RAAF Radar Vets Organisation

Kyt · Oct 9, 2007

Radar Returns is the newsletter of the Veterans Organisation of the RAAF Radar Units and Operators. All their newsletter are online:

http://www.radarreturns.net.au/index.php

Most contain a section entitled "FADED ECHOES" which lists the latest passing of veterans.

And brief histories of all the units covered:

http://www.radarreturns.net.au/units.php?all=1

Antipodean Andy · Oct 9, 2007

Clever names, clever blokes (and sheilas!).

spidge · Oct 9, 2007

Another section of the forces who were never permitted to bask in the glory of their achievements.

These are some of the areas of importance I would like to discuss moving forward.

As Sir Leslie Morshead said to his officers making the speeches after the battle of El Alamein "Don't forget the cooks"!

Kyt · Dec 9, 2007

Was having another look at this site and came across this book which was uploaded last month:

ECHOES OVER THE PACIFIC: An overview of Allied Air Warning Radar in the Pacific from Pearl Harbor to the Philippines Campaign

http://www.radarreturns.net.au/archive/EchoesRRWS.pdf

It's 266 pages long (about 2.6 mb) and covers units, theatres and technology. Well worth a look, and bookmarked for reference.

Several features which result from this coverage are worthy of comment. First and foremost, this book is about people: ordinary Australians doing extraordinary things in, usually, the most difficult of circumstances. The legendary characteristics of determination, perseverance in the face of adversity, improvisation, initiative - and scrounging, are all there.

Secondly, the generosity and willing cooperation of the American forces towards their Australian Allies comes through strongly; as does the apparent better understanding of the American commanders for the importance of air warning, the essentiality of coordinated operations, and the need to support critical units effectively. As a corollary, the deficiencies of Australian commanders and staffs in these aspects are referred to repeatedly in the text - and with some bitterness.

Thirdly, the doctrinal maxims of successful air warning radar deployments and operations seemed to be well understood by the Australian practitioners - but not by their wider superior staffs or administrative supporters. Surprisingly to me, these tactical maxims remain valid today: deployment flexibility, organic self-sufficiency, coordinated transportation, effective communication, good reconnaissance, camouflage, the value of integrated visual observation posts and coordinated sensor fusion, coordinated operations, user/provider understanding et cetera. Indeed, five of the ten Principles of War apply directly to such activities: maintenance of morale, security, flexibility, coordination and administration.

Of course, another surprise to most readers will be the effectiveness of those early radars - despite their rudimentary design - and the coverage achieved. I understand that, at the peak of activity, there were some 124 separate RAAF radar units operational throughout mainland Australia and the Pacific islands. (Compare this with the RAAF’s present three ground-based microwave air defence radars. Airborne early warning and control can’t come quickly enough!) And ranges of around 100 miles were routinely achieved on medium-level targets. Fifty years on, our radars may be more sophisticated but the laws of physics haven’t altered. Finally, Echoes Over the Pacific corrects - at least in a general way - the apparent failure of Australian commanders and subsequent historians to recognise and acknowledge adequately the contribution made to Allied operations in the Pacific by these ordinary Australians and their ‘doovers’. That the radars themselves were effective was a miracle of ingenuity and improvisation. But that these ordinary folk worked those miracles - without much help from ‘the powers that be’, and usually in the most primitive and debilitating circumstances - is an achievement in the best traditions of the Australian ‘digger’ (or airman !), and one which deserves to be recognised officially in our history - especially in this ‘Australia Remembers’ year of the 50th commemoration, and certainly by those whose business is the effective application of air power.
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Kitty · Dec 9, 2007

Now thats a website close to my heart. Met an RAF Radar vet last year for a few minutes. Wonderful man, he used to move forward just behind the front lines with his truck and generator to power the bombing lines for the Allies. He said in Italy he would suddenly find his power dropping to the beacons and would find the locals had tapped into his power line in order to power their own homes.
I think he must have seen practically every major offensive from Sicily to Berlin.

Nostalgair · Dec 9, 2007

Hi All,

Thanks for the 'heads up' regarding radar veterans.

