The following report was originally published in Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 11, Nov. 5, 1942. [DISCLAIMER: The following text is taken from the U.S. War Department publication Tactical and Technical Trends. As with all wartime intelligence information, data may be incomplete or inaccurate. No attempt has been made to update or correct the text. Any views or opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the website.]

GERMAN FIGHTER TACTICS TO AVOID ANTIAIRCRAFT FIRE The following report, obtained from a German prisoner of war, describes certain German aerial tactics used to lessen the effect of antiaircraft fire. German fighter pilots have consistently used two forms of passive defense against antiaircraft fire. They either continued flying at the same speed, turning and twisting the aircraft in flight, or they throttled down the engine with a view to giving the ground defenses the feeling that the airplane was at a lower altitude than it really was, with the result that most of the fire was short.

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