Chapter 61 Volume 2, Chapter 19, Witchcraft War

Concealed Struggle Lindemann's Contribution Radar Progress German Beam Mr. Jones's Report Split Beam The Principle of Knickerbein [1] Twist Beam Goering Stupid and Stubborn XX Device November 14-10 Coventry on the night of the 5th The flare-y device that lured the enemy was rendered useless before it was born The Luftwaffe was thwarted The victory of British science Our future plans The rocket artillery team under the command of General Pyle and the air defense team of Great Britain Air mines The prospect of counter-offensive by detonating the fuze near the screen is the enrichment of our air defense measures.

[1] The original text is German Knickebein is the pronoun of split beam.translator While the RAF was fighting the Luftwaffe, pilots against pilots, anti-aircraft guns against planes, brutal bombing against the fortitude of the British people, another struggle was going on step by step, month by month.It is a secret war, won or lost, unknown to the public; and even at the present time incomprehensible to all but the few highly educated men of science concerned.Humanity has never waged such a war.The written or verbal description of this war is beyond the understanding of ordinary people. However, if we only glance at these terms, without grasping their profound meanings and unable to use their secrets, then the Air Force combatants, despite their desperate efforts, the people No matter how heroic sacrifices are made, they will all be in vain.Were it not for the superiority of British science over German science, and the effective application of scientific wonders to the struggle for existence, we might well have been defeated, and, having been defeated, would have been destroyed.

Ten years ago, a very wise man wrote: The advanced minds have reached the limit of human reason, but all kinds of wired communication are useless, they can only communicate with us by incomprehensible signals.Yet the fate of our nation, among many other things, depends on the perception of such signals, on the correct and timely action upon the impressions received.I don't know anything about science, but I know a little about scientists, and I have experience as a minister in dealing with things I don't understand.At any rate, I have a keen military eye for distinguishing what is good from what is bad, what is salvation and what is evil.My four years of service with the Air Defense Research Board allowed me to get acquainted with the rough outlines of the radar problem.I therefore devoted myself, to the best of my ability, to the study of this witchcraft war, and endeavored to see that, at least as soon as the action was about to be launched, the exploitation of all worthwhile results would not be hindered, or at least not neglected.Although Frederick Lindemann's honor and intelligence are respected, there have undoubtedly been better scientists than him.However, for me, he has two most important qualifications.First, as mentioned in this book, he has been my reliable and bosom friend for twenty years.We have watched together to observe the occurrence and development of world disasters.Together we have done our best to sound the alarm.Now we are in the midst of this catastrophe, and I have the power to command and arm our forces for battle.How can I gain this knowledge?

This brings up his second condition.Lindemann was able to recognize the signals sent by the experts from far away, and explained to me what the problem was in plain Mandarin.There are only twenty-four hours in a day, of which at least seven hours should be for sleep, and three hours for eating and resting.Anyone in my position must be exhausted if he wants to delve into this kind of problem that can't be penetrated by a lifetime of effort.All I need to know are actual research results, and whenever Lindemann brings me any major achievements in this field, I will turn on the machine and make sure that at least some of the major and incomprehensible achievements are implemented.

Since 1939, the technology of every part of the radar has continued to develop without cease, but, nevertheless, the Battle of Britain, fought from July to September 1940, as I describe Yes, mainly rely on people's eyes and ears to fight.At first during these months I comforted myself with the hope that the smog and clouds which are so common in English winters would draw over our island like a cloak, and at least give us considerable protection from During the day, and especially against accurate bombing at night. At one time, German bombers were primarily guided by radio directional beacons.Dozens of these lighthouse-like directional beacons have been set up in many places on the continent, each with a different call signal, and the Germans can use ordinary directional radio stations to respond to any two incoming beams. The angle of this radio wave is used to determine their position.As a countermeasure we soon established a series of stations which we called Mecom[1].These stations, called Maycombs, picked up the German radio signal, amplified it, and broadcast it somewhere in England.As a result, bandits attempting to navigate by their directional beacons were often led astray, and many bandits were lost.Indeed, a German bomber landed automatically in Devon, thinking it was France.

