Skylighters, The Web Site of the 225th AAA Searchlight Battalion: Register of Other WW II Searchlight Units -- German Searchlights During WW II

A German searchlight crew illuminates the skies above Hamburg during Summer 1943, a period that saw the Allies commit to the destruction of the seaport (code-named Operation Gomorrah).

German Searchlight Units: Overview
At the beginning of the war, the most-used type of searchlight in the Luftwaffe was the 150-cm Flakscheinwerfer 37. The unit for deployment of searchlights was the Abteilung, which consisted of three (later four) Battieren, each with nine (later between 12 and 16) lights. During the early war period the searchlights were laid out in a chessboard pattern, with intervals of about three miles between individual lights. The searchlight zone lay outside the Flak engagement area, in the so-called "zone of preparation." Sound locators, and later fire-control radars, assisted the lights in finding their targets.

In 1942 the more powerful 200-cm Flakscheinwerfer 40 entered service. These were usually positioned close the radar at heavy Flakbatterie, which helped it to find targets. When used in this way, the 200-cm light served as the "Master Light." When it found a target, the three 150-cm satellite lights working with it came on to "cone" the aircraft. Typically, a searchlight battery was laid out in a triangle. The Master Light was in the center, and the satellite lights were positioned about 1.5 miles away from it at the corners of the triangle.

It should be noted that a searchlight battery constituted an effective means of target defense in its own right. If one or more lights held a night bomber in their beams, the glare blinded its crew and prevented any sort of accurate bombing run.

Special Report: Women in German Searchlight Units
Members of the 225th and other American searchlight units deployed in the ETO in 1944-45 may find it interesting to learn that their opposite numbers engaged in "Defense of the Reich" were young women who volunteered to operate lights for AA units stationed along Germany's western borders, mostly in the Ruhr Valley, where German AA strength was heavily concentrated owing to the great number of war industries located there.

German women had been routinely used in the armaments industry since 1942, but by 1944, manpower shortages necessitated that the Reich look toward its female population to fill out its ranks, especially in antiaircraft defense units. Flak batteries were traditionally manned by male personnel, but in 1944-45, the Reich Work Service assigned numerous women to roles in the AA defense forces, e.g., Flaksoldaten and Flakwehrmänner. After August 1944, many women were assigned to operation of AA floodlights, usually commanded by a male Luftwaffe corporal. Most of these female flak units were deployed in the Ruhr, where AA batteries were desperately needed to protect factories and other key industrial targets from the relentless Allied bomber streams. Ruhr-area batteries were manned by women from as far away as East Prussia and Silesia, and, following the end of the war, these women attempted to return home across a war-torn Germany, only to discover that their homes didn't exist any more. The original version of this information (in German) can be found at Ralf Blank's Home Page, which provides some unique information on the AA defense of the Ruhr and the female personnel that served with distinction defending their country.

German girl poses with 150-cm searchlight. Note the wood and earth breastworks and the hand-made stairs between the German emplacements. While U. S. searchlights were mounted on trailers, testifying to the speed of the American advance and the high level of mobility of the U. S. Army in general, most German lights were static components of fixed fortifications, signs of the German shortages in equipment, especially trucks and trailers, and gasoline. Keen eyes will find the power cable snaking into the light pit on the left side of the stairs
[ © Copyright Ralf Blank ].

Female batterymates in helmets and winter white, with a searchlight behind them at left
[ © Copyright Ralf Blank ].

Another female battery with their male commander pose with a searchlight during the Winter of 1944-45
[ © Copyright Ralf Blank ].

A GI poses with a captured German searchlight
(most likely a 200-cm Flakscheinwerfer 40).

A German 150-cm flak searchlight (or Flakscheinwerfer). (Photo was taken on 24 October 1998, at Suomen Ilmailumuseo/Finnish Aviation Museum at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport by Andres Valdre; originally published with the kind permission of the museum, and republished here with Andres' permission. The searchlight in the photo was built in 1940. Its manufacturer's plate included the following data:

manufacturer: e l b
year of construction (Baujahr): 1940
mirror No. (Spiegel Nr.): 2978
diametre (Durchmesser): 150 cm
frontal focal length (v. Schnittweite): 641±2 mm
serial number (Flakscheinw. Nr.): 28598

The small white number on the searchlight reads No 307.

German AAA Postcards
from the Webmaster's Collection

150-cm light deployed at night.

150-cm light with full crew at the ready.

Sound locator "listening" for Allied planes.

GERMAN SEARCHLIGHT CREW IN VIENNA (25 K)

German searchlight crews assigned to the antiaircraft defense of Vienna are shown training
with their equipment in 1944. © Copyright Austrian Institute for Contemporary History, Vienna.

Luftwaffe searchlight crew in training on German airstrip.
From the Webmaster's collection (click to enlarge).

Luftwaffe searchlight crew on a German airstrip.
Note the He111 bombers in the background.
From the Webmaster's collection (click to enlarge).

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