INFRA RED RAYS

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 February 1947, Page 8

INFRA RED RAYS

.ADMIRALTY REVEALS WAR. SECRET " LONDON, Feb. 9. The Admiralty has lifted the security ban on the story of the wartime use of infra red rays—the “cats’ eyes” of the fighting services. Admiralty experts in an underground room at Whitehall demonstrated the equipment to journalists to-day. It resembles an ordinary telescope except that inside between the lenses is a special device which converts invisible infra red rays into green light. The British equipment was first produced in 1941, and was in full use by 1943. It weighed only 20oz compared with the 161 b of the equivalent German equipment. Journalists plunged in pitch blackness looked through the “telescope” and saw every detail of the room in vivid green. British night fighters protecting Britain were fitted with infra red sights alongside the gun sights capable of distinguishing the invisible infra red identity lights fitted to friendly fighters’ tails. Infra red signalling rays contributed to the midget submarines’ attack's on the Tirpitz and Japanese warships, and on the huge floating dock at Bergen in September, 1944, cable cutting operations in the Pacific, and more than 100 combined operations. They helped many underground fighters and Allied pri-

soners of war to escape, and guided troop-carrying amphibians across the Rhine in the final thrust against Germany.