Telecommunications Research Establishment

The Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) was the main United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

research and development organization for radio navigation

Radio navigation

Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position on the Earth. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination.The basic principles are measurements from/to electric beacons, especially...

, radar

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

, infra-red detection

Infra-red search and track

An infra-red search and track system is a method for detecting and tracking objects which give off infra-red radiation such as jet aircraft and helicopters. IRST is a generalized case of Forward Looking Infra-Red , i.e. from Forward-Looking to allround situational awareness...

for heat seeking missiles, and related work for the Royal Air Force during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

and the years that followed. The name was changed to Radar research establishment

Royal Radar Establishment

The name Royal Radar Establishment was given to the existing Radar Research Establishment following a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Both names were abbreviated to RRE. The establishment had been formed, under its first name, in 1953 by merging the Telecommunications Research Establishment ...

in 1953. This article covers the precursor organizations and the Telecommunications Research Establishment up to the time of the name change. The later work at the site is described in the separate article about RRE.

History

Particularly because of its later change of name to Royal Radar Establishment

Royal Radar Establishment

, TRE is best known for work on defensive and offensive radar. TRE also made substantial contributions to radio-navigation and to jamming enemy radio-navigation. Radar dominates the history.

The development of radar in the U.K. was started by Sir Henry Tizard

Henry Tizard

Sir Henry Thomas Tizard FRS was an English chemist and inventor and past Rector of Imperial College....

's Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defence in 1935. Experimental work was begun at Orfordness near Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

. The research group moved to the nearby Bawdsey Research Station

RAF Bawdsey

RAF Bawdsey was an RAF station situated on the eastern coast in Suffolk, England.Bawdsey Manor, dating from 1886, was taken over in March 1936 by the Air Ministry for developing the Chain Home RDF system...

(BRS) in 1936. It moved from there to the University College at Dundee

University of Dundee

The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....

in 1939 as the Air Ministry Research Establishment (AMRE). Then, in May 1940, it moved to Worth Matravers

Worth Matravers

Worth Matravers is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. The village is situated on the cliffs west of Swanage. It comprises limestone cottages and farm houses and is built around a pond, which is a regular feature on postcards of the Isle of Purbeck.The civil parish stretches...

as the Ministry of Aircraft Production Research Establishment (MAPRE). It was established as the central research group for RAF

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

applications of radar

Radar

. The name was changed to the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in November 1940. The site was four miles west of Swanage

Swanage

Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is situated at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck, approximately 10 km south of Poole and 40 km east of Dorchester. The parish has a population of 10,124 . Nearby are Ballard Down and Old Harry Rocks,...

.

In parallel with these technical developments, the Ministry of Home Security

Ministry of Home Security

The Ministry of Home Security was a British government department established in 1939 to direct national civil defence during the Second World War.-Background:...

developed a plan, early in 1939, "to evacuate the critical functions of government out of London" if a threat of air raids developed. A site was purchased in Malvern

Malvern, Worcestershire

Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...

for the Ministry itself. Although it was not developed, the location had become well known to defense officials. The Air Ministry acquired jurisdiction, and used the site for a Signals Training Establishment, housed in prefabricated one storey buildings. In May, 1942, the Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE) was set up on the site, to develop truck mounted early warning radars.

In May 1942, the Telecommunications Research Establishment also moved to Malvern

Malvern, Worcestershire

, taking up residence in the buildings of Malvern College

Malvern College

Malvern College is a coeducational independent school located on a 250 acre campus near the town centre of Malvern, Worcestershire in England. Founded on 25 January 1865, until 1992, the College was a secondary school for boys aged 13 to 18...

, an independent boys' boarding school. The move which was carried out in great urgency, is described in detail by Reginald Jones

R. v. Jones

R. v. Jones, [1986] 2 S.C.R. 284 is an early leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on the freedom of religion under section 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the right to security of person under section 7.-Background:...

in his book Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939-1945.

In the second week of February, 1942, the German battleships Scharnhorst

German battleship Scharnhorst

Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15...

and Gneisenau

German battleship Gneisenau

Gneisenau was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of the German Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class, which included one other ship, Scharnhorst. The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke dockyard in Kiel; she was laid down on 6 May 1935...

escaped from Brest in the Channel Dash, undetected until they were well into the English Channel

English Channel

The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

, because German ground forces had gradually increased the jamming of British radar over a period of weeks. The British command had not realized this was happening. In the aftermath, Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...

approved plans for a raid on the German radar station at Bruneval, near Le Havre

Le Havre

Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...

