Canadians in Radar
A Collaborative Oral History of World War II Veterans
proudly presented by
The Secrets of Radar Museum
Honourable Efforts: The Value of Radar
Radar technology and the service of radar personnel was crucial to the war effort, but their story was left out of the history books due to the Official Secrets Act. Radar technology was an important contribution to the allied defensive system that prevented an incalculable loss of life and resources. Radar personnel worked tirelessly from behind the scenes, protecting top secret information for over fifty years after the war.
Joseph Lesley Brown
Joseph Lesley Brown: Buzz bombs were easy to shoot down, just an awful lot of them. We used to put a little swastika up on the board every time we had helped. And when we had a hundred, we all went off one day to a local pub. This had to be celebrated, which we did.
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Donald Harrett
Donald Harrett: But radar was important. It was radar that helped identify the aircraft coming into Britain. Radar … we put radar on our fighter planes, to search, follow the enemy bombers through the dark, through the clouds. We were so successful that after a few months of bombing Hitler found out he couldn’t afford to send the bombers over. So Churchill was able to say, “Never in the realm of human history has so much been owed by so many to so few.” Hitler had started out with over two thousand bombers. Britain had forty fighter planes when the war started. So you know it was a very few fighter planes that helped win that push of the war. Then we expanded the radar, we put radar on our ships so we could find a way through the dark, through the storms, through the … avoid the rocks, find a way through.
Edna Simpson
Interviewer: What was your favorite thing about being a radar operator specifically?
Edna Simpson: I think it was the feeling of fellowship and comradeship that we had together through working together on different shifts and so forth. And you know, we got to be very, very close. Yeah.
I: And did you really feel like you were making a difference?
ES: Yes, we did, but we didn’t realize at that time what difference we’d made because it was only later when they’d started telling about radar that they told what a difference it had made because actually radar was one of the reasons we won the Battle of Britain because they could get the planes out.
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Kenneth Wells
Interviewer: You said you joined because you wanted to do something worthwhile?
Kenneth Wells: That’s right.
I: And you thought you did.
KW: That’s right, the whole idea is… I was not of a mind that I wanted to… I had a taste of a battle course when I was in Eastborne. They sent me off, said, “You’re going over to France, you’ve got to learn a bit of close hand fighting, just in case.” I spent a week with the RAF regiment, which is the army part of the Air Force. There were security guards on our stations and so on. They put us through a week of drill, running everywhere, run to your meals, you run … we’d go on forced marches, we learned how to strip machines guns down, you’d learn how to throw grenades, you’d learn how to use a bayonet on a dummy. After a week of that, I was in great shape mind you. No, I’m glad I didn’t go in the army. I enjoyed my work, really, I did. I got a great sense of satisfaction.