Posted by Tom Napier on February 26, 2012 at 12:39:38 user Didymus.
In Reply to: Getting the background posted by Peter Ceresole on February 26, 2012 at 06:21:58:
AR's "mistake" about the Bawdsey radar towers lay in not realizing that they had been built not long before he saw them and had thus not been present in 1932. Since they were top secret prototypes for the Chain Home radar (that later allowed Fighter Command to beat off the Luftwaffe) he probably wouldn't have been able to find out more information if it had occurred to him. He might even have been interrogated rather thoroughly if he had shown too much interest.
A snippet of military history, by late 1938 the Germans were also wondering what all these strange new towers were for. They sent the late Hindenburg's sister ship, the LZ-130, on spy missions along the British coast to look for radar transmissions. They didn't detect anything and were slapped with diplomatic protests for their pains.