. The landing party included D. H. Priest, of TRE. The Bruneval raid (also called the Biting raid

Operation Biting

Operation Biting, also known as the Bruneval Raid, was the codename given to a British Combined Operations raid on a German radar installation in Bruneval, France that occurred between 27–28 February 1942 during World War II...

) captured a German Wurzburg radar

Würzburg radar

The Würzburg radar was the primary ground-based gun laying radar for both the Luftwaffe and the German Army during World War II. Initial development took place before the war, entering service in 1940. Eventually over 4,000 Würzburgs of various models were produced...

system and a radar operator. These were taken to TRE. During the weeks that followed, the British authorities became concerned that the Germans would retaliate in kind. When intelligence reported the arrival of a German paratroop battalion across the Channel, the staff of TRE pulled out of the Swanage site in a period of hours.

At the end of the war TRE moved from Malvern College, to HMS Duke, a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

training school, about a mile away in St. Andrews Road adjacent to the area of Barnards Green

Barnards Green

Barnard's Green is one of the main population areas of Malvern, Worcestershire, England, situated approximately downhill from Great Malvern, the town's traditional centre...

Radio navigation

(navigational beam) systems are based on the transmission of pulsed radio beams that are detected by aircraft. R. J. Dippy devised the GEE

Gee

Gee may refer to:In fiction:*Al Giardello , a fictional character on the television drama Homicide: Life on the StreetIn record labels:*Gee Records*Gee Street RecordsIn music:...

(also called AMES Type 7000) radio navigation system at TRE, where it was developed into a powerful instrument for increasing the accuracy of bombing raids.

Radio jamming

The counter measure to radio navigation was jamming. R. V. Jones

Reginald Victor Jones

Reginald Victor Jones, CH CB CBE FRS, was a British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an important role in the defence of Britain in -Education:...

was the MI6 science advisor and TRE staff worked closely with him, in countering the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

's navigational beam technology to hamper the enemy's ability to do pinpoint night bombing raids in what has become known as the "battle of the beams

Battle of the beams

The Battle of the Beams was a period early in the Second World War when bombers of the German Air Force used a number of increasingly accurate systems of radio navigation for night bombing. British "scientific intelligence" at the Air Ministry fought back with a variety of increasingly effective...

". Sir Robert Cockburn of the TRE was responsible for the development of the Jostle IV radio jammer - the most powerful jammer device used over Europe. At 2 kW output it could block all VHF transmissions over 32-48 MHz. However, enclosed in its own pressurised container, (to prevent arcing

Electric arc

An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. A synonym is arc discharge. An arc discharge is characterized by a lower voltage than a glow discharge, and relies on...

of the high voltages inside), it was large and at 600 lb took up the entirety of the bomb bay of the Boeing Fortresses used by No. 100 Group RAF

No. 100 Group RAF

No. 100 Group was a special duties group within RAF Bomber Command.It was formed on 11 November 1943 to consolidate the increasingly complex business of electronic warfare and countermeasures within one organisation. The group was responsible for the development, operational trial and use of...

. Due to the high transmitter power, test flights had to be carried out in the vicinity of Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

, otherwise the jamming would have blanked out all frequencies in the specified range, over a large area, as well as giving the Germans warning of the impending arrival of a jamming system.

Radar

The development of radar

Radar

for defensive and offensive operations was of paramount concern during the war. Early work was on Airborne Interception (AI) radar able to be carried in night fighters and used for locating enemy aircraft in the dark, as Britain was soon facing The Blitz

The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...

. The first tests had been carried out as early as 1936-7 using a Handley Page Heyford

Handley Page Heyford

The Handley Page Heyford was a twin-engine British biplane bomber of the 1930s. Although it had a short service life, it equipped several squadrons of the RAF as one of the most important British bombers of the mid-1930s, and was the last biplane heavy bomber to serve with the RAF.-Design and...

and later an Avro Anson

Avro Anson

The Avro Anson is a British twin-engine, multi-role aircraft that served with the Royal Air Force, Fleet Air Arm and numerous other air forces prior to, during, and after the Second World War. Named for British Admiral George Anson, it was originally designed for maritime reconnaissance, but was...

at the initial suggestion of Henry Tizard

Henry Tizard

Sir Henry Thomas Tizard FRS was an English chemist and inventor and past Rector of Imperial College....

then Chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee

Aeronautical Research Committee

The Aeronautical Research Committee was a UK government committee established in 1919 in order to coordinate aeronautical research and education following World War I...

