Page 11 - March 2018

A number of examples did received conversion into
primitive electronic countermeasures aircraft to fool
German radar and target tugs for aerial gunnery
training and other ancillary roles, but the type was
effectively withdrawn from use before the end of WWII.

#307 Night Fighter Squadron logo
On April 15th, 1941, Sgt.Wisthal flew N1671 on a
night patrol and sighted an enemy aircraft. The
other plane opened fire on the Defiant, but before
Wisthal’s gunner could return the compliment,
search lights from below enveloped the fighter, at
which point they lost contact. During the recent
restoration effort at MAPS between 2009 and 2012,

The RAF Museum’s Boulton Paul Defiant is posed with her turret’s guns pointed they discovered a few bullet holes in the fuselage
upwards in much the same manner as they might have been during attacks from behind and below the cockpit which most likely
below against Luftwaffe nighttime bomber streams over London. The Luftwaffe
themselves used this technique to murderous effect upon RAF nighttime bomber came from the aforementioned incident.
operations later in the war. Interestingly, during the restoration at MAPS,
identification marks on the turret determined that it was originally manufactured N1671 continued to fly night ops until a ground
for a Blackburn Roc, a now extinct Royal Navy ‘turret fighter’. (RAF Museum photo)
The Royal Air Force Museum’s Boulton Paul Defiant loop incident took her out of action for several
Mk.I N1671 has an interesting history. She rolled months of repairs on June 9th, 1941. However, she
did not return to 307 Squadron once airworthy
of Boulton Paul’s production line at Pendeford,
Wolverhampton during the Battle of Britain, officially again that October, as the unit had upgraded to the
far superior Bristol Beaufighter in August. Instead,
joining the RAF on August 7th, 1940 with No.6
N1671 moved to No.46 MU at RAF Lossiemouth in
Maintenance Unit at RAF Brize Norton. The RAF
assigned her to 307 Lwowski (Polish) Squadron at RAF Scotland for a couple of weeks before her final
operational posting, 153 Squadron in Ballyhalbert,
Kirton-in-Lindsey in Lincolnshire, on September 17th,
Northern Ireland; a second line unit protecting
1940, She received the squadron codes EW-D with
`A’ Flight. 307 Squadron itself was a brand new unit, Belfast, and the last Defiant squadron to form. The
Defiant flew just one operational sortie with 153
having officially formed just two weeks prior to
Squadron, an hour and ten minute long flight on
N1671’s arrival. They were the first Polish night fighter
squadron, although their aircraft still wore their new year’s eve, 1941. This was to be her final of
fifteen total combat flights in N1671’s career. 153
original temperate land camouflage paint schemes.
Squadron replaced their Defiants with Beaufighters
While the squadron worked up to operational status,
they also performed shipping protection patrols. in January, 1942.
N1671 flew its first operational patrol on December
12th, without incident. On January 14th, 1941,
the Defiant returned to No.6 MU at Brize Norton,
alongside three other 307 Squadron aircraft, for the
addition of IFF and VHF radio equipment as well as for
a repaint into an all-black, night fighter scheme.
She returned to squadron service in mid-March, and flew her first operational night patrol on April 8th,
1941.
That June, N1671 transferred to 285 Squadron, in
Wrexham, Wales. The unit specialized in helping
to train British Army anti-aircraft gun crews to