Camp Evans

Without Spare Parts

by Jack Hansen

John C Hansen

This article was written by Jack Hansen to honor his dad, John C. Hansen. Jack took the time to type all his dad's hand written remembrances of his WWII days at Camp Evans, or on assignment in Europe, the Pacific and Japan. He also sent us the information from his dad's post WWII radar assignments.
Jack, Thanks!

WITHOUT SPARE PARTS
Winning World War Two

The train was crowded; many of the passengers were in uniform, as was 1st Lt. John Hansen. He was traveling under
‘Sealed Orders’ from Camp Evans, Belmar, New Jersey to Washington D.C.. The date was May 20, 1942.

His orders were to obtain parts for the SCR 268, SCR 270 and the SCR 271 Radars. These radars were new and top
secret. The prototypes were developed at Fort Hancock located on Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Fear of German Submarines
prompted the Army to acquire the Camp Evans area which was more secure. The first models were assembled at Camp
Evans in 1941, in a short period of time industry had taken over production. A SCR 270 proved itself a few months earlier as
it detected the approaching Japanese bombers on that fateful day, December 7, 1941. Too bad an inexperienced Duty
Officer ignored the warning as it would have given about 45 minuets to prepare for the attack.

These radars were now being placed around the world. The Panama Canal Zone was one of the first places to have United
States radar protection. Unlike the Pearl Harbor attack where the radar warning was ignored any detection would be
heeded in the future.

Ordinance, that part of the U.S. Army responsible for the supply of military items woke up to the fact that there were no spare
parts for the existing or those radars rolling off the production line.

Lt. Hansen was an Electrical Engineer, he was no stranger to the new radars as he had developed and received a patent for
the Modulation Circuit used. He would meet other Engineers and Ordinance Personnel and they would decide on
purchasing procedure. This detachment was under the command of Major Paul Watson who also was responsible, in part,
for the development of the radar systems. Watson Labs, part of Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey would later be named after him.

Lt. Hansen’s job was to determine the probability of failure of each part in the different circuits and determine how many
parts were to be purchased. At that time electronic equipment depended upon vacuum tubes and other components that
were definitely not as dependable as Solid State Circuits are today. The estimated budget for the project initially was about
one million dollars. Because of the rapidly changing conditions caused by the War the budget was increased to two million
dollars. A little later ordinance realized that auxiliary motor generators needed to be purchased to supply electrical power in
the field, again the budget was increased.

One of problems of the German War Effort was the amount of military equipment that was not in operating condition
because of the lack of spare parts. The United States produced large quantities of electronic parts. After the war an area in
New York City, World Trade Center location, refered to as “Radio Row” had store after store that featured barrels and boxes
of surplus electronic parts for pennies on the dollar.

Three purchasing teams included Engineers and Ordinance personnel were created with an Ordnance man in charge of
each team. After the schematics were studied and the parts list was published each team was sent to different cities to
gather parts. The plan was to work from the Eastern cities West until purchasing was completed. As the items were
purchased the talley changed at headquarters. Lt. Hansen would revise the list each day. The teams phoned in their
progress and received new orders almost daily.

A number of special parts were required, such as the secret Zahl tube which allowed this radar system to operate up to 200
mc. Purchasing negotiators were operating under strict orders that prevented them from disclosing what the parts were to
be used for. This project was classified to the extent that when Lt. Hansen’s wife was in the Ft. Monmouth hospital with a
ruptured appendix, Camp Evans and then Washington was contacted the hospital was informed that Lt. Hansen was under
‘Sealed Orders’ and no contact would be made. He returned home to find his wife in the hospital recuperating and a
neighborhood girl taking care of his two young sons.

Headquarters for the purchasing was in a temporary, not air conditioned, building ‘A’ located at 2nd and T SW in the Fort Mc
Nair area of Washington. The teams would work out of this building and Camp Evans from May 20, 1942 to July 19, 1942.
Lt. Hansen made 11 round trips, all by train, between the two locations during this period of timeas well he also was TDY to
Norfolk, VA, and Lexington, KY.

The Camp Evans personnel knew the logical location for this project was Camp Evans and by mid July, under the urging of
Col. Paul Watson, the operation was transferred to Evans.

Upon completion of the purchasing the teams had spent $3,000,000, a considerable sum for those days and well above
initial budget estimates.

According to Lt. Hansen’s project notes Major Watson was promoted to Lt. Col. The first part of June. Lt. Hansen was Capt.
Hansen a few months later.

For more information on WWll Radar or the very important roll that Camp Evans Signal Lab played in winning WWll go to
www.infoage.org.

Page updated January 2, 2004 page created September 6, 2002

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