A 1997 paper by Major G.C.Clark offers a provocative challenge to the general historical acceptance.

www.radarpages.co.uk/download/AUACSC0609F97-3.pdf

Great read! Reminds me of the BBC (?) series that has been posted here a couple of months back.

Funny, I never knew any of these myths. My understanding was that because the British used the radar intelligence with a deployment of resources they were able to send up fighters only when needed and only to the places where needed. This system started out with Sound, not radar. To this day you can go to the coast of England and find these concrete things that are kind of shaped like satellite dishes. They face the coast of France. If you stand in the right spot you can hear things from across the channel.

Excellent paper, exceptional analysis. Thanks for posting this.

Thanks.
Downloaded to read next week.


Wheels

Some of the myths he's arguing against seem to be largely his own creation. He also makes fundamental errors in his attempt to deflate those myths, too.

From the paper:




Production of the GL Mk1 radar started in 1938. It was operational by the end of the year, the first units sent overseas in March 1939.

AMES type 9T went operational right at the start of the war.

AI Mk1 was in operation early in 1939. AI Mk II went in to production in August 1939.

Costal Defence MK II radar went in to production in June 1939.

The RN's Type 79 air search radar went operational in August 1938.

The improved Type 279, a combined air warning/gun laying radar, entered production in early 1939.

Radio Assisted Direction And Range was just that.

It was an additional means to try and detect the presence of the enemy using radio waves to assess where they were in 2 dimensions.

This was in addition to audio listening posts with dishes and headphones and visual posts with binoculars etc.

All 3 were fed back to build up a whole picture because you could not rely totally on just one.

The sound "dishes", for lack of a better name that eludes me at the moment, were meant to be proof of concept prototypes that as it happened were cancelled quickly when they proved ineffective and RADAR proved otherwise.

The concrete structures you refer to were known as 'sound mirrors' and were initiated as long ago as WWI. In the thirties it became increasingly obvious, because of faster aircraft speeds, that they could not give warning early enough to allow time for the organization of fighter opposition. Only RDF could do that, supported by the Royal Observer Corps.

I have often wondered if the mirrors were good enough to hear Goering giving Galland a good bollocking over his allegations regarding inadequate bomber escort.