RAF Mobile Signals Unit 5140 Q William Wortley LAC 1428270

Sky

There is a book that might be worth you reading
Code-Name 'Nelly'. British Radar Units on Walcheren and in Flanders. Defence of the Scheldt Estuary, December 1944 - May 1945. by Paul M Crucq: ADZ b.v., Vlissingen. The Netherlands 9789080785434 Hardcover - ADRIANABOOKS and also that provides another avenue for you to explore - Operation Infatuate

OPERATION INFATUATE - WALCHEREN
Operation Infatuate - Wikipedia

TD

PS - might also be worth using the search function of this site as there are veteran accounts of Wlacheren by those that were there - Joe Brown (sadly no longer with us) was there, so perhaps check out - Second World War Memoirs of JOE BROWN

 

21 Base Defence Sector units.

GCI units
On 25 July there were six GCI units listed. Three were full Ground Controlled Interception units with a control centre and trained GCI controllers. Three were Chain, Overseas, Low units which were similar but did not have the controllers. They acted as back up and as surveillance and reporting units.

On the west coast of the Cotentin Peninsular 15081 was the GCI unit which had controllers for night fighter interception. This was at Cartaret. 15074 was being set up at Les Pieux north of 15081. This was a Chain, Overseas, Low unit.

On the north coast there was a similar pair of units. 15072 was a GCI unit which had control room for night fighter interception. 15073 was a Chain, Overseas, Low unit.

On east coast 15082 was a GCI unit near Utah Beach. 14038 was an AMES Type 14 which should have worked with 15082. Its location is unknown.

A GCI unit could only handle one interception at a time so that the second unit was desirable to keep up a continuous surveillance and keep track of both enemy intruders and friendly interceptors awaiting their turn to be guided to a target. The difference between the two types of GCI unit was reduced by adding a Mobile Signals Unit Type ‘P’ to the Chain, Overseas, Low unit. This was a high power VHF set for communication with aircraft. The other three GCI units had these already as an organic part of the establishment.

Headquarters 21 Base Defence Sector was in the north east of the peninsular near Barfleur at reference 3627. The primary means of communication was by line. The laying, maintaining and operating the line communications was the responsibility of attached units of the army Air Formation Signals. They manned telephones and teleprinters at the line terminals and relayed signals traffic to RAF units. Wireless was used as a backup and for use until line could be laid.




The following are the basic types of MSU assigned to 21 Base Defence Sector. Only the actual wireless vehicles are listed here.

Mobile Signals Unit Type ’P’.
A two vehicle VHF ground to air set.
One vehicle Type 100 was an Austin K6 with a House Type body containing a VHF transmitter T1131. This was the standard transmitter for speaking to aircraft.
One vehicle Type 150 was an Austin K6 with a House Type body carrying a VHF Receiver R1342 and a TR1143 transceiver.
The transmitter could be operated from the receiver vehicle and the station operated as a relay between a controller on the ground and an aircraft. The vehicles could be some distance from the controller and linked by line.

Mobile Signals Unit Type ’J’.
One vehicle Type 383, a Bedford MW 15cwt with body type E. It carried cipher machines. When messages were sent and received by wireless they had to be sent in cipher. The exception was the ground to air communication since aircraft did not have cipher machines.

Mobile Signals Unit Type ‘C’.
Two vehicle Type 314, a Bedford MW 15cwt with body type E. This carried a twin channel low frequency transmitter.
Two vehicle Type 315, a Bedford MW 15cwt with body type E. This carried the corresponding receiver.
It was usual for a signals unit to man both ends of a communications channel so that typically one vehicle of each pair would be with the parent unit and the other vehicle with a subordinate unit.

Mike

 

Thanks Tricky D for the book recommendation. I would love to read it... haven't searched too far yet but it looks a little elusive one on the Internet at 150 pounds and one at 30 Euros in Dutch. However I will pursue for sure. And definitely will be checking out the site for Walcheren refs... hadn't occurred to me. Dah!!
Aileen

 

Hi Mike, You have given me so much information and I feel overwhelmed that you have taken so much trouble.
I find the info a lot to absorb but will eagerly follow up on it this weekend ( hopefully) and perhaps will be able to ask some related intelligent ( or not so!!) after that.
Right now the term that stands out that I do not understand is "Chain Overseas, Low Unit"
Please advise. I hope you are writing a book about these units?!
Thank you sincerely.
Aileen

 

Sky

Didn't check out the prices but they seem high - Abe books is £95 Code-Name 'Nelly'. British Radar Units on Walcheren and in Flanders. Defence of the Scheldt Estuary, December 1944 - May 1945. by Paul M Crucq: ADZ b.v., Vlissingen. The Netherlands 9789080785434 Hardcover - ADRIANABOOKS but then there does seem very few copies around

From another site which gives a little more info and another avenue to follow

Operation Calendar was put into effect to clear the Scheldt River and estuary of mines which concluded in 1944. Radar stations were then replaced to protect the newly liberated port from German counter assault.

