Latest Meeting Report:

Meeting Report of the Ipswich and District Historical Transport Society on April 29th 2026.

A total of 60 members and visitors attended our April meeting.

The subject of the talk at this meeting was: RAF Bawdsey Radar ‘The Eyes of the Few’ - Presented by Graham Murchie.

Graham began by asking the question: Why Radar?

In World War One, for the first time, the east coast and London came under attack from the air. On one night London was bombed, 162 people were killed and 432 were injured. All the flimsy German bombers returned to their home airfields totally unscathed. This brought home to the government of the day how vulnerable we were from this new threat.

After the war in 1932, Stanley Baldwin made the statement that the bomber always got through. This situation could not continue, particularly as Germany had begun to rise again and were re-arming themselves.

The first attempt to try to detect attacking bombers at an early stage involved magnifying the sound they made as they approached. Concrete lenses were built at Dover and microphones were placed at the foci of these lenses. Tests were made using approaching aircraft. This arrangement was unsatisfactory and at one point a loud noise was heard, which turned out to be the sound of bottles rattling on a nearby milk float. This less-than-satisfactory outcome led the Air Ministry to investigate the idea of radio ‘death rays’ which would eliminate or disable pilots and their aircraft. The Air Ministry even offered £1000 to anyone who could design a system which would kill a sheep at a range of 100 yards!

The Scots physicist Robert Watson-Watt, supervisor of a national radio research laboratory was contacted and asked for his views.

Watson-Watt dismissed the idea of death rays but said that radio beams could be bounced off enemy aircraft to detect them. He asked his assistant, Arnold “Skip” Wilkins, to undertake calculations to demonstrate the feasibility of ‘aircraft detection by radio waves’.

With the calculations in place, he drew up a memo and covering letter outlining his ideas. Although it was met with enthusiasm, proof that the system could work was demanded. It must have been a great relief to all sheep, however.

Tests were made near Daventry using radio equipment in an old ambulance. A Handley Page Heyford bomber flew back and forth over the test area and Wilkins noted a distortion of the signal on his screen indicating the presence of the aircraft overhead.

In May 1935 Watson-Watt, Wilkins and a small team of scientists moved to Orford Ness to conduct a series of historic experiments over the sea that would lead to the world’s first working ‘RADAR’ system. It soon became apparent that Orford Ness was inadequate for further research and the Bawdsey Manor Estate was purchased for £24,000.

The system was capable of detecting aircraft 40 miles away but by 1939 this had risen to 100 miles. To work; it required a 360-foot-high transmitter tower and a 240-foot-high receiver mast. Bawdsey was the first of the so-called Chain Home Radar Stations. By the outbreak of war, a chain of radar stations was in place around the coast of Britain. In order to operate effectively and have the ability to advise our interceptor aircraft; the radar data gathered was fed to a central point at Bentley Priory near London. At the helm there was Air Chief Marshal Dowding as Air Officer Commanding Fighting Area, Air Defence of Great Britain. He worked closely with Keith Park (the so-called defender of London) to build the system. It was found that women operators working the radar screens were better than men at the job.

Secrecy was paramount and this is underlined by Avis Parsons. She was a radar operator awarded the Military Medal for staying at her post when under attack by Stuka dive bombers. When receiving her medal; she told the King that she was a telephone operator – secrets are secrets!

The invention of the cavity magneton revolutionised radar detection by generating microwaves and allowed much smaller radar equipment to be made and installed in aircraft.

In 1939, Bawdsey ceased to be a research station and became a key radar operational station. Radar and the bravery of our airmen were vital in the winning of the Battle of Britain.

Bawdsey was used as an RAF base through the Cold War until the 1990s when the Bloodhound Missile was the last ‘tenant’ on this base.

On 31st May 1990 the Bloodhound force ceased operations and in June all the missiles were withdrawn to RAF West Raynham. The RAF Ensign was lowered for the last time on the 25th March 1991 and the station closed on the 31st March. Sadly, the last of the giant transmitter masts came down in 2000 and now only the concrete bases remain.

The Transmitter Block at Bawdsey is recognised as a Grade II* listed structure.

Graham ended by taking many questions from the fully engaged audience. He received thanks from our Chairman and warm applause from the floor for an interesting talk from a very knowledgeable speaker.

Mervyn Russen

Graham Murchie (With his permission).

Robert Watson-Watt (In the public domain).

Handley Page Heyford, the type used in the first radar trials (In the public domain).

Bawdsey Manor at the mouth of the River Deben opposite Felixstowe Ferry (By permission of Graham Murchie)

Chain Home transmitter tower at Stenigot (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 licence).

Chain Home receive site– the majority of the operators were members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) - (By permission of Graham Murchie).

The Cavity Magnetron was developed at the University of Birmingham in 1940 and made a step change in how radar was used. The Cavity Magnetron is still in use today powering Microwave Ovens (By permission of Graham Murchie).