Blackout (wartime)

Following the start of the German strategic bombing campaign early in 1915, ordinary people in towns without blackouts sometimes took the law into their own hands, smashing street lamps which they thought might attract an air raid.

These required that all windows and doors should be covered at night with suitable material such as heavy curtains, cardboard or paint, to prevent the escape of any glimmer of light that might aid enemy aircraft.

Factories with large areas of glass roofing found it impossible to install temporary blackout panels and permanent methods (such as paint) lost natural light during daylight.

[7] Blackouts proved one of the more unpleasant aspects of the war, disrupting many civilian activities and causing widespread grumbling and lower morale.

[9] The blackout was enforced by civilian ARP wardens who would ensure that no buildings allowed the slightest peek or glow of light.

[7] Since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the continental United States was exposed to air attacks while engaging in a war with Japan, such as the bombing of Dutch Harbor, the Lookout Air Raids, and the Fu-Go balloon bombs, but these were considered minor or negligible and did nothing to damage American morale and war effort.

Along the Atlantic coast, the lack of a coastal blackout served to silhouette Allied shipping and thus expose vessels to German submarine attack.

As early as World War II, aircraft were using radio-beam navigation (see "Battle of the Beams"), and targets were detected by air-to-ground radar, (e.g. H2X).

Today, not only are night-vision goggles readily available to air crews, but sophisticated satellite-based and inertial navigation systems enable a static target to be found easily by aircraft and guided missiles.