AW1Steve
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Joined: 3/10/2007
From: Mordor Illlinois
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ORIGINAL: Dixie
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ORIGINAL: Chickenboy
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ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
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ORIGINAL: Apollo11
Hi all,
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ORIGINAL: Terminus
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ORIGINAL: Dixie
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ORIGINAL: Terminus
I forget the name of the system that actually made the Luftwaffe's job easier, but there was one ESM system that the nightfighters could home in on...
You're probably thinking of the Monica system?
That's the one.
The "Monica" was almost totally unusable because it gave enormous number of "false alarms" due to proximity of other friendly bombers in the bomber stream... most Lancaster crews simply turned it OFF... 
Leo "Apollo11"
P.S.
Germans also developed very successful passive radar receiver that homed on "Monica" signals - it was not good thing for the RAF...
I guess it's payback for how the Brit's exploited the Metox system that German U-boats used. Same deal , a ESM system that emitted a frequency that the coastal command RAF bombers could home in on.
Hi Steve,
I don't think that the Brits had any sort of passive homing apparatus to guide to Metox emissions. Certainly they perfected Huff-Duff and used that to bang-up (rimshot) effect, but Metox? I'm not so sure. Metox was marginally useful for the Germans, but they still had trouble until the end in identifying airborne ASW centimetric radar emissions. That was their greatest weakness. Not that Metox betrayed them, but just wasn't up to the task.
Well, that combined with suicidal "surface and engage" orders for dealing with airborne threats, nonsensical daily radio positional call ins that could be fixed and located, faulty torpedoes, poor range in their VIIc, 'war against the type XIV tankers', etc. etc.
I may be mistaken, but iirc the Brits couldn't actually detect Metox it was a ruse to disguise the efficiency of the latest radar. It was a fabricated story that was passed on to the Germans by a downed Coastal Command airman. The Germans were already suspicious that something was leading the aeroplanes to them in the darkness or bad weather and the lie about Metox convinced them to stop using it, thus giving them even less notice of an incoming attack. Any boat that didn't make it back wouldn't have been able to report they weren't using their Metox.
I've heard this story , and it's opposing view. But I don't think I've heard any official comment , or any well known historian comment on it. I'd really like to hear something definitive on the subject.
Most people don't realize that most RADAR detectors , such as the well know "fuzzbusters" give off a signal. The police of Virginia and the District of Columbia use that flaw everyday. Both those governments ban RADAR detectors with a very heavy (read "lucrative") fine. Governments and militaries take great pains to make sure their ESM systems don't give off such a signal (or for that matter other electronics). Crews instituting "EMCOM" procedures (emissions controls) generally have check lists as to what gear gives off what kind of emissions.
What I'm saying is that I don't know what the truth is about METOX. But It sounds plausible , the Germans certainly believed it. And with the tremendous skill that the wartime British government had with disinformation , I'd not be surprised that the claim was that. Does anyone REALLY know the truth about "The Coventry story/myth"? I simply use that as an example . As Churchill was said to have said "In wartime truth is so precious that she must be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies". So who knows? And does it really matter? The Germans ditched Metox as soon as they could.
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RE: THE THREAD!!! - 
It's like Private Benjamin's army. You know-the one with the condos and the country clubs?
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