Originally Posted by
ColinB
I have read somewhere and lost the the link that F/O James Mazdon and F/O Basil Sadler flew a balloon over the Channel during the Battle of Britain period carrying equipment to detect German navigation beams.
Does anyone recognize this and can give a source?
The Germans had the X Gerate (Don't know how to type the umlaut) which was a single beam, and the Y Gerate which had 2 beams that intersected to mark the target. These beams were VERY narrow, only a couple hundred meters wide in England (projected from sites in France). So, you really needed a plane to catch the beam, as they were redirected every night for a different target. The Germans initially set up the beam in the early afternoon, to make sure the equipment was working and properly aimed. If the British could detect the beam as soon as it was set up, they had a number of hours to mobilize equipment and manpower to defend against the attack.
Jon