. Initial aircraft used operationally were Bristol Blenheim

Bristol Blenheim

The Bristol Blenheim was a British light bomber aircraft designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company that was used extensively in the early days of the Second World War. It was adapted as an interim long-range and night fighter, pending the availability of the Beaufighter...

s converted to fighters with belly gun packs, followed by a brief usage of the AI-equipped Turbinlite

Turbinlite

The Helmore/GEC Turbinlite was a 2,700 million candela searchlight fitted in the nose of a number of British Douglas Havoc night fighters during the early part of the Second World War and around the time of The Blitz....

Douglas Havoc paired with Hawker Hurricanes, but later the Bristol Beaufighter

Bristol Beaufighter

The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter, often referred to as simply the Beau, was a British long-range heavy fighter modification of the Bristol Aeroplane Company's earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber design...

was chosen, followed by the de Havilland Mosquito

De Havilland Mosquito

The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito was a British multi-role combat aircraft that served during the Second World War and the postwar era. It was known affectionately as the "Mossie" to its crews and was also nicknamed "The Wooden Wonder"...

which later became the standard RAF night fighter for the remainder of the war. Initial versions of AI were metric-wavelength, the antennas being arrow-shaped or dipole

Dipole antenna

A dipole antenna is a radio antenna that can be made of a simple wire, with a center-fed driven element. It consists of two metal conductors of rod or wire, oriented parallel and collinear with each other , with a small space between them. The radio frequency voltage is applied to the antenna at...

s, later centimetric versions used a rotating paraboloid

Paraboloid

In mathematics, a paraboloid is a quadric surface of special kind. There are two kinds of paraboloids: elliptic and hyperbolic. The elliptic paraboloid is shaped like an oval cup and can have a maximum or minimum point....

aerial carried under a streamlined nose radome

Radome

A radome is a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a microwave or radar antenna. The radome is constructed of material that minimally attenuates the electromagnetic signal transmitted or received by the antenna. In other words, the radome is transparent to radar or radio waves...

. Airborne Interception radar progressed from the initial AI Mk I version to the AI Mk 24 Foxhunter used in the Panavia Tornado

Panavia Tornado

The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing combat aircraft, which was jointly developed and manufactured by the United Kingdom, West Germany and Italy...

.

Parallel work was carried out on Air-to-Surface-Vessel (ASV) types for use by Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command

RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force . Founded in 1936, it was the RAF's premier maritime arm, after the Royal Navy's secondment of the Fleet Air Arm in 1937. Naval aviation was neglected in the inter-war period, 1919–1939, and as a consequence the service did not receive...

aircraft for hunting U-boat

U-boat

U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...

s at sea, initially using the Lockheed Hudson

Lockheed Hudson

The Lockheed Hudson was an American-built light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft built initially for the Royal Air Force shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War and primarily operated by the RAF thereafter...

equipped with an early version of ASV. Success with the new equipment led to the fitment to Vickers Wellington

Vickers Wellington

The Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...

s and Short Sunderland

Short Sunderland

The Short S.25 Sunderland was a British flying boat patrol bomber developed for the Royal Air Force by Short Brothers. It took its service name from the town and port of Sunderland in northeast England....

s, the early metric-wavelength ASV-equipped types carrying an array of transmitting and receiving aerials on the rear fuselage top and sides and under the wings. Later a version of the centimetric-wavelength H2S was used. ASV-equipped aircraft such as the Wellington, Sunderland, Catalina and Liberator, were to make a substantial contribution to winning the Battle of the Atlantic for the Allies. ASV-equipped Fairey Swordfish

Fairey Swordfish

The Fairey Swordfish was a torpedo bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company and used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during the Second World War...

and Fairey Barracuda

Fairey Barracuda

The Fairey Barracuda was a British carrier-borne torpedo- and dive bomber used during the Second World War, the first of its type used by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm to be fabricated entirely from metal. It was introduced as a replacement for the Fairey Swordfish and Fairey Albacore biplanes...

s were carried onboard aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

s, the Swordfish being flown from the smaller escort carriers where they formed a valuable anti-submarine presence when used over the numerous North Atlantic convoys.

The H2S radar

H2S radar

H2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was developed in Britain in World War II for the Royal Air Force and was used in various RAF bomber aircraft from 1943 to the 1990s. It was designed to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing...

used the newly developed cavity magnetron

Cavity magnetron

The cavity magnetron is a high-powered vacuum tube that generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field. The 'resonant' cavity magnetron variant of the earlier magnetron tube was invented by John Randall and Harry Boot in 1940 at the University of...

