Information and the Air Defence Revolution, 1917–40

Abstract

The Royal Air Force was successful in the Battle of Britain because of the elaborate and sophisticated air defence system of Fighter Command. This system had its foundations in the early warnings which radar provided. The process of collecting a huge amount of often inaccurate and contradictory data from radar stations, and then turning it into useful information which could direct fighters to their targets was a remarkable accomplishment. Information was the key to this revolution in military organisation, command and control procedures, and tactics. The origins of this information revolution predate radar, and can be traced back to World War I.

Notes

For the history of the development of radar, see David Zimmerman, Radar and the Defeat of the Luftwaffe (Stroud: Sutton 2001).

Note on proposed method of plotting information received from R.D.F. Stations, 24 Sept. 1935, AVIA 10/349; Note on Conference on RDF Organization, 24 Oct. 1935, AIR 2/4484. All references are to the Public Record Office (PRO).

Christopher Cole and E.F. Cheesman, The Air Defence of Great Britain (London: Putnam 1984) pp.243–50. Twenty Gothas were dispatched; two turned back because of engine trouble, three others suffered engine trouble over England and dropped their bombs around Margate and Shoeburyness, and one further aircraft fell behind the main formation and dropped its bombs on the Royal Victoria Docks, London, sometime after the main attack.

John Ferris, ‘Airbandit: C³ and Strategic Air Defenses during the First Battle of Britain, 1915–18’, in Strategy and Intelligence: British Policy During the First World War , edited by Michael Dockrill and David French, 44, (London: Hambledon, 1996).

E.B. Ashmore, Air Defence (London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1929) p.79.

Ibid., pp.92–4.

Ibid., p.95.

Cole and Cheesman (note 3) p.447.

Ashmore (note 5) p.114.

Basil Collier, The Home Defence of Great Britain (London: HMSO 1957) pp.8–18.

Ashmore (note 5) pp.131–6.

Warrant Officer R.W. Woodley, ‘Growth and Progress of Operations Rooms in Fighting Area Now No. 11 Fighter (Group) and Associated Sectors, 1929–1937’, AIR 16/847.

Lecture by the DCAS to the Naval Staff College on the ‘Defence of England Against Air Attack’, 10 March 1924; also see Expansion of the Royal Air Force for Home Defence, nd but 1923, PRO Air 9/69.

J.A. Webster, Air Ministry to ARC, 21 Dec. 1926, CAB16/67.

‘The Acoustics of Air Defence’, nd but likely late 1934, AVIA7/3186.

Memorandum to Questionnaire Put Forward by ADGB on 31 Dec., 1932, AVIA 71/3184.

R.E. Peirse, Deputy Director of Operations and Intelligence to C-in-C ADGB, 7 June 1933, Air 16/316.

Report of Air Exercises 17–20 July 1933, Air 20/185.

‘Draft Minute of a Conference Held … on 19 December, 1933, concerning the Extended Experiments to be carried out for the Developing the Acoustical Mirror Warning System’, AIR 16/318; ‘Memorandum on the Meeting Held at the Air Ministry on 19 Dec. 1933 in connection with the installation of Acoustic Mirrors in England’, AVIA 12/133.

Interception Exercises, 18 Nov. 1936, AIR 16/179.

Signals: Volume 5 – Fighter Control and Interception (London: Air Historical Branch Confidential History 1950) pp.8–9.

‘Notes of Conclusions Reached at an Informal Meeting Held at the Air Ministry on 13/7/36 to Discuss Certain Experiments Suggested by Mr. Tizard…’, AIR 16/45.

Air Ministry to Tizard, 27 July 1936, HTT 131; Ronald W. Clark, The Rise of the Boffins (London: Phoenix House 1962) pp.49–50.

Interception Exercises, 18 Nov. 1936, AIR 16/179.

The account of the Biggin Hill Experiments was derived from Tizard, ‘Interception Experiments, 2 September 1936’; 2nd through 6th Progress Reports of the Special Interception Experiments, 17 Sept. 1936–15 Jan. 1937. All quotes are from Interception Exercises, 18 Nov. 1936, AIR 16/179. Also see Tizard, CSSAD State of Investigations, Oct. 1936, AIR 20/2357; Tizard to Swinton, 5 Oct. 1936, CAB 64/5; Clark, Tizard, 150–3; Sir Arthur McDonald, ‘Biggin Hill’ in Colin Latham and Anne Stubbs, Radar: A Wartime Miracle (Stroud: Sutton 1996) pp.69–71.

Grenfell, Signal Requirements for Operational Application of Interception Experiments, 18 Jan. 1937, AIR 2/2728.

Headquarters, Fighter Command to Watson Watt, 22 April 1937, AVIA 7/437; SA/DSR, Summary of Results of Special RDF Exercises, 19 to 30 April 1937, 18 June 1937, AVIA 7/394.

