THE APPLICATIONS of RADAR and OTHER ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS in the ROYAL NAVY in WORLD WAR 2 Photograph by Bassano & Vandyk Studios
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THE APPLICATIONS OF RADAR AND OTHER ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS IN THE ROYAL NAVY IN WORLD WAR 2 photograph by Bassano & Vandyk Studios ProfessorJohn Flavell Coales, CBE, F Eng., FRS senior survivor of the prewar radar pioneers at HM Signal School and doyen ofwartime Naval gunnery radar The Applications of Radar and Other Electronic Systems in the Royal Navy in World War 2 Edited by F.A. Kingsley for the Naval Radar Trust M © Naval Radar Trust 1995 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1995 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-13625-4 ISBN 978-1-349-13623-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13623-0 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95 Copy-edited and typeset by Povey-Edmondson Okehampton and Rochdale, England Contents ~~~~~ ~ List of Tables xiv Preface xv Development and Installation of British Naval Radar - Milestones xxi Notes on the Contributors xxv PART I RADAR-SYSTEM APPLICATIONS IN WEAPON DIRECTION, WEAPON CONTROL, ACTION INFORMATION AND FIGHTER DIRECTION, 1935-45 Editorial Note 3 1 Weapon Direction in the Royal Navy, 1935-45 5 H. W. Pout Summary 5 Introduction 6 Sensors 7 Large ship sensors 10 Types 79 and 279 10 Types 280, 281 and 960 12 Small-ship sensors - 104m wavelength: Type 286 series, 290 and 291 16 5-band sensors - 10-cm wavelength 19 Specialised target indication radars 25 Weapon Direction 27 Early methods 27 Advances in weapon direction 29 Type 293 and Target Indication Unit Mark 2 30 Limitations of Type 293 and TIU 2 32 Type 992 and TIU 3 33 Future Staff Requirements for a gunnery direction system 35 Appendix 1: Extract from AFO 57 - Gunnery Terms - Revision 37 Appendix 2: Summary of Warning Radar Parameters 38 Appendix 3: Summary of Range Performance 42 v vi Contents 2 Weapon Control in the Royal Navy 45 H. W. Pout Section 1 Weapon Radar Development 45 Summary 45 Introduction 45 The Weapon Problem at Sea 46 Weapon-Control Systems 48 LA gunnery 49 HA gunnery, long range 50 HA gunnery, close range 51 The Applications of Radar to Weapon Control 52 The first phase: 50-cm (L-band) weapon radar appears, 1938-40 52 The second phase: improving the 50-cm radars, 1940-2 54 The third phase: the centimetric radar systems, 1941-5 65 The fourth phase: Lessons learned and proposals for the future, 1944-6 74 Future Systems 77 The early stages 77 Type 901 radar 78 The medium-range gunnery systems 82 The longer-term future - a footnote 82 Section 2 Weapon Systems and Their Performance 84 Summary 84 Introduction 84 The Prewar situation 85 The High-Angle Control System (HACS) 87 Case 1: The Basic HACS, Without Radar 89 Early improvements 96 Case 2: HACS with Radar-Ranging only 97 Remote Power-control (RPC) and LOS Stabilisation 99 Case 3: The Gyro Rate-Unit (GRU) 101 Case 4: Velocity Trigger (VT) Shell Fuzing 106 Case 5: Radar Type 275 and New Director Mark 6 108 Other errors 109 Medium and Long-range Anti-Aircraft Gunnery and the 'Ultimate' Design 112 Case 6: The 'Ultimate' Gunnery System 114 Radar 114 Fire-control 116 The Weapon 118 Target behaviour 119 Overall errors 120 Contents vii Appendix 1: Explanation of Terms Used in Section 1 124 Appendix 2: Summary of Gunnery Radars manufactured or Developed from 1938 to 1946 127 Appendix 3: Notes on Aiming by Radar 130 Appendix 4: Explanation of Terms used in Section 2 136 Appendix 5: A Description of the HACS 138 Appendix 6: Extract from the LRS1 Staff Requirements and Cover Note 142 3 The Action Information Organisation 147 Cdr. A. E. Fanning Summary 147 Introduction 147 The Situation Prior to World War 2 148 The Introduction of Radar to the Fleet 150 Early Developments in Action Information Plotting 150 The Requirements for an Action Plotting Organisation 151 Plotting Developments in the Battle of the Atlantic 153 Formal Requirements for an Action Information Organisation 155 The Ala Training Centre 156 Getting the Ala to Sea 161 Appointment of the Co-ordinating Authority for the Ala 164 The Use of Radar in Navigating and Conducting Operations 166 Tailpiece 170 4 Fighter-Direction Materiel and Technique 173 Lt. Cdr R. S. Woolrych Summary 173 Introduction 174 The Birth of Fighter Direction in the RN 174 Formation of the Fighter Direction Training School 177 Fighter-Direction Developments at Sea 178 Further Developments