Battle of the Beams - Wotan I, Knickebein, Wotan II and the X-Clock
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- Опубликовано: 20 янв 2023
- England 1940 - Battle of the Beams. We continue our look at the equipment involved from a German perspective.
During World War II, Germany developed a radio navigation system called Knickebein (German for "crooked leg") to guide bombers to their targets. The system used two intersecting radio beams that the bomber pilot would fly along to accurately locate the target. The beams were transmitted from ground-based radio stations in occupied Europe and could be picked up by a receiver on the bomber.
The system was first used in the bombing of England in 1940 and successfully allowed German bombers to navigate to their targets day or night regardless of cloud cover. However, the British quickly developed countermeasures. Despite these efforts, the German bombing campaign was still effective for some time.
A later system called Wotan I or the X-Beam system improved on the Knickebein two-beam method and used one primary (or marching) beam and three transverse beams. The X-Beam used a network of ground-based radio stations to transmit a series of X-shaped beams. The bomber pilot would fly along the primary beam to locate the target. The X-Beam system was more accurate than Knickebein and was harder for the British to neutralise. Later Wotan II would use a single beam and the 'Y' electronic distance measurement method controlled from the Y ground station to place the bomber over the target. The pilot was not required to 'fly the beam' as with the older systems but was able to follow direct instructions relayed to him from the Y ground controller. However, despite the Y system's sophistication, the British were still able to develop countermeasures, helped by secret intelligence received in the 'Oslo Report' of 1939, and create false signals to spoil the system's accuracy and render it unusable. Ultimately, the German bombing campaign was much less effective than it could have been due to the British's efforts to disrupt these radio navigation systems.
This video was recorded at one of Europe's finest private collections of German avionics equipment, covering the early days of military radio communication and radar to the end of the vacuum tube era.
Presented by Dieter Beikirch with additional narration by Robert J Dalby.
Video produced by Astronomy and Nature TV 
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I remember reading about this equipment in RV Jones "Most Secret War" in the 1970s. He clearly had the greatest of admiration for the designers of the gear.
These videos are absolutely impressive. I hope to visit this Museum some day.
Unlike Mr. Ramjet's "not that brilliant" comment, it was quite brilliant. Disguised as a normal instrument landing system (like our current ILS), the Brits ripped apart many crashed aircraft before an engineer noted that the radios were far more sensitive than they needed to be for bad weather landings. Captured German aircrews were interred in minimum security houses that were extensively wired with microphones and monitored 24/7 by native German speakers. The tipoff came when a pilot said "they'll never find it" and an astute British engineer realized they had probably been looking at the answer already.
R.V. Jones was aware of the system from Enigma decrypts and a captured document that a Luftwaffe Observer had on him so He knew it was on the aircraft. What wasn't known was the fact that radio waves at the required frequencies would "Bend" along the surface of the earth enough to allow the beam to reach targets in the middle of the UK from transmitters in Germany. Everybody in the UK thought they went out in straight lines and that a German bomber would have to fly at a very high altitude to use it. Once Jones had managed to get a senior British Radio expert from Marconi to admit that such a bending of a beam was possible and got the report about the two German crew talking about it, who were doing so because they had been interrogated about it!!! He asked the guys at Royal Aircraft Establishment if there was any difference between the UK blind approach systems and the ones found on the German Bombers. Jones knew exactly where it was hidden, because that was the only place it could have been hidden.
Great video explanation,thank you
Would like to know more about the Knickebein at Lindonk.
The controlroom is about to collapse.
Thank you :)
You're welcome! RJD
@@deutscheavionik7211 Prolly the wrong video to ask on but FuG 216 sender S216 what is the inductance of the primary and secondary coils of Tr1 and Tr2?
The design was not that brilliant, it used the 38-42 mhz blind landing beam and made it far more sensitive on the same short distance to get some required accuracy at long distance. Over a large distance, that tight beam expanded and the error range increased but it was still able to cause significant damage.
The equipment was so obvious, the English knew the frequency of where to look and found it, which resulted in very effective counter measures.
That blind landing system was a forerunner to the ILS system of today.
What we don't ever see info on is the German Moving Map Display that was a forerunner of today's PFD or pilot Flying Display
that enabled a 45 min flight around the traps and the display would fairly accurately show the aircraft's position relative to the airport.
Great video, its sad that its so difficult to understand Deiter who obviously knows how to explain it in German.
I agree. It would have been better to talk German and put English subtitles on it.