I am trying to find out if there was radar coverage in the English Channel in 1940 that would detect shipping. Obviously there was a good coverage for detecting aircraft, but would the ships of Operation Sea-lion have been detected by radar? references would be good...... Ptychodus
Maybe they didn't need it. The RAF was proving daily recon flights of the 'Invasion Ports' on the coast of France. The german peace-lovers could not scratch themselves without the Brits knowing about it. John.
There were also a lot of patrol craft in the channel both day and night I believe. Both sides operated hundreds of MTBs, armed trawlers, mine layers, etc.
Pt- Not really coastal radar as such to start with. This book will answer every question you might have if you can source a copy- Building Radar: Forging Britain's Early-warning Chain,1939-45: Amazon.co.uk: Colin Dobinson: Books
from what I could find there was no dedicated surface scanning radar based on land, but ship mounted sets had been introduced well before the war, and these could have been used. In reality most of the ships equipped with radar were based outside of the channel for the most part, but they did patrol. Coastal command aircraft fitted with ASV radar first had success against U-boats in November 1940, so it is likely they were around a little before that and could easily have been watching the channel; Atlantic, WW2, convoys, radar, escort carriers, air-gap, U-boats, Liberators Even the Chain Home (Low) and (Extra Low) stations could not detect surface ships; Chain Home Extra Low hope this helps
Actually Chain Home Low could detect surface traffic....something I've only learned in the last year from Brian Lavery's We Shall Fight On The Beaches. As early as 18th June Fighter Command informed its RDF operators that CHL would observe surface traffic. They were ordered to report concentrations of five or more ships to higher authority and to keep watching it while naval liaison officers would check if there was supposed to be friendly traffic in the area. An RN sub-lieutenant was stationed at each CHL station to filter reports to the local Naval command (FO Dover lol). CHL was actually SO sensitive to surface traffic it could detect buoys, even cloud effects on still water! The Army asked for and received 15 CHL sets for monitoring likely invasion beaches, and by October the RN was asking for 11 more to watch the approaches to major ports in all weathers..
Very interesting - maybe the conflicting reports are due to developments in the CHL stations over time, and maybe because of secrecy etc. Thanks
More likely the specialisation of history postwar; our opinions are necessarily coloured by the sheer bulk of BoB material Lavery's book is the first decently-detailed cross-service history of Sealion preparations I've seen, and is useful for many more suprising insights like this.
I'm posting this for two reasons. I think that members might be interested in these radar photographs, and I'd like any identification of the equipment if anyone knows.In the second picture I think there are chain home towers on the extreme left in the distance. They were taken somewhere between Summer 1944 and the end of the War. View attachment 16058 If you need any bigger copies I can supply.Ptych