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The BBC "Secret War" series and RV Jones' books are superb. I would recommend also reading his "Reflections on Intelligence" - it was written later and is sligh
by RachelF 2mo ago
The BBC "Secret War" series and RV Jones' books are superb. I would recommend also reading his "Reflections on Intelligence" - it was written later and is slightly more philosophical. By that time Jones had been burned by bureaucrats - he compares his small efficient wartime office to the post-war bloat.
The BBC series is really good. They don't make documentaries like that anymore. The "Still Secret" episode on Enigma is easily the best coverage of how the system worked, was cracked and the organisation behind it. There is also an accompanying book, which has many more details.
>I think The "Battle of the Beams" is one development that gave us the basis for what we use so much now in general aviation.
Actually it started the other way around. The beams were based on pre-war blind landing Lorentz system.
- kreelman 2mo agoAh, thanks. As I think about it, you're right. There was a Lorentz landing system in bombers that was far too accurate for just landing. Intelligence gathering extracted that from the crew's conversations. That was how they hid their direction finding... But the system already existed. I think I got confused with radar, but radar isn't beams as such.
- RachelF 2mo agoIt is amazing how war accelerates technology development. Radar and the Manhattan project are cases in point, probably squashing 20 years of normal research into 3. Drones in Ukraine are a contemporary example. However, when the war is over, things stagnate: The UK bombed the Falklands in 1982 with a radar which was essentially an upgraded wartime H2S/H2X set.