Weren't the Brits the first to come up with Air Craft Carriers and Radar? I know I heard that somewhere..? or am I wrong? lol
hi terri tsu and welcome
Notwithstanding the above, the brits are generally credited with development of the first operational aircraft carriers. Whilst there were a number of experiments conductted by a number of Navies from before WWI, the first true carrier was HMS Argus. She was the first ship able to launch AND recover aircraft, which is the true definition of an aircraft carrier. A ship only capable of launching aircraft is not a true carrier
Theories about radar were first developed in the late 19th century by a German named Hentz. There were further developments from that time onward, with the main technological advances in the militarty application of radar flip flopping between Britain and Germany. Nearly all the major powers conducted research into the field, but it was the germans and the british that led the way in the period 1930-40. Germany developed the first seaborne radars, whilst the british developed the first air defence system on a national scale that used radar. Radar played a critical role in the battle of Britain.
There is a lot of disagreement in this place, but most contemporary histories agree that the allies enjoyed some considerable advantage in radar applications as the war progressed. A significant technological advance for the allies was the invention and use of the cavity magnetron, which allowed wavelengths for allied radars to be shortened which inturn increased their range and definition. The allied superiority is generally linked to this shorter wavelength, called centimetric radar. The axis developed centimetric radar as well, but it came somewhat later.
Radar is not of great use, unless the military organi zation develops effective means to utilize it. The US Navy suffred a number of humiliating defeats around the island of guadacanal in 1942, at the hands of the Japanese, despite the fact that they (the US) was equipped with radar, and the Japanese were not, and the fights were fought at night. Theoretically the Japanese should have been defeated, because they were not equipped with this technology, but in reality the US lacked the expertise and military organization on their ships to use this advantage effectively.
Conversely, the british inflicted a number of heavy defeats at sea over the Italians. The principal reason was that the Royal Navy had radfar, PLUS the organization abord their ships to use that advantage.
Some nations had radar, but failed to use it correctly. For example, the German navy possessed some very good radars on their ships, but tended to keep these radars switched off, for fear the electronic signatures would give away their positions at sea. There was some truth to that, but keeping your radars off was a bad idea generally, because you could not see what was coming at you, and prevented evasive action being taken generally
