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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: ScouseBoy on Thursday 16 December 10 22:05 GMT (UK)
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Can anyone please point me in the direction of a list of RAF Radar Stations in about 1941 to 1945, please?
Dunnett Head for example and Sullom Voe. at what point was RADAR acknowledged as a technical piece of equipment and became public knowledge and was no longer regarded as "secret"
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hi scouseboy
this is the first time i,ve been in this section but i hope i may be able to help if you still need it , now when you say a list of raf radar stations do you mean strictly that or a wider look such as the chain home sites .
as to secrecy again do you mean when officially did radar become common knowledge to all or just to the british public , only the germans knew of our involvement in developing radar in 1939 as we did of them .
regards
trevor
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My uncle had been interested in early development of Television Technology before the war and was a fellow of the Royal Television Society. I believe that he was stationed in Inverness as an officer in the RAF. He had some sort of technical role and responsibility for radar installations in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Where radar stations deliberately kept separate from "Y" radio interception stations?
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Yes, i am really struggling with this too. I am preparing a book about the mobile radar units that my father was in at the end and after the war.
Although RAFWeb is jolly good he doesnt have the level of detail i really need. I now know that AMES + number can mean either a bit of radar kit or an actual place or a mobile unit, which is helpful when looking for stuff in the national archives.
He was in:
1 ACRC
11 ITW
SHQ Susp section
216 MU
78 wing
BPSO HS
73 wing
Renscombe Down GH Gers
RAF Thame MUE
RPDC
M East
21 PTC
219 group
AMES 171
AHQ(u) malta
ME
The majority of which I cannot find any info about
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There was a station at Dunnett Head in Scotland, which figures as it is the most northerly point of the mainland, and close to Scapa Flow. I have been told on Roots recently that there was an RAF Radar admin or Regional HQ at Inverness.
Has anyone heard of Bennetts Radar School during WW2, please?
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As you've had no response to your query on Bennetts Radar School can I offer a very long shot, some references to which may be found here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/76/a3869076.shtml
You can find plenty on Don Bennett by googling.
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My Uncle was Basil Bennett. He had a brother who died as a pilot in the Battle of Britain.
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hi, just wondering if anyone has any information on the Ames radar units on Malta during WW2.
my Late father was an raf rdf operator on Ames 504 at dingli cliff.
i have been researching this radar station since 2008 and am struggling to find a location on the cliffs at dingli. any assistance would be most welcome.
many thanks.
bill
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Is Malta on Google Earth? If it is try looking down by satellite on Dingli Cliffs and see if there are any ruins or concrete hard stands, or any traces of concrete paths still visible.
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hi scouseboy, thanks for that info and i have already tried that route. On dingli cliff if you look at the present aviation radar on the cliff that was the ames 242 tru radar which apart from the two 90ft towers was stationed underground ( transmitters, receiver room and generators ) behind this radar unit and to the right in a field you can see a building with two 40 ft radar towers which is the receiver system to-day. In WW2 this was attached to the ames 242 unit and two fields in front of this building was a transmitter building and the building you see to-day was the standby receiver block. this unit provided high radar cover over the Island from June 1940 till 1944 when that equipment was dismantled. My late father served on the Chain Overseas Low Radar unit which was sited on dingli cliff and provided low aircraft radar cover and also enemy shipping cover over the Island. Known initially as RAF No 4 Col this station arrived in November 1940 and was dismantled in june 1944.the station had its name changed in 1941 to Ames 504 col and this is the station i am trying to locate.
again any info is most welcome.
thanks .
bill.
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Was your father in radio or electronics before he joined the RAF?
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Hi , neither as he worked in the tea and coffee trade.
he trained at RAF Drem near edinburgh after his initiation at raf padgate near warrington. after raf drem he was sent to a Mu in london for 3 weks then he joined the Raf No 4 COL unit at liverpool and sailed to capetown. travelled by train to alexandria ( egypt ) and was convoyed to malta. stayed for almost 3 yrs then posted to raf helwan ( egypt ) then home . after home leave of 3 weeks was posted to raf bunchrew near inverness for just ovr a year then to raf warren for some time before a short spell back at bunchrew the demobbed at kirkham near blackpool.
bill.
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My mother was a radar operator for anti-aircraft guns during WWII. I am trying to find out what unit she would have been with. CAn anybody point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance
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Hi there, did you get anywhere with identifying these. My grandad was transferred to 5 mobile base unit RDF in November 1939 according to his records but I am struggling to find out where this was? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you, Sarah
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My mother was a radar operator for anti-aircraft guns during WWII. I am trying to find out what unit she would have been with. CAn anybody point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance
I take it she was in the WAAF? You could consider obtaining her service record:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records
Imber
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Hi there, did you get anywhere with identifying these. My grandad was transferred to 5 mobile base unit RDF in November 1939 according to his records but I am struggling to find out where this was? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you, Sarah
the records for these units are sparse and from april/may 1940 mostly lost in the evacuation. As the units were disbanded due to lack of operational need in June 1940 and reformed in different role nobody was inclined to retrospectively record the events.
They exist as "pins on the map" bunched together in higher formation records eg
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2636303
and the dozen or so files in AIR2 round this piece number
Ross
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Good morning,
My mother was a radar operator for anti-aircraft guns during WWII. I am trying to find out what unit she would have been with. CAn anybody point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance
I take it she was in the WAAF?
Imber
Not neccessarily, both my aunts (mums sisters) were ATS and both served with AA batts. One as an observer and target aquisition and the other as a radar operator. I could tell you how some of the equipment worked as I have her course notebooks somewhere.
John915
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Brilliant Ross I will order this document thank you. This would be right as my dad remembers my grandad saying he went to France but we couldn't find it on the records. I will investigate further. Thanks again you've been a big help, Sarah