[1] The original text is Meacoms, which means that the wrong signal is generated, and MEACONING is to receive the enemy's beacon signal and broadcast this signal at the same frequency to confuse the enemy.translator However, I got a big shock in June.Professor Lindemann reported to me that he believed that the Germans were building an apparatus by which bombing could be carried out day or night, in good or bad weather.It now appears that the Germans have invented a radio beam which, like an invisible searchlight, can direct bombers to their targets with considerable accuracy.The directional beacon directs the driver, and the beam is directed at the target.They may not be able to target a particular factory, but they can certainly target a city, so not only do we have to worry about moonlit nights in which our fighter pilots can see as well as the enemy anyway but also The heaviest raids by enemy planes must be expected in cloudy and foggy weather.

Lindemann also told me that if we acted immediately, we could find a way to bend the beam, however, I had to meet with several scientists, especially Dr. R. V. Jones, Deputy Director of the Air Force Department of Intelligence Research, who was A former student of Professor Lindemann at Oxford University.It was with some trepidation that I called a special meeting in the Cabinet Room on June 21st, with about fifteen people present, including Sir Henry Tizard and several Air Force Commanders.A few minutes later a young man arrived, as I later heard, who thought his sudden summons to the Cabinet Room must be a joke. He hurried into the Cabinet Room and took the last seat at the table.As planned, I invite him to speak first.

He told us that, for several months now, news from all quarters of the Continent had pointed to some new method of night bombing in Germany, in which they placed great hopes.This new method seems to have something to do with the code word Knickbine, which our intelligence officers have mentioned several times without being able to explain it.At first it was thought that the enemy had arranged for spies to install directional beacons in our cities so that their bombers could return to them, but this idea turned out to be untenable. Two or three photographs of strange little towers were taken in some remote places near the coast.They do not appear to be normal for any known radio or radar.Nor can their locality be accounted for by any such supposition.A German bomber was recently shot down with a device that appeared to be more sophisticated than that required for a Rowlands beam to land at night, the only understandable use of which seems to be night landings.Combining this reason with many others, he argued step by step that the Germans might be planning to navigate and drop bombs by some kind of directional beam system.A few days ago, after cross-examining one of the pilots of the downed bomber on the basis of these clues, he had to admit that he had heard that such a thing was being studied.These are the main points of Dr. Jones' speech.

He spoke for twenty minutes or a little more in a serene tone, laying out his arguments in a well-structured way from the circumstances he had received, which was more convincing in its magic than the stories of Sherlock Holmes or Mr. Lecoq. More than anything.When I listened to him, I couldn't help thinking of the lines in "The Inglesby Legend" [1]: 【1】The Legend of Inglesby is a collection of legends written in poetry and prose by the British writer Barham (R‧H‧Barham, 1788｜1845).translator Now comes a Mr. Jones, who testifies on oath that fifteen years ago, when he was on his way to Stone Hench (to examine the stones described in the book of the late Sir John Sonny), he heard a groan,

He searched with a whimper, and he saw A crow is picking at the bones of a teenage drummer! After Dr. Jones finished speaking, everyone seemed a little disbelieving.Even if such beams were possible, a senior authority asked, why would the Germans use beams when they already had all the usual navigation aids?At altitudes above 20,000 feet, stars are often visible.All our own pilots have been arduously trained in the art of navigation, and are considered to be good at finding course and purpose.Everyone else at the table seemed concerned about it. Now I'm going to explain in my own terms how the German beam was used and how we reversed it.A radio beam, like a searchlight beam, cannot be highly focused; it always has to spread out; however, if the so-called split beam method is used, fairly accurate results can be obtained.We assume that there are two searchlight beams parallel to each other, and they turn on and off like this: the light on the left goes off on the right, and vice versa, the light on the right goes off on the left.If an attacking aircraft is exactly in the middle of the two beams, the pilot's course is continuously illuminated by the beams; but if, say, it is a little to the right, closer to the center of the right beam, the beam is intensified, The pilot will see the lights flickering, indicating that the heading is wrong.If the driver wants to avoid the flickering of the beams, he has to fly in the middle of the two beams, and the intensity of the beams on both sides is equal.This middle path guides him toward his goal.This made it possible for two beams from two stations to cross over any town in central or southern England.The German pilot only had to fly forward along one beam until he detected the second and then dropped the bomb.That's all I want to say!

