RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North Atlantic Region-

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1RUWK $WODQWLF 5HJLRQ Iceland: By July 1941, when three crews and three sets of radar equipment arrived at Reykjavik, British Army engineers had nearly completed erection of Nissen Huts to house radar gear and domestic accommodation at three sites selected in Dec. 1940. A COL (Chain Overseas Low, with same gear as U.K. CHL’s ) was destined for Vik on the extreme southern tip of Iceland, a second COL for the site near Reykjavik, and a TRU (Transportable Radar Unit, with the same gear as used in Mobile Radar Units) was to go to Olfus, on a river delta some 30 miles southeast of Reykjavik. Two RCAF radar officers, John Cuninghame of Wiarton, Ont, and Doug Gooderham of Maryfield, Sask, were assigned to command the units at Vik and Olfus respectively. Vik, located on the southernmost tip of Iceland, is only about 100 air miles from Reykjavik. But the 21-truck convoy carrying the unit’s technical gear and administrative supplies was ‘on the road’ for nearly 4 days traversing a lava rock desert crisscrossed by rivers of various widths and depths. There being no bridges, rivers were forded using sand bars, where available, and employing winches when trucks became stuck. Three nights sleeping under their trucks made the Icelandic village at Vik a welcome sight for Cuninghame’s crew. Road to Vik ,9
1RUWK $WODQWL 5HJLRQ Domestic accommodation for the unit was erected near to the village which is only some 50 feet above sea level. The technical site was roughly 1000 feet higher, ‘accessible’ via a switch-back road constructed by Royal Engineers. Much of this highway was so steep that trucks needed help from winches. The weighty radar transmitter proved to be too heavy even for the most powerful truck aided by winching, and the unit’s radar techs had to partially disassemble the transmitter, removing heavy components such as capacitors, and reassemble when everything eventually ‘reached the top.’ Buildings at the Tech site (Nissen huts) were held down by lengths of chain link fencing anchored by rocks. But the ferocious winds were not to be totally denied : the antenna gantry was routinely lashed whenever gale force winds were expected, but occasionally it suffered damage anyway (see picture) ; “ . . . we had to do a lot of repairs . . .they sent us another antenna, so Air Ministry said. . . . it never arrived . . .” Antenna Wind Damage It being impracticable to build a land-line telephone system on which to pass Vik’s radar plots back to Reykjavik Ops, Royal Signals put in a line-of-sight ‘microwave’ system using a single relay located on the Vestmannaeyjar Islands (some 60 miles due west of Vik). John Cuninghame has visited Vik in recent years and reports that the system is still in use serving the Icelandic community. ,9
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RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North Atlantic Region-

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