Ramblings of an Old Vector Vender

RAMBLINGS OF AN OLD VECTOR VENDER By: Col Lawson P. Wynne In the early years of air surveillance we were completely dependent upon the British for information and direction. Radar was a secret word and few were entrusted with its management. The few who were, had insufficient equipment to really make a difference and were faced with those crusty old pilots who had built the Air Corps and insisted that they would “fly” by the seat of their pants. New technology always brings out the dreamers and the “Not invented here” crowd. One ready to save the situation through the immediate application of the great break- through and the other clinging to the tired and proven solution. I remember, in May of 1942, listening to a Lt Colonel tell us how radar was going to win World War II only to have those beautiful dreams dashed by another colonel who saw radar as a toy that was siphoning resources from the war effort. To this latter soul the ground observer corps was all that was required, and the “failure” of radar to prevent Pearl Harbor was his living proof. At the outbreak of World War II we did not have enough ground radars for a general defense so the limited number of “270” radars we had were deployed in point defense at carefully selected targets. These were augmented by a ground observer corps that was employed primarily along the costal area and served to fill in the low altitude coverage which the 270’s could not supply. For those who are unfamiliar with the naked eye and upon spotting an aircraft they would use their binoculars to attempt to identify it. They would then report the sighting as so many miles in such a direction. This information was received at a ground observer filter center where it was plotted and then reported to the Air Defense Control Center where it was combined with radar information on a large horizontal plotting board. Time lags of 5 to 7 minutes were common and reporting errors often caused great delays in determining when a raid was actually under way. The weapons controller practiced his skill by dead reckoning fighters to the vicinity of the incoming raid. To aid in the tracking of the fighters there was a system of direction finding stations that reported the azimuth of transmissions given out by the lead aircraft. The system was controlled by a clock in the fighter so that the pilot was free to concentrate on flying. The clock was divided into sections which were color and on queue from the controller was told to push “contactor in.” This activated an automatic transmission from the aircraft which would continue at specific intervals permitting the direction finders to provide positional information on the fighters. The controller, and his individual plotting board, would then plot a course that would permit the fighters to intercept the track of the incoming raid. The skill of the controller, the accuracy of the plotters, the timelessness of the combined track data, and the accuracies of winds aloft data combined to give the system something less than 100% effectiveness. These functions were carried out at the Air Defense Control Center (AN/TTQ-1) and the controller’s principal aid was a small plastic manual computer (E6B) to aid in dead reckoning. This system remained in effect until the development of more sophisticated ground radars: the first of which was the SCR-527. The SCR-527 consisted of two bed spring-like antenna, one for transmitting and one for receiving, separated by about 200 feet. The big innovation, as far as the controllers were concerned, in the SCR-527, was the Planned Position Indicator (PPI). This was our first radar scope that presented the controller with a 360 degree sweep of the air space. This would, for the first time, permit the direction of intercepts from the radar site without the delays and inaccuracies of the plotting boards. Direct control of fighters from the SCR-527 was not easy. The pips were elongated sausages about 2 miles in depth and 5 degrees in width. The antenna had some loping and returns frequently faded from the scopes. The SCR-527 was, however, mobile and well suited to a war of movement. The SCR-527 was quickly assigned to history with the emergence of the AN/CPS-1 or Microwave Early Warning (MEW) radar. The CPS-1 was our first radar that would permit precise control of aircraft. The set was designed by MIT and produced by General Electric. Its antenna looked much like a bulldozer blade with a half blade on the back of the full blade. The full blade sent out a low beam that could detect a bomber at 200 miles. Fighters could be tracked to 120 miles and the antenna beam width of .9 degrees gave excellent resolution. The high angle antenna, half a dower blade, gave coverage to about 90 miles and up to 40,000 feet. The set was a controllers dream. The CPS-1 was produced in its mobile form and the first units went to Europe where they were assigned, I believe, to the 9th and 19th TAC.I don’t know where all the units were assigned, but we carried unit number 5 into Kyushu, Japan in 1945. There was also a CPS-1 just north of Tokyo. During World War II several special purpose radars were developed to round out the air surveillance system. The TPS-1 and TPS-3 were small one-operator early warning sets and the CPS-4 was the companion height finder for the CPS-1. When we went into Japan we carried TPS-1s, TPS-3s, and a CPS-4. World War II was the development vehicle for controlling. Prior to that time, aerial combat was see and be seen. In World War II we progressed from dead reckoning daylight intercepts to precise control of night interceptions. This was great progress, but the controller was not yet recognized as an essential member of the fighting team. Nothing exemplifies this more than the Army Air Force records that list “Snuffy” Smith as our first Night Fighter Ace, but gives no mention of the controller who directed the intercepts. I entered the Army Air Force Controllers School in the latter part of World War II. The school was located at Hammer Field, Fresno, California. After several weeks of study and practicing dead reckoning intercepts, my class was shipped to a desert location where we were able to work with an SCR-527 and the hottest thing out, the Microwave Early Warning radar (AN/CPS-1). It was really exciting, but the heat took enough out of us to keep things in perspective. We were controlling BT-13’s out of Tulare Lake Airfield. We were all eager to develop our talents so competition for a scope time was immense. We were there only one week and each man spent about two hours on the scope actually controlling aircraft. I believe I actually ran nine interceptions in daylight and one at night. We were returned to Hammer Field in 1945 where we were given orientation visits to see the P-70, P61, P-38N and the P-59. Only the P-59 was not a night fighter, but it was our first jet fighter. There was nothing but speculation and jokes that evening about the plane with no propeller, but it would be many years before any of us would see an operational jet. I shipped out of school to a job at Abilene, Texas and found myself back in the dead reckoning business. With D/F stations at Baird, Stamford, Abilene, and Sweetwater it was my job to help jug (P-47) pilots find their way home. This sounds simple, but many of the pilots were from Turkey and Brazil. It was a real trick to get a Turk headed back to base when he was having trouble with navigation. I remember one in particular who called in asking for help. He was convinced he had insufficient petrol to return to base. He was actually only 40 miles out, but he did not want to fly the course I gave him. As his fuel got lower he got more excited, but he did not take a heading to base. Several transmissions between ground and plane took place and with each transmission he became more excited. Finally when only about 10 miles out he chattered wildly and then bailed out. The plane crashed 8 miles out. We were all in a learning situation and the language barrier was obviously the culprit. After a couple of months of giving vectors to confused pilots I was shipped to Salt Lake City replacement Depot, then to Vancouver for overseas transport. President Truman had made the decision and the “A” bomb had been dropped, so my ship sailed directly to Japan. Landing in Yokohama I was sent to the Fifth Fighter Command at Fukuoka, Japan. The war was over, people were going home and there was a great need for support personnel. No one seemed to know what a controller was. I was assigned as a supply officer. I was, of course, angry and went to the club to ease my sorrow. There a Lt. Col. Baird was helping me cry in my beer be cause he was concerned about the lack of incoming trained personnel. When he discovered I was a trained controller assigned to supply he exploded. Needless to say, I was reassigned to the 35th Fighter Control Squadron Separate.

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