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Well, if Joe Pilot took a frozen lasagna up in his Mustang, he might be able to microwave it by staying perfectly aligned with both enemy and allied radar waves...
Yeah...but he'd also be at risk of being unable to have children, unless he was wearing lead underpants. Of course, that upsets aircraft CofG....although it might have improved the balance of the P-39.
It's alright...I'm already wearing my coat. I know when I'm not wanted!!!
HiRadar nets had been overlapping and being jammed from shortly after the fall of France.
Also, those arcs are the effective range a signal could be received at, they obviously transmitted much farther out.Hi
This graphic from 'The Battle of Britain' by Richard Townshend Bickers, page 32 shows both high and low radar coverage extending over the Calais area, indeed any German radar would always be overlapping with British radar coverage:
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Even British GCI coverage would overlap with German radar systems, British GCI coverage in 1941 shown on this map from 'Watching the Skies' by Jack Gough:
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Radar coverage was moved forward for D-Day with GCI and air search aboard ships to cover the landings, as seen in this photo from 'Radar at Sea' by Derek Howse, page 218:
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Mobile sets were then moved ashore and advanced with the allies. I don't think there was a great problem with radars from the allies and Germans overlapping, however, problems arose from ground clutter when based offshore and the large numbers of allied aircraft overhead all with IFF which had to be 'interrogated' by the radar systems. Along with German jamming attempts this did mean there were problems with detecting low flying aircraft especially. On shore the mobile units had to choose their sites carefully to achieve a good performance and would never be perfect of course, but that was not due to German radar 'overlap'.
Mike
That is a great map of the physical representation on the ground of the schematic of German night fighter defences in the Kammhuber and Himmelbett stations.Not the best map.
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Please post, if you can!The longer answer is quite complicated. The short answer is the Germans lost their more forward radar stations and the allies gained radar services as they advanced. The allies used radar on the continent to direct both day and night fighters as well as aniti aircraft batteries towards enemy aircraft to considerable effect. Post war, the British undertook elaborate exercises to understand the German radar services and running commentary using captured stations and operators in Denmark. To this end, they tested the effectiveness of their own countermeasures. They used large heavy bomber formations to test the enemy's defences. I have these post war documents and they make for a fascinating read.
Original map of Bodenorganisation Großraum-Nachtjagd Luftflotte Reich can be found Ebay heavy Iron (Tanks Guns Ships Trains)Hi
Maps of the German air defence system are available in numerous publications, for example from page 19 of 'Luftwaffe Handbook' by Dr. Alfred Price:
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And page 278 of 'Most Secret War' by R V Jones:
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This latter book also has a map of German radar along the coast at D-Day:
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These stations were also attacked by allied air power as well as 'spoofed' so degrading the system. The allies started landing mobile radar systems (GCI, air search, AA direction etc) on day one of D-Day, these were of course smaller in size than the fixed radar systems used by both the allies and Germany and would also have been less powerful on the whole.
Mike
If your systems could see that far, you would just report all airfields actively launching. Remember, they (the Allies in this case) will assimilate into flights, then squadrons, then start navigating. From nav they will further assimilate into packages, or Divisions. Once into squadrons, depending on German comms, you could easily start talking about where they were off a given point (bearing and range from what is now called a bullseye) which builds all airborne assets situational awareness. Once groups / packages start getting closer, you can switch to giving info in BRA, or bearing range and altitude if you have it, with your aircraft / flight / package being the reference point.It seems like the tactical aircraft from both sides could be tracked from shortly after they took off; but this really worked against the Germans. The Allies would have thousands of sortees, hundreds(?) of squadrons, taking off from at least a hundred fields at roughly the same time. How do you communicate the overall picture?
Like I said. The answer is quite complicated. The radio countermeasures and bluffing exercises were highly developed during the latter stages of the war, while the German response was at times poor, other times mixed and at other times very good. The following narrative pertains to night operations by RAF Bomber Command, October 1944 through March 1945, which was the period when my father was operational. The aircraft in Bomber Command flew over the UK and on nearly all of dad's raids they flew south right down the centre of England, typically to Reading where they crossed the coast of France on a heading SE. Only on his operation to Bochum, November 4/5, 1944 did they cross the Dutch Coast and the Luftwaffe was ready for them and intercepted them at the Coast and stayed with the Force all the way to the target. 5% of the force despatched was shot down that night. But I digress…Please post, if you can!