Photos SCR-527 at Radar laboratory and in combat in Iwo Jima |
 |
This photo was published in the August 1946 issue of the Proceedings of the IRE. Compare it with the 1945 Camp Evans aerial photo on file at the National Archives and used in the 7th War bond drive.
| SC-307697 Record Identification ASC 111-SC-BX 152  |
 |
Historical Context from: "Against the Rising Sun"
On Iwo Jima the AAF combined the SCR-527 and SCR-270 radars for early warning acquisition and the AN/TPS-10 for ground control of interception operations to stop the two or three Japanese bombers attacking Allied forces on this island each night.
Early warning radar would detect the bombers’ presence at around 140 miles, between seven thousand and fifteen thousand feet high. At fifty-seven miles, the “Li’l Abner” ground control would make contact and begin vectoring defending P-61s of the 548th and 549th to intercept them.
Usually, the Japanese intruders would drop window/chaff at thirty miles, blocking the older metric early warning radars, but the microwave 3-centimeter AN/TPS-10 kept working. Within ten miles of the Iwo ground radar, the night fighters would break contact, and anti-aircraft artillery would take over.
Eventually, after May 1945, there were few intruders to attack, and the two night fighter squadrons soon shifted focus to intruder work in the Bonin Islands.
Page updated August 16, 2009
page created August 16, 20029