and Improvements 181 Experiences in Other Theatres 183 PART II ELECTRONIC WARFARE DEVELOPMENTS, 1939-45 Editorial Note 189 5 Electronic Countermeasures in the Royal Navy 191 F. A. Kingsley Summary 191 Intoduction 192 viii Contents The Beginnings of Radar Countermeasures in the Royal Navy 193 The First Operational Test of the Naval Jammer 195 The Radio War at Dover 196 The Naval Radar Monitor Station at Dover 197 Monitoring of E-boat Communications in the Channel 199 Shipborne Radar Jammers 201 The 10-Centimetre Radar Problem 202 Countermeasures Against Airborne Radar 210 XG2 Staff Developments 210 German Developments in Anti-Ship Guided Weapons 211 Preparations for the Invasion of Europe 214 Planning for the Allied Assault on France (Operation NEPTUNE) 216 The Diversionary Operations 218 Application of the Radar Countermeasures Plan 219 The Outcome 220 The Invasion of Southern France (Operation DRAGOON) 221 The End of the ECM War in Europe 222 10-centimetre Radar-Jammer Development 224 Developing ECM Effort Against Japan 225 6 High-Frequency Direction Finding in the Royal Navy: Development of Anti-V-Boat Equipment, 1941-5 229 P. G. Redgment Summary 229 Introduction 229 The Operational Problem 231 Outline of Radio OF Theory 233 Twin-Channel (Watson-Watt) CRDF 235 The Development of Shipborne HF OF 235 The site and the antenna system 236 Shipborne receiving equipment 240 Test equipment 241 Relation to USN developments 244 Other developments 246 Shore-Based HF OF 248 Antenna systems 249 Receiving equipment 249 Plotting and statistical methods 250 USN Navy shore-stations 252 German HF OF 253 Some Views with Hindsight 254 The relation between OF and 'Ultra' 254 Contents ix Shipborne HF DF performance and operational needs 256 The contribution by the twin-channel CRDF 258 The German failure to appreciate the threat of shipborne HF DF 261 MF DF - an opportunity missed? 262 Conclusion 7 Review of German Maritime Radar Developments 267 F.A. Kingsley Summary 267 Introduction 268 The World's First Radar Experiments, 1904 268 Experiments with Pulsed Radar Systems in the Interwar Years 270 Early Radar Operational Requirements and Developments Naval radar systems 274 Luftwaffe radar systems that ultimately had Naval applications 276 A Note on Radar-System Nomenclature 278 The Operational Application of Gema Radar Systems, 1939-40 279 Shipborne installations 279 Shore-based installations 281 Early Air-Defence Radar Developments Having Maritime Applications 281 The Next Generation of Gema Radars 286 Shipborne systems 286 Coast-defence systems 289 Discovery of British em-Wave Radars, 1943, and Consequences 290 Naval developments 291 Land-based applications 293 Naval Radar Developments in the Decimetre Waveband, 1943-5 295 IFF Developments (Funkmesserkennung, FuME) 296 Passive Radar (Radar Search/DF Receivers) (Funkmessbeobachtungsempfanger, FuMB) 297 Conclusion 305 Appendix: Type Numbers of Radars in the Royal Navy up to 1945 309 Glossary 315 Select Bibliography 325 Index 331 List of Illustrations 1.1 Target Indicating Unit, Mark 2A, with Rangefinding Outfit RTB 31 1.2 Reliable detection range: simplified coverage diagrams against medium-sized bomber targets 43 2.1 Type 285, showing six 'fishbone' antennae on the high-angle director control-tower, ranging panel L12, and fire-control table 55 2.2 Panel L12 displays: (A) 6000-yd maximum range for close- range set; (B) 15000-yd maximum range for high-angle set; (C) 24000-yd maximum range for low-angle set; 57 2.3 Precision ranging system: (A) using calibration pips; (B) using a bright spot range-index on 10-cm low-angle radar 59 2.4 Auto-barrage unit with ranging panel L22 64 2.5 lO-cm high-angle radar equipment 69 2.6 STAAG twin-Bofors mounting with Type 262 installed on it 72 2.7 Diagrammatic layout of STAAG mounting (Mark 2) 73 2.8 Production prototype of Type 901 on stabilised antenna carrier 80 2.9 HAC table Mark 4 (a) side view; (b) rear view 88 2.10 Fuze-keeping Clock Mark 3 89 2.11 Rangefinder Director Mark 3 90 2.12 Director Mark 4 (GB)HA 101 2.13 Director Mark 5"'M HAlLA 102 2.14 Director Mark 6 HAlLA 103 2.15 Gyro Rate-unit Mark 2 104 2.16 Summary of results 124 2.17 Pulse-to-pulse fading of 3-cm radar signals (1500 pps) : (A) rapid fading; (B) long-period fading; (C) fading that exhibits a large 30 cis component; (D) taken with a conically- scanning set to show the effect of the 30 cis misalignment signal for comparison 132 2.18 High-performance radars, aiming errors (rms) 135 2.19 HACS ranging system 141 3.1 Maintaining the