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Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.
City Textures rework
- Thread starter rince33
- Start date
flashgordon
Charter Member
Wow. That looks terrific.
Help with your HAA Emplacement. In the permanent Command Post the open rear has 3 sections. In the centre stood the small T.I MKIII AA identification telescope usually on a metal tripod to call out range and bearing for the outer sections. To the left side would be an Height and Range Finder which came in several sizes of which the UB-10 shown attached is the largest. To the right stood the Predictor (a mechanical computer) to calculate speed, height, and direction of aircraft to predict where shells should detonate. All this data was fed to the covered plotting room (early sandbagged tent then semi-sunken brick and concrete) and then passed to the guns. These instruments became more sophisticated as time went on including radar prediction. From 1941 the women of the ATS took over these roles (in some "Mixed" batteries making up 2/3rds of the personnel) although not allowed by the Defence Regulations to actually load or fire weapons which evolved to have auto loaders and automated gun-laying.
Help with your HAA Emplacement. In the permanent Command Post the open rear has 3 sections. In the centre stood the small T.I MKIII AA identification telescope usually on a metal tripod to call out range and bearing for the outer sections. To the left side would be an Height and Range Finder which came in several sizes of which the UB-10 shown attached is the largest. To the right stood the Predictor (a mechanical computer) to calculate speed, height, and direction of aircraft to predict where shells should detonate. All this data was fed to the covered plotting room (early sandbagged tent then semi-sunken brick and concrete) and then passed to the guns. These instruments became more sophisticated as time went on including radar prediction. From 1941 the women of the ATS took over these roles (in some "Mixed" batteries making up 2/3rds of the personnel) although not allowed by the Defence Regulations to actually load or fire weapons which evolved to have auto loaders and automated gun-laying.
Attachments
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T.1 MK III AA Identification Telescope.jpg -
ATS using MK III AA Identification Telescope.jpg -
ATS girls using UB-10 height and range finder.jpg -
ATS girls using the predictor instrument.jpg -
Vickers No.1 anti-aircraft predictor, 1941.jpg -
3 inch AA Gun.jpg -
4.5-in-AA-gun.jpg -
4.5-inch-anti-aircraft-gun.jpg -
Anti-Diver battery Hastings 1944.jpg -
Anti Diver Battery Suffolk 1944.jpg
flashgordon
Charter Member
Before the war it was recognised that the human operated height and range finder combined with the Predictor mechanical computer would only have a moderate chance of success even when the target was a daylight mass formation of high level bombers moving on an unchanging course at a modest speed with a raid pre-warning by the Observer Corps and Chain Home radar. This was the case for most of the BoB but then the nightime raids of the blitz showed up the defiencies of such methods with London, Coventry, Plymouth and many other cities suffering heavy damage and mass civilian casualties. Many said the 'Bomber would always get through'.
As with BoB the salvation was with those brilliant scientists who invented radar. By 1939 the Gun Laying MkI radar had begun to be introduced based on the same principles as Chain Home. This suffered from its own defiencies the major one being not having an target elevation finding and requiring the receiver to be sat on a large mat of chicken mesh to stop radar waves being reflected off the surrounding uneven ground by acting as an "optically flat" artificial ground surface. Target elevation was resolved by the interim GL-1B but it was only when the more accurate height and bearing of the GL-II that the data could begin to be used for direct gun laying.
The Magnatron based GL-III and SCR-584 started to appear in 1943 and 1944 when the threat turned to high speed low level fighter bombers with coastal town nuisance raids and then the V1 which flying at 350 to 400mph at 2000-4000ft required HAA and LAA batteries to be moved to the coast to allow the radars the best opportunity to see their targets approaching over the sea. Attached are images showing the development.
As with BoB the salvation was with those brilliant scientists who invented radar. By 1939 the Gun Laying MkI radar had begun to be introduced based on the same principles as Chain Home. This suffered from its own defiencies the major one being not having an target elevation finding and requiring the receiver to be sat on a large mat of chicken mesh to stop radar waves being reflected off the surrounding uneven ground by acting as an "optically flat" artificial ground surface. Target elevation was resolved by the interim GL-1B but it was only when the more accurate height and bearing of the GL-II that the data could begin to be used for direct gun laying.
The Magnatron based GL-III and SCR-584 started to appear in 1943 and 1944 when the threat turned to high speed low level fighter bombers with coastal town nuisance raids and then the V1 which flying at 350 to 400mph at 2000-4000ft required HAA and LAA batteries to be moved to the coast to allow the radars the best opportunity to see their targets approaching over the sea. Attached are images showing the development.
Attachments
flashgordon
Charter Member
More on HAA: During the Blitz it was estimated it took 18,500 AA shells to destroy one high altitude bomber flying at 250 mph. 31/2 years later the devlopments in radar prediction, shell proximity fusing with auto setting, auto loading and gun laying would mean it took just 156 shells to destroy a low altitude 350mph V-1 where the target was visible for seconds rather than minutes for the former. The video here shows the auto loader in action:
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Pics attached show the loader on a late 3.7 inch with power and data cables; the chicken wire GL mat with a ramp to raise the GL Mk II Receiver above the Mat. A permanent site would have an attached accommodation camp initially tented, then MOWP wooden huts, finally nissen. Anti-Diver emergency batteries would return to tents or the more fortunate billeted in seaside accommodation. Some of the permanent ones also had decoy pits and posts as shown on the east of the attached site. The plan is of a site around Scapa Flo and shows a smaller footprint for the Command Post which grew to the structures shown in my previous post and on the attached plan more for the protection of the equipment than the crews. A good auto loader gun crew could fire some 25 shells per minute which led to the gun pit crew shelter areas being used for ammunition storage and additional protected magazines being built on site. The emergency batteries had themselves to be moved several times up the East coast with the French launch sites being overrun and the last threat coming from V-1s being air launched from bombers.
Pics attached show the loader on a late 3.7 inch with power and data cables; the chicken wire GL mat with a ramp to raise the GL Mk II Receiver above the Mat. A permanent site would have an attached accommodation camp initially tented, then MOWP wooden huts, finally nissen. Anti-Diver emergency batteries would return to tents or the more fortunate billeted in seaside accommodation. Some of the permanent ones also had decoy pits and posts as shown on the east of the attached site. The plan is of a site around Scapa Flo and shows a smaller footprint for the Command Post which grew to the structures shown in my previous post and on the attached plan more for the protection of the equipment than the crews. A good auto loader gun crew could fire some 25 shells per minute which led to the gun pit crew shelter areas being used for ammunition storage and additional protected magazines being built on site. The emergency batteries had themselves to be moved several times up the East coast with the French launch sites being overrun and the last threat coming from V-1s being air launched from bombers.
