Silence, nothing but silence until there’s a buzz in the air, slowly getting louder, then suddenly dozens of bombers fly over cities and towns destroying everything in sight, without a single plane launching to defend the homeland. This is how many air raids were carried out through World War I because the only defenses to air attacks were hearing and eyesight. The invention that would change everything was radar, which was created in the years preceding World War II. The British would end up relying on their, at the time, advanced radar system to avoid any disasters caused by the Germans who greatly outnumbered them. The British won the Battle of Britain because of the advantage they had with the most important tactical and technological advancement of World War II, known as radar.
Workings of Radar
The creation of the radar gave an early advantage to the British. In previous wars, such as World War I, the only warning soldiers could get of an attack was by their own hearing and eyesight (Lu online). Radar would end up making air attacks harder to complete in secrecy because planes could be detected miles away. Scientists first started looking into the idea of what is now known as radar because “as far back as June 1932, there had been reports about a plane interfering with radio signals, and re-radiating them” (Lu online), or sending them back to where they came from.
The British had an early start in radar research because of their scientists. Sir Robert A. Watson-Watt, a British electronics genius who had already invented the stereo with two speakers, and his staff, A.F. Wilkens, came up with the idea of “RDF”, which stood for Radio Direction Finding (Lu online). RDF got the name “radar” as a codename. Radar is an acronym for radio detection and ranging (Staecker online). Radar works by transmitting a radio beam and then measuring the time it takes the beam to return and the direction in which the pulse is reflected off the target aircraft, establishing the distance, bearing, height, and speed of the aircraft (Keegan 92). Also, by using a narrow radio wave direction can be detected. Radar could bounce radio waves off airplanes, submarines, and ships at sea, or building and fortifications on the ground, revealing the object to the sender (Sulzberger 297). Because British scientists created radar, the Royal Air Force had first access to it and was able to use radar as a tactical advantage, which gave them a major advantage in war.
Radar Evolution and Advantage for the British
Radar capabilities progressively advanced throughout the entire period of World War II, with Britain always ahead technologically over the Germans. The British came out with a radar system called the Air to Surface Vessel (ASV) I, which was the first portable radar (Lu online). This initial system was very primitive compared to later radar systems. In 1940, the Germans created their own radar system called Freya, but that was three years after the British created the ASV I (Dunnigan 202). The Germans didn’t have as much trust in their radar system as the British did in theirs, making them reluctant to spend a lot of time on developing a better radar system (Dunnigan 202). Unlike the Germans, the British realized the importance of the radar and put a lot of time and effort into advancing their own radar technology. In 1941, ASV II went into mass production, with a total of 4000 sets ordered, and had a range of 12 to 20 miles (Lu online). Even though, this was a major advancement from ASV I, this radar system was still only adequate for enemy detection and the British pursued a much more reliable radar system. Finally in 1942, the British developed the ASV III/H2S, which was a major breakthrough in the war because it increased radar’s range to 40 miles (Lu online). ASV III was placed along the coast, where as H2S was placed in bomber planes (Lu online). This put Britain’s radar system leaps and bounds over Germany’s system, even though by today’s standards a 40 mile range isn’t very good. Throughout World War II Germany could only create one-dimensional radar, meaning that they could only detect distance and direction; where as British radar eventually could detect altitude (Dunnigan 203-207).
Radar proved to be a major tactical advantage for the British and the British knew it, causing them to initially take certain measures to try and hide their great invention. Before other countries found out about radar, questions were raised about why the British had so much success in night fighting, forcing the British to tell the press that they had their pilots eat carrots whenever they had a chance because carrots are said to improve eyesight (Fisher 45). The British knew the advantage and value of having radar, so they would say or do anything to hide its importance, even if it wasn’t true. In the late 1930’s the British created a network of sixteen secret radar towers called “Chain Home” to detect German bombers, giving the British a good warning of German air raids (Staecker online). The Chain Home was able to give advanced warning of any possible military threats from any direction. In the Battle of Britain the British Royal Air Force (RAF) had only 620 fighters compared to 1892 bombers and 1290 fighters for the German Luftwaffe (Sulzberger 81). The Germans should have been able to easily defeat the British in the Battle of Britain because they had an advantage of around 3200 planes. Without the radar the British probably would have lost the battle. Radar allowed the British Royal Air Force to keep planes grounded until the last possible time, and then suddenly strike (Chirnside online). This would have also allowed British pilots to fight longer because they didn’t have to waste fuel while searching for enemy planes. Because the British did not have a large air force, fuel conservation was very important for them. This is because unlike the Germans who could almost constantly send more and more planes, the British had to stick with the few planes they had longer.
