Bernard Lovell - The mass production and success of H2S (34/108)

Описание: To listen to more of Bernard Lovell’s stories, go to the playlist:    • Bernard Lovell (Astronomer)  

Bernard Lovell (1913-2012), British radio astronomer and founder of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, received an OBE in 1946 for his work on radar, and was knighted in 1961. His steerable radio telescope tracked Sputnik and is now named the Lovell telescope. [Listeners: Alastair Gunn and Megan Argo; date recorded: 2007]

TRANSCRIPT: The H2S was manufactured, mass production, was fitted in every bomber coming off the production line and I think was... was successful in that it did enable the bombers to find their target, but I think as far as the navigators and pilots were concerned, they renamed it Home Sweet Home, because it turned out to be a wonderful device for enabling them to return home safely. I met in my old age a few people older than myself who wanted to give thanks for saving their lives. There was one case where a person had been shot up over Berlin and had struggled back to England on one of two engines, and found themselves all their navigation equipment had been destroyed except miraculously the H2S, and the navigator suddenly shouted, 'Hard to starboard', and they were about to go over the most heavily defended of the Dutch coast. And they reckon that certainly saved their lives through being able to get away from it, because of the H2S, so there were two or three questions like that, that... we had a lot of criticism during the war, but recently people have been more kind about it.