Northrop P-61A-1 "Nightie Mission": 6th. Night Fighter Squadron

(U.S. Army Signal Corps)

     The Northrop P-61 Black Widow was the first dedicated night fighter to be built and deployed by the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF). It was also the first fighter to be designed with internally mounted radar equipment. Heavily armed with four forward firing Hispano M2 20mm cannons in the fuselage and a dorsal turret equipped with four Browning M2 .50cal. machine-guns, the P-61 saw service in all theaters in World War Two. 

     This photograph depicts “Nightie Mission”, a P-61A-1-NO belonging to the 6th. Night Fighter Squadron (NFS), being serviced in preparation for a mission. Sent to the Pacific Theater, the 6th. NFS operated from Saipan with the first sortie being flown on June 25, 1944. The primary mission of the 6th. NFS was to defend the Saipan airfields from Japanese attack given that Boeing B-29 Superfortresses were using Saipan as a launch point for attacks against the Japanese main islands. The 6th. NFS had a long history, being activated in 1917 then stood down in 1947. However, in 2017, the unit was reactivated as the 6th. Weapons Squadron and will be equipped with the Lockheed-Martin F-35A Lightening II for the purposes of generating weapons instruction material for pilot training. 

     Returning to “Nightie Mission”, pilot 1LT Francis “Lil Ab” Eaton, Radar Operator 2LT James “Chief” Ketchum, and gunner S/Sgt. William Anderson, III claimed a kill of a Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” bomber on July 7, 1944. This would be the only kill “Nightie Mission” was to achieve. The aircraft was written off on August 5, 1945 due to extensive damage caused on the ground by a typhoon.