A.P.Rowe and his Sunday Soviets
- Gun-laying radar
In 1937 P.E.Pollard was working as part of the Army team based
at Bawdsey Manor.Their main concerns were coastal defenceand anti-aircraft
gunnery control. By 1939 acceptable gun-ranging equipment was inservice
with an accuracy of 25 yars at a range of 10 miles. In 1940 the
first 50 cmsunits appeared but it still took 20,000 rounds of ammunition
to shoot down one aircraft.A year later, 9.1 cm sets were introduced
and accuracy improved 5-fold; only 4000 rounds of ammunition were
expended per 'kill'. Invariably, civilians and A.T.S girls were
trained to control the radar sets at these gun and searchlight posts.
A wide variety of coastal defence units were constructed from 1940
onwards. In December 1940, Professor H.W.Skinner, working at TRE
Worth had set up a 9.1 cm system and had detected small ships such
as trawlers at 7 miles out working their way across Swanage Bay.
He also managed to detect submarine periscopes at 4 miles with the
same equipment.
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