Radar in the Battle of Britain and Today
The British would not have been able to defeat the Germans in the Battle of Britain without the advantage they had through radar technology. Throughout World War II, it was a race between British and Germans to see who could build a real effective radar first, and the British were always ahead in the race (Dunnigan 273). If the British always had better radar technology than the Germans, they would have had a huge advantage in the air battles, allowing greater military success overall. According to James F. Dunnigan and Albert A. Nofi, co-authors of Dirty Little Secrets of World War II, the German Luftwaffe were defeated by the British Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain because radar allowed ground controllers to send large numbers of British fighters to a specific area (Dunnigan 134). Dunnigan and Nofi are saying that radar won the battle for the British. C.L. Sulzberger supports this in his book New History of World War II, by stating that without radar and the scientists that created it, Britain would have had no chance in the war (Sulzberger 79). John Keegan, who wrote The Second World War, would also agree with Dunnigan, Nofi and Sulzberger, saying that radar was a critical advantage for British Fighter Command (Keegan 92). In the summer of 1940, the Allies lost a battle in France partly because the head of British Fighter Command didn’t want to risk his Spitfire planes in France where there weren’t any radar systems (Fisher 84). British military leaders obviously knew that without radar they would have been at a huge disadvantage in any air battles because they had so few planes. The British Royal Air Force relied on radar to get the few planes that they had to important places where enemies were located. Even though radar was a major advantage for the British during World War II, it could be considered primitive if compared to all the technology that it has led to today.
Of the many important inventions to come out of World War II, radar is the most important because of all the technology it has paved the way for. When the British brought radar to the United States for production, someone said “they carried the most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores” (Sulzberger 297). Today, the United States is the top military power in the world. For an American to say this says a lot about radar because of all the advanced technology the United States military has, they consider radar to be the most important. United States military uses radar technology for every branch of their military, from sonar for the Navy, to modern radar for the Air Force. Also, Larry Belmont, author of the webpage for the 225th AAA Searchlight Battalion, considers radar as the most important development in communications of World War II (Belmont online). Radar technology is important for other reasons besides its military uses. Sulzberger said that “Radar changed the world” (Sulzberger 298). Everything from digital computers to particle accelerators have come out of the invention of radar (Sulzberger 298). The invention of the radar directly affects people’s lives today. Radar set the foundation for much of the technology that people use everyday in their households.
Britain was able to overcome overwhelming odds in the Battle of Britain to defeat the Germans because of the major tactical advantage they had from radar. Radar allowed the British to see possible air attacks miles away, allowing them to plan out exactly where to send planes, making them more efficient in air defense, even when outnumbered. The idea of air raids was forever changed with the creation of radar because it allowed an organized defense of an area. The most important tactical and technological advancement to come out of World War II must be radar because it both won a major battle for one of the leading world powers, and set the foundation for other important technology that is used today around the world for military and domestic reasons.
Works Cited
Belmont, Larry. “Radar in WWII.” History. http://www.strandlab.com/radar/. (1 Apr. 2002).
Chirnside, Alex. “The Battle of Britain.” Alex’s Military History Homepage. http://www.geocities.com/broadway/alley/5443/index.html. (1 Apr. 2002).
Dunnigan, James F, and Albert A. Nofi. Dirty Little Secrets of World War II. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1994.
Fisher, David E. A Race on the Edge of Time. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1988.
Keegan, John. The Second World War. New York: Penguin Group, 1989.
Lu, Alex. “The invention of the radar and its application in World War II.” Objective One History Project. http://www.lexcie.zetnet.co.uk/radar.htm. (25 Mar. 2002).
Staecker, P. “Radar and World War II.” IEEE. http://www.mtt.org/miscellany/ fiftyanniv/cp_04radar.htm. (1 Apr. 2002).
Sulzberger, C.L. New History of World War II. China: Viking Penguin, 1997.
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