An H2S radar image taken from a cathode ray tube display monitor on board a Mosquito aircraft of ...

Accession Number P05110.001
Collection type Photograph
Object type Black & white - Print silver gelatin
Maker O'Sullivan, Albert Washington
Place made Germany
Date made April 1945
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

An H2S radar image taken from a cathode ray tube display monitor on board a Mosquito aircraft of 139 Pathfinder Squadron RAF. The aerial view, from 23000 feet, shows the areas affected by fires after a bombing raid on the town of Magdeburg on the night of 3-4 April 1945. H2S relies for its operation on the discovery that a beam of short-wave electric energy is "echoed" back to its point of origin in varying degrees of intensity by objects on the ground. Water gives no echo, and the strongest come from built-up areas such as towns and cities. From the installation in the aircraft is transmitted a beam of radar waves: the returned echo passes through various stages and finally appears on the face of a cathode ray tube in the form of a map.