Canadians on Radar

[Noel Burgess]

“The Canadian Radar History Project is a non-profit organisation dedicated to gather information, analyse, publish and disseminate data about the WW II experiences of the seven thousand wartime RCAF radar technical officers and radar technician airmen.” They have produced four books which are available on-line here.

This thread particularly deals with “Royal Canadian Air Force 1940-1945”

Deals with the way some 6,000 to 7,000 Canadians were trained as Radar technicians or Technical officers. Members of RCAF, their terms of enlistment included that they would “serve with units of the Royal Air Force or any Allied Air Force ……any ship or shore establishment of the Royal Navy ……..any regiment or unit of the British Army” Criticism is made of the way these men were treated – particularly by the RAF

The book goes on to cover various theatres of operation- Atlantic convoys, Desert War Etc. and deals with various types of radar and their development – Airborne Interception, GCI, ASV, various bomber target indicators Etc.

I found this a very informative read. I have learned a great deal about the development and use of radar and gained a better understanding of those parts I already knew. I recommend a visit to the site to forum members

More specifically of interest to me (and, I suspect, to many of you) there are a number of photographs of Radar vehicles/trailers; I have been in e-mail communication with two of the contributors who have been kind enough to send me some clearer photographs and I have also done my best to improve some of the pictures in the on-line PDF. I shal be posting these in a separate thread on the softskins forum

Noel