Ground-controlled interception is an air defence tactic whereby one or more radar stations or other observational stations are linked to a command communications centre which guides interceptor aircra
British Chain Home Radar Coverage 1939-1940
Chain Home
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Chain Home, or CH for short, was the codename for the ring of coastal early warning radar stations built by the Royal Air Force before and during the Second World War to detect and track aircraft. Ini
Ground-controlled interception
…of radars that spun on their vertical axis in order to provide a complete 360 degree view of the sky around the station. Previous systems, notably Chain Home (CH), could only be directed along angles in front of the antennas, and were unable to direct traffic once it passed behind their shore-side locations…
Chain Home at RAF Poling, West Sussex
Robert Watson-Watt's position with the National Physical Laboratory placed him at the centre of a network of researchers whose knowledge of radio physics was instrumental to the rapid development of radar.
Stanley Baldwin's 1932 comments on future aerial warfare led to a "feeling of defencelessness and dismay." It was the UK's concern about this issue that led to so much support being given to radar development while other countries had a much more lackadaisical approach until the war started.
A 1925 radio magazine photograph of Grindell-Matthews' death ray