The protection aspect would seem a very logical move as it did in Normandy (Trux's map)

There is some useful info here - OPERATION INFATUATE, WALCHEREN, LCT979,

I have to say that I have looked for more details of Op Calendar but so far have only found info regarding flying spitfires into Malta from a USS carrier, nothing on the Scheldt ???

TD

 

Chain, Overseas, Low or COL.

In the late 1930s Britain constructed a chain of early warning radar stations each using four massive 350 foot high transmitter towers and four 250 foot high receiver towers. These were called Chain Home. When it was found that aircraft flying at low level could not be detected a supplementary chain of stations was built for low level detection. This was called Chain, Home, Low. To fill in gaps or replace damaged stations a mobile radar station was developed and called Mobile Chain, Home, Low. For service on the Continent a simpler and more mobile unit was formed and called Chain, Overseas, Low.


Functions of 21 Base Defence Sector units.

GCI. Ground Control Interception. Aka Air Ministry Experimental Station Type 15.
The primary function was the guiding of night fighters in intercepting enemy aircraft. Night fighters were fitted with Air Interception radar which had a very short range. The GCI unit had to guide the night fighter to a position behind the enemy aircraft until the fighters own radar picked up the target.

To perform the interception task the GCI unit had a range of equipment.
Radar Type 15. This was a surveillance radar used to spot and track aircraft at some distance, up to 100 miles. It could identify friendly aircraft by using an IFF system. A transmitter on the Type 15 sent a signal and a transponder on the aircraft sent a reply. Once a target had been identified the approximate location was sent to Radars Type 13 and 14.
Radar Type 14 was a more precise tracking radar. It located the target and then followed it.
Radar Type 13 was a height finding radar. It also tracked the target and gave a continuous reading of its height.
Radar Type 11 was a less accurate surveillance radar used as a back up for Type 15. It used a different frequency so it could operate if the enemy jammed the Type 15.
Control vehicle which housed displays from the radars tracking the target and night fighter, and a controller who guided the fighter to the target.
A pair of vehicles with VHF wireless for communicating with the night fighter. The controller gave instructions until the night fighter announced that it had radar contact. The controller then remained silent but continued tracking and ready to return on air if the target was lost.


Chain, Overseas, Low.
The basic role and equipment of the Chain, Overseas, Low station was simpler. It used a Type 15 radar for surveillance and provided continuous cover whereas the GCI concentrated on a single target. Chain, Overseas, Low fed information to 21 Base Defence Sector plotting room which in turn fed information to 85 Group, 7 USAAF, Anti Aircraft control and to GCI units. The Type 15 could be backed up with a Type 11 and VHF communication with aircraft could be provided by a MSU Type ‘P’. These gave the Chain, Overseas, Low stations a limited ability to control interceptions.


Mobile Signals Unit Type Q.
This was the VHF Direction Finding unit. The directional VHF wireless receiver aerial could give a very accurate bearing for the source of a VHF transmission as used by aircraft. If two or more units could provide a bearing then the precise position of an aircraft could be plotted. Of course it depended on an aircraft transmitting which an enemy intruder was unlikely to do. The direction finding units were most often used to provide a location for friendly aircraft when the aircraft requested it. This might be to check on the aircrafts position before it entered the area, to track the aircraft as a backup to the radars, giving the aircraft a reference so it could plot its course home and to give a reference to Air Sea Rescue craft if an aircraft was in trouble.

With all the high tech equipment available it is interesting to note that when direction finding units reported an aircrafts bearings the position was plotted at 21 Base Defence Sector by using a plotting board with grid marked on it. The position of each Direction Finding unit was marked with a pin. Attached to the pin was a length of string. The strings from each unit were stretched across the board on the bearing given and where they intersected was the aircrafts position. Quick, simple, effective.

Good photos are difficult to find. Most available on the web are post war versions.

Use the search box at the top of the page and type Trux Models. This should show you a thread on Trux Models. Page 8, posts 152 and 153 have photos of models of most of these vehicles.

Mike

 

There was a previous thread about Nelly here, the link to a .pdf file referred to doesn't seem to work, I'm sure I printed it out some time ago so will have a look later.
Noel

 

Just sent a pic of the truck and a buddy taken by my Dad and two of the radar equipment.... sorry there are two of the same pic as I was just figuring it out.
Will reply to most recent threads later.
Aileen

 

Wrong beach but interesting all the same - A.M.E.S. Type 15 Mk 1 : The RAF at Omaha Beach

TD

 

Interesting pictures.

