A German Searchlight in Italy (Virginia Beach, VA)

In World War I, searchlights were occasionally used to locate intruding aircraft, but they were not sufficiently coordinated with air defense to cause enemy pilots much concern. During WWII, the use of searchlights in belts, clusters, and circular groups were a part of the complex defense system that the Germans have devised to offset the effectiveness of massed assaults by Allied bombers. During the Virgina Beach Airshow, der Erste Zug portrayed a single crew of one of these searchlights.  While no specific unit or location was focused on, we did represent the German operators in the Italian theater of operations.