The man who developed radar

Telegraph:

"Ned" Fennessy joined the Air Ministry research establishment at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk in 1938. The work there was led by Robert (later Sir Robert) Watson-Watt, who had patented the first British "radio detection" technology three years earlier.

Fennessy played a part in the development of this system – later called radar as an acronym for "radio detection and ranging" – and the planning of a network of early-warning coastal "Chain Home" stations which were to play a crucial role in the Battle of Britain.

On September 29 1938, when war was thought to be imminent, Fennessy had driven through the night from Bawdsey to HQ Fighter Command at Bentley Priory to install the RAF's first radar operations room. But it was serviced by only five stations, and would have been, in his view, "quite inadequate" to its defensive purpose.

It was Chamberlain's negotiation of the Munich agreement that same day which bought sufficient time for the Chain Home network to be extended to 18 stations, giving Fighter Command a significant advantage in the air battle of 1940.

...

There is much more.

Unfortunately, Chamberlain was not buying time for the development of radar, but thought he was a real peace maker. The radar technology allowed the Brits to launch their fighters as the German planes were flying over the English Channel. It gave them a chance to have their "finest hour."

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