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H2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was developed for the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command during World War II to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing. This allowed attacks outside the range of the various radio navigation aids like Gee or Oboe, which were limited to about 350 kilometres (220 mi) of range from various base stations. It was also widely used as a general navigation system, allowing landmarks to be identified at long range.
HMCS Sackville is a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and later served as a civilian research vessel. She is now a museum ship located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the last surviving Flower-class corvette.
The history of radar started with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism. However, it was not until the early 20th century that systems able to use these principles were becoming widely available, and it was German inventor Christian Hülsmeyer who first used them to build a simple ship detection device intended to help avoid collisions in fog. True radar, such as the British Chain Home early warning system provided directional information to objects over short ranges, were developed over the next two decades.
Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are typically carried out to protect friendly shipping and coastal facilities from submarine attacks and to overcome blockades.
Arthur Edwin Covington was a Canadian physicist who made the first radio astronomy measurements in Canada. Through these he made the valuable discovery that sunspots generate large amounts of microwaves at the 10.7 cm wavelength, offering a simple all-weather method to measure and predict sunspot activity, and their associated effects on communications. The sunspot detection program has run continuously to this day.
John Tasker Henderson was a Canadian Physicist whose career was with the National Research Council (NRC). Educated at McGill and London, Henderson joined the NRC in 1933 where he worked on the effects of the ionosphere on radio signals and the Direction Finder invented by A.G.L. McNaughton and W.A. Steel.
Radar in World War II greatly influenced many important aspects of the conflict. This revolutionary new technology of radio-based detection and tracking was used by both the Allies and Axis powers in World War II, which had evolved independently in a number of nations during the mid 1930s. At the outbreak of war in September 1939, both the United Kingdom and Germany had functioning radar systems. In the UK, it was called RDF, Range and Direction Finding, while in Germany the name Funkmeß (radio-measuring) was used, with apparatuses called Funkmessgerät . By the time of the Battle of Britain in mid-1940, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had fully integrated RDF as part of the national air defence.
HMCS Chambly was a Flower-class corvette serving in the Royal Canadian Navy. She was ordered from Canadian Vickers Ltd. in Montreal, laid down on 20 February 1940, launched on 29 July, and commissioned on 18 December 1940, named after the city of Chambly, Quebec. Chambly escorted trade convoys between Halifax Harbour and the Western Approaches through the battle of the Atlantic and, together with HMCS Moose Jaw, achieved the RCN's first U-boat kill of the war.
C. Lorenz AG (1880–1958) was a German electrical and electronics firm primarily located in Berlin. It innovated, developed, and marketed products for electric lighting, telegraphy, telephony, radar, and radio. It was acquired by ITT in 1930 and became part of the newly founded company Standard Elektrik Lorenz (SEL) Stuttgart in 1958, when it merged with Standard Elektrizitätsgesellschaft and several other smaller companies owned by ITT. In 1987, SEL merged with the French companies Compagnie Générale d'Electricité and Alcatel to form the new Alcatel SEL.
Devils Battery or Devils Point Battery, Hartlen Point or Hartlen Point Tunnels, was a complex military installation at the mouth of Halifax Harbour in the community of Eastern Passage at Hartlen Point, Canada. It was built between 1940 and 1945 to protect the Halifax area against the German navy. It was operational until the 1950s. The site had three 9.2 inch (234 mm) breech-loading Mark X guns, operated by the 53rd Heavy Battery of the 1st (Halifax) Coast Regiment. It is now a golf course; the original underground armaments remain buried. Devils Battery was named for Devils Island which is adjacent to the embankment of Hartlen's Point.
The Type 271 was a surface search radar used by the Royal Navy and allies during World War II. The first widely used naval microwave-frequency system, it was equipped with an antenna small enough to allow it to be mounted on small ships like corvettes and frigates, while its improved resolution over earlier radars allowed it to pick up a surfaced U-boat at around 3 miles (4.8 km) and its periscope alone at 900 yards (820 m).
Research Enterprises Limited was a short-lived Toronto-based Crown Corporation that built electronics and optical instruments during World War II. They existed only six years from late 1940 until 1946, and were active only from late 1941, but during that period they became Leaside's largest employer, producing C$220 million worth of radar systems and optical instruments. After the war, the government rapidly closed the various wartime companies it had started. After REL was closed, their factories formed the basis of a Corning Glass plant, Philips Electronics, and a variety of other firms. Today only a few of the original buildings still stand, used primarily for light industrial and small commercial enterprises.
Radar, Gun Laying, Mark III, or GL Mk. III for short, was a radar system used by the British Army to directly guide, or lay, anti-aircraft artillery (AA). The GL Mk. III was not a single radar, but a family of related designs that saw constant improvement during and after World War II. These were renamed shortly after their introduction in late 1942, becoming the Radar, AA, No. 3, and often paired with an early warning radar, the AA No. 4, which was also produced in several models.
Searchlight Control, SLC for short but nicknamed "Elsie", was a British Army VHF-band radar system that provided aiming guidance to an attached searchlight. By combining a searchlight with a radar, the radar did not have to be particularly accurate, it only had to be good enough to get the searchlight beam on the target. Once the target was lit, normal optical instruments could be used to guide the associated anti-aircraft artillery. This allowed the radar to be much smaller, simpler and less expensive than a system with enough accuracy to directly aim the guns, like the large and complex GL Mk. II radar. In 1943 the system was officially designated Radar, AA, No. 2, although this name is rarely used.
Radar, Air-to-Surface Vessel, Mark II, or ASV Mk. II for short, was an airborne sea-surface search radar developed by the UK's Air Ministry immediately prior to the start of World War II. It was the first aircraft mounted radar of any sort to be used operationally. It was widely used by aircraft of the RAF Coastal Command, Fleet Air Arm and similar groups in the United States and Canada. A version was also developed for small ships, the Royal Navy's Type 286.
Radar, Air-to-Surface Vessel, Mark III, or ASV Mk. III for short, was a surface search radar system used by RAF Coastal Command during World War II. It was a slightly modified version of the H2S radar used by RAF Bomber Command, with minor changes to the antenna to make it more useful for the anti-submarine role. It was Coastal Command's primary radar from the spring of 1943 until the end of the war. Several improved versions were introduced, notably the ASV Mark VI, which replaced most Mk. IIIs from 1944 and ASV Mark VII radar, which saw only limited use until the post-war era.
The AN/SQS-504 Diver was an early naval medium-frequency active variable depth sonar (VDS) developed in Canada.
DZ203, a Boeing 247 airliner, was among the most important single aircraft used in the development of various airborne radar and blind landing systems. It is particularly notable as the first aircraft to perform a completely automatic approach and landing, in January 1945.
SW1C, short for Surface Warning, Model 1, Canadian, was an early radar system developed by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN).
References
Citations
Bibliography
- Middleton, William (16 March 1981). Radar Development in Canada: The Radio Branch of the National Research Council. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 9780889201064.
- Merklinger, Harold (2009). "Maritime Research and Development in the Second World War". In Gimblett, Richard (ed.). The Naval Service of Canada, 1910–2010: The Centennial Story. Dundurn. ISBN 9781459713284.
- Shore Based Search Radar – "Night Watchman" (NW). ERA 141- The War History of the National Research Council Radio Branch (Technical report). Radio Branch, National Research Council. 1948.