RADAR buff needed!

[Bill Walker]

Originally Posted by palmtree

Tim

As Stephen Bungay emphasises in his book, don't understimate the importance of the telephone network and the Observer Corps in completing the early warning system.

Very true. The Germans had radar as early as the Brits, but what they didn't have for the first few years of the war was a method to collect, process, and redistribute the information. The British developed this part of the solution before radar was operational, using telephones and human "data processors" in the filter centers. This complete system was one of the key reasons for the German failure in the Battle of Britain.

The Observers Corp was one of the original sources of data, before radar, and continued in use for several years because early radar was of reduced effectiveness over land. The other data source for the pre-war data processing system was huge concrete listening posts. I think these were all abandoned by the outbreak of war, but a few of the concrete parabolic reflectors still exist.

The key difference here is that the British developed and refined radar to meet the needs of a unified defence system. The Germans also invented radar, but didn't realize how to really use it. Until the end of the war they were playing catch-up in terms of defence systems, although their individual components, such as radar, were often as effective as anything the British had.