Thread: Weapons Quiz
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Old September 17th, 2003, 02:11 AM
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Although I don't know what the grace period for answering is here is the answer and a new question on a different tact:
The antennas in question are for the Rebecca homing system. This was used in conjunction with the Eureka series portable beacon transmitters.
Originally this system was designed to allow transport planes to make accurate drops to partisan units in Europe.
But, it was soon turned to uses such as marking drop zones for paratroops and resupply drops (this is why the troops in Bastogne didn't starve or run out of ammo...the drops were made on Eureka transmitters that had + / - 114 meter CEP for a drop).
One model was air droppable as a marker beacon for bombing another was made for use in blind landing approaches for night landing aircraft. Most of the Eureka transmitters were designed to be buried as well. This allowed partisans and paratroops to plant the transmitter and leave it concealed without supervision.
Rebecca was used starting in the US invasion of North Africa as a marker. It was in service in Sicily and Italy with parachute drops there. Where the marker beacons were in operation (not damaged in landing or run out of power) results on drops were usually good.
In Normandy many were masked by the hedgerows making reception difficult.
At Arnheim they worked well. Unfortunately, over half the drop zones were either captured or the Eureka beacon was damaged for various reasons leaving only a couple of zones functional. While the beacons were working aircraft using Rebecca had very good success delivering air drops.
Anyway, enough on that.
How 'bout in late 1944 the Kriegsmarine developed a new prototype midget amphibious submarine. What was it called?
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