Fighter Interception Development Unit RAF
The Fighter Interception Unit was a special fighter unit of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. It was part of Air Defence Great Britain
The Fighter Interception Unit was initially set up to counter increasing night raids by the Luftwaffe, and thus to evaluate technological advances such as Airborne Interception (radar)equipment and other proposed operational innovations.
The unit was formed at RAF Tangmere in April 1940 under the command of Squadron Leader Peter Chamberlain, with a strength of 5 Blenheims equipped with A.I.Mark III, the latest variant of Airborne Interception radar.
Operations initially consisted of daytime practice interceptions and operational night defence flights. The night fighter Blenheims were directed several times to possible targets, in the early days of Ground Control Interception it proved difficult to both acquire and then maintain a radar contact and sucessfully intercept.
However on the night of the 22/23 July 1940 a Blenheim Mk. IF flown by Flying Officer Ashfield, with a crew of Pilot Officer C. Morris (Observer) and Sergeant R.A. Leyland (AI Operator), patrolled the Sussex coast at 10,000 feet. They were directed to a possible intercept by the controller at Poling CH radar station who reported an incoming raid. Sgt. Leyland reported a response on the A.I. at a range of 8,000 feet and presently P/O Morris made a visual sighting of a Dornier Do. 17 to port and below the Blenheim. Ashfield closed the distance to 400 feet and then opened fire. Strikes were observed on fuselage and engines, the Dornier lurched to starboard and fell away, 5 miles south of Bognor Regis. The aircraft, a Dornier 17Z of 2 Staffel, Kampfgeschwader 3, crashed into the sea, the first airborne radar intercepted kill in history.
The unit was also later equipped with Hawker Hurricane, Bristol Blenheim and the Bristol Beaufighter while at RAF Tangmere[1]
A FIU detachment was at RAF Newchurch with the Hawker Tempest V where it tested the AN/APS 13 range determining radar for night fighting use.[2]
The unit was at RAF Wittering 3 April 1944 to 23 August 1944 [3]
In late 1944 a radar-equipped Vickers Wellington was modified for use by the Fighter Interception Unit as one of the first Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft. It operated at an altitude of 4,000 feet over the North Sea to control Mosquito night fighters intercepting Heinkel He 111s flying from Dutch airbases and carrying out airborne launches of the V-1 flying bomb.
Notes and References
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