Fatboy Coxy
Monthly Donor
1941, Wednesday 03 December;
Air Vice Marshal Keith Park sat in the rattan chair in his office, the telephone to his ear, listening, while Air Commodore Stanley Vincent, RAF 224 Group, on the other end, reported on his own personal satisfaction over the recent series of exercises undertaken by his fighters working with the radar network in Johore and on Singapore Island. The radar stations had all successfully picked up ‘hostile’ incursions, quickly with a reasonably good degree of accuracy, and the relaying of that information to the appropriate fighter squadrons had gone well, aircraft being scrambled in good time. He pointed out, as he always did, the lack of VHF ground-to-air radiotelephony, was still a major concern, but the HF repeater tender at Mersing had made a change, along with a permanent HF repeater station at Kluang, meaning the controller had, with a small, time delay, via the repeater stations, controlled the aircraft over most of eastern Johore.
Vincent’s Group was supported by the COL stations, 511 in South-East Johore, 512 in South-West Johore, 575 on a hill near Kota Tinggi, and 250 TRU on Bukit Timah Hill, Singapore, all linking to the Air Defence Ops Rooms at Katong, in Singapore. The telephone network had been extensively overhauled, and was no longer part of the public system, it functioned much better now. As a backup, they also had a VHF radio link to the Cathay ‘Eye’, the highest building in Singapore by a mile, who then relayed the messages on to Katong. This meant that Vincent’s two wings of Hurricane fighters would be given plenty of notice of any incoming air raids on Singapore.
By UK standards it was poor at best, but it worked and Park wasn’t going to get anything better for a long while, but what was beginning to concern him more was the rest of Malaya, where the radar coverage was spotty. Middle Malaya, at Kampung Tok Muda, on the northern banks of the river Kaper Besar, 9 miles north of Port Swettenham was 514 COL, operational since late July. She covered the northern land and sea approaches to Kuala Lumpur and Port Swettenham, and fed both Katong and Penang. On the east coast at Kuantan, 518 COL station also fed Katong, as well as the local airfield, but the telephone calls to Katong did take a little while to connect, easy ten minutes could be lost making the connection, and the radio link was at the mercy of atmospheric conditions.
Even more concerning was at Kota Bharu, where there was a TRU, 243, her antennas used 120-foot wooden towers, and reported to the local airfield, who then passed on information to its sister airfield at Gong Kedah, and the control rooms in Penang and Singapore, although these again were never timely calls, not that that really mattered given the distances away.
It was expected that the Japanese, during air observation flights, would had noticed the construction of those masts. A good bit of counter espionage had been done when a young RAF officer had ‘sold’ details to an enquiring Japanese spy in Singapore, about the planned use of these installations, before he was transferred away. The ruse was they were Radio Direction Finders of some description, possibly to locate any invasion fleet, by its broadcasted signals.
The Ops Centre at Glugor, Penang was served by the Col station 513, at Bukit Huma on the northern end of Penang Island, along with 244 TRU up on Kedah Peak, she controlled the fighter wing of Archie Wann’s RAF 223 Group, with squadrons based at Bayan Lepas, on Penang Island, Kuala Ketil, and Alor Star airfields. This Ops Centre was also earmarked to manage the airspace over Southern Thailand and for this reason, the two newly arrived MRU’s, 306 and 307, both fitted onto a couple of Crossley trucks, were waiting in Northern Malaya for Operation Matador, should it be called, for deployment in Thailand.
More radar stations were on the way, he was promised another three, but they weren’t scheduled to arrive until early February, with others due later on in March and April. There were ongoing work building facilities at a number of locations in readiness of their arrival. His other interest in radar, was how RAF 27 Squadron was progressing with four of their Blenheim Mk I’s configured as night fighters, fitted with AI Mk IV radar and a gun pack of four .303 Brownings under the fuselage, whose practice interceptions at the moment had been a bit hit or miss.
But for now, with the international stage becoming more unsettled, Park would rest a little easier knowing the network and fighter squadrons gave him a reasonable defensive coverage for Singapore, along with all the AA guns sited around. The big naval base and the major port of Singapore, along with the city itself was probably the best defended in the Far East.
