Night reconnaissance and nearby

[greybeard]

Hi all!

I confess I spent most part of my decades of passion about aviation on fighters and daytime dogfight. I'm one of those who wondered about which was the best single-seater, until I began to understand that things were much more complicated and other roles deserve attention too. In these occasions I still realize how deep is my ignorance.
Lately I stumbled on "night reconnaissance", a role that I couldn't even imagine in WWII, given the lack of suited radars and (I guess) infrared imagery. I did a fast research, starting to find something about "synchronization of flares and cameras" and (on the excellent dedicated site Airrecce The story of photographic reconnaissance) existence of night cameras for Luftwaffe. But my ignorance remained vast, since I can't figure in what differed a NRb 30/18 from an Rb 30/18, why RAF seemingly did not have such devices, what about flares, which aircraft performed such task, if they were armed or not and even... why they tried to recon at night!

Any help?

Respectfully,
GB

 

[greybeard]

An interesting "nearby" of my question is about Luftwaffe seeming different behaviour between eastern and western front. I mean, while there's evidence of night reconnaissance on the Russian front (performed by Do 17P of Aufklarungsgruppe Nacht), I can't find any hint about similar task over Britain during 1940-43 (although there was daytime recon by 1.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 120, for instance).

 

[wuzak]

Hard to know what the difference would be between a night camera and a day camera.

It could be that the aperture of the camera was wider. Or it could be that the film was more sensitive to light (ISO).

The RAF used photo flash bombs for photography at night, either their own or American designs.

 

[wuzak]

 

[wuzak]

The RAF also took photos from their night bombers on raids, so that the bombing could be assessed.

 

[swampyankee]

Harold Edgerton built a strobe for night reconnaissance photography, which was in use by June 1944. See Nighttime Photography « Harold "Doc" Edgerton.

 

[greybeard]

Thanks, wuzak and swampyankee, especially for link. I still wonder why at night: is concealment the obvious answer?