. It was carried by RAF bomber

RAF Bomber Command

RAF Bomber Command controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s stood at the peak of its postwar military power with the V bombers and a supplemental...

s to identify ground targets for night and all-weather bombing. Initial trials were with a Handley Page Halifax

Handley Page Halifax

The Handley Page Halifax was one of the British front-line, four-engined heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. A contemporary of the famous Avro Lancaster, the Halifax remained in service until the end of the war, performing a variety of duties in addition to bombing...

and despite setbacks the equipment later became a standard fitting on Halifaxes, Short Stirling

Short Stirling

The Short Stirling was the first four-engined British heavy bomber of the Second World War. The Stirling was designed and built by Short Brothers to an Air Ministry specification from 1936, and entered service in 1941...

s and Avro Lancaster

Avro Lancaster

The Avro Lancaster is a British four-engined Second World War heavy bomber made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force . It first saw active service in 1942, and together with the Handley Page Halifax it was one of the main heavy bombers of the RAF, the RCAF, and squadrons from other...

s. It was also fitted to the post-war Vickers Valiant

Vickers Valiant

The Vickers-Armstrongs Valiant was a British four-jet bomber, once part of the Royal Air Force's V bomber nuclear force in the 1950s and 1960s...

, Avro Vulcan

Avro Vulcan

The Avro Vulcan, sometimes referred to as the Hawker Siddeley Vulcan, was a jet-powered delta wing strategic bomber, operated by the Royal Air Force from 1956 until 1984. Aircraft manufacturer A V Roe & Co designed the Vulcan in response to Specification B.35/46. Of the three V bombers produced,...

, Handley Page Victor

Handley Page Victor

The Handley Page Victor was a British jet bomber aircraft produced by the Handley Page Aircraft Company during the Cold War. It was the third and final of the V-bombers that provided Britain's nuclear deterrent. The other two V-bombers were the Avro Vulcan and the Vickers Valiant. Some aircraft...

, and bomber versions of the English Electric Canberra

English Electric Canberra

The English Electric Canberra is a first-generation jet-powered light bomber manufactured in large numbers through the 1950s. The Canberra could fly at a higher altitude than any other bomber through the 1950s and set a world altitude record of 70,310 ft in 1957...

. H2S in its final form of H2S Mk 9 was still being used on Vulcans as late as the 1982 Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

. C. E. Wynn-Williams worked on these navigational radars, but was transferred to cryptographic work at Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...

.

The Oboe

Oboe (navigation)

Oboe was a British aerial blind bombing targeting system in World War II, based on radio transponder technology. Oboe accurately measured the distance to an aircraft, and gave the pilot guidance on whether or not they were flying along a pre-selected circular route. The route was only 35 yards...

blind bombing system was designed and developed by Frank Jones

Francis Jones (physicist)

Francis "Frank" Edgar Jones, FRS, MBE was a British physicist who co-developed the OBOE blind bombing system.He was born in Wolverhampton, the son of a teacher...

at TRE in collaboration with Alec Reeves

Alec Reeves

Alec Harley Reeves, CBE was a British scientist best known for his invention of pulse-code modulation . He was awarded 82 patents.-Early life:...

at the Royal Aircraft Establishment

Royal Aircraft Establishment

The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...

. Oboe was fitted to high-flying Pathfinder

Pathfinder (RAF)

The Pathfinders were elite squadrons in RAF Bomber Command during World War II. They located and marked targets with flares, which a main bomber force could aim at, increasing the accuracy of their bombing...

Mosquitoes.

The Automatic Gun-Laying Turret (AGLT) was an airborne radar used in bombers by the gunners against attack by fighter planes. It was designed by Philip Dee

Philip Dee

Philip Ivor Dee was a British physicist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1941 and won its Hughes Medal in 1952...

and developed by Alan Hodgkin

Alan Lloyd Hodgkin

Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, OM, KBE, PRS was a British physiologist and biophysicist, who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles....

. The device allowed a turret gunner to fire at and hit a target without ever needing to see it. Known by the codename 'Village Inn', the AGLT was installed in a number of Lancasters and Halifaxes and used operationally during the war, and was also fitted on some post-war Avro Lincoln

Avro Lincoln

The Avro Type 694, better known as the Avro Lincoln, was a British four-engined heavy bomber, which first flew on 9 June 1944. Developed from the Avro Lancaster, the first Lincoln variants were known initially as the Lancaster IV and V, but were renamed Lincoln I and II...

s.

Radar trainers were designed and developed by Geoffrey Dummer

Geoffrey Dummer

Geoffrey William Arnold Dummer, MBE , C.Eng., IEE Premium Award, FIEEE, MIEE, USA Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm was a British electronics engineer and consultant who is credited as being the first person to conceptualise and build a prototype of the integrated circuit, commonly called the...

