[Milsurplus] Robert Watson-Watt and British Radar, The Wizard War

Mon Mar 25 21:42:27 EDT 2019

Youtube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zu-L7Gb5m-o

Has the 1 hr plus film. Watched on my PC. It's free. 

Seth KC2WE 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 25, 2019, at 9:25 PM, Mark K3MSB <mark.k3msb at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Just finished "Castles in the Air" on Amazon Prime.   Good movie.
> 
> Mark K3MSB
> 
>> On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 7:49 PM Ron.K3PID <ron.k3pid at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> I was on a cruise ship for most of March and read "Between Silk and Cyanide : A Codemaker's War, 1941 - 1945" by Leo Marks... Now about finished with "The Wizard War : British Scientific Intelligence, 1939-1945" by R. V. Jones. Both excellent reads. An interesting (and relevant) note referred to the capture of the first Würzburg Radar. The allies commented on the excellent engineering and craftsmanship that went into the equipment but were equally dismayed at the lack of technical training of the operators. At a post war conference it was stated that the equipment had to be well built and easy to operate because Hitler had banned amateur radio and the military had a hard time finding recruits with even a basic knowledge of radio.
>>  
>> Ron K3PID
>>  
>>  
>>  
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mark Dinsmore
>> Sent: Monday, March 25, 2019 12:46 PM
>> To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Robert Watson-Watt and British Radar,The Wizard War
>>  
>> Thanks for the nice review Dave. I watched it last night also.
>>  
>> I recently borrowed a library book; "The wizard war : British scientific intelligence", 1939-1945 R. V. (Reginald Victor) Jones, wherein the author refers to "the battle of the beams." Fascinating read about radar development, detection and countermeasures, along with the inter-agency struggles and more.
>>  
>> Mark 
>>  
>> On 3/25/19, 7:01 AM, "David Olean" <k1whs at metrocast.net> wrote:
>>  
>>     i watched the movie on Amazon Prime late last night. It seems that those
>>     TU units were everywhere! I saw the same ones in many scenes but in
>>     various mock-ups. It reminds me of the WW2 B-17 movie where the
>>     directors had three B-17s available so they paraded them across the
>>     screen to make those three look like a squadron. One trick was applying
>>     different nose art to the planes so the viewer thought it was a
>>     different airplane each time it came into view!
>>    
>>     I saw a few HROs including a nice scene of the back side of an HRO with 
>>     lighted filaments. You could clearly see the printed labels on the cans:
>>     First IF, 2nd IF etc. all while the actors are raising the RADAR output
>>     power to 350  KW.  There were a few VTVMs and power units on display.
>>     All in all, I enjoyed the film, but wish that there would be a motion
>>     picture that told more of the story of RADAR development.  I would have
>>     thrown in a few VT-127s or even 100THs as well.
>>    
>>     Rather than pay attention to RWWs love life for added suspense, there
>>     was plenty of suspense as Europe fell and the U-boats effects increased
>>     up thru about 1943. Britain was hanging on by a slender thread.  The
>>     Tizzard mission to the USA was a huge event and all of the intrigue
>>     between the allied powers as they mapped out a path to victory makes for
>>     plenty of suspense. I believe it was Taffy Bowen who accompanied the
>>     magnetrons and other inventions when they went across the sea to the USA.
>>    
>>     Anyway, a very enjoyable film for me as it was. The Chain Home system 
>>     was quite effective and completed in the nick of time.  A movie about
>>     its' development was a great subject in any event. Most viewers never
>>     heard of it I am sure.
>>    
>>     Dave K1WHS
>>    
>>    
>>     On 3/25/2019 1:19 AM, Mark Dinsmore wrote:
>>     > The movie is available on Amazon Prime Movies, free with Prime membership... Planning on watching it this evening.
>>     >
>>     > -Mark
>>     >
>>     > On 3/24/19, 6:11 PM, "milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net on behalf of Kenneth G. Gordon" <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net on behalf of kgordon2006 at frontier.com> wrote:
>>     >
>>     >      Well, I just took another look on-line for the movie I and my Wife watched yesterday entitled,
>>     >      "Castles in the Sky". Apparently, there is a Japanese film entitled "Castle (singular) in the
>>     >      Sky" which "confuses" any search engine for the British film.
>>     >     
>>     >      Anyway, as I mentioned here yesterday, who ever built the sets for the British film had quite
>>     >      a collection of WWII (and later) U.S.military equipment.
>>     >     
>>     >      Closeups of the electronic gear that Watson-Watt and his team were using included more
>>     >      than one BC-191/375 tuning unit built into the equipment racks, AND at least one BC-348
>>     >      mounted in the middle of a large bit of rack-panelling.
>>     >     
>>     >      Then there was the HRO receiver, quite obviously but recently completely restored to like
>>     >      new, sitting on a table while the actors were engaging in some sort of conference.
>>     >     
>>     >      I wish I could re-watch the entire movie with the capability of stopping action in various
>>     >      places just to see what other bits of electronic gear I would find.
>>     >     
>>     >      Has anyone else here seen this movie? What did you notice about the gear?
>>     >     
>>     >      Overall, I suppose the movie would be interesting to some of the
>>     >      less-than-electronically-aware folks who see it. It was interesting, but not as "in-depth" as I
>>     >      would have liked to see.
>>     >     
>>     >      Even so, I think it is well-worth seeing by some of us.
>>     >     
>>     >      Ken W7EKB
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