WW2 Aircraft Research Resources

WW2 Aircraft Identification Resources - Add'em if you've got 'em. K?

WWII Aircraft Spotting Cards: http://www.ameshistory.org/exhibits/events/aircraft_spotting_cards.htm

The Skylighters World War II Aircraft Spotter Quiz: http://www.skylighters.org/spotter/

Friend or Foe 1940 Aircraft Identification: http://www.allworldwars.com/Friend-or-Foe-Aircraft-Identification-1940.html

The Scale Info: http://www.thescale.info/news/publish/Corsairs-HMS-Collossus.shtml

WW2 Aircraft Database: http://ww2db.com/aircraft.php

Listing of all fighter aircraft used during World War 2: http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/ww2-fighter-aircraft.asp

 

WW2 Aircraft Forums:

Aircraft.net's Aircraft of World War II Forum: http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/

Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/

RAF Commands: http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/forum.php

Short Stirling Forum: http://sas.raf38group.org/forum/

USAAF Army Air Force Forum: http://www.armyairforces.com/Forums

Warbird's Forum: http://www.warbirdsforum.com/

 

RAF and RAAF ORBs available on the Web: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=18817

At Tony Wood's Luftwaffe Combat Claims: http://www.ww2.dk/wood.html
- the url to his own website hosting the annual claims list is broken. Thank heavens for the https://archive.org/index.php

So see: https://web.archive.org/web/20130928070316/http://lesbutler.co.uk/claims/tonywood.htm

Finally:
LostAircraft Database: http://lostaircraft.com/database.php?lang=en

Note that Aircraft Losses for MANY theaters of war are being added to LostAircraft.
- USAAF, the Mediterranean Theatre, North Africa, SEAC, Finland, Italy's Regia Aeronautica (Lots of information at: Commando Supremo)
- plus France & the Polish Air Forces in the Battle of France etc etc. Enjoy!

PS:
There is an unpublished url for LostAircraft's Advanced Database Search Engine. Well worth saving in your favorites.
See: http://www.lostaircraft.com/database.php?lang=en&mode=search

 

RAF Polish Air Force in WW2: http://www.polishsquadronsremembered.com/

For Combat Reports, Click on each Squadron, then select "Scores"
See also: http://www.polishairforce.pl/zestrz2w.html

For Losses, Click on each Squadron, then select "Losses"

You will also find extracts from the Operations Record Book (ORBs) there. Click on "Mission."
______________________

Royal Air Force combat reports 1939-1945
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/combat-reports-ww2.htm

Typical cost: £3.30 ea request.

 

Identification, friend or foe (IFF) Technology
Very good information now up on the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_friend_or_foe

From The British Invention Of Radar at: http://www.vectorsite.net/ttwiz_01.html#m5

IFF was a particular problem with aircraft.
Picking out a proper target in the sky during a fast-moving dogfight was difficult, and in the First World War all the combatants had developed distinctive national insignia for their aircraft to protect them from friends.

Radar greatly compounded the IFF problem, since a target appeared as no more than a featureless blip on a screen.
There had to be some way for the radar to perform IFF, and to complicate matters any scheme used should not reveal the aircraft's presence or location to an enemy, or be easily duplicated by an enemy intruder.

Even before the introduction of radar, the RAF had developed a tracking system for directing fighters known as "Pip Squeak", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip-squeak
which used direction-finding stations to triangulate the position of a fighter based on a tone emitted by the fighter's radio for 14 seconds out of every minute, unless the pilot was talking over the radio.

The problem with Pip Squeak was that it wasn't easy to integrate with the radar network. It would be preferable to have an IFF on an aircraft that the radar itself could identify.
In 1938, Bawdsey researchers had tinkered with a "passive" radar reflector mounted on fighters and tuned to Chain Home frequencies as a means of marking friends.
This was supposed to ensure that friendly fighters were brighter to CH than foes, but it was too simplistic an approach.
The magnitude of radar reflections depends not only on a large number of environmental factors but on the angle at which the radar beam hits the aircraft, and it proved
impossible to consistently determine which aircraft were carrying passive reflectors and which were not. Clearly, a more sophisticated "active" electronic IFF system was needed.

The result was "IFF Mark I", which was the first IFF "transponder". On receiving a radar pulse in the proper wavelength range,
it would transmit a response pulse that rose in amplitude, allowing a radar operator to identify it as belonging to a "friend".
IFF Mark I went into operation in late 1939, with a thousand sets built. It was triggered by CH radar transmissions.
It was, however, difficult to use, since aircrew had to adjust it in flight to get it respond properly, and it didn't respond properly about half the time.

It was quickly followed by "IFF Mark II", which had been development even before the introduction of Mark I.
Mark II could respond not only to Chain Home signals, but also to 7 meter (42.9 MHz) signals from the MRU, the 1.5 meter (200 MHz) signals of Chain Home Low and Navy sets, and the 3.5 meter (86.7 MHz) signals of Army sets.
Unfortunately, though it worked better than IFF Mark I, Mark II was overly complicated and still required inflight adjustments. IFF was a sticky problem and getting to work right was going to take some effort.

Incidentally, the British designation "IFF" has stuck to the technology to this day, probably because it was hard to think of any more sensible name to call it.
That partly compensates for the triumph of Yank terms like "radar" and "sonar" over the British terms "RDF" and "ASDIC".