SAMHSEC meeting 14 October 2024
Helmoed Heitman discussed German Weather Stations in the Far North during WWII.
Weather information is critical for both naval and air force operations, and particularly so in Arctic and North Atlantic waters where there were important Allied convoy routes and through which German ships had to pass to break out into the wider Atlantic.
The Kriegsmarine deployed weather ships and established weather stations along the coast of Spitsbergen and Greenland, on Jan Mayan and Hope Islands and on Franz Josef Land. Automated weather stations were deployed on Bear Island and even on the coast of Labrador.
Some teams were captured early and others forced to evacuate their stations when Allied Forces found them, but many spent months in their Arctic outposts, one nearly a full year. Another wound up being the last Germans to surrender, having been overlooked at the end of the war before being rescued in September 1945 by Norwegian fishermen.
The recordings of Helmoed’s presentation are in the SAMHS Zoom library
SAMHSEC RPC 28 October 2024
In session 1, Franco Cilliers discussed US Navy air navigation in the WW 2 Pacific Theatre.
The first US aircraft carrier, USS Langley, entered service in 1922. She was followed in 1928 by the USS Saratoga and USS Lexington. Experience of operating aircraft from carriers showed the need to navigate to objectives and to return to the carrier successfully.
The solution to this problem was to use Radio Direction Finding. Single seat fighters had fixed loops mounted around the fuselage. This required the aircraft to swing left and right to find the direction of the strongest radio signal. Larger aircraft had externally mounted rotatable loops which could be turned by crew members.
As aircraft design improved, these externally mounted loops created drag which reduced performance. This showed the need for other means for aircraft homing.
The National Radio Laboratory Service developed an Aircraft Homing System. An experimental model was installed on the USS Saratoga and tested in 1937. The principle of a rotating high frequency beacon for homing aircraft to carriers at sea or landing fields ashore was accepted. The Radio Corporation of America was able to provide of vacuum tubes with high enough power output to reduce size to small enough to fit in aircraft and ships. The YE system was installed on all aircraft carriers and used in the Pacific Theatre. Because the aircraft was only receiving the signal, equipment could be reduced in size and power consumption. The system had an operational range of about 275 miles, depending on the altitude of the aircraft.
The homing system consisted of a rotating beam antenna at the highest point on the aircraft carrier, which transmitted coded signals. The signal was received on the standard aircraft radio receiver. The code the aircraft was receiving would inform the pilot of the direction of the carrier.
The homing system had a dual frequency which confused the Japanese, who knew that US aircraft were successfully returning to their carriers, but they did not know how this was accomplished. The system was in use until it was replaced by the TACAN system in the 1960s.
The recording of Franco’s presentation is in the SAMHS Zoom library
In session 2, Stephen Bowker discussed David Lampe’s book “The Last Ditch”, which analyses German and British plans had Britain been successfully invaded in during WW 2.
In September 1940, top secret plans for the invasion of Britain were distributed to senior German officers. Occupation under Nazi rule would have been harsh, including mass deportation of able-bodied men, appropriation of Britain’s agricultural, industrial and mineral resources and widespread arrests in terms of a Gestapo Arrest List.
General Andrew Thorne was appointed to command the defence of Britain against possible invasion by Germany. The south coast was appreciated as the most likely invasion area.
British plans included a well trained underground Resistance Organisation. Members of the Resistance Organisation looked like members of the Home Guard. They operated in independent units and their presence was not officially acknowledged.
The first Resistance Organisation regional training centre was established in Kent by Captain Peter Flemming, brother of author Ian Flemming. Teams would be responsible for sabotage and destruction of any property that could be useful to invading forces and building underground hides for resistance forces in the field.
Once the War Office appreciated that the Germans had lost the initiative to invade Britain, some Resistance Organisation personnel were amalgamated into the Special Operations Executive and the remainder were disbanded.
SAMHSEC meeting 11 November 2024
This meeting is to open with the Act of Remembrance, during which we will read
the names of SAMHSEC members whose chairs are vacant.
Please contact me if you want to remember other members or military veterans
who have crossed the bar.
You are invited to wear a Haig Poppy during the meeting.
Pat Irwin will be speaking on Frontier Wars Signal Towers.
SAMHSEC RPC 25 November 2024
SAMHSEC Requests the Pleasure of your Company to talk about military history on 25 November 2024.
RPC meetings are opportunities for you to share your knowledge of a military history subject or book with fellow military historians. Presentations should last approximately 15 minutes to allow time for sharing the pleasure of one another’s company. You can do any number of RPC presentations per year. Please contact André at andrecrozier@gmail.com if you want to share your knowledge.
SAMHSEC field trip: 17 November 2024
Our field trip to the lower Fish River area will be return same day on 17 November 2024. Please contact me if you want to join the field trip and are not already on the field trip WhatsApp group.
SAMHSEC