I apologise for what may be a lamens question to you learned chaps, but I am currently reading "Bomber Boys" which as well as keeping me enthralled has posed a question that has got me thinking. The book tells of German fighters locating RAF Bombers very early on in the war by RADAR. In my basic knowledge, I always thougt that the British had discovered radar and for the early part had exclusive use of it and ultimately proved to be a major help in winning the war.....Im postive the book is correct, so my question is how early on did the Germans have radar and to what extent it could be used, ie was it a very basic system compared to the British system etc etc....?
You'll have to get used to "loosey goosey" handling of terminology by the popular press. They need to use words people will recognize without taking a master's course in WWII.
Actually the Germans had begun developing a radar system in the late thirties (1937 I think) called the Freya. They did focus on offensive systems of radio beams like the Knickebein, X-Gerät, and Y-Gerät bomber guidance beams, the latter two were also known as Wotan I and Wotan II. Their Kammhuber Line of defensive radars started to come on line as early as 1940 (I think), and became very respectable as the war progressed when they introduced the Würzburg system in 1941. The German systems were origianlly inferior to the first British Chain Home systems, but they did improve as the war went on. So, while the British pioneered the use of radio direction and detection in the defensive role, the Germans weren’t completely out of the picture by 1940 or so. Their radar units were, as I said more directed toward the offensive than the defensive, and even installed on their warships (Seetakt) as gun guidance/aiming devices much earlier than the allies did the same.
Basically, by 1939 all of the major combatants in WW 2, except Russia had some sort of working radar. Many minor ones had sets in development. Arguably, the Germans were leading the pack at that point having developed the Freya mobile air warning radar set and the Würtzburg AA gun fire control set. The British had the rather primative Chain Home (CH) system in place and was developing radar for other uses. The big advantage of CH was that it was integrated into a general early warning and fighter control system. Both the US and Japan also had developed their first radars and were slowly bringing these into service. Initially, the Germans didn't do much with their available radar sets. They were on the offensive and radar at that time was a defensive tool. When the RAF began to regularly bomb Germany the Germans set up a early warning system using their Freya sets. This evolved into the very rigidly controlled Kammhuber Line. While this system worked for early British raids once the RAF started streaming bombers and using electronic countermeasures on German radar the line lost its effectiveness. The German system then evolved into one more like the British system, a general early warning and fighter control system that covered much of Germany and Western Europe.
Hey I kept it simple.... No listing of the various radar's technical properties,... I didn't even list the most important tubes or anything.....
Its interesting to note that the Dutch were pretty advanced in radar in 1939 - 40. The Dutch Phillips corporation was a major supplier of tubes to Germany and without them the Germans couldn't have built the radars they did. The Dutch also smuggled several of their designs to England including one that hooked a radar to a 40mm AA gun for naval use. The British developed this into the 'Hazemeyer' (aka the Hasslemeer in the RN due to its complexity and propensity to breakdown) for use on RN ships. The Battle class of destroyers had two of the ulitmate mounts of this sort installed at 11 tons each...That's alot of weight for 2 40mm AA guns....
