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My wife agrees that "ramblings" is probably the correct way to describe over sixty-year-old memories, largely disjointed and unsupported by any documentary evidence. It may be a good thing to start at the beginning.
Having been kitted out at Padgate and square-bashed at Great Yarmouth, I passed through the basic radio course at Woolwich Polytechnic, which included some simple metal work. At this stage we were classed as Radio/Wireless Mechanics UT and it was not until being posted to Yatesbury that the difference between Radio and Wireless became clear. We were now RDF Mechanics UT and the Wireless types had gone elsewhere. The school was operating a two-shift system and my class learnt their lessons at night. This had the advantage that we never had to guard the water supply reservoir and could leave the camp during the day. This to the great annoyance of the guards, who were clearly intended to keep airmen in rather than to keep intruders out. Much time was wasted at Yatesbury learning about equipment (C.H. for example) which I at least was never to see again.
On leaving Yatesbury, on Christmas Eve 1941,1 was posted to Happisburgh, pronounced Haisboro (and hereinafter referred to as H), a CHL/GCI Radar situated about halfway between Cromer and Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast. Transport collected me and my kit from North Walsham railway station and dumped me at a large rambling farm house called "The Rookery" (now a residential home for adults with learning difficulties) just as the complete Rookery watch were leaving for "The Lighthouse", a pub a few yards down the road.
So began my stay at H and the serious business of finding out how it all worked.
The radar equipment was installed in two rather tatty timber-framed, barrack type huts separated by a short passage with a door at each end. The passage was used to store PPI tubes in their crates so that they were immediately available if the Controller on duty asked for a change because of a loss of focus. One hut, brightly lit, housed the transmitter, about the size and shape of a very large upright piano, a workbench, table and sundry chairs. This was home to the duty mechanics that had provided themselves with a mattress behind the transmitter where it was both warm and comfortable. The other hut was kept in semi- darkness and housed the receiver with its PPI and Range tubes, the telephone exchange, plotting table, turning gear, tea-making materials etc. Outside was a brick blast wall and, over the top, a wooden gantry supporting the revolving aerial.
A three-watch system was operated for most of the time and on quiet nights I learned how to read map references, and to turn the aerial using the Hopkins two speed turning gear, a vicious manual device capable of giving one a smart rap in any sort of a gale.
It was also possible to stand in the ops room shadows when night fighters from Coltishall were being controlled and to admire the calm efficiency of Squadron Leader Everett and the rest of the team. The aircraft R/T was broadcast in the ops room so that we knew as soon as anybody when an attack had been successful. I was proud to be a member, even though totally ignored and serving no useful purpose whatsoever.
Each morning the duty mechanics, plus the day staff, undertook routine maintenance for one hour which mainly consisted of removing a different panel each day and dusting its top and bottom with a paint brush and vacuum cleaner. The authority who laid down these rules was clearly not of the "If it’s not broke don’t fix it" brigade, and many was the time when re- assembly did not produce the expected results.
Quarterly Overhauls were the same thing but much worse, being carried out by experts who could be guaranteed to leave the equipment in a poor condition. The station mechanics had to put matters right over the next few days. The CHL. at Hopton would be asked to cover when we were off the air and we did the same for them.
Obtaining my LAC (and the money that went with it) involved travelling to Cambridge and sitting a written exam of several hours’ duration. It also involved spending two nights in a small room at Jesus College, high up and near the roof. Washing facilities consisted of a butler sink and a cold tap on a lower floor. I can’t imagine today’s students accepting such poor accommodation.
At about this time two of us were sent to BTH (British Thompson Houston) in Rugby on a course to do with electric motors and selsyns. I think the personnel office was expecting us but the shop floor was not. It was finally agreed that the RAF were not going into the motor manufacturing business so we were sent to a part of the works where motors came in for repair. We handled all kinds of motors, from small fans to motors up to 2 hp, knocking each one to pieces, finding the cause of the problem and writing out a set of instructions to the people who did the work. Motors that were beyond repair were scrapped and those suitable for repair we re-assembled finger-tight and sent on their way. This course saved my bacon on several occasions, once at H and twice with 15054 FDP, when I took motors to pieces for repairs which should not have been undertaken by a mere radar mechanic but which were essential to keep the unit on the air.
Three events happened during 1942 that particularly stick in the mind, the first of which was a bit of a mystery at the time. A number of senior officers arrived and our telephone contacts were told that we were off the air. All operating staff and mechanics were then removed from the ops room. After an hour or so the duty watch was allowed to return, the "scrambled egg" departed in their cars and we were back to normal. We soon found out that other stations in the chain had reported considerable interference but that this was a test of "Window" was not known for a long time. This test was one of the most important of its day. The result so scared the authorities that "Window" was kept under Top Secret wraps and not used in anger until July 1943. What frightened them, of course, was the possibility that the Germans would use "Window" against us.
