Back when there was only one cable service History Channel, and it actually had history on it, they ran a long special on the development of radar. The story of the experimental magnetron being brought from Britain in a shoe box in the hands of a man on a regular airline flight, was in there, plus the first tests of radar in an aircraft. Forgot the plane, but they had been up and down several times trying to iron the wrinkles out of it, and the engineers on one of the flights was cussing the darn thing again as another anomaly appeared on their 'A' scan. But for some reason they investigated further and found out the target on the scan was an actual periscope, and the flew down to check it out only to find a German sub surfacing off the coast of Massachusetts. They had no weapons, but flew low enough to throw a wrench at the sub. Not sure what radar set was sent to Britain, but the military powers that be were skeptical of its worth as a fire control device, until one
engineer took the radar controlled gun mount, and put a 8MM movie camera on it, and tracked a Allied target aircraft sent up to out maneuver it, and the aircraft stayed centered in the movie without fail. When it was put in service, every single V1 sent to Britain that fell within the range of those radar guided anti-aircraft guns was shot down.
Charlie in NC
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