The Camera On Series made available many rare images, as in the case of this book where the book is enriched by photographs from private German sources. This volume reviews the Wurzburg Radar that was a critical part of the command and control system built by the Germans in an attempt to counter the growing streams of Allied bombers. – Very Highly Recommended.
NAME: Camera On, 18, Wurzburg Radar & Mobile 24KVA Generator FILE: R3088 AUTHOR: Alan Ranger PUBLISHER: Stratus, MMP Books BINDING: soft back PRICE: £15.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Luftwaffe, WWII, radar, radio detection, command and control, bombers, air defence, fighters, night fighters, mobile radar, power generation
ISBN: 978-83659558-53-2
PAGES: 80 IMAGE: B3088.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/ryf6j46 DESCRIPTION: The Camera On Series made available many rare images, as in the case of this book where the book is enriched by photographs from private German sources. This volume reviews the Wurzburg Radar that was a critical part of the command and control system built by the Germans in an attempt to counter the growing streams of Allied bombers. – Very Highly Recommended. The popular fiction is that the Battle of Britain was won by Home Chain radar that the Germans were blissfully unaware of. In fact, electronics engineers in Britain and Germany had been working on radar systems for their respective military. In 1939 the Germans used a Zeppelin and aircraft to cruise down the coast of Britain in the hope of gathering signal intelligence. They were well aware that British engineers were working on the use of radar although they were not aware of how well developed the unique British command and control system was. The Chain Home radar systems with their massive fixed masts were just part of the monitoring systems that fed information to the command and control system that served the Groups covering the British Isles. Information was also provided from sound monitors and from the large network of Royal Observer Corps observation posts. Germany was far behind on building a fulling integrated command and control system and part of the reason for that was that the Luftwaffe were under the delusion that they could bomb neighbouring States with impunity, but no one would bomb Germany. It was also part of the German concept of Blitz Krieg that German combined arms formations would advanced so rapidly through countries they intended to invade that no enemy would have the time to strike back with large bomber fleets. That in turn meant that German bombers would be light and medium bombers with no need for large strategic heavy bombers. From there the Nazis concluded that no one else would have strategic bombers capable of laying wast the German homeland. It came as an unpleasant surprise, after the lightning occupation of the Low Countries and France, when the RAF came up in numbers against the Luftwaffe raids that were intended to achieve air superiority necessary to enabling German landings on British soil. Not only did the RAF fighters arrive at the height of the German bombers but they were able to land to refuel and rearm ready to meet the next waves of German aircraft. German losses increased rapidly and although they claimed to have short down almost every RAF fighter, the RAF not only continued to meet them in numbers, but the numbers seemed to be increasing. That experience should have prompted the Germans to put much greater effort into building their own radar and air defences, but to also prepare in-depth, including the establishment of night time black outs across Germany, enforce by air raid wardens. When the RAF first bombed Berlin, it was a major shock with the street lights still blazing and people thronging the Unter den Linden as the first bombs fell. After a slow start, the Germans soon learned the hard way that they were also targets and efforts to built and further develop radar systems were strongly increased. The Wurzburg radar was part of this effort and technically very good, with the ability to be moved to new locations, with its own generators to provide all the power required by the powerful units. As the British became aware of the new German systems, they staged raids on occupied Europe to gather components from the radar systems before blowing the remaining equipment up to disguise the successful harvesting of key components to allow a full assessment of the new German systems. This book provides a unique and much needed study with many illustrations. It will be invaluable to military history enthusiasts and model makers.