.

The priority that Winston Churchill placed on the development and deployment of radar is described by Sir Bernard Lovell: Every day [Sir Robert Renwick

Robert Renwick, 1st Baron Renwick

Robert Burnham Renwick, 1st Baron Renwick, KBE , known as Sir Robert Renwick, 2nd Baronet, from 1932 to 1964, was a British industrialist and public servant....

] would phone [Lovell] or Dee, asking "any news, any problems" [and these would be] dealt with by Renwick's immediate access to Churchill.

Other work

Radar jamming was developed by Robert Cockburn. The resulting devices, such as Mandrel, Carpet, Piperack, and Jostle, were carried or used by aircraft of No. 100 Group RAF

No. 100 Group RAF

for radio countermeasures and ECM purposes to combat the increasing German night fighter force then opposing the RAF night attacks on Germany.

Cathode ray tubes, for radar display, and a variety of electronic components were developed under direction of Geoffrey Dummer

Geoffrey Dummer

.

Flight simulators were developed by A.M. Uttley.

Electronic computer systems were developed by Philip Woodward

Philip Woodward

Philip Woodward is a British mathematician, radar engineer and horologist. He has achieved notable success in all three fields. Before retirement, he was a Deputy Chief Scientific Officer at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence in Malvern,...

.

In 1942 the staffing level was about 2000 people; by 1945 increased electronics production had increased this number to around 3500 staff.

Successor organisations

TRE was combined with the Radar Research and Development Establishment in 1953 to form the Radar Research Establishment.

This was renamed the Royal Radar Establishment

Royal Radar Establishment

in 1957.

It became the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment

Royal Signals and Radar Establishment

The Royal Signals and Radar Establishment was a scientific research establishment within the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom, located primarily at Malvern in Worcestershire. It was formed in 1976 in an amalgamation of earlier research establishments including the Royal Radar Establishment...

in 1976 when the Army Signals Research and Development Establishment

Signals Research and Development Establishment

The Signals Research and Development Establishment was a British government military research establishment, based in Christchurch, Dorset from 1948 until it merged with the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, Worcestershire to form the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in 1980...

(SRDE) moved to Malvern.

It was made part of the Defence Research Agency

Defence Research Agency

The Defence Research Agency , was an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence from April 1991 until April 1995. At the time the DRA was Britain's largest science and technology organisation...

(DRA) in April 1991.

This was renamed Defence Evaluation and Research Agency

Defence Evaluation and Research Agency

The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency was a part of the UK Ministry of Defence until July 2, 2001. At the time it was the United Kingdom's largest science and technology organisation...

(DERA) in April 1995.

In July 2000 it was split into two entities comprising the private sector company QinetiQ

QinetiQ

Qinetiq is a British global defence technology company, formed from the greater part of the former UK government agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency , when it was split up in June 2001...

, and the wholly government owned Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).

Staff and their contributions

James Atkinson
James Atkinson (physicist)
James Robert Atkinson, MA, FInstP, FRSE, FRMetS, radar pioneer 1938-45, reader in Natural Philosophy at Glasgow University 1945-58, deputy-director of research at the nuclear establishment at Dounreay 1958-66, deputy-director of the British Shipping Research Association 1966-76, and deputy-director...

. Worked, at Malvern, on Cathode ray tubes, Chain Home
Chain Home
Chain Home was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the British before and during the Second World War. The system otherwise known as AMES Type 1 consisted of radar fixed on top of a radio tower mast, called a 'station' to provide long-range detection of...

stations, radar, super-refraction and infra-red detectors; later, at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

on nuclear photo-disintegration; and in administration at UKAEA
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of nuclear fusion power. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and was formerly chaired by Lady Barbara Judge CBE...

Dounreay
Dounreay
Dounreay is the site of several nuclear research establishments located on the north coast of Caithness, in the Highland area of Scotland...

, the British Ship Research Association and Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer....

.
C. E. Bellinger was one the people "all of whom achieved eminence in their respective fields".
Alan Blumlein
Alan Blumlein
Alan Dower Blumlein was a British electronics engineer, notable for his many inventions in telecommunications, sound recording, stereo, television and radar...