My Mum served in this capacity during WWII as well as a stint in the plotting room beneath the Sydney Botanic Gardens. It looks like I'll be printing out these Newsletters for her from now on.

Cheers

Owen

Antipodean Andy · Dec 9, 2007

Nostalgair said: ↑

Hi All,

Thanks for the 'heads up' regarding radar veterans.

My Mum served in this capacity during WWII as well as a stint in the plotting room beneath the Sydney Botanic Gardens.
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Underneath the Gardens? Never heard of that (but then I am over here in the uncivilised west!). Hmm, another thing to investigate on our east coast trip next year.

spidge · Dec 9, 2007

Andy in West Oz said: ↑

Underneath the Gardens? Never heard of that (but then I am over here in the uncivilised west!). Hmm, another thing to investigate on our east coast trip next year.
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The following file is available at the Australian War Memorial:-
Accession Number: MSS1622
Name of Collection: Gash, Noel (Gunner, b: 1921)
Description: Describes location and layout of the Gun Operations Room which Gash was posted to in 1942 while serving in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery in Sydney. The room was situated in an unused railway tunnel below the Royal Botanic Gardens, along with the Search Light Operations Room and Fighter Sector RAAF. Briefly outlines the work done in the complex and the roles of personnel including women with the WAAAF and the AWAS.
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and others:

No. 1 Fighter Sector Headquarters RAAF, later known as No. 101 Fighter Control Unit RAAF

St James Railway Station Sydney.

During World War II a stair case lead down the shaft from street level and into the tunnel which was secretly used as an operations bunker (Number One Fighter Sector Headquarters) by the RAAF. [1] The facilities inside the tunnel/operations bunker were connected to radar stations, weather signals, movements from airports, army and Volunteer Air Observer Corps reporting posts, air raid sirens and blackout control. A large table carried a map of the New South Wales coast and adjoining areas, on which WAAAF plotted movements of aircraft and shipping.
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Many of the workers became sick from working in the tunnel, so the base was eventually transferred to a picture theatre in Bankstown, (The Capital Theatre) and then to an underground facility in Condell Park (the Bankstown Bunker). The staircase that spiralled down the shaft and into the operations facilities was destroyed by fire in the 1960s. The shaft was covered at street level after WW2. When looking up from inside the shaft, thin cracks of sunlight can be seen around the edges of the former entrance.
Tours of the tunnels have at times been run by the Australian Railway Historical Society, with the approval of the State Rail Authority. Many others have visited them unofficially (and illegally), by walking down the used subway tracks until passages leading between the used and disused tunnels are reached.
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"I enlisted in 1942 as a Stenographer but became seconded, along with about 50 other girls from all over Australia, to the first Fighter Sector to be set up. Firstly we were sent to New Lambton in Newcastle where we moved into the local school. We were trained here and then later posted to Sydney to work with the Americans who had just arrived. "We marched each day up to Macquarie Street and down a hundred wooden steps into the railway tunnel between St. James and the Quay where Fighter Sector had been set up. There were no trains there in the tunnel at that time. Here we worked eight hour shifts day and night with the Army, Navy and Airforce and we had a squadron of fighter planes located at Bankstown. We were connected to Radar Stations along the coast and to V.A.O.C. (Volunteer Air Observer Corps) by direct line.
"We knew a lot about unidentified aircraft and ships sunk off the coast of Australia, but were sworn to secrecy. Actually we were on duty when the Japanese submarines were in the harbour and were anxious that their target may have been to come through the Botanical Gardens and throw grenades into Fighter Sector to disrupt Sydney's defence. They were in the harbour for a long time and one fired a torpedo which resulted in the deaths of some cadets on the training ship Kuttabul. One submarine was destroyed by depth charges, one became entangled in the boom across Sydney harbour and blew itself up, and the other escaped but never reached Japan."
EILA M.C. FOX (FORMERLY ACW EILA PICKUP)
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Antipodean Andy · Dec 9, 2007

Thanks, Spidgeman, fascinating stuff.

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