Old Comrades
54 OTU continued
(Simple technical stuff was for the young members of the family when I wrote this years ago).
At night, with never a glimmer of light from the blacked-out land, only the snow could be seen by moonlight. On overcast nights, sitting in the icy cockpit of a Blenheim was a weird experience which took a good deal of getting used to. The faint glimmer of the instrument panel had to be watched carefully the whole time one was flying. The artificial horizon showed a thin horizontal line, representing the aircraft's wings relative to the actual horizon (unseen). A turn to the left or right, and the instrument's wings dipped accordingly. A dive or a climb, and the wings dropped or lifted, showing the line of the "horizon" above or below the wings. Together with the air speed indicator and the rate of climb indicator, one had to watch closely to see that the aircraft was kept on an even keel, and behaved exactly as one wanted, without the benefit of being able to refer to the
ground for a sense of equilibrium.
The ground training now took on a very exciting aspect. We were let into the secrets of radar, which was in its infancy. We were constantly reminded of the importance of preserving secrecy, warned against careless and boastful talk, and were not even allowed to take notes during our lecture sessions.
Radar for night fighting consisted of an array of aerials mounted in the nose of the combat aircraft (not on our training craft) from which signals were despatched and received. Bouncing off anything in its path, it would reflect another aircraft within reasonable distance of the hunter. This reflection was transmitted as light signals (or "blips") into a pair of radar tubes, rather like very small TV sets, mounted in the navigator's cockpit midway down the fuselage. By reference to horizontal and vertical measuring scales imprinted on the faces of the tubes, the navigator could interpret height and distance from the hunter to the hunted aircraft. These were passed by intercom from the radar observer (RO) to the pilot.
By the use of mock-up sets in the hangars and lecture rooms, we were able to practise the technique of hunting and chasing enemy aircraft by night, after first being "vectored" from ground stations to within four or five miles of intruders. Meanwhile, we were taught all the other skills of flying - cross-country journeys, taking off and landing in almost complete darkness, relieved only by the last-minute switching on of flare paths and landing lights, keeping patrol station by flying between designated ground radar beacons which sent out ghostly wireless and radar signals to fix their positions.