Peter C. Smith’s study of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean campaign in 1940 is valued for its quoted reports, including an account of Type 79 RDF trials at Malta. The set could provide useful warning of approaching aircraft, but land echoes made accurate bearings difficult and prevented it from supplying a dependable long-range plot. The account traces the system from prewar fittings in HMS Sheffield and HMS Rodney through a forty-set order and increased power. One early set went to Gibraltar, where it was transferred to military authorities and contributed during later bombing raids. Somerville’s criticism of inefficient anti-aircraft batteries and searchlight positions shows that equipment readiness depended on regular exercises with the fleet. Radar performance mattered only when operators and the surrounding air-defence organization could turn warning into action.
Notable Point · 13:15-15:39
Mediterranean operations and the limits of early naval radar
Peter C. Smith’s history of the Royal Navy’s 1940 Mediterranean campaign follows Type 79 radar from development to its Malta trials. It also shows how warning value depended on the training of shore-based air defences.