A Radar History of World War II: Technical and Military Imperatives

Rating:
Summary: Monument to a fascinating technology
Review: Brown began his studies on World War II radar development "because the book he would have liked to read did not exist". The outcome is a book almost any reader would love to have written! Although radar became an esoteric subject almost from the beginning, the necessary technical background is presented clearly and the reader does not have to be an electronics specialist to enjoy the superb panoramic view Brown presents of the development of a technology that changed the face of war - and that of peace as well! Even if one is familiar with the subject, surprises start popping up in the first dozen pages or so. This is not an updated version of the books that have gone before but something new. In the first place, it is based on massive, critical and thoroughly documented research. Secondly, it does not focus on the efforts of just one or two participants in the radar epos - be it the Germans, British, American, the naval or air forces. Instead it describes the almost simultaneous and often comparable developments that took place before and during the war worldwide. Critical, and thus well-known, subjects like the role of radar in the Battle of Britain are dealt with, of course, but even here fresh insights are offered. And besides, many epic events that have unjustly been "forgotten" - such as the Japanese forces that were NOT to be found on Attu Island - are described. Even the selection of the photographs (of excellent quality) bears testimony to a fresh approach. Almost invariably, mention of the German Seetakt radar has been accompanied by pictures of the burning wreck of the Admiral Graf Spee. Here we see an intelligence officer's nightmare (or delight!): a German Torpedo School ship with Seetakt antenna in full view - in a freely available 1939 pocketbook! What makes the story so coherent is that radar is firmly placed in the context of the military operations: it shows how the brighter warriors exploited the new technology and how the dumber authorities goofed. And finally, there is a wealth of anecdotes, from the horrific to the hilarious. I find Brown's Radar History just as good as R.V. Jones' "Most Secret War": serious but light-footed, and very well written.

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for the History of WWII Radar
Review: Brown began his studies on World War II radar development "because the book he would have liked to read did not exist". The outcome is a book almost any reader would love to have written! Although radar became an esoteric subject almost from the beginning, the necessary technical background is presented clearly and the reader does not have to be an electronics specialist to enjoy the superb panoramic view Brown presents of the development of a technology that changed the face of war - and that of peace as well! Even if one is familiar with the subject, surprises start popping up in the first dozen pages or so. This is not an updated version of the books that have gone before but something new. In the first place, it is based on massive, critical and thoroughly documented research. Secondly, it does not focus on the efforts of just one or two participants in the radar epos - be it the Germans, British, American, the naval or air forces. Instead it describes the almost simultaneous and often comparable developments that took place before and during the war worldwide. Critical, and thus well-known, subjects like the role of radar in the Battle of Britain are dealt with, of course, but even here fresh insights are offered. And besides, many epic events that have unjustly been "forgotten" - such as the Japanese forces that were NOT to be found on Attu Island - are described. Even the selection of the photographs (of excellent quality) bears testimony to a fresh approach. Almost invariably, mention of the German Seetakt radar has been accompanied by pictures of the burning wreck of the Admiral Graf Spee. Here we see an intelligence officer's nightmare (or delight!): a German Torpedo School ship with Seetakt antenna in full view - in a freely available 1939 pocketbook! What makes the story so coherent is that radar is firmly placed in the context of the military operations: it shows how the brighter warriors exploited the new technology and how the dumber authorities goofed. And finally, there is a wealth of anecdotes, from the horrific to the hilarious. I find Brown's Radar History just as good as R.V. Jones' "Most Secret War": serious but light-footed, and very well written.

Rating:
Summary: Exasperation
Review: Probably the best-known book on radar in World War II is Robert
Buderi's THE INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, which is a highly
readable, almost novelistic work. Buderi's book makes a good
starting point for contrast with Louis Brown's A RADAR HISTORY
OF WORLD WAR II.

On the plus side, Brown covers the subject of radar in WW II far
more thoroughly than Buderi, though Buderi does have onsiderable
material on postwar radar efforts while Brown does not. Brown
also provides substantially more technical detail than Buderi.

On the negative side, Brown's work suffers from a great defect:
he's just not a very good writer. There is an enormous amount
of information in A RADAR HISTORY, but trying to get to it is,
in a word, exasperating.

Brown's goal was to actually write a radar history of the war,
mixing the technical developments with the events of the war.
Unfortunately, this tends to become the worst of both worlds, a
mixing of sketchy discussions of technology with equally sketchy
discussions of the war, neither being very satisfactory.

Brown also has a peculiar sense of organization. It's hard to
describe, but it ends up being an inability to describe
topics in a fluid fashion. For example various details of the US
CXAM radar are discussed in various places through the
book, making it something of a scavenger hunt to organize them,
and even when all the facts available in the book are collected,
there's still a lot of holes.

Oddly, it's not that Brown is disorganized, just that his
organization is skewed. The best way to illustrate this is the
book's index, which is partitioned into multiple sections that
make it a real pain to use.

This is all a pity, since I have to appreciate that Brown really
did a lot of homework on this book, and as I said there's a lot
of information in here if one can sort it out. This is why I
still give it three stars, though I have major misgivings about
the writing style. This book would have been really good if
there had been an editor who could have pointed Brown in the
right direction, but that clearly didn't happen.

In sum, if you want to get started on radar and World War II,
THE INVENTION THAT CHANGED THE WORLD is a much better bet.
If you want more details, A RADAR HISTORY may be worth your
money, but be prepared to sweat for what you get, and don't
expect to get as much as you'd like.

For those of you who are curious about the subject and this
book, I have written up much more detailed notes about it,
but they are far too long to include here, so drop me a line
if you're interested.

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading for the History of WWII Radar
Review: The story of the development atomic bomb finally had its complete chronicle in 1995 with the Richard Rhodes book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb." Rhodes is unmatched as an explainer of difficult concepts; he is even better at describing the personalities who made the discoveries that led to the Bomb. More importantly his skill made the book as good a read as any Tom Clancy novel.

Louis Brown attempts to do the same for Radar during World War II. The good news is that this book has the sweep and depth of anything Rhodes has done. If anything it's even more complete. As a fan of the history of technology I've finally found the single source book on WWII radar. As of now this book has become the definitive work on the subject. If you are interested in the topic you have to read this book.

Authors of the history technology need a rare combination of divergent skills to write a good technical history; an understanding and passion for the subject, dogged research skills for those subjects that were once classified, and the ability to tell a captivating story.

Brown is as good as they get for understanding and passion. His description of German and Japanese radar boggle the mind. The sad part is that as a writer Brown is simply no match for Rhodes. What could have been a sweeping epic that popularized the subject ends up being a tedious list of facts of interest only to the few passionate about the subject. The book veers between a mind-numbing list of radar types (with an awesome bibliography, stunning index yet it has no timelines, radar order of battle, or any coherent summary of the mass of data presented), it is interspersed with personal rambling asides, punctuated by bursts of interesting exposition and great insight. This book could have used a very good editor and some night classes on writing. Instead it looks like it got a spell-checking program.

This book is such a valuable resource that I urge the author to find a co-author and put out a revised second edition.