DEHS BOOK - ABSTRACT

The Birth of British Radar

The Memoirs of Arnold 'Skip' Wilkins

(Edited by Colin Latham and Anne Stobbs)

Arnold Wilkins was actively involved in the British radar programme from its very inception in 1935. Working under Watson-Watt, it was he who proposed using radio waves, bounced back from an enemy aircraft, to detect its position.

Initially working entirely alone, he constructed prototype equipment which he used in the famous Daventry experiment conducted in a field near Weedon, Northants, on 26 February 1935. The success of this led to the establishment of the R&D group at Bawdsey Manor with its team of talented scientists, engineers and technicians.

Wilkins then played a key role in the establishment of the Chain Home Radar system for detection of enemy aircraft crossing the English Channel.

The book is Wilkins's personal account of these historical events, written in 1977, a few years before his death. The DEHS has been fortunate in obtaining this account, never before published.

110 pp, with 23 photographs and diagrams.