Just moments later, Lieutenant Mooney had another blip on his airborne interception (AI) scope. The second bogey was only two miles away, so its pilot had probably seen the fireball of Haberman’s first kill. It is a wonder that any of the Japanese bombers remained in the area if they were in radio contact with each other, since the 6th’s aircraft made several kills within a short period of time.

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Moonhappy closed very fast with the second intruder, which was down low, at about 4,500 feet. The moon was well positioned, so the crewmen were able to make a visual identification 2,500 feet from the target. When they had closed to within 700 feet, Haber­man opened up with everything he had. The rounds from all eight guns bracketed the bomber, and it exploded violently. There was no time to react before Moonhappy waded into the scattered debris. Fortunately for the crew, the only damage done to the P-61 was to the left cowling. This time the Americans were able to track the flaming wreckage all the way down to the water. At this point they were 160 miles from Saipan, but they had no trouble making it safely back to base. They had burned 550 gallons of fuel on the mission and fired 327 20mm rounds and 525 rounds of .50-caliber. It had been one of the 6th Squadron’s most re­warding patrols of the war.

The 548th Night Fighter Squadron did not receive its Black Widows until September 1944. The unit’s first foray into the forward areas was on Saipan, and from there it flew out of Iwo Jima and Ie Shima before war’s end. The 548th’s aircraft had some of the most elaborate nose art of any night fighter unit. Although the squadron’s combat tour didn’t last long, it was credited with five victories. One of its crews, pilot Captain James W. Bradford and R/O Lieutenant Lawrence Lunt, chalked up a kill in Midnite Madness on June 24, 1945.

Captain Bradford recalled that mission: “We were airborne at 1835 hours, which put us up at dusk. It had been an uneventful patrol and it looked like there would be no action when we got a call from control at 2120 hours. They had just picked up a possible bogey coming into our area at 20,000 feet and 30 miles southwest of Point Charley. I immediately started a climb up to 23,000 feet as we headed in that direction. Lieutenant Lunt picked up the AI contact at a distance of eight miles and five degrees above, and he would control the intercept until we were close enough to get a positive visual identification. On this mission we had our gunner, Master Sgt. Reno Sukow, with us, which gave us another set of eyes. Our external tanks were almost dry, so we dropped them to give us more speed and maneuverability. Our ground control gave us a vector that would get to the intruder in the shortest period of time.

“The closure was fast and the bogey maintained a steady airspeed with no evasive action, so he was clueless as to what was coming up from the rear. Sergeant Sukow was perched up in the gunner’s compartment with night binoculars, and this allowed him to get a visual at 7,000 feet out. He talked me in as we closed, and at 2,000 feet I was able to see the enemy aircraft and it was a Betty bomber. From that point on, he was easy to track because we had a full moon and I was careful to close behind and below so we were in their blind spot. I eased into position to fire a short burst at about 700 feet and it didn’t seem to have any effect on the enemy bomber. A long second burst converged on his port engine and it immediately burst into flames, which quickly spread to the fuselage. In that glow, we saw the large rising sun painted on the side.”

Bradford fired a third burst that amplified the flames already starting to engulf the fuselage. The Betty then turned into a slight glide to port, still closely followed by the Black Widow. At first the enemy pilot seemed to have good control of his aircraft even though fire was consuming it, but then the nose dropped and he lost about 5,000 feet in altitude. Suddenly the Betty exploded in a huge fireball. Large pieces of the aircraft fell straight down into the ocean, where it continued to burn until the water extinguished it. Midnite Madness lingered briefly at 1,500 feet until Lieutenant Lunt picked up some returns on his scope, which turned out to be “window” (chaff) that had been dispersed by the doomed bomber. In the final report on this kill, it was noted that the mission had consumed 660 gallons of gasoline and 600 rounds of 20mm.

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