The above is the principle of the split beam and the famous Knickerbein device. Göring pinned his hopes on this device and convinced the Luftwaffe that it could be used against the enemy regardless of cloudy weather, fog or night. British cities were bombed and also protected attacking aircraft from anti-aircraft fire and fighter jets.The generals of the Luftwaffe High Command, relying on their methodical minds and well-thought-out large-scale plans, bet their air victory on a new invention that, they believed, could, like magnetic mines, beat us.Consequently, they did not bother, as we do, to train the average bomber pilot in the difficult art of navigation.The simplicity and sureness of this method, which facilitates the training of large numbers of men, and the success of a large number of victories by irresistible science, suits their minds and temperaments well.The German pilot followed the beam as the German people followed their Führer.They have nothing else to follow. But timely warning and immediate action enabled the simple Englishman to find a solution.In time to get proper stations in our country we can jam their beams.Of course, our interference can be detected by the enemy almost immediately.There is also a better way.We can set up a repeating transmitter at a certain location, to strengthen half of the signal of the split beam, but not to strengthen the other half.Thus, a bandit pilot attempting to fly on a course where the signals on both halves of the split beam are equal will deviate from the correct course.A mass of bombs capable of blowing up a city, or at least seriously damaging a city, would fall into the wilderness fifteen or twenty miles from the city.As Prime Minister, I needed no further study, and once I recognized the principles of this wonderful and powerful contest, I issued all the necessary orders on this day in June, assuming that this beam existed, all against the Germans The research work on the beam should be carried out with absolute priority. When carrying out this decision, if anyone expresses the slightest hesitation or makes mistakes, they should report to me.All this, and in spite of all this work, I did not trouble the Cabinet, nor even the Chiefs of Staff Committee.If I encountered any serious hindrance, I would, of course, appeal to the friendly authorities, giving details of the cause.This was unnecessary, however, because, within this limited and, at the time, almost mystical sphere, compliance was swift and the slightest obstacle could be swept away. On or about August 23, the beams of the enemy's newly built Knickerbein stations near Dieppe and Cherbourg were directed at Birmingham, and at the same time a large-scale night air attack began.Of course we had to overcome initial difficulties; but within a few days the beams of the Knickerbein station were turned or jammed, and during the next two months, the most critical of September and October, the German bombers England was circling around, dropping bombs blindly, or really led astray. I happened to remember something.In the Ministry of Defense under my presidency, there was an officer; When London was bombed, sent his wife and two children to the country.This place is ten miles from any town.They were dismayed to see a series of huge explosions three fields away.They counted a total of more than one hundred heavy bombs.They wondered why the Germans bombed the place and thanked God they didn't.The officer talked about this matter the next day, but due to the need for absolute secrecy, the number of people who knew the inside story was extremely limited, and the restrictions on information were extremely strict. Therefore, although he was also in a position close to confidentiality, no one could satisfy him. answer.The few people who knew the inside story had no choice but to smile knowingly. German pilots soon suspected that their beams had been jammed.It is said that during these two months no one dared to tell Göring that his beam had been twisted or disturbed.In his ignorance, he insisted that it was impossible.He gave special speeches and warnings to the Luftwaffe, assuring them that the beam would never go wrong, and anyone who doubted it would be fired immediately.During the Blitz, as mentioned, we suffered heavy losses, and almost any enemy aircraft could strike London in any way.Bombing was, of course, extremely inaccurate, and all German bombing methods were greatly disturbed by our countermeasures, plus their general inaccuracies, so that no more than a fifth of the bombs fell within the target range.We must think that this is also a considerable victory, because although only one-fifth of the German bombings were hit, it has already had a great impact on our lives and work. After some internal struggle, the Germans finally revised their methods. They were lucky that they had a large group, the 100th Combat Group, that used a beam of its own.They call it Device X, a cryptic designation that confuses our intelligence officers when we hear it.By mid-September, we had a good understanding of this device and were able to design countermeasure equipment, but this kind of specialized jamming equipment will not be manufactured within the next two months.Therefore, the 100th Combat Group could continue to bomb accurately.The enemy quickly used this group to lead the way, dropping incendiary bombs on the target area, causing a large fire, and the place where the fire broke out became the target of the bombing of the rest of the Luftwaffe, which was no longer under the command of the Knickbein signal. On 14-15 November Coventry was the first to be targeted by this new method.At this time, although our new jamming