BATTLE OF THE ETHER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4523, 14 January 1942, Page 5

BATTLE OF THE ETHER

Enormous effect on outcome of the war

POTENT NEW WEAPON OF RADIOLOCATION

(By

Stanley Radford,

formerly Radio Technologist to Marconi Wireless

Telegraph Company, and now a Member of the Royal Air Force.)

, LONDON, December 1. * v.'hatever other effect war may have on the life of the nation, there can be no doubt that it has given great impetus to scientific development; and in no field is greater progress to be seen than in that of wireless. Great Britain to-day is mobilising its scientific talent as never before in the country’s history. Much of the work is either directly connected, with wireless communication or is closely allied to it by virtue of the ever-widening uses of the thermionic valve. Let us see how far we have come since the beginning of the n.ew science. It was. during the Balkan war of 1912-13 that it first became possible to make extensive use of wireless for communication purposes, perhaps most strikingly by the authorities in Adrianople to maintain constant touch with their relieving troops throughout a long siege, so making it clear that never again would it be possible for a city surrounded by a narrow belt of besieging troops to lose all communication with the outside world. JUTLAND BATTLE RECALLED But it was in the 1914-18 war that wireless appeared as a vital weapon of war. The new science found its way into each of the three fighting services and in numerous support services connected with intelligence work. During the Russian advance into Galicia in the summer of 1916 wireless was first used to discharge the functions performed previously by cavalry scouts and dispatch riders. Using mobile stations in lorries, the advancing squadrons of cavalry were kept in constant touch with their bases. Their equipment, using 70-foot masts, could be unloaded and erected in 20 minutes, and a similar technique for keeping in - touch with the base was used later by Allenby in Palestine and in Salonika and East and West Africa during the rapid advances that were carried out in those areas. ' ' The whole aspect of affairs at the battle of Jutland might have been different, too, but for the work which was being done in determining the direction from which wireless signals roach a receiver. A series of wireless direction-finding stations on the east coast was taking accurate bearings on the signals radiated by units of the German fleet lying at Wilhelmshaven. During the day of May 30, 1916, it was found that the bearings shifted one and a half degrees to the north, indicating that the German fleet was moving towards the North Sea. It was this early information which enabled the British Fleet to put to sea some hours ahead of its scheduled time and bring the German fleet to battle in waters more favourable to us than would have been possible had the contact been made as a result of the North Sea sweep planned to begin the next day. Similarly, wireless played a vital part in two other outstanding naval engagements, the Battle of the Falkland Islands and the sinking of the Emden. In these cases it was the use of wireless to convey information and not as a direction-finding device which led to the Navy achieving rapid success.

WIRELESS IN AIR WARFARE Important as were these contributions to land warfare and sea warfare, it is in air warfare that wireless has played its biggest part. The advent of the aeroplane enabled battery commanders to spot accurately where their shells were falling, and, by wireless, gave the aeroplane a ready and rapid means of conveying this information back to the battery, thus enabling the commander to make instant use of vital knowledge. The development of the design of radio yts for this purpose is indicated by me fact that, whereas - in 1914 an aircraft transmitter weight from 3 to 5 lb for every mile of its range, by 1918 its weight had been reduced to about one pound per mile range. At sea, the aeroplane using wireless communication was able to provide naval vessels with accurate longrange information, and as early as July, 1916, seaplanes could direct the long-distance fire of monitors hunting the German battleship . Koenisberg, hidden up the Rufiji River in East Africa. But the use of wireless in aircraft, both aeroplanes and airships, brought with it many technical problems. The last big Zeppelin raid on England, in October, 1917, cost the Germans five out of twelve Zeppelins, because, at the altitude of 22,000 feet, the temperature, was so-low that the generators developing power for the wireless were put out of action. And at the lower altitudes to which they had to drop to work their wireless for navigation and communication they were an easy prey for anti-aircraft guns. TO-DAY’S BATTLE OF THE ETHER When the story of the present war , omes to be written, the part played by wireless will again be seen to be of enormous proportions. The end of August, 1939, marked the opening of the brightest and best-planned Radiolympia Exhibition ever offered to the public by the wireless industry of Great Britain. Had normal times prevailed, the season 1939-40 was to see a big television drive, and all manufacturers were exhibiting receivers with numerous technical improvements and interesting features. But before the advertised closing date for Radiolympia, 1939, the threat of war was already upon us. In fact, the exhibition was closed two days early because the halls at Olympia ware in demand for other purposes, and when the 8.8. C. Television announced its last programme at 11 o’clock that morning, it was the signal that the radio industry, like the rest of the natrons, had gone to war. To the directly military uses of wireless there was now added the enormous field of broadcast propa-

ganda. ..Twenty years had seen the installation of a broadcast receiver in every home in Europe. And through that receiver the leaders of nations could make their own intimate appeal to everyone willing to listen. The make-up of the British Broadcasting Corporation system was such that we were easily able to take the lead in this field, to become the recognised sources from which real news or truth could be received. Proof of this, and condemnation of Germany’s own broadcasts, lay in the fact that it was made a crime in Germany to listen to foreign broadcasts. RESPONSIBILITY OF ENGINEERS How great is the responsibility of the engineers both at the transmitter and in the factory designing and producing the receivers! Theirs is the unseen task of ensuring that every word shall be heard clearly, that the finest shade of meaning shall be conveyed accurately to the listen-, ers’ homes. This new medium of propaganda is able to build up in half an hour a reputation and a following for a speaker that years of the old platform and market-place oratory could not have achieved. On the other hand, it can have a devastating effect on your enemy’s propaganda. The commentator who interpolates such phrases as “fairy tale” into the news bulletins of Deutschlandsender knows full well the value of the well-chosen wire-crack. This battle of the ether will, without doubt, have an enormous effect on the outcome of this war, and in Britain there has recently been lifted the veil of secrecy which surrounds another wireless development—radiolocation. Although its details must, of necessity, remain secret, we can tell from what has been published that here is a specific application of wireless technique to the purpose of war. By radiolocation the defence forces of Britain are able to seek out and fix those attacking enemy forces which they aim to destroy. Thus, it is possible to use to the greatest effect the defences available. Here is a new weapon of immense tactical use in war; and, when peace returns, its use in’ ensuring the safety of air transport will be no less valuable. WHEN PEACE COMES

The radio industry of Great Britain has made no mean contribution to the development and manufacture of the science, largely at the expense of much of its normal trading. And what of that band of workers, professional and amateur, who made up the radio world in Britain before the war? They are mostly in the services, working with the new apparatus thdt advancing technique brings forth. Keen “x’ers” and service men, research workers and fans, are all in it, making friendships that will last long after the struggle that brought them together has been forgotten. In service messes all over the world you will find them getting together, discussing, their adventures of the earlier radio days and comparing the results they got then with the work they are doing fo-day. And where shall we have moved to when it is all over? Largely it will depend upon how much development has been made with thermionic valves. Will television come back immediately, and in what form? Will the amateur movement be as strong as before? What will the domestic radio set look like? These and many similar questions remain to be answered to the satisfaction of those whose profession is radio. But for the moment everyone connected with the game is busy, busy making, using, and maintaining those new developments which were undreamed of five years ago; for the war has given an enormous impetus to radio progress.