A Race on the Edge of Time Radar- The Decisive Weapon of WWII

by David E. Fisher

Traces the development of radar, explains the strategic edge it gave the Allies in World War II, and argues that it still the most important military invention of all time

Genres: History, Military Fiction

Hardcover

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Ushan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book purports to be about radar in World War II, but it really strays off to tell the story of the Battle of Britain in Great Britain's Great Patriotic War. It also tells the story of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, the head of the RAF Fighter Command who won the Battle of Britain and prevented the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority over Britain and launching Operation Sea Lion, an amphibious invasion of the island. This was done with radar: a chain of coastal towers of HF radar detected German aircraft even before they invaded British airspace; as designed by Chief Marshal Dowding, information about them was relayed to the headquarters, which directed fighter aircraft, mostly Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes, and antiaircraft guns. Two decades later this system was replicated on a grand scale as SAGE, defending North America from Soviet nuclear bombers; fortunately, unlike the Dowding system, SAGE never saw combat. The Battle of Britain was followed by the Blitz, where German bombers were opposed by Bristol Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito night fighters equipped with the centimeter radar; though it took months, radar improved and aircrews learned to use it to the point of making the cost of nighttime raids on London prohibitive for the Luftwaffe.

Never was so much owed by so many to so few - who prevailed by so thin a margin. When France was losing World War II in 1940, Winston Churchill requested that more British fighter squadrons be sent there, no one in the war cabinet dared contradict the Prime Minister, but Chief Marshal Dowding did: "If the present rate of wastage continued for another fortnight we shall not have a single Hurricane left in France or in this country," and the fighters remained in Britain. What if someone more conformist had been in his place? What if instead of investing in radar, British scientists had invested in detecting airplanes by their infrared emissions, which was a blind alley? History of the world would have been different.

This book also tells about the usage of radar in antisubmarine warfare during World War II. What this book does not cover properly, which I know is a fascinating story, is the role of electronic warfare in the strategic bombing campaign over Germany, when the tables were turned a few years later, and how radar-guided anti-aircraft fire, directed by electromechanical analog computers, brought down the V1 cruise missile over Britain during the Blitz 2.0.

[John Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I inherited this book from my father who served thirty-three years in the Canadian Air Force. He joined in Jan 1943 and was routed in to the BCATP as a Wireless Air Gunnerand a Navigator. Late in the war he was selected for secret training as an observer to operate AI radar in the Mosquito Intruder role. His course ended at VE Day and he went on leave in Canada pending assignment against Japan.

The RCAF put him through Mechanical Engineering at U of Toronto and he was fast-tracked into electronics & communications as the Cold War ramped up. By 1959 he was Chief Instructor at the RCAF school at Clinton.

He loved this book as he felt it told the story well. He passed away fifteen years ago from Alzheimer's disease before I could really debrief him. As a senior officer in NORAD and NATO/4ATAF he lived through GCI,SAGE and NADGE. He thought AWACS would never work and had a very deep respect when it did.

This book is primarily historical and I read a lot of war histories. Top shelf for this one!

Some day I'll finish the introductory lectures at the Lincoln Laboratory web site.

[Curt Rude · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very in-depth work. Insightful regarding world leaders past. I also got a kick out of the motivations of the world during a troubling time. America was self-interested and had a desire to profit. Guess the song remains the same.