Product Description

Although many books have been written on the early days of radar and its role in war, this book is by far the most comprehensive, covering ground, air, and sea operations in all theatres of World War II. The author manages to synthesize a vast amount of material in a highly readable, informative, and enjoyable way. Of special interest is extensive new material about the development and use of radar by Germany, Japan, Russia, and Great British. The story is told without undue technical complexity, so that the book is accessible to specialists and nonspecialists alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #264685 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 580 pages

From the Back Cover
Technical and Military Imperatives: A Radar History of World War II is a coherent account of the history of radar in the second World War. Although many books have been written on the early days of radar and its role in the war, this book is by far the most comprehensive, covering ground, air, and sea operations in all theatres of World War II. The author manages to synthesize a vast amount of material in a highly readable, informative, and enjoyable way. Of special interest is extensive new material about the development and use of radar by Germany, Japan, Russia, and Great British. The story is told without undue technical complexity, so that the book is accessible to specialists and nonspecialists alike.

Customer Reviews

Excellent, detailed and broad
As a geeky post-war child, I grew up reading R V Jones' populist histories of wartime technology, particularly radar. Dogma was that radar was a British invention, jealously guarded lest any enemy discover its secret. This book sets a few of those myths straight; that the cavity magnetron was invented independently by almost everyone (and even published pre-war) and the sophistication and historical significance of Japanese microwave naval radar, are just a couple.

Experts in the field probably knew many of these issues already, but for "armchair experts" like myself, looking for a technically detailed coverage that goes beyond RV Jones, and looks beyond the air war over Europe, then this is a book to have.

Almost the Final Word
This is a brilliant book which contains much hard to find information. It is very comprehensive and is almost the last word on the subject. Why almost? It seems there are some gaps on Russian WW2 radar development. Bill Gunston in his foreword to `Soviet Combat Aircraft of the Second World War Volume 2'refers to the Gneis interception radar, introduced during the Stalingrad period.Brown does not mention this but a book of this nature takes years to research and obviously the latest information on Russian radar development became available too late. Nevertheless for serious students of WW2 this is a `must-have' book.

Excellent Research Material
Everything I wanted to find out about regarding the history and development of Radar.
Information in numerous other books is all contained in here.
An excellent buy.