https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Glorious_Way_to_Die

This is great stuff.

It notes how bad the Japanese radar was, and how good ours were by
1945. There is a lot about kamakazes, but no mention of proximity
fuzes.

--

I yam what I yam - Popeye

On Monday, February 21, 2022 at 11:31:33 AM UTC+11, jla...@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Glorious_Way_to_Die
>
> This is great stuff.
>
> It notes how bad the Japanese radar was, and how good ours were by
> 1945. There is a lot about kamakazes, but no mention of proximity
> fuzes.

Curious. In my first industrial job my boss was

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._A._S._Butement>

" In October 1939 Butement turned to this technology as a potential solution. He conceived of a highly compact RDF set placed on the projectile, setting off the detonation when close proximity to the target was attained. He completed the circuit design, but there was the problem of packaging such a device in a small projectile, as well as the question of the vacuum tubes surviving the acceleration forces at firing."

The design got shipped off America in 1940 by the Tizard Mission "and subsequently a variation of his circuit became adopted in the United States as the proximity fuse or VT (variable-time) fuse, the most-manufactured electronic device of the war".

"As well as the dramatic breaking of Japanese Naval air power in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, it immortalised the invention's impact with the battle's alternate name: The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, where the battle losses were so severe that it led to the Japanese adoption of the kamikaze".

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

On 21/02/2022 00:31, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Glorious_Way_to_Die
>
> This is great stuff.
>
> It notes how bad the Japanese radar was, and how good ours were by
> 1945. There is a lot about kamakazes, but no mention of proximity
> fuzes.

Neither microwave radar nor the proximity fuse were US inventions.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/magnetron

My first year supervisor for Physics was one of the three inventors who
figured out how to make a regenerative feedback Doppler trigger fuse.
When he died his Times obituary read "Edward Shire - a device to destroy
the flying bomb". Manufacture of them and magnetrons were outsourced to
the USA (he worked on both and had stories of working behind a hot radar
in a corotating shed - heating his lunch in the microwave beam).

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp130771/edward-samuel-shire

UK gave away a lot of very important high technology secret military
technology to be manufactured in the USA out of reach of German bombers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tizard_Mission

Making a cheap small thermionic valve that could withstand the 20000g
acceleration of an artillery projectile was critical to its success.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On Tue, 22 Feb 2022 10:08:05 +0000, Martin Brown
<'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote:

>On 21/02/2022 00:31, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Glorious_Way_to_Die
>>
>> This is great stuff.
>>
>> It notes how bad the Japanese radar was, and how good ours were by
>> 1945. There is a lot about kamakazes, but no mention of proximity
>> fuzes.
>
>Neither microwave radar nor the proximity fuse were US inventions.

Yeah, we used to be friends and allies.

--

I yam what I yam - Popeye

On 2/20/2022 7:31 PM, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Glorious_Way_to_Die
>
> This is great stuff.
>
> It notes how bad the Japanese radar was, and how good ours were by
> 1945. There is a lot about kamakazes, but no mention of proximity
> fuzes.
>
>
>

A gruesome film (still worth watching if one can stomach it) about the
1979 Sino-Vietnam war called "The Youth":

<https://youtu.be/CIiOdexIsAQ>

No glory there, only guts. The Chinese film makers are remarkably honest
about how vicious the Vietnamese were with respect to anyone else
setting foot on their land, even their former "allies."

On Tue, 22 Feb 2022 15:47:08 -0500, bitrex <user@example.net> wrote:

>On 2/20/2022 7:31 PM, jlarkin@highlandsniptechnology.com wrote:
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Glorious_Way_to_Die
>>
>> This is great stuff.
>>
>> It notes how bad the Japanese radar was, and how good ours were by
>> 1945. There is a lot about kamakazes, but no mention of proximity
>> fuzes.
>>
>>
>>
>
>A gruesome film (still worth watching if one can stomach it) about the
>1979 Sino-Vietnam war called "The Youth":
>
><https://youtu.be/CIiOdexIsAQ>
>
>No glory there, only guts. The Chinese film makers are remarkably honest
>about how vicious the Vietnamese were with respect to anyone else
>setting foot on their land, even their former "allies."

Yuk. I'll stick to romantic comedies.

--

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end with doubts,
but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
Francis Bacon