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RADAR

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ANNE DIAMOND: Why aren't radar inventors feted like Bletchley Park's code-breaking heroes? | Daily Mail Online


Z.
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    I agree radar was one of our trump cards in the Battle of Britain. However the boffins had to battle to get funding to develop the technology at the start until Churchill intervened and agreed to support the "Castles in the Sky" with whatever the team needed.


    Also later in the war the Lancaster bomber was fitted with a ground mapping radar,H2S, under the rear fuselarge which was a game changer in navigation and bombing accuracy. H2S was so advanced and effective it was fitted under the chin of the RAF Vulcan serving for decades in active service. The big secret at the time was the over flights of the USSR by RAF Camberas and USAF aircraft painted in RAF colours and markings crewed by RAF aircrew to obtain the radar maps for use by the V bombers to find their targets. They flew from near you in Norfolk at RAF Scunthorpe. 


    Where you are is the radar museum at RAF Nettishead where you can see all about the history of radar. As a bonus you can take a guided tour of one of the previously secret RAF bunkers with all the kit still in place. I loved my visit but the senior management had a different point of view!
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    John Peckham:

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    I agree radar was one of our trump cards in the Battle of Britain. However the boffins had to battle to get funding to develop the technology at the start until Churchill intervened and agreed to support the "Castles in the Sky" with whatever the team needed.


    Also later in the war the Lancaster bomber was fitted with a ground mapping radar,H2S, under the rear fuselarge which was a game changer in navigation and bombing accuracy. H2S was so advanced and effective it was fitted under the chin of the RAF Vulcan serving for decades in active service. The big secret at the time was the over flights of the USSR by RAF Camberas and USAF aircraft painted in RAF colours and markings crewed by RAF aircrew to obtain the radar maps for use by the V bombers to find their targets. They flew from near you in Norfolk at RAF Scunthorpe. 


    Where you are is the radar museum at RAF Nettishead where you can see all about the history of radar. As a bonus you can take a guided tour of one of the previously secret RAF bunkers with all the kit still in place. I loved my visit but the senior management had a different point of view!


    Yes indeed I will visit when I am able, but living so close I have obviously not been yet. The same thing happened when I lived near to Bletchley. I never visited the museum but did visit some park buildings for other reasons. It was only when I moved away that I finally returned for a day to seriously visit the Bletchley Park museum. If anyone goes, then please allow at least a full day to see everything. It is fascinating.


    A few years ago when I lived near to Bletchley the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flew over me at low altitude when I was in my garden. It was about to fly over Bletchley Park. It comprised a Spitfire, a hurricane and I believe a Lancaster Bomber in the centre of the formation. The sound of the engines was amazing. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and I became quite emotional.


    Z.


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    Two Museums I would love to see you two folks. Wish I lived so near, but I can understand living so near you don`t always appreciate the value till you leave the area. One of my great regrets is not seeing the late Ken Dodd was he was on less than 500yds from my home
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    As the old bucket list saying used to go - see Ken Dodd before you die. I managed it - once! It was an hour after midnight before he let us out of the theatre!

    Managed to get round Bletchely years ago before it became more of a tourist attraction for the masses rather than something of an anorak subject.

    Must go back and see how it has changed over the last 20-odd years.


    RADAR - I thought the Luftwaffe had managed to devise a piece of kit to be used by their night fighters to home in on H2S transmissions from our bombers?

    OBOE was a slightly different but more accurate kit used by mosquito Pathfinders and GEE was another variant.

    Trouble was, any active RADAR transmission could be used to track you, in the same way that police used mobile phone signals to track criminals today.

    Active search and detection devices have always had this problem. Submarine SONAR is another example. Detection, evasion of detection, and spoofing are fascinating subjects once you begin to read up on them.
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    Zoomup:
    ANNE DIAMOND: Why aren't radar inventors feted like Bletchley Park's code-breaking heroes? | Daily Mail Online


    Z.


    Although Sir Robert Watson-Watt is credited with inventing RADAR during WW2 The first Patent for RADAR was granted, believe it or not, to a German, Christian Hülsmeyer on 2nd April 1906. https://ieee-aess.org/sites/ieee-aess.org/files/documents/paper_v4.pdf However the German authorities were not interested! Admiral von Tirpitz of the German Navy said: ‘Not interested. My people have better ideas !’ 


    Clive

     


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    RADAR (and SONAR) are fasdcinating subjects and along with Bletchley and a host of other goodies show what can be acheived if we try hard enough. Sadly it`s too often that war/ pandemics and national emergencies bring out the best of or best use of our inventions and off shoots. Mankind can certainly come up with some brilliant stuff when spurred by good or evil or desperate or pride events (and some rubbish ideas too it must be said). Museums are priceless in showing us some aspects
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    A few years ago my wife and I took a Friends of the Imperial War Museum trip to Orford Ness.  https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserveI was already aware of its now closed down Cobra Mist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_Mist over-the-horizon radar (on HF) and it being a site for a directional BBC World Service transmission on 648 kHz medium wave.  But I was not aware that during WW2 Robert Watson-Watt carried out RADAR development there - some of the buildings still exist. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/orford-ness-national-nature-reserve/features/between-the-wars-on-orford-nessThe development was later moved inland.  Similarly during the Cold War, the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment had a development and testing site there https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1416933

    Finally, we took a trip up to the top of the lighthouse of Rendlesham Forest / Flashing Light / USAF/ UFO fame.http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/rendlesham2.html  At the time, the flashing light seen in the forest was claimed by the authorities to be the beam from the light house.  Normally the flashing light you see from a lighthouse is due to a rotating reflector around the lamp - in the same way as older police vehicles and snowploughs etc use. However, once on top of the lighthouse you could see that there was a large steel sheet around part of the optics to prevent the light being beaming out over the nearby land............ [cue the X-file music]


    Clive

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    Presumably the steel sheet was added to prevent US Airmen from Woodbridge reporting UFOs

    (more on that here for those who are not familiar.)

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