The second happening required a rather special sort of volunteer. An airman (expendable as always) was put down in a dinghy some miles out at sea by our local Air-Sea Rescue Walrus. Various radar sensitive aerials were used and the miserable airman in his dinghy was moved yet further out to discover the maximum range at which ditched crews could be seen and rescued.
The third involved disturbing dozens of pigeons at the top of H’s church tower. A small aerial was fixed to the top and telephone cable was used to link this aerial with the radar receiver about half a mile away. The signal was fed into the PPI time base circuit so that a perfect horizontal polar diagram was produced on the PPI tube and could be copied on tracing paper. The tracing showed that our aerial system was giving excellent results.
During 1942 workmen had been busy building a new ops block, a gantry, a 180 ft tower and a brick standby diesel house for a new CHL, to be called H2, situated about 200 yards away from HI. The aerials were to be electrically driven and my most vivid memory is of the hoisting of the turning gear and the skill of the tower erectors. H2 was a much more modem set up than HI. Not only was the building of brick and concrete, but it was larger and therefore less crowded and was provided with a rest room, toilets and a simple kitchen. Apart from the electrical turning gear, the basic equipment was much the same as at HI except for the Skiatron, an underused piece of equipment not much suited to CHL operation. It consisted of a flat faced PPI tube of about 3½" in diameter with an intense purple, long afterglow trace. This was projected on to the underside of a frosted perspex table top on which one could record an aircraft’s track. The Skiatron should have been in HI where I’m sure the controllers would have found it useful, but space and technical considerations made this impossible.
For reasons unknown we were involved in commissioning this new equipment. The various bits and pieces worked individually except for the transmitter. The 25KV capacitor was found to be US, although testing it was not easy as all we had was a 500V Megger. Once the capacitor was changed, the transmitter worked and we were on the air. Or were we? The first discovery was that the ground echoes ofH2 were running along the range and the PPI tubes of HI and vice versa. Neither station could work under those conditions.
The cure was to build a small four-valve unit to feed a signal from HI to H2 to lock the two transmitters together but 180° out of phase. The last valve of this new unit was a cathode follower and the signal, a pip, was sent via telephone cable draped over the fence and hedges separating HI and H2. I was most surprised, and relieved, when a beautiful signal turned up on the oscilloscope at H2. End of problems? No!
H2 aerials were of the continuously rotating type and the 360 ft towers of the CH at West Beckham were used to check bearings, signal strength, etc. After only a few revolutions of the gantry aerial it seemed that West Beckham was moving their towers. We assumed that part of the gearing linking the selsyn at the aerial end or the selsyn in the receiver was slipping and much time was wasted in checking the tightness of grub screws. After a great deal of unproductive messing about, it was discovered that one set of gearing had a pinion with 15 teeth, whereas the other had a pinion with 14 teeth. The PPI trace was gaining or losing 1 tooth per revolution of the pinion. The solution was to make a new pinion the hard way (brass rod, hacksaw and files) and that really was the last of the problems at H2 until the WAAF arrived, but that was a very different ramble.
As a result of demands from overseas, male operators and mechanics were posted and WAAF operators arrived at HI (including my future wife Daphne). I was promoted to Corporal and transferred to day work instead of being a watch mechanic.
As soon as H2 was fully operational more WAAF operators arrived, as well as three WAAF mechanics. These girls were reputed to be university graduates and they were certainly very good. Starting the standby diesels was not expected of them.
One evening Eileen, a watch mechanic thought she heard a squeak at the top of the tower and, although it was dark and very windy, she climbed up to find out what was needed. It was a little bit beyond the call of duty. When at the top, she telephoned to say that she did not fancy going down without some help. So I dressed up for the occasion and we came down together. I suspect future wife was not best pleased when told of these goings-on.
As a result of being transferred to day-time time duties I became involved with Flt.Sgt. George Slack in the preparation of the quarterly report. It was a comprehensive load of waffle which covered every aspect of the station’s operation in minute detail. This was done at night and took most of one night to complete. I have no idea where this report finished up but I was informed that it was considered the best of its kind and was used to train future report compilers. Bumph triumphant!
My landlady, Mrs Leeder, prepared a special dinner for us Christmas Eve 1942 to which Daphne was invited. But for me it was not to be. A component of the Centimetric Height Finding (CMH) equipment required welding at Coltishall and I was to take it there on the unit’s motorcycle. An engineer officer and a welder were summoned from their respective messes; the job was completed but the evening was spoilt for quite a number of people.
Although, of course, I did not know it, my time at H was rapidly drawing to an end. When I had arrived the CO was a Flight Sergeant controlling a small number of men. By the time I left the strength of the unit was doubled, the unit was nearly all women and the CO was Flt Officer Matthews. It was almost a pleasure to be hauled up before her for not wearing a hat whilst riding my motorcycle.
Early in 1943 I was promoted to Sergeant and posted in charge of AMES 6083, a light warning unit. This was disbanded shortly before D-day and I then joined 15o54 FDP and went to Europe.
But that is yet another ramble.
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