> ... that discussed how the UK in particular had
> used its banked scientific knowledge to develop
> war winning technology in WW2. ... I feel there
> was a certain amount of self congratulation
> involved in this.
This probably refers to development of radar and similar technologies
involved in the air war. There have been a few popular TV programs on this,
mainly reporting the British side.
The Germans had better radar at the start of the war, and were the first to
deploy combat squadrons of devastating jet fighters. They were also ahead in
rocketry, and after the war formed a substantial part of both the US and the
Soviet space efforts.
The British, on the other hand, used radar much better. The Germans thought
of radar as part of a fighting unit, and so attached particular fighters to
particular radar stations. This meant that the British could overwhelm
German radar by streaming their bomber fleets in narrow streams over
particular sectors.
By comparison, the British saw radar as a defensive *network*, combining
their reports across a wide region and and giving controllers flexibility to
deploy fighters as they saw fit.
As well, the British were also lucky in having a very intelligent fighter
commander who, against considerable opposition, adopted a policy of using
fighters in small packets, and of scrambling them only at the last minute.
This policy annoyed traditionalists and private-school prats, who wanted to
be scrambled early and in large numbers so they could enjoy the maximum
advantages over their enemy. This would have significantly reduced the
number of raids the fighters could respond to. It is generally considered
that the British tactics were precisely the correct ones for the time, and
won the Battle of Britain.
The Germans also suffered from poor intelligence, perhaps reflecting their
dearth of agents in Britain. During the critical Battle of Britain, they
sought to bomb the fighter airfields, fighter factories and radar stations,
which would have been devastating. But they ended up bombing irrelevant
maritime patrol airfields and bomber factories. The all-important fighters
survived.
Their attacks on the radar stations were successful, but the British
continued transmitting fake radar signals as if nothing was wrong, leading
the Germans to deduce their attacks were useless and so to discontinue them.
And the other side of the story
-------------------------------
Because of their dependence on radar, the British fitted their bombers with
devices that identified them as friendly on radar screens, so they wouldn't
be attacked by English night fighters.
The bomber crews were not told what these devices did; but only that they
would prevent them being shot down over England and that the devices should
be turned off over France and Germany. Naturally, the bomber crews decided
that if these devices protected them over England, they would do the same
over Germany, and left them on.
However the devices were radio emitters, and the Germans soon cottoned on to
this and developed a special detector for their own night fighters. Many
bombers were shot down as a result of this before the British realised.
Regards, Tony Healy
>
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