apparent to the RAF. A modified DeHavilland Mosquito seemed the perfect solution. The Mosquito was large enough to carry both the radar and radar operator and able to fly fast and high enough to intercept the enemy. DeHavilland's quickly submitted a design, but unfortunately, things would not go as planned. There was trouble at the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine factory.
The workers tried to deal with the disruption, but with bats all over the place, it was impossible.
Every notable expert answered the plea for help, to no avail.
The mood at Rolls-Royce was dark to say the least.
Fortunately, the engineers at DeHavilland's had an idea. They re-designed the new nightfighter to be powered by the Bristol Burpuree radial engine. The blueprints looked promising.
The prototype looked even more impressive when it was rolled out for flight tests.
The new nightfighter was heavily armed with 4 .303 machine guns in the nose and 4 20 m.m. cannons under the nose. The powerful Bristol Burpuree engines provided a top speed of 375 m.p.h. and the powerful radar gave the new aircraft the ability to find any foe regardless of weather. Camouflaged in an overall black scheme, the new machine looked menacing indeed, causing one member of the ground crew to exclaim "It's like a big, black bat!" Thus the DeHavilland Black Bat NF I was born.
267 1/2 Nightfighter Sqn. traded their Hurricanes for Black Bats and were on patrol when aircraft Y (for Yorkshire) spotted a large bogey approaching London. The pilot fire-walled the engines and put the plane on a fast intercept course.
The pilot targeted the bogies and prepared to fire.
At the last moment, the pilot's headphones crackled: "Abort! Abort! Targets are NOT hostile! Repeat, targets are NOT hostile!"
After ensuring that no enemy aircraft were over London, Y for Yorkshire was vectored back to base.
Problems with the radar were soon sorted out, but by then production of Rolls-Royce Merlin engines had resumed.
The Black Bat was soon replaced by Merlin-powered Mosquitoes and is practically forgotten today except for an esoteric out-of-production short-run model kit by Bat-avia models.
Brian da Basher
