GREAT SECRET OF WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23280, 16 August 1945, Page 6

GREAT SECRET OF WAR

Radar’s Searching Eye

B'. Telegraph —N Z Press Assn —Cotnrwnt (7.30 om.> WASHINGTON Aug. 14. British and American military and scientific leaders have released all that can at oresent be revealed about radar, including the principles of instrument bombing. The transmitter sends out radio energy in intense bursts, called pulses, travelling at light’s speed—lB6.o9o miles a second These record on the instrument oanel as a continuous line which is called the “time base.’’ When the oulses strike the object, a radio echo is received, and a vertical projection called : ‘pip" appears on the time base line. Tne oulse s speed is known, therefore. and the between the beginning of the time base and the pip Fn Hi rates the object’s range. The direction of he object from the transmitter is determined bv noting the oosition of antenna at the time the oip appears Antenna sends out the pulse’s narrow beam-like searchli'hts, and can sw* 5 " the circumference of a circle. With the latest type, radar echoes draw a man on the cathode tube, and no matter how many targets surround the radar set or whether f he set is in a ship, plane or on the ground, each target is indicated bv a blob of persistent .sht on the tube’s face The blob’s direction from the tube’s centre jndirqt**': the target’* range Bombing Th r on‘ T *’ *"*

With through overcast. a radar map of unseen terrain ahead shows in the tube This electronic map shows uo everything within son miles Large cities can b° defined 50 miles awav. and airfields, bridges and other soecific targets are magnified as the □lane a n nmp«hes within ASV “aii to surface vessel.”

The radar "l«r»e nan detect surfaced tens of m»’®s awav and larger craft upward of 200 miles Ooerators sav that ASV is so animate that thev can pick up even a shin’s wake <*t a considerable a’ fif ude This instrument largelv to the defeat of the wolf packs. The Nazis tried everything to outwit radar’s searching beams, including the development of instrument on the capture of Allied radar Tills instrument intercepted Allied radar signals, thus giving U-boats a chance to submerge However, the Allies countered a new radar micro-wave There was also a “tail warning' radar fitted into planes which do not

carry complete radar When the enemy comes within 800 vards the Diane’s t il bell rings and a light flashes a warning Radar cannot detect ohi-cts below the surface of the water much beyond the horizon However, long-range navigation radar «ends out hngr land stations signals which can b? nicked [ un 1200 milws to sea. allowing shins to '•lot .-.neifreAVAc pf Radar is ; so sensitive that the instruments can ' ”oee projectiles in flight

Potentialities For Peace

(Rec. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON. Aug. 14 Radar possessed far more immediate potentialities for the service of the human race even than the splitting of the atom, declared Sir Stafford Cripps at a Press conference attended by famous scientists, radar experts and high Service officers. He added that the whole of the civilised world owed a great debt to radar scientists If they had not worked on the invention lon»- before the outbreak of hostilities it was doubtful if P’ , ’*ai*» could have held out against the German onslaught during rV - V P”' ,y c’ne "+o<V* ®lone. Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur • <’drr Sir Stafford Crinps’s ♦ribute He said he had never known •'•"•♦hin° so dramaor fascinating as when, during the siege of Maha. hr sat in the operaroom flopn down in the bo"’ *’’* of the island and by radar was ahlr tn uo- aircraft take off at aerodromes, watch th**’r course, and see fighter" smash them.