, electronics pioneer. Starting in 1924, he worked on telecommunications, sound recording, stereo and television at EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

. At Malvern, he developed the line type pulse modulator, a key element of the H2S airborne radar, vital to bombing missions. He died in the crash of a test flight.
Henry G. Booker, radio-physicist. From 1933 until World War II he worked in the radio-physics group at the Cavendish Laboratory
Cavendish Laboratory
The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the university's School of Physical Sciences. It was opened in 1874 as a teaching laboratory....

of Cambridge University with J. A. Ratcliffe
J. A. Ratcliffe
John Ashworth Ratcliffe, FRS , "JAR or Jack", was an influential British radio physicist....

on magneto-ionic theory of radio wave propagation in the atmosphere. At Malvern, Booker was in charge of theoretical research, covering antennas, electromagnetic wave propagation, and radar systems. After World War II, he taught mathematics at the University of Cambridge, until joining Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

in 1948. In 1965 he moved to the University of California at San Diego. The International Union of Radio Science named a Fellowship in his honour. His publications include four books.
B. V. Bowden, worked on radar. Later, he became Baron Bowden, of Chesterfield in the County of Derbyshire, Minister for Education and Science in 1964 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,
E. G. ("Taffy") Bowen
Edward George Bowen
Edward George 'Taffy' Bowen, CBE, FRS was a British physicist who made a major contribution to the development of radar, and so helped win both the Battle of Britain and the Battle of the Atlantic...

(later FRS, CBE) Member of team at Orfordness who, by 1935, had developed the radar that first detected an aircraft. This led to the Chain Home
Chain Home
Chain Home was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the British before and during the Second World War. The system otherwise known as AMES Type 1 consisted of radar fixed on top of a radio tower mast, called a 'station' to provide long-range detection of...

ground based radar. At Bawdsey, he began development of airborne radar. In 1940 he went to the U.S. with the Tizard Mission
Tizard Mission
The Tizard Mission officially the British Technical and Scientific Mission was a British delegation that visited the United States during the Second World War in order to obtain the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of the research and development work completed by the UK up...

. In 1943 he joined the CSIRO in Australia.
R. P. Chasmar, co-author of definitive text The Detection and Measurement of Infra-red Radiation, Clarendon Press, 1960 and, for many years, Head of the infra-red group at RRE.
Robert Cockburn, electronics engineer. He directed the development of radar jamming systems (counter measures) code named Window and widely known as Chaff. An obituarydescribes this work as "a main contributor to the reduction of civilian [air raid]casualties ... and [bomber] losses". He is in a group photograph. Later, he was knighted.
Joan Curran
Joan Curran
Lady Joan Strothers Curran was a Welsh scientist. She and her husband, Sir Samuel Curran, played important roles in the defense of the allied forces of World War II.-Biography:...

, invented the Window ( Chaff) radio countermeasure system. As Samuel Curran's wife, she became Lady Joan Curran. She also went to the Manhattan project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

when he did.
Samuel Curran
Samuel Curran
Sir Samuel Crowe Curran , FRS, FRSE, was a physicist and the first Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Strathclyde - the first of the new technical universities in Britain....

, worked on radar at TRE, joined the Manhattan project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...

in 1944, where he invented the scintillation counter
Scintillation counter
A scintillation counter measures ionizing radiation. The sensor, called a scintillator, consists of a transparent crystal, usually phosphor, plastic , or organic liquid that fluoresces when struck by ionizing radiation. A sensitive photomultiplier tube measures the light from the crystal...

, then the United Kingdom Atomic energy authority
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of nuclear fusion power. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and was formerly chaired by Lady Barbara Judge CBE...

where he invented the proportional counter
Proportional counter
A proportional counter is a measurement device to count particles of ionizing radiation and measure their energy.A proportional counter is a type of gaseous ionization detector. Its operation is similar to that of a Geiger-Müller counter, but uses a lower operating voltage. An inert gas is used to...

, then became Vice Chancellor of the Royal College of Science and Technology
Royal College of Science and Technology
The Royal College of Science and Technology, situated at 138 George Street in Glasgow, Scotland was the principal predecessor institution of the University of Strathclyde, and now serves as one of the main educational buildings of the campus.-History:...

and led it to become the University of Strathclyde
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...

. He was knighted.
Philip Dee
Philip Dee
Philip Ivor Dee was a British physicist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1941 and won its Hughes Medal in 1952...

designed the Automatic Gun-Laying Turret, known by the code name Village Inn,
Robert J. Dippy, electronic engineer, who was a pioneer of radio navigation. He developed and devised GEE
GEE (navigation)
Gee was the code name given to a radio navigation system used by the Royal Air Force during World War II.Different sources record the name as GEE or Gee. The naming supposedly comes from "Grid", so the lower case form is more correct, and is the form used in Drippy's publications. See Drippy 1946....

and Loran
LORAN
LORAN is a terrestrial radio navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters in multiple deployment to determine the location and speed of the receiver....

