From: "Warren Mann" <whcmann@optusnet.com.au>
Date: 17 January 2009 9:02:09 AM AEDT
To: "'George Stevens'" <gws@pacific.net.au>
Subject: RE: ShD radar
Reply-To: <whcmann@optusnet.com.au>

Greetings, George,
 
Great to hear from you, and best wishes for 2009 to you and yours.
 
I have done some redrafting of the screed you attached, to correct and clarify it, and attach a copy. I have not, of course, been able to comment on the matters affecting Army and Navy equipment, though there is some information (not always strictly accurate) in W F Evans: History of the Radiophysics Advisory Board, 1939 – 1945, published by CSIRO in 1974. Neither have I been able to confirm the date of the installation of ShD equipment at Dover Heights, though the version modified for warning against air raids was operated by the Army, probably from very early in January 1942, and remained operational for about six months by which time other cover was available through the RAAF. I have no information as to how many ShD sets were used by the Army or where they were deployed.
 
I hope this information will be of some use to you. I am working to post a copy to our website ( www.radarreturns.net.au ) sometime soon of a publication prepared by Ed Simmonds entitled (we think!) A Short History of RAAF Ground Radar in World War II, which will cover some of the ground implicit in your query and could be of interest. In the meantime, if you haven’t already seen it, you may find interest in An Account of the Development and Use of Radar in the Royal Australian Air Force by W/Cdr George Pither, wartime Director of Radar, which is already in the Archive section of the website. Pither must have been much the most under-ranked man in the Air Force, given the extent of the organisation he set up and controlled , his outstanding success in doing so, and the significance of RAAF radar in the war effort. But he didn’t suffer fools gladly, and there were plenty of them in the upper echelons of the Service!
 
Kind regards,
 
Warren
 
From: George Stevens [mailto:gws@pacific.net.au]  Sent: Wednesday, 14 January 2009 4:19 PM To: Warren Mann Subject: ShD radar
 
Hi Warren, and a happy new year to you. Mate, what do you recall of an early radar set ShD, allegedly developed by John Piddington for the Army? The first is believed to have been installed at Dover Heights (North Head Sydney) in September 1941. Subsequently another 16 were installed around Australia - precisely where I don't know.
 
I am attaching a Word file "Australia (New Writeup) doc.", and would appreciate having any comments you care to make. Cheers. George Stevens
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