Hello Stanmore. Dover Calling. New Raid

Report by Philip G4GHZ

On Sunday 3 November, the Radio society of Harrow was very pleased to welcome Sharon Ward, who delivered an excellent talk to entitled “Hello Stanmore. Dover Calling. New Raid”, about the combined work of radar operators and Special Duties Filter Room personnel, who gave RAF Fighter Command at Bentley Priory early warning of approaching enemy raids during the Battle of Britain.

These early radar systems had been put in place to protect the UK during World War II and Sharon analysed and described how information from those stations was handled and verified at HQ 11 Group RAF Bentley Priory.

Sharon, a guide at the Bentley Priory Museum, has conducted research into this topic for some ten years, including going through historical documents at the National Archives, and her findings were presented during this talk. In particular, these included detailed explanations of the work of early radar operators which involved looking at oscilloscope-like pulse traces and human interpretation of the width and depth of pulses displayed to estimate the size of enemy aircraft formations approaching the UK. This was illustrated not only by diagrams but actual archive film clips of radar traces.

Sharon went on to explain in detail how the reported radar returns were assessed and filtered at Bentley Priory, allowing fighter aircraft to be scrambled from airfields in the South East. The findings of Sharon's research also covered technical details of the chain of radar stations then around the UK.

The audience was very impressed with both Sharon's knowledge of the subject and how that was presented, based on comments made immediately after her talk.