-A of major importance in D-day invasion
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...

. He received the Pioneer Award
Pioneer Award Aviation
The Pioneer Award is selected by the . It has beengiven annually since 1949. is awarded to an individual or team for “contributions significant to bringing into systems fall that within the specific areas of interest of IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society"...

of the IEEE in 1966 for hyperbolic radio navigation.
G. W. A. Dummer
Geoffrey Dummer
Geoffrey William Arnold Dummer, MBE , C.Eng., IEE Premium Award, FIEEE, MIEE, USA Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm was a British electronics engineer and consultant who is credited as being the first person to conceptualise and build a prototype of the integrated circuit, commonly called the...

, electronics engineer. He developed the plan position indicator
Plan position indicator
The plan position indicator , is the most common type of radar display. The radar antenna is usually represented in the center of the display, so the distance from it and height above ground can be drawn as concentric circles...

radar display. As head of Synthetic Trainer Design Group, he was responsible for the design, manufacture, installation and servicing of over 70 types of radar training equipment during World War II. In 1944, he became Divisional Leader of the Physical and Tropical Testing Laboratories and the Component Group, that had responsibility for outside contracts. Later, he was one of the innovators of integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

s. For his further work see Royal Radar Establishment
Royal Radar Establishment
The name Royal Radar Establishment was given to the existing Radar Research Establishment following a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Both names were abbreviated to RRE. The establishment had been formed, under its first name, in 1953 by merging the Telecommunications Research Establishment ...

and his personal article.
A. F. Gibson, Head of Transistor
Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...

Group at RRE, later Head of Laser Division of Rutherford Laboratory.
Antony Hewish
Antony Hewish
Antony Hewish FRS is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his work on the development of radio aperture synthesis and its role in the discovery of pulsars...

, physicist and radio astronomer. He worked with Martin Ryle
Martin Ryle
Sir Martin Ryle was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources...

at TRE on the design of antennas for airborne radar during World War II. In 1984, they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...

.
Alan Hodgkin
Alan Lloyd Hodgkin
Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, OM, KBE, PRS was a British physiologist and biophysicist, who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Huxley and John Eccles....

was primarily a physiologist and biophysicist, who worked on the Automatic Gun-Laying Turret and later won a Nobel Prize and was knighted,
"Frank" Jones
Francis Jones (physicist)
Francis "Frank" Edgar Jones, FRS, MBE was a British physicist who co-developed the OBOE blind bombing system.He was born in Wolverhampton, the son of a teacher...

(Francis Edgar Jones, later FRS, MBE), worked with Alec Reeves
Alec Reeves
Alec Harley Reeves, CBE was a British scientist best known for his invention of pulse-code modulation . He was awarded 82 patents.-Early life:...

at the Royal Aircraft Establishment
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...

to design and develop the Oboe
Oboe (navigation)
Oboe was a British aerial blind bombing targeting system in World War II, based on radio transponder technology. Oboe accurately measured the distance to an aircraft, and gave the pilot guidance on whether or not they were flying along a pre-selected circular route. The route was only 35 yards...

blind bombing system,
Tom Kilburn
Tom Kilburn
Tom Kilburn CBE, FRS was an English engineer. With Freddie Williams he worked on the Williams Tube and the world's first stored-program computer, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine , while working at the University of Manchester.-Computer engineering:Kilburn was born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and...

worked with Freddy Williams
Frederic Calland Williams
Sir Frederic Calland Williams CBE, FRS , known as 'Freddie Williams', was an English engineer....

on radar at TRE during the war. He then went to the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...

where he was a pioneer of computer hardware, both he and Williams being involved in the design of the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine "Baby".
Sir Bernard Lovell
Bernard Lovell
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.-Early Life:...

, led the H2S
H2S radar
H2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was developed in Britain in World War II for the Royal Air Force and was used in various RAF bomber aircraft from 1943 to the 1990s. It was designed to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing...

development team and was later responsible for the building of the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank
Jodrell Bank
The Jodrell Bank Observatory is a British observatory that hosts a number of radio telescopes, and is part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester...

.
G. G. MacFarlane, later knighted
T. S. Moss, author of definitive monographs Photoconductivity of the elements and Optical Properties of semiconductors,
W H (Bill) Penley, compiler of archives on early history of radar
John Pinkerton
John Pinkerton (computer designer)
John Maurice McClean Pinkerton was a pioneering British computer designer. Along with David Caminer, he designed England's first business computer, the LEO computer, produced by J. Lyons and Co in 1951.,-Personal life:...

