German Radar Defenses, 1940-45

How many times have we heard that Britain had the world's first early-warning radar system? It was the magnetron-based 30 MHz 'Chain Home' network. According to the Neil Whyman March 2004 article in the June 2004 MENSA BULLETIN, it was not the only system as of 1940.

'By [1940] Germany had the world's first operational integrated air defense system, with radars operating below 580 MHz. Early-warning radars 'Freya,' 'Wasserman' and 'Mamut' operated at 1.2 - 4 meters along with the 50 cm 'Wurtzburg' tracker. These, unlike Chain Home, were transportable. [Britain confirmed German radar in 1937 when] a sharp analyst noticed some strange antennae on the battleship GRAF SPEE operating in the Spanish civil war. [The antennas were] later determined to be connected to a gun-laying ranging radar. ...In 1943 [the British] dispatched a commando team to the French coast to capture and disassemble a Wurtzburg and bring it (and the operator) back to Britain. 'Germany passed the war without a microwave radar system until, in 1943, they recovered an H2S system and its 10 cm magnetron from a downed Lancaster bomber, and an H2X 3 cm system by similar means in 1945, from an American aircraft. By then it was too late.'

According to the article, the first 'Radiation Laboratory' was at M.I.T. whose talented engineers produced 'what became the world's primary reference on radar...the 23-volume MIT Rad Lab series edited by Louis Ridenour.' DAVID HOLIMAN

I'm not certain this can be justified. Individual German radar installations were certainly integrated into *local* Luftwaffe fighter and night fighter command from 1939 onward, but there was no comprehensive system of radars linked to central command rooms (and thereafter into an 'all arms' national air defence network) until 1942. The British had done this in 1939.

British radar technology was comparable with Germany until 1940, when British advances rapidly left the Germans behind.

The opening paragraph does not give you a lot of faith in the rest of the article. Chain Home did not use magnetrons, these were centimetric devices developed later in the war.

Chain Home never was intended to be transportable, there was an Advance Chain Home that could be installed whilst the main site was being installed so I suppose these could be called 'transportable' . There was a Mobile Chain Home that could be used to fill gaps temporily. From the pictures that I have seen of the named German systems they do seem any more transportable than these. There were also Chain Home Low and Ground Controlled Interception sets that could be transportable.

Not so sure about the statement 'By [1940] Germany had the world's first operational integrated air defense system', probably an oversimplification as are most claims to have the first of anything. The British had a system working at the start of WWII so not sure what is being claimed for the German system.

If you have not read 'The Wizard War' by Jones, it is a true techno-thriller for geeks. There is a bit of overstatement from time to time, balanced by the reserved British manner of exposition. It talks, among other things, about radar development in England, and the excursion to capture a German radar set. Exciting!

Many times, since it is a correct claim and the early British work forms the basis of the current systems.

In terms of radars it appears all the major powers were doing some sorts of pre war experiments, the US, USSR, UK, Germany and I think Japan at least. The difference as far as air defence was concerned was the RAF had thought through the methods of turning radar information into timely interception orders and control of friendly fighters.

It would seem the article has no idea what it is talking about. An integrated air defence system means the radars and ground observers feeding plots to a central system that is then used to control the defences. The Luftwaffe lacked this for day fighters until mid war and never caught up to allied practice. The famed interception of an RAF Wellington raid consisted of a radar station telephoning the airfield direct, after which the fighters were on their own on a very clear day, it took about 20 minutes to put up the fighters.

What is correct is the Germans had radars in 1940. Freya was a navy set being delivered in 1938, a long range air search on the 2.1 to 2.6 metre band, Wurzburg came into service in 1940, operating on 53 cm wavelength, the 1941 'C' version was 63 cm.

There were a 8 Freya ground based sets deployed pre war, covering the German coast from Holland to Denmark, the Wurzburg deployment started in mid 1940.

Chain home was using around 10 metre wavelengths. It went onto 24 hour coverage on Good Friday 1939.

Wasserman and Mammut were not around in 1940, they came into service in 1942. Mammut was basically a Freya with bigger antennas.

The British backed up the chain home system with mobile units, and other sets like the Chain Home Low and Gun Laying units.

The Germans captured a British mobile radar set in France in 1940 and decided it was using the wrong wavelengths.

When the Battle of Britain began the RAF had 21 Chain Home and 20 Chain Home Low (1.5 metre wavelength) covering all approaches to Britain bar the North West of Scotland, the Bristol channel and part of the Welsh coast.

This may be the case or it may be referring to the boarding of the Graf Spee in 1939 after it was sunk. After which the Admiralty did a search on photographs of Graf Spee and found the aerials were on board in early 1938.

The Bruneval raid was on 27 February 1942 by parachute troops.

The 'Rotterdam' device captured came from a Stirling bomber, it was destroyed soon after in a bombing raid but another set was captured from that raid.

The Germans delivered something like 10 'Berlin' FUG 240 sets for nightfighters operating on around 9cm wavelength in 1945.

The standard nightfighter set operated at around 2 to 3 metre wavelengths.

This really ignores the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Britain plus its counterparts in other countries.

Geoffrey Sinclair Remove the nb for email.

To get a good understanding of what really went on, read

"Deflating British Radar Myths of World War II"

by Maj. Gregory C. Clark (1997)

You can find it at
www.radarpages.co.uk/download/AUACSC0609F97-3.pdf