Watson Watt, Note on April RDF Exercise, May 1937, AVIA 7/394; Rowe, Note on Bawdsey Exercises, April 1937, 8 June 1937, AIR 20/80;.86^th Progress Meeting, Trials of RDF Equipment at Bawdsey, April 1937, 21 June 1937, AIR 6/49

Edmund Dixon, Notes on the Function of Bawdsey Research Station in Communications Research, 9 July 1937, AVIA 7/230.

Pye to Rowe, 27 May 1938, AIR 2/2201.

Dixon, ‘Suggested Tactical Analysis of Large Scale Air Defence Operations in Relation to RDF’, 12 April 1938, AVIA 7/437.

DCD Radio Development Programme Monthly Conference, 11 July 1938; Rowe to Watson Watt, 23 Aug. 1938, AVIA 7/167.

Report on a Visit to Headquarters Fighter Command on 9 May 1939, AVIA 7/179; G.A. Roberts, Memorandum on Proposed Experiments to be carried out during No.11 (Fighter) Group Exercise, 9 July 1939, AVIA 7/181; G.A, Roberts, Memorandum on Experiments Carried Out at Hucknall, Duxford, Wittering and Digby on 13 and 14 July, 1939, 20 July 1939, AVIA 7/402; Harold Lardner, Progress Report, 16 June–15 July, 1939, Group I, 18 July 1939, AVIA 7/347; Lardner to Rowe, 4 Aug. 1939, AVIA 7/401.

Dowding to the Secretary Air Ministry, 11 March 1937, AIR 2/2587.

Director of Signals to ACAS, 22 April 1934, AIR 2/2615; Recognition in RDF Technique, AVIA 7/534; Watson Watt, Three Steps to Victory (London: Oldhams Press 1957) p.474.

Minutes of a Conference held at Fighter Command Headquarters, 3 April 1939: Home Defence Air Exercise, AIR 9/136; Air Commodore K.R. Park to The Under-Secretary of State, Air Ministry, 9 May 1939. AIR 16/24; Minutes of a Conference Held at the Air Ministry …To Discuss Interception Problems, 28 June 1939, AIR 20/222.

Rowe, Preliminary Report on the Bomber Command and Home Defence Exercises, Aug. 1939, AVIA 7/397.

K.R. Park, Senior Air Staff Officer, Headquarters Fighter Command, Home Defence Air Exercise 8/11 Aug. 1939, Instruction No.1, July 1939; Air Officer Commanding No. 11 Group, Home Defence Exercise, 1939, Aug. 1939; Dowding, Major Home Defence Exercise, 25 Aug. 1939, AVIA 7/397; Dowding to HQ No 11,12, 13 Groups, August Home Defence Exercise, 26 Aug. 1939, AIR 16/271.

Bawdsey Research Station, Preliminary Report on the Bomber Command and Home Defence Exercise, Aug. 1939, 15 Aug. 1939, AVIA 7/397.

David Fisher, A Race on the Edge of Time (New York: McGraw-Hill 1988) pp.84–91; Signals: Volume IV, Radar in Raid Reporting (London: Air Historical Branch Confidential History 1950) pp.79–80; W.S. Douglas to Air Chief Marshal Ludlow Hewitt Bomber Command, 7 July 1939, AIR 2/2587.

Signals: Volume IV, Radar in Raid Reporting (note 40) pp.79–2.

E.C. Williams, Filter Room Organization and Technique, 11 Jan. 1940, AVIA 7/183.

Signals Volume V Fighter Interception and Control, pp.40–2.

Minutes of a Meeting Held in the CAS's room, 12 Jan. 1940, AIR 20/2267.

Signals: Volume IV, Radar in Raid Reporting (note 40) p.123.

Draft of a Letter to the Prime Minister, 9 Nov. 1940, AIR 19/476.

The Capacity of the RDF System, OR Report No.100, Nov. 1940, AVIA 7/1007.

Keith Park, HG Fighter Group No. 11, German Air Attacks on England – 8/8–10/9/40, 12 Sept. 1940, AIR 16/1067.

Draft of a Letter to the Prime Minister, 9 Nov. 1940, AIR 19/476.

Dowding to Headquarters No. 11 Group and Commandant, Observer Corps, 15 Sept. 1940, AVIA 7/178. Also see Lardner to Rowe, 14 Sept. 1940, AVIA 7/178.

The Capacity of the RDF System, OR Report No.100, Nov. 1940, AVIA 7/1007.

Dowding to Under Secretary of State, 27 Sept., AIR 16/387; Extracts from Draft Conclusions of 6^th Air Council Meeting on 2.10.40, AIR 8/577.

For information on the dissemination of knowledge on the radar defence system, see, David Zimmerman, Top Secret Exchange: The Tizard Mission and the Scientific War (Montreal and Stroud: McGill-Queen's University Press and Sutton 1996); and Robert Buderi, The Invention that Changed the World (New York: Simon & Schuster 1996) pp.380–406.