RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North Atlantic Region-

More documents

Recommendations

Info

1RUWK $WODQWL 5HJLRQ the light-keepers houses which were to be their living quarters were on another ledge some 400 feet higher! The houses having been reached, Sgt. Moore could see, at the top of yet another steep rise, “.. .a Yagi array sticking up from the top of a small hut surrounded by an earth bomb blast wall . . .” - his assigned radar station! The ASV gear found in the little hut presented an immediate problem - none of his radar mechanics had ever had even theoretical instruction on ‘airborne’ radar gear, and certainly no experience. However, resort to secret documents and considerable ‘trial and error’ eventually got the gear to top performance. Nolsoy radar routinely plotted local shipping and sometimes enemy aircraft - usually ‘Weather Willies.’ One ‘shipping’ plot, however, remained unidentified for some time. A ‘visual’ by Nolsoy’s personnel confirmed that the target was in fact a U-boat; quick reaction by a Norwegian gun-boat and a British corvette resulted in the German sub being “ . . . blown out of the water . . ..” It was ‘thumbs - up’ for the Nolsoy radar crew! Actually, the major enemy at Nolsoy (and at the other radar units in the Faroes) was WIND, which frequently made it necessary to ‘lash’ the Yagi array for protracted periods, with consequent serious loss of radar coverage. However, during set-up trials on some new gear, plots on aircraft were observed despite the fact that the antennae was inside a wooden building. Sgt. Moore proposed that a comprehensive trial be done near the RAF’s flying-boat base at nearby Vagar lake; sheets of plexiglass known to be held in Vagar Stores would be mounted on wooden frames to form a rigid ‘wind-shield’ around the Yagi aerial array. Authorities approved, and an entry in Moore’s diary, dated 18 Aug. 1943, reads “ . . .windscreen up, and gear going as good as ever . . .” Formal trials, using aircraft of known size as targets, indicated ‘normal performance.’ The plexiglass ‘windshield’ appeared not to be interfering with the radar beam, and it did enable normal antenna rotation despite high winds. Eureka!: Nolsoy had invented the Radome! (the event was later dubbed, somewhat unkindly, ‘Faroe Madness’!). Sgt. Moore was then directed to do similar ‘radome’ installations at other sites before returning to the UK and Canada. Hal Cairns memoirs contain references to two other RCAF radar men who served in the Faroes: Craig Knudsen of Toronto, who served on the Naval radar at Eide, and Peter Moon (his Faroe site and home town not recorded). Shetlands : The vulnerability of Scapa Flow, particularly after German forces gained control of the entire western coast of Norway, caused the Royal Navy to extend the coverage provided by the two Orkney radar stations (previously mentioned) by putting one radar unit on Fair Isle midway between Orkneys and Shetlands and two on the Shetlands, using three CHL radars borrowed from the RAF. A shortage of Naval radar technicians, or lack of experience on CHL gear, (it is not clear which applied) led to the Navy asking for RAF radar mechanics; this request resulted in several RCAF radar men doing service on the three Naval stations mentioned above. ,9
1RUWK $WODQWL 5HJLRQ ,9 Fred Grahame, of Dundas,Ont., was attached to the Navy for duty at their CHL radar unit at Sumburgh Head on the extreme southern tip of the Shetlands. Here, as in the Orkneys, high winds made it necessary to ‘lash’ the aerial gantry to avoid damage to turning gear. In Nov. 1942, Grahame was sent to Navy’s most northerly CHL at Saxa Vord to assist in repairing its aerial turning gear (probably a wind victim). Another RCAF radar mechanic, P.T. Valeriote of Guelph, Ont., was posted to “H” Mess, HMS Fox, which turned out to be Saxa Vord on the Island of Unst. Len MacMillan, RCAF, of Calgary, was attached to the Navy and served at the CHL radar on the Island of Clett. Murdock Smith, RCAF, also of Calgary, encountered Shetland radars when his job at 70 Wing headquarters included quarterly inspections and special maintenance on CHL stations from Dundee north to Wick and on the Shetland Islands. While at one of the other Shetland stations “ . . .a Shetland storm stripped the antenna off the Sumburgh Head Station and deposited it somewhere in the North Sea . . .” Wing ordered Murdock to go to Sumburgh Head and repair the damage. The job, completed under very difficult circumstances, apparently improved Navy-Air Force relations in the Shetlands considerably. Murdock was then sent to Fair Isle (previously mentioned), where the Navy had two CHL’s, to install a new, late model receiver. The job was not made easier when the piano-sized receiver, in its packing case, was accidentally dunked in the sea while being unloaded from a steamer into a small boat. Yatesbury radar school had not gone into what to do with mundane problems such as salt-coated terminal boards! Once again, Canadian resourcefulness helped to foster good Navy-Air Force relations.
Page 1 and 2: RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North
Page 3 and 4: North Atlantic Region CONTENTS Item
Page 5 and 6: North Atlantic Region RCAF Radar Pe
Page 7: 1RUWK $WODQWL 5HJLRQ These events p
Page 11 and 12: 1RUWK $WODQWL 5HJLRQ Domestic accom
Page 13 and 14: North Atlantic Region Winter weathe
Page 15 and 16: 1RUWK $WODQWL 5HJLRQ The author is

RCAF Radar Personnel in WWII -North Atlantic Region-

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?