Air Vice Marshal Keith Park sat in the rattan chair in his office, the telephone to his ear, listening, while Air Commodore Stanley Vincent, RAF 224 Group, on the other end, reported on his own personal satisfaction over the recent series of exercises undertaken by his fighters working with the radar network in Johore and on Singapore Island. The radar stations had all successfully picked up ‘hostile’ incursions, quickly with a reasonably good degree of accuracy, and the relaying of that information to the appropriate fighter squadrons had gone well, aircraft being scrambled in good time. He pointed out, as he always did, the lack of VHF ground-to-air radiotelephony, was still a major concern, but the HF repeater tender at Mersing had made a change, along with a permanent HF repeater station at Kluang, meaning the controller had, with a small, time delay, via the repeater stations, controlled the aircraft over most of eastern Johore.
Vincent’s Group was supported by the COL stations, 511 in South-East Johore, 512 in South-West Johore, 575 on a hill near Kota Tinggi, and 250 TRU on Bukit Timah Hill, Singapore, all linking to the Air Defence Ops Rooms at Katong, in Singapore. The telephone network had been extensively overhauled, and was no longer part of the public system, it functioned much better now. As a backup, they also had a VHF radio link to the Cathay ‘Eye’, the highest building in Singapore by a mile, who then relayed the messages on to Katong. This meant that Vincent’s two wings of Hurricane fighters would be given plenty of notice of any incoming air raids on Singapore.
By UK standards it was poor at best, but it worked and Park wasn’t going to get anything better for a long while, but what was beginning to concern him more was the rest of Malaya, where the radar coverage was spotty. Middle Malaya, at Kampung Tok Muda, on the northern banks of the river Kaper Besar, 9 miles north of Port Swettenham was 514 COL, operational since late July. She covered the northern land and sea approaches to Kuala Lumpur and Port Swettenham, and fed both Katong and Penang. On the east coast at Kuantan, 518 COL station also fed Katong, as well as the local airfield, but the telephone calls to Katong did take a little while to connect, easy ten minutes could be lost making the connection, and the radio link was at the mercy of atmospheric conditions.
Even more concerning was at Kota Bharu, where there was a TRU, 243, her antennas used 120-foot wooden towers, and reported to the local airfield, who then passed on information to its sister airfield at Gong Kedah, and the control rooms in Penang and Singapore, although these again were never timely calls, not that that really mattered given the distances away.
It was expected that the Japanese, during air observation flights, would had noticed the construction of those masts. A good bit of counter espionage had been done when a young RAF officer had ‘sold’ details to an enquiring Japanese spy in Singapore, about the planned use of these installations, before he was transferred away. The ruse was they were Radio Direction Finders of some description, possibly to locate any invasion fleet, by its broadcasted signals.
The Ops Centre at Glugor, Penang was served by the Col station 513, at Bukit Huma on the northern end of Penang Island, along with 244 TRU up on Kedah Peak, she controlled the fighter wing of Archie Wann’s RAF 223 Group, with squadrons based at Bayan Lepas, on Penang Island, Kuala Ketil, and Alor Star airfields. This Ops Centre was also earmarked to manage the airspace over Southern Thailand and for this reason, the two newly arrived MRU’s, 306 and 307, both fitted onto a couple of Crossley trucks, were waiting in Northern Malaya for Operation Matador, should it be called, for deployment in Thailand.
More radar stations were on the way, he was promised another three, but they weren’t scheduled to arrive until early February, with others due later on in March and April. There were ongoing work building facilities at a number of locations in readiness of their arrival. His other interest in radar, was how RAF 27 Squadron was progressing with four of their Blenheim Mk I’s configured as night fighters, fitted with AI Mk IV radar and a gun pack of four .303 Brownings under the fuselage, whose practice interceptions at the moment had been a bit hit or miss.
But for now, with the international stage becoming more unsettled, Park would rest a little easier knowing the network and fighter squadrons gave him a reasonable defensive coverage for Singapore, along with all the AA guns sited around. The big naval base and the major port of Singapore, along with the city itself was probably the best defended in the Far East.