Another puzzle. The vehicle is clearly marked as a Type 105 VHF Direction Finding but is not a Commer. It seems to be an American 3/4 ton Dodge. I have not seen one in RAF service.

The radars are late German Wurzburgs which were the German equivalent of GCI.

Mike.

 

I have found and re-read the "Nelly" article I referred to earlier, it is an extract/précis of the book referred to b others. It mentions 15081 GCI being at De Hann, Belgium (where it seems to have acquired a "Coast Watch" radar) and the fact tat they sent men to Westkappelle Lighthouse to operate the radar installed there. it also mentions 5215 MSU type H (apparently one man) which remained with the radar and 50553 MSU and AMES 66001 also being involved with the defence of the Scheldt estuary.
Interestingly it also refers to Albacore and Swordfish biplanes still in use by the Royal Navy in 1945 because there slower speed made them ideal for attacking/shadowing E-oats and midget subs.
Anyone interested in a copy of the article (for research purposes only of course) will have to let me know their e-mail address because a scan will be too large to attach to a private conversation.
Noel

 

Noel,

I know little about Walcheren. I am still looking at the Cotentin Peninsular. I wild thought popped into my head. Our man went to Walcheren, he was given Commando badges, he was away from his unit because the diary later mentions him returning to it. I know that in other operations small piratical teams were tasked with seizing any interesting radar and signals equipment before it could be destroyed or looted. As far as I know 30 Commando was nowhere near at the time but there were other such groups.

Even wilder thought. Was this why he was wandering around the Cotentin Peninsular.

Mike.

 

From - OPERATION INFATUATE, WALCHEREN, LCT979,

On the 1st of November 1944 at Westkapelle a technical officer of the RAF landed. His mission was to find out if the (Westkapelle) lighthouse was suitable for the installation of "NELLY" the codename of a portable, experimental plane radar especially developed for this aim. At the beginning of December "Nelly" came to Westkapelle and was raised at the lighthouse till June 1945. The project was shrouded in the greatest secrecy and that is the reason why "Nelly" has never been mentioned before in Walcheren history.


Could it have been to track V2's - V1's by this time were old hat and there wasn't much left of the luftwaffe so what other reason would they need ariel radar ??

TD

4 Commando and SAS were there

 

Nelly was an Air to Air interception radar adapted to be used to track E-Boats & submarines (on the surface) moving in to attack convoys heading for Antwerp [according to the article]. The lighthouse could not accommodate the larger land based radar and the surrounding land was too low to be suitable for it.

 

Hello Tricky D, Neil and Mike,
You fellows are as they say over here, "something else". Your knowledge is amazing and your willingness to share it so much appreciated.
Mike , thank you for your lengthy explanation of radar... and as to the pictures, they were amongst several my father gave to one of my nephews. I assumed the radar equipment was Q's but obviously know nothing about it. I have emailed my nephew to see if there was any explanation that went with the handing over of the pics. Will let you know.
As to the "commando badges" ... I am not 100% sure they were issued... it is just that one cryptic phrase in his diary about them.. but nearly everything in his diary was terse with no detail. When he knew they were going to Walcheren.. he was obviously thinking he might not come back because before they left he sent an extra twenty pounds to my Mum which was quite a lot in those days!!
I have been rereading every thing I have bookmarked for the last two years trying to glean bits of info about him in the light of all the information you have provided. It is slowly beginning to make sense to a brain never geared to all things military and I am fascinated by it all.
I am glad the unit he was with 15081 is confirmed ... and I just read the other potential ones ( based on his diary references) all went back to the UK before they headed to Belgium I think. 15081 was the only relevant one that carried on.

Neil... thanks for the offer of the precis of Code Name Nelly.. I have a friend with an Internet book business searching for it but it doesn't look too hopeful. Is it kosher to put my email address on this site or is there a process for sending it? Please advise.

 

Sky

Its how this forum works, by anyone with an interest or time to search adding their bit which hopefully makes the whole, if not then at least more of us have an understanding

Re email address's if you left mouse click on a members avatar then you have the option to 'Start a conversation' this is where you can have a private chat away from the public forum, and can pass on such details as email address's and the like without the risk of bots etc that search public forums looking for details.
OR - you can open up your own profile page and 'Start a conversation'

TD

 

Aileen,

You mentioned you were a librarian so you will understand the making knowledge freely available. If I give you all my knowledge I am no worse of since I still have it. If you give some knowledge in return (which you have) we are all better off.

Certainly the members of this forum are very generous with their time and material. I have not paid for documents etc for two years now.

Mike

 

can I send you a bill then

TD