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View Full Version : Airborne Radar & Leigh Lights


Gargamel
02-03-11, 09:33 PM
January 2, 1941. 1730

I'm just south of Reykjavik, AE77, it's night, and suddenly I get jumped by a Catalina. I pause for a second, thinking it can't see us from the skies, but after a few moments pondering, I crash dive, those suckers pack a good punch.

But suddenly! It's daylight on the bridge! Oh Noes! They have spot lights!

I though it was too early for airborne radar in Jan '41? And the Leigh light wasn't in production until late '41/'42?

EDIT: Sorry, misread my info. They had some expiremental Radar sets in use by the end of '40. Not '41. My bad. So GWX'rs, how is this modeled in game? DO all planes have radar now, or is it only a random handful?

EDIT2: Leigh question still stands though, It was 'invented' in Oct 1940, yet it took 18 months or so to be deployed.

Sailor Steve
02-03-11, 10:37 PM
Earliest airborne ASW radar was installed in RAF Hudsons in January 1940. On the other hand by October there were only 57 in operation (that is if the original 12 Mk I sets were still around), and by mid-1941 only half of Coastal Command had them. I don't think the game lets a modder be that precise.
http://www.exreps.com/Trojan/Development%20of%20Early%20Airborne%20Radar%2020%2 0Dec%2006.pdf

It looks like you're right about the Leigh Lights as well. The first one was tested in March 1941.
http://www.uboat.net/allies/technical/leigh_light.htm

danexpat
02-04-11, 10:15 AM
IIRC, the GWX 3.0 manual mentions Leigh lights and says that they had to accept a little ahistorical dating, presumably since the lights coding had to be linked to a particular aircraft model that was available from the start of the war.

Jimbuna
02-05-11, 07:08 AM
Yes that was pretty much the case.