75th anniversary of the birth of radar recalled
TAKE a 75 year-old van, a muddy field, a freezing cold winter's day and a load of radio enthusiasts and you may hardly have the ingredients for commemorating one of history's most significant moments.
Or so you may think! For those were exactly the conditions facing Peter Grace, treasurer of the Watson Watt Society of Brechin, as he travelled to Daventry in Northamptonshire to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the birth of the creation of radar Robert Watson Watt.
Peter explained: "It was the actual field where, exactly seventy five years earlier, three men and a boy had arrived in a similar Morris van to show that radio energy could be reflected from an aircraft so that intruding enemy aircraft could be detected.
"The three men were Robert Watson Watt, Arnold Wilkins and A. P. Rowe and the boy was Watson Watt's 12-year-old nephew, Patrick, from Brechin.
"Rowe told the boy that he must stand well away from the van, because what was happening was secret.
"In the van was a cathode ray oscilloscope and the three men looked at it as an RAF bomber flew overhead.
"A flickering trace moved across the screen of the oscilloscope and that was enough to enable Rowe to report to Air Ministry that the demonstration was successful.
"The Air Ministry made 10,000 available to Watson Watt's team to develop an early warning detection system which they did in time for the outbreak of the Second World War.
"The system enabled RAF Fighter Command to scramble fighters and guide them to intercept German intruders.
"Coincidentally, that very same day in Berlin, Reichsmarschall Herman Goering showed Adolf Hitler many of the warplanes with the Luftwaffe would overwhelm Europe. They didn't!
"So 75 years after that fateful day, a 1932 Morris van arrived at the same (very) muddy field and aerials were erected to reproduce the scene as it would have been seventy five years earlier.
"Three small aircraft made several passes overhead. Shortwave radio energy was reflected from those aircraft and flickering trace was seen on a cathode ray oscilloscope, just as it had 75 years earlier.
"The radio enthusiasts exchanged messages with other enthusiasts at Bawdsey in Suffolk, the site of the first Chain Home radar station built to the Watson/Watt/Wilkins design and at Biggin Hill in Kent, one of the RAF stations that were involved during the Battle of the Britain.
"The Watson Watt Society of Brechin showed a model of a Chain Home radar station and gave a talk to the gathered enthusiasts.
"Those assembled were able to see the maquette, a miniature version of the statue of Robert Wtason-Watt which will be erected in St Ninian's Square.
"The display brought forward several donations and this proved a worthwhile exercise for the society as we need to raise 50,000 to commission and erect the statue.
"It is hoped further donations will be forthcoming so that the statue can be erected soon after the seventieth anniversary of the RAF victory in the Battle of Britain to which Watson Watt had contributed so significantly.
"The two inventors, Watson-Watt and Wilkins are commemorated by a memorial plaque on a granite slab at the gate to the field off a narrow lane near Daventry. On the day a floral tribute in the form of an RAF Roundel was placed on the memorial."
Peter added that Watson Watt's work is replicated in some means to this day.
"When you fly on a commercial aircraft it is observed by air traffic control using secondary radar, the brainchild of Robert Watson Watt who, in 1935 called it IFF - Identification Friend or Foe!"
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Weather for Brechin
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
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