Karlsland Night Witches insignia; NJG1.
Night witches are rare in the abilities to accurately detect Neuroi and launch a counterattack before they make contact. This ability to detect said invaders makes them important players in freeing the world from their stranglehold because of the Neuroi's natural camouflage against the black sky and/or in varying weather conditions.
Sanya V. Litvyak mid-flight during the early hours of the morning.
However, due to the hours in which they must fly, Night Witches like Sanya V. Litvyak appear introverted and reclusive to their teammates, usually because by the time they return to the base from their nightly patrols, they're extremely tired, and tend to spend most of the daylight hours sleeping over socializing with the rest of their respective squadrons.
Due to this unintentional delusion of other witches, Night Witches - like Sanya V, Litvyak and Heidemarie W. Schnaufer, desire to form relationships with other witches and the rest of their squadron. Because of the difficulty in this task, a 'Night Witch radio community' was quickly formed due to the ability of the witch's radar, which allowed for both broadcasting and receiving long distance signals. As such, this power has given rise to the long distance friendship between Sanya V. Litvyak and Heidemarie W. Schnaufer, who relay signals from one to another during their nightly duties.
Together, Night witches! (And Miyafuji Yoshika.)
Radar abilities[]
The majority of Night Witches are able to produce a magical antenna. This allows them to detect enemy Neuroi before they are assailed by a nearby agent and counterattack with out the need for direct combat with the aggressor.
The antennas are mainly based on the Lichtenstein radar design, adopted and used by the Luftwaffe from 1942 onwards, exceptions however exist, Heinrike Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein's radar manifests in the shape of a small tiara (based on the Morgenstern [Morningstar] radar), perhaps a physical reflection of her nobility, rank and self-worth.
Alternatively the radar used by Jennifer DeBlanc manifests as a Plan Position Indicator (most likely that of the AN/APS-6 Intercept Radar) over her right eye, reminiscent of a heads up display and providing visual representations of targets out of her line of sight.
Virginia Robertson is somewhat novel a case of night witch in her magical radar initially took the form of audio receiver headphones.
Jennifer DeBlanc's radar indicator
Night witches with alternative skills[]
In even rarer cases than merely possessing a physical antenna to detect Neuroi, are witches with the ability to operate even in the dark of night, using their sight, like Shimohara Sadako and Constantia Cantacuzino. Sadako's ability not only allows her to perceive long distances (similar to Sakamoto Mio's ability) but also grant her night vision, allowing her to view night as if it was day. While she is unable to pin-point local enemy Neuroi, it does allow her to partake in occasional night missions with a nearby night fighter unit and as such, she now has a battle record both with the night unit and her own Joint Fighter Wing.
Despite possessing a physical radar, Heidemarie W. Schnaufer also has an aptitude for night vision, similar to Shimohara Sadako's, however her night vision allowed her to amplify the starlight of the sky, to see clearly in the darkness of night, though due to the natural strength of this inherited skill and also being too young to have a control over the ability, the amplified brightness of the sun caused damage to her eyes during daylight hours, leaving her with a requirement for glasses to correct her visual impairment.
Virginia Robertson's a somewhat unique case of a night witch who is was inherently born to her abilties of magical radar, though initially her ability was limited to receiving radio signals and radio communications rather than being able to both receive and transmit signals. In addition, another ability of her magical radar, thanks to her familiar Moffy; is Virgina being able to record audio heard by Virginia and her familiar. What's more, depending on how Moffy is interacted with; such audio playback can also experience adjustment and changing of speed, volume and pitch of those recordings when replayed back magically; in some ways similar to that like a audio recorder or record player.
Development of the radar[]
Until the magical radar was developed by the military, it was only possible to be a Night Witch effectively by having a night vision ability. However using sight alone at night had its limitations and as such, many countries rushed to develop a way to probe the darkness for enemy Neuroi.
The first breakthrough in the development was made by an Fusoan electrical engineer and an inventor duo, Yagi and Uda. With this discovery, together they quickly produced the Yagi-Uda Type magical radar. While design was produced long before the start of the second Neuroi war, the Fusoan military did not become aware of it till early 1942. Quickly following suit both the Karlslandian and Britannian military soon developed the Lichtenstein Type used by Sanya V. Litvyak and Heidemarie W. Schnaufer and Air Intercept(AI) respectively. Liberion Night Witches meanwhile utilized the Plan Position Indicator (PPI) type magical radar (used by Jennifer J. DeBlanc).
While the possibility of magical radar being an inherent magic ability of a witch, rather than a learned magical technology developed as a taught military skill, is of remote possibility in theory; in practice such a thing is highly rare to the point of outright unheard of; with the only confirmed example being found in Virginia Robertson as the thus far sole known example.
Karlsland's finest night witches featured in Die Luftwaffe with the night witches emblem.
Night witch emblem[]
The emblem used by the Karlsland Night Witches was designed by Victoria Mölders, the younger sister to a well known great war ace, Vera Moelders.
Striker Units used by night witches[]
Compared to the Karlslandian Night Witches, Sanya V. Litvyak is rather atypical. Karslandians have heavy-fighter type Striker Unit models like the Bf 110 and Ju 88 exclusively built for their night fighting demands. This gives them a greater load capacity and stronger shields, allowing the witches to carry heavier weapons and fly at longer ranges, though mobility and speed suffer as a result. These characteristics make night patrolling a difficult task to perform. The Orussian development in night warfare Striker Units on the other hand hasn't advanced nearly as much, forcing the Orussian Night Witches to make use of standard fighter-type Striker Units instead.
Although the maneuverability and speed of these Striker Unit models are better, the Orussian Night Witches operate at much shorter operational ranges, with much lighter weapon loadouts and, compared to Karlslander units, weaker shields during night patrols.
Like the Karlsland Witches, Liberion Night Witches seem to favor a heavy-fighter type approach to their Striker Units, Jennifer DeBlanc using an F7F-3N Tigercat model.
Virginia Robertson, being a Aviation Magic Band member and not a front line service witch; is a night witch who operates the fighter flight leg North Liberion AT-6 Texan: which is repurposed for Aviation Magic Band musical and aerial performances.
Night Witches[]
Cunningham (Britannia)- Petra Danford (Britannia)
- Virginia Robertson (Britannia)
- Constantia Cantacuzino (Dacia)
- Kashida Isami (Fuso)
- Nishisugi Tomomi (Fuso)
- Shimohara Sadako (Fuso)
- Takami Tadae (Fuso)
- Edytha Prinzessin zur Lippe-Weissenfeld (Karlsland)
- Heidemarie W. Schnaufer (Karlsland)
- Heinrike Prinzessin zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (Karlsland)
- Helmina Johanna Siglinde Lent (Karlsland)
- Hildegard Altner (Karlsland)
- Jennifer J. DeBlanc (Liberion)
- Aleksandra "Sanya" Vladimirovna Litvyak (Orussia)