equipment has started to be produced, due to a technical error, it will take several months before it can be effectively used. Even so, our knowledge of beams is useful.From the direction of the enemy's beam and when it was launched, we can predict the target, time, route and altitude of the bombing.Our night fighter, alas!At that time, it was not possible to make good use of this information in terms of numbers and equipment.However, the contribution of this type of intelligence to fire brigades and other civilian air defenses is incalculable.They can often be concentrated in threatened areas and issue special warnings to the population before the bombing begins.Soon our countermeasures improved enough to meet the enemy's attack.At the same time, at the right time, we ignite many fires to lure the enemy (the code word is called a sea car) in the right open space to lead a large number of incoming enemy planes astray. This method can often produce very large results . By the beginning of 1941, we were able to get hold of Unit X, but the Germans were also using their brains, and at about the same time they were using a new device called Unit Y.Whereas the previous two systems used crossed beams over the target, the new system uses only one beam and also uses a special method of radio measuring distance so that the pilot of the aircraft knows how far along the beam he has flown.He drops the bomb when he flies to the exact distance.Thanks to our luck and the ingenuity and hard work of all concerned, we were able to figure out exactly how the Y-device was operated by the Germans months before it was actually used in combat, when they were going to use it to give When the bomber leads the way, we already have a way of disabling it.On the first night that the Germans used Device Y, our new jamming device began to work.We heard vicious swearing between the enemy's leading aircraft and the ground command station on the speakers, which shows that our efforts have paid off. Therefore, the confidence of the enemy air force personnel in this new invention, Lost everything from the start, and after many failures, this method was no longer used.The bombing of Dublin on the night of May 30, 1941, was quite simply the unforeseen and accidental result of our interference with the Y-beam. General Martini, Germany's moderator in this effort, admitted after the war that he had not detected early enough that a high-frequency war had begun; he also admitted that he had underestimated British intelligence and countermeasures.We took advantage of his strategic error in beam warfare to cause the enemy to drop bombs in great numbers beyond our cities, when all our other methods of defense had either failed or were in their infancy.However, it was under the pressure of this potentially deadly air attack that we were able to rapidly improve our defenses.Since the beginning of the war, we have been active in the production of an aircraft-mounted radar called A‧I‧, which has been studied tirelessly by the Air Defense Research Committee since 1938. It detects and tracks enemy bombers.However, this set of equipment is too large and the structure is too complicated, and it is difficult for the pilot to operate it himself. Therefore, this equipment was installed on the two-seat Brenham fighter, and later on the Warrior bomber. The spotter manipulates the radar, commands the pilot until the bandit is in sight, and fires at it, usually at a distance of about a hundred yards at night.Initially, I called this device a sniffer, and I hope it will be used soon.This is bound to be a slow process.However, it has always started.An extensive ground-controlled interception system has been established and is operational.British pilots, flying fighter jets equipped with eight heavy machine guns and soon cannons, no longer relied on chance as before, but began to use interception systems to pursue almost defenseless German bombers. The enemy's use of the beam is now to our advantage.They alerted us so clearly of the time and direction of their attack that my squadron of night fighters in the area concerned, with all its instruments, could be brought into full effect in time, and that the anti-aircraft artillery units there could be carefully deployed and utilized by their own forces. A set of complex sciences conducts the command; for these, we will talk about it later.During March and April, the increasing rate of German bomber losses caused anxiety among the German military leaders. Razing Britain's cities, they discovered, was not as easy as Hitler had imagined.In May, the Luftwaffe breathed a sigh of relief when it was ordered to stop its night raids on Great Britain and prepare for action on another battlefield. Thus three great attempts by the enemy to conquer Britain after the fall of France were successfully defeated or prevented by us.The first was the decisive defeat of the Luftwaffe at the Battle of Britain in July, August, and September.Instead of destroying the British air force, airfields, and aircraft factories on which our survival and future depend, the enemy has suffered unbearable losses himself, despite their overwhelming numerical superiority.Our second win came on the heels of the first.The Germans failed to gain air supremacy, thus failing to realize their plan to invade across the Channel.The valor of our fighter pilots, and the superior organization in favor of this, have in fact made their exploits, under indescribably different conditions, the same as those of Drake and his intrepid Small ships and gallant sailors performed exactly the same feat, when, after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the mighty army of the Duke