Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Hickey
Larry,
If this was one of the first successful radar intercepts, this event may be hugely significant in the history of WWII. The Fairey Battle formation was wiped out by the fighters reportedly scrambled as a result of their detection by this unit. The British formation was on a high-altitude photographic recon of the Saarbrücken-Merzig area. Is this consistent with the position of the radar site as you indicated? Would this have been one of the first successful radar interceptions of the war? I hope that SES does see this and add what he knows about this radar site, and whether a German report still exists of the radar detection of this formation and the following air battle.
Can anyone provide a photo of this or a similar radar site from this period for the EoE Project account of this mission? We are now in a position to reconstruct what happened in great detail in the air.
Regards,
Larry
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Larry !
In the very helpful French booklet series BATAILLES AERIENNES, Vol. 3 (NOV/DEC 1997 & JAN 1998) appears a little article about the theme, titled: LES RADARS ALLEMANDS EN 1939. It is on page 49 of the issue. With the help of my son and
google, we managed to translate the little article.
It tells, that the protection of the franco-german border was started by the erection of 2 FREYA devices at the end of September 1939 at a hill near Helenenberg near Trier. After this, at mid December 1939, an additional device could be connected from the hill "Grosser Hausberg", East of Landstuhl/Pfalz. The complete network (in LGK 12 !!!!) became operational in Junuary 1940, when the station Kandel, with view to the Black Forest, became operational and connected.
Those reports indicate, that the sources are coming from units of Luftgaukommando 12 in 1939/40. All locations in the area are of a responsibility of LGK 12.
It's indeed very thrilling now, if this interception on September 30th, 1939 was a result of one of the first radar detection or caused other reasons. On my opinion, only researches at BM-BA at Freiburg can clear the question without doubts.
Best wishes !
Horst Weber