, later developed Leo computer at the Lyons
J. Lyons and Co.
J. Lyons & Co. was a market-dominant British restaurant-chain, food-manufacturing, and hotel conglomerate founded in 1887 as a spin-off from the Salmon & Gluckstein tobacco company....

company,
A. P. ("Jimmy") Rowe
Albert Percival Rowe
Albert Percival Rowe was a British physicist and senior research administrator who had a major role in the development of Radar before and during World War II....

, physicist. He was a leader in the development of British radar from its inception, starting in 1934, when he was appointed secretary of the Tizard Committee, He succeeded Robert Watson-Watt
Robert Watson-Watt
Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar". Development of radar, initially nameless, was first started elsewhere but greatly expanded on 1 September 1936 when Watson-Watt became...

as Superintendent of the Bawdsey Research Station, and directed the renamed Telecommunications Research Establishment when it moved to Malvern. After the war, he was appointed first scientific advisor to the government of Australia, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide. A pioneer of Operational Research.
Robert Allan Smith later Professor of Physics at University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...

, Director of the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer....

.
Martin Ryle
Martin Ryle
Sir Martin Ryle was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources...

, physicist and radio astronomer. He worked at the Telecommunications Research Establishment on the design of antennas for airborne radar during the war. Later, he was knighted in 1966, was Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal
Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....

1978-1982, and shared the Nobel Prize Physics with Antony Hewish
Antony Hewish
Antony Hewish FRS is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his work on the development of radio aperture synthesis and its role in the discovery of pulsars...

in 1984.
Joshua Sieger
Joshua Sieger
Joshua Sieger was an English scientist and engineer.- Biography :Born to an era that saw the birth of radio, television and modern communications, Joshua Sieger, the founder of the gas detection brand J&S Sieger , was not only the father of modern gas detection but a pioneer of diverse...

, electronics engineer. At Worth Matravers, he designed large-screen displays of radar signals, arranging further components to triangulate a target. At other times, he made many contributions to electronics and communications technology.
A.M. Uttley, designed an Airborne Interception (AI) radar trainer for night fighter
Night fighter
A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility...

crews
F. C. Williams
Frederic Calland Williams
Sir Frederic Calland Williams CBE, FRS , known as 'Freddie Williams', was an English engineer....

(Freddy), engineer. He worked on radar and servomechanism
Servomechanism
thumb|right|200px|Industrial servomotorThe grey/green cylinder is the [[Brush |brush-type]] [[DC motor]]. The black section at the bottom contains the [[Epicyclic gearing|planetary]] [[Reduction drive|reduction gear]], and the black object on top of the motor is the optical [[rotary encoder]] for...

s at TRE during the war. He then moved to the University of Manchester, where he was a pioneer of computer hardware. He was knighted and became an FRS.
Philip Woodward
Philip Woodward
Philip Woodward is a British mathematician, radar engineer and horologist. He has achieved notable success in all three fields. Before retirement, he was a Deputy Chief Scientific Officer at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence in Malvern,...

, mathematician, pioneered the application of probability theory to the filtering of radar signals. After the name change to RRE, he wrote a monograph on the topic. His early results included the Woodward Ambiguity Function, "the standard tool for waveform and matched filter analysis".
C. E. Wynn-Williams
Charles Wynn-Williams
-Early life and studies:He was the elder child of William Williams, a physics teacher and later divisional inspector of schools for north and mid-Wales. His mother was Mary Ellen Wynn, known as Nell, daughter of Robert Wynn, a shopkeeper at Llanrwst. Liberal in politics and a fluent Welsh speaker,...

worked on navigational radar briefly, and was transferred to cryptographic work at Bletchley Park.

Leslie Treloar
LRG Treloar
Professor L. R. G. Treloar, OBE was a leading figure in the science of rubber and elasticity, and author of a number of influential texts....

, rheologist and expert on rubber, and Maurice Wilkes, creator of the EDSAC
EDSAC
Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England...

computer and inventor of microprogramming, worked at TRE briefly during World War II.

Hundreds of other staff members made direct and support contributions to the projects that have been mentioned and to other work of TRE. Many are listed, under the respective group names, by Penley.

External links

TRE History, Penley Radar Archives
Purbeck Radar ~ Early Radar Development in the UK Origin of TRE in Purbeck, Dorset.
Radar Recollections 1934 - 1944, Centre for the History of Defence Electronics, Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...
EKCO WW II ASV radar units
The story of RADAR Development
The Radar Pages - All you ever wanted to know about British WWII and Cold War air defence radar

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Radio navigation

Radio jamming

Radar

Other work

Successor organisations

Staff and their contributions

See also

External links