of Parma waited helplessly in the Low Countries for the ships to cross the Channel. [1] When Spain attacked Britain with its Armada, the Duke of Parma led an army of 20,000 people to the lowland countries of Europe in an attempt to cross the strait and land.translator The third test was the massive, indiscriminate bombing of our cities at night.The infinite devotion and skill of our fighter pilots and the tenacity of the people, especially the residents of London who were the first to bear the brunt and the civilian air defense organizations supporting them, defeated and defeated the enemy's attempt.But all the mighty efforts at heights and in the blazing streets would have been in vain without the British science of which this chapter is concerned, and the unforgettable and decisive part played by British scientists. There is a useful German saying that a tree is not as tall as the sky, yet we have every reason to expect that German air raids on Britain will intensify and continue forever.There is no reason to assume that the air raids will wind down and stop until Hitler actually attacks Russia.Therefore, we do our best to improve the measures and methods we have relied on so far for our survival, and to study new ones.The highest priority is given to various research and applications related to radar.Recruit and organize scientists and technicians on an enormous scale.Give the most sufficient convenience in terms of manpower and material resources.In addition, no other means of shooting down the enemy's bombers were spared, and our work was intensified in the ensuing months by the brutal and bloody repeated bombings of our ports and cities by the enemy.I would like to mention (and repeat in the appendix to this book) three developments which, at Lindemann's encouragement, and as a result of our joint research before the war in the Air Defense Research Committee, were of particular interest to me, And exercise my power actively.The first is to launch intensive rockets, and use them to strengthen our anti-aircraft artillery fire; the second is to hang bombs on parachutes with long wires and place them on the flight path of enemy planes to become a minescreen in the air; the third is to study a very Sensitive fuze, it does not need to hit the target, as long as it is close to the aircraft, it can explode.We have spent a great deal of expense and manpower and material resources on three methods, and we must now make a brief account of them. None of these methods worked in 1940.It will take at least a year before we can actually use it.When we were about to put the new devices and methods into use in battle, the enemy's air raids (for which we had designed them) suddenly stopped, and after nearly three years The almost total absence of air strikes in time has, therefore, often underestimated the value of our efforts in this area, which can only be proven by serious tests, and which in no way prevent this Development of other work in one field. Distorting the beam alone is not enough.Once the Germans hit the right target, they could easily go back to where they had blown up the night before, unless they were confused by our sea pans.In any case, they had to be followed, so we invented two new weapons, rockets and aerial mines.Our anti-aircraft guns, equipped with radar, can determine the position of the enemy plane with great accuracy as long as it continues to fly at the same speed in a straight line; however, experienced pilots seldom fly in a straight line.Of course, they zigzag, or dodge, that is to say, in the twenty or thirty seconds between firing and exploding they are already half a mile or so from the firing point. The solution is to form a large dense fire net around the intended impact point. It would be nice if anti-aircraft guns could be produced in large numbers, and the artillery battalions sufficiently manned to fire with a hundred anti-aircraft guns at the right time and in the right place. However, this is something our human power cannot do.The alternative is to use rockets instead (for secrecy we call them non-rotating projectiles), which are simple and inexpensive.Even before the war, Dr. Crowe, when he was on the Air Defense Research Committee, developed a two-inch and three-inch rocket which could shoot at almost the same height as our anti-aircraft guns.A three-inch rocket carries a warhead much more powerful than a three-inch anti-aircraft gun.Just less precise.Rocket launchers, on the other hand, have the inestimable advantage of being very quickly and easily mass-produced without burdening our already overburdened arsenals.Thousands of rocket launchers and millions of shells have been manufactured.Sir Frederick Pyle was a very distinguished general, who commanded our ground anti-aircraft artillery throughout the war; he was the only one who abhorred novelty inventions, and he was not the only one who could increase his The invention of firepower is welcomed.He organized this weapon into a huge artillery team, each team has ninety-six rocket launchers, and most of the personnel are drawn from the National Guard. Its intensive firepower far exceeds the power of anti-aircraft artillery fire. Throughout the war I worked increasingly closely with General Pyle, and at times I found him to be astute as a man to whom he could be entrusted.In addition to the rocket launcher, the troops under his command had a total of three hundred thousand men and women at the time, and 2,400 anti-aircraft guns. In the days after being repelled, he still performed extremely well.At this time, his task was to extract as much manpower as possible from the static defense of the anti-aircraft artillery, and to replace