NOTE that the list of Radar Sets in the RN starts after this textual introduction.
Hello and welcome to the RADAR page. Radar, by comparison to Radio [or Wireless Telegraphy], is an easier product to catalogue and is of course a very much younger brother to what friends Marconi and Jackson started off way back in the 1890's. Above all else, it was the WW2 early years and the need to get the new device of RDF to sea which polarised every scientific mind [working with radio waves], and it can be fairly said, that from approximately 1937 to 1945, by and large, radar advanced at the expense of W/T. Whether true or not, it would be a rational thing to have done bearing in mind that W/T in 1939, and the equipments supplied by our Allies throughout the war, were adequate for our communications channels to and from sea. Without RDF [Radar] in our [Allies] hands, the Axis powers would have most certainly have been the victors. From the war years, the W/T side got the Type 601 Series and the Radar side underscored VICTORY over our enemies - pure and simple.
Unlike the W/T world, almost from the beginning, authoritative books were written about RADAR and almost all of them RADAR per se. Indeed, our own library at the Museum has many such books. However, RADAR for our purposes must be specifically related to the Royal Navy, even though, much of what we have [in a different coat of paint perhaps] is shared by all fighting navies and by commercial application of Radar.
No organisation can tell 'our' story better than our own Scientists who worked for ASWE [Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment] and of course many other places of excellence. Their story is not in the public domain, although one astute man by the name of O.L. RATSEY did bother to get his pen out to leave for posterity a 'wonderful' composition which he called "AS WE WERE", the AS WE representing ASWE. "AS WE WERE" had a title which read "Fifty Years of ASWE History 1896-1946", and it has a Section on Radar fully relevant to our needs. The composition was copied many times and issued in an A4, blue coloured, hard-back cover, with punched pages held in place by a four-ganged spring clip. Regrettably, the copying of this composition was so prolific that many copies, including ours, is often difficult to read, and sometimes needs to be re-processed before being re-produced. The modern computer technique of OCR [optical character recognition] is also out of the question because of the poor quality offered to the associated scanning device.
We have undertaken the reprocessing function [of one document] as a mark of respect to these men of ASWE even though we have neither sought or received approval to use the composition. I am sure that they will not be offended by seeing some of the composition here in print, and after all, 1946 is a long time ago. This will bring their time and work back to life!
Before we begin, O.L. Ratsey published this poem on the front page:-
"I summon up remembrance of things past
And seek their forms now vanished from our sight
But sigh the lack of many a thing I sought
The work of men hid in death's dateless night.
After S.S. xxx "
and dedicated his work "To The Men of the hour and of all the hours".
He was generous in his Acknowledgements, and since we are going to quote
verbatim, it is fitting that we too reproduce the list - we owe them a great
deal. Click on this thumbnail
There is a good chance that your knowledge of the start of Radar is with, and rightly so, the story of Watson-Watt {or maybe before him even}. With great respect to many eminent scientists and international scholars, that story is legend and has been repeated many times - it deserves to be! However, there is a large group abroad who know all about the radar in the German pocket-battleship Graf Spee [and we have a part of that radar here in the Museum] but don't know too much about the radars fitted into RN Ships {Rodney and Sheffield being the first with operational outfits}. So, let us start looking at RADAR strictly from the Naval point of view and equipment. That point of view will be essentially RADAR EQUIPMENT ORIENTATED which includes a file on the elderly {1958} CDS [Comprehensive Display System]; the ADA [Action Data Automation] System {1965} which took over from CDS; the CAAIS [Computer Assisted Action Information System]. We will not cover the Data Links [ADA] system which were transmitted by W/T equipment from ship to ship - they get a mention over on the W/T side of the site.
Click here for "AS WE WERE"
ASWE PART 3 RADAR.pdf
then, in order, all files below.
This document was so difficult to read and impossible to scan, that a re-type was necessary. Here it is and a very interesting document it is too. ENCLOSURE TO SIGNAL SCHOOL 1938
RADAR IN THE RN AT THE END OF WW2.pdf
With a specific mention of HMS Sheffield and her 'surprise echo':
HMS Valiant at the Battle of Matapan: German 'U Boat' tactics: Battle of the
Atlantic: the destruction of the Scharnhorst: HMS Suffolk and the shadowing of
the Bismarck: use of radar for reconnaissance and navigational applications:
WW2 RN SURFACE RADAR PART
A.pdf
Covering Navigational assistance from Shore: Station keeping and
Rendezvous: ASW Applications: Identification of 'U Boat' echoes: Control of the
SHARK weapon against surfaced 'U Boats': Torpedo Applications: Meteorological
Applications:
WW2 RN SURFACE RADAR PART
B.pdf
Part of the Eastern Fleet
Communication Orders {1944} designed to put right many problems with the use of
RADAR in the AIO during WW2.
EASTERN FLEET WT
COMMS FOR AIO.pdf
The whole radar fit from before WW2 until the into the late 1940's
RADAR FROM THE FIRST SET UNTIL THE END OF WW2.pdf
The change of name of the first RN Operational Radar at sea
THE TRANSITION FROM 79B
TO 279B
The Branch which was in being at the end of WW2 which was two years before
the Electrical Branch was formed in 1947
RADAR BRANCH 1945.pdf
Radar Display Rooms for Types 960, 277, 293, 960, 980, 981, 293
RADAR DISPLAY ROOMS.pdf
BRITISH WW2 RADAR FREQUENCIES AND THEIR BANDS.pdf
BRITISH NAVAL RADAR TYPE NUMBERS.pdf
WW2 SYMBOLS MARKINGS - GET IT RIGHT !.pdf
AIR CONDITIONING AT SEA IN WW2 - QUERY.pdf
Radar - Deck landing BLIND in 1947
RADAR - DECK LANDINGS
BLIND 1947.pdf
Typical FAA Aircraft Radar {and W/T fit} in 1947
TYPICAL
FAA AIRCRAFT SHOWING RADAR [AND WT].pdf
Radar in HMS Vanguard
RADAR IN HMS VANGUARD.pdf
In Radar terms, is it an
ECHO, BREAK, BLIP OR
PIP.pdf ?
Data from the 1957 period
1957 RADAR DATA.pdf
AIO's AND THEIR COMPUTERS !
RADAR IN THE
AUTOMATED COMPUTER WORLD.pdf
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Just an interesting little picture filler, then continue below to more PPI's.
Please note that some radars are missing from the Matrix above. I know of some of them [901 for Seaslug Guidance] for example and I am currently researching them. However, if you know of any missing sets it would be helpful for me to check whether I have that/them on my list below - remember, only ROYAL NAVAL sets please and the time scale which is from First Fitting up to 1980. Those of my list are:-
RED # = Click for information BLUE # = Not clickable
 # Early surface warning. Replaced by 277/293. All had hand rotated aerials. |
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 # Early airguard double mast aerial |
 # Early Gunnery obsolescent at end of war |
 # Early Gunnery obsolescent at end of war |
 # Early Gunnery obsolescent at end of war |
 # Early Gunnery obsolescent at end of war |
 # WW2 Combined air/ surface in small ships |
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 # Seaslug
See also this file ASWE
CHAPTER 14.pdf which covers the birth of the 901 radar system. |
 # Type 42's etc
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 # Centimetric spotting set for use with 274 |
 # Fitted into a large number of WW2 invasion craft. A makeshift 10cm developed from RAF. Good PPI picture but poor range |
 # Carriers to operate with 960 for fighter direction. # See this file 
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 # Carriers to operate with 960 for fighter direction. # See this file 
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 # Carriers |
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