the regular army and technical personnel with women and national guards as much as possible without reducing the power of artillery fire.The details of the matter, however, should be recounted in due place. Not only was General Pyle's command assisted by the research of our scientists, but their assistance was the basis of all measures as the war progressed. During the daylight phase of the Battle of Britain, the anti-aircraft artillery team shot down 296 enemy planes and probably destroyed or damaged another 74.But the night raid brought them new problems, which they could not overcome with their existing searchlights and sonars.In the four months from October 1, only about seventy enemy planes were shot down.The advent of radar saved the situation.The first radar installations for directing artillery fire were deployed in October, and Mr. Bevan and I spent most of the night observing their effects.The searchlight beams were not installed until December.However, using this device requires a lot of training and experience, and at the same time, the device itself requires many improvements.The spring of 1941 was richly reaped by a huge effort in such a wide area. During the last few raids on London in the first two weeks of May, the German planes destroyed more than seventy enemy planes, that is to say, more enemy planes than were shot down in the four months of winter.Of course, the number of anti-aircraft guns also increased during this period.In December there were 1,400 heavy anti-aircraft guns and 650 light anti-aircraft guns; in May there were 1,687 heavy anti-aircraft guns and 790 light anti-aircraft guns, and about There are forty bazooka teams. [1] The tremendous increase in the effectiveness of our anti-aircraft artillery is due to the many new inventions and technical improvements which the scientists have supplied to the soldiers and who have put them to great use. 【1】See the appendix at the end of this chapter. By the middle of 1941, when rocket artillery units finally began to enter the fight in large numbers, air raids had been so much reduced that there was little opportunity to prove their effectiveness, but, in actual combat, the cost of shooting down an enemy aircraft was Only a little more rocket shells are required than anti-aircraft guns, but flak shells are much more expensive, and we have a very short supply of anti-aircraft guns.Rockets have a lot of potency on their own, and it's also a complement to our other methods of air defense. Of course, shells or rockets are the same, they can only be effective if they hit the right place and explode at the right time. Therefore, it is also necessary to make aerial mines, hang them on parachutes with long wires, and drop them on the enemy's air force. on the fairway.Such mines cannot be contained in cartridge cases.However, the shell of the rocket is thinner and the volume inside is larger.Three-inch rockets can be suspended at an altitude of 20,000 feet with 700-foot-long wire to form an aerial minefield.A considerable number of these three-inch rockets had been produced for use in the event of a major air attack on London.The advantage of such minefields over anti-aircraft fire lies, of course, in their ability to maintain their killing power for up to a minute.Because no matter where any part of the wing touches the wire, it will drag the mine up until it hits the plane and explodes.In this way, there is no need to install precise fuzes like ordinary shells. Of course, rockets carried by aircraft can also be used to lay mines in the air, or simply use small balloons to go up.The Admiralty endeavored to support the latter approach.In fact, however, rockets were never used in large numbers in combat.By the time rockets were mass produced, mass bombing had ceased.However, it is surprising and fortunate that during the last three years of the war the Germans did not develop such means to counter our massive air raids.Even a few minelaying planes can lay an aerial minefield over any German city and blow up a part of our bombers: the more aerial minefields, the greater our losses. There is another important aspect.In 1940 the dive bomber appeared to be a serious threat to our ships and vital factories.One might think that a plane that dive-bombs a ship is easy to shoot down because the gunner can aim directly at it regardless of how far it has moved.But the plane is a very small target when it is facing down, and the trigger fuze will only work if it hits directly, and the situation of direct hits is very few.Using timed fuzes, it is almost impossible to make the shell explode precisely when it passes the enemy aircraft.A time error of a tenth of a second would result in an error of several hundred feet from the target, so it seemed worth trying to develop a fuse that would explode automatically as soon as the shell reached the target, whether it hit or missed. Due to the small space for the projectile warhead, the three-inch rocket with a larger warhead volume has attracted people's attention.In 1940, when I was in the Admiralty, we pushed hard for the use of three-inch rockets.Using photocells, whenever the light changes, such as the shadow of an enemy plane, a pulse is generated.In February 1940 we produced a model which I took to Cabinet and showed it to my colleagues after a Cabinet meeting.把一個火柴匣從引信旁邊拋過去，就可以看到它的指示燈的閃光。聚集在內閣的大臣們，包括首相在內，都對此大感興趣。不過，從模擬的模型到完備地大量生產無線電信號機，還有一段漫長的歷程。我們努力生產所謂的光電引信，可是在這方面的情形也是一樣，當我們能夠大量生產時，我們的危險和敵人佔上風的時刻已經暫時過去了。 一九四一年又試圖設計一種類似的近炸引信，使用一架極小的雷達裝置，當火箭接近飛機時就使彈頭爆炸。在英國，初步的試驗曾獲得成功。我們把我們在這方面的知識告訴了美國人，他們不但完全製造成功，而且大大縮小了它的體積，不僅能將全部裝置放在火箭的頭部，而且能放在炮彈的頭部。美國製造的這種近炸引信在戰爭的最後一年中曾大量應用，對付德國在一九四四年用來襲擊我們的小型無人駕駛飛機（V一）以及在太平洋上對付日本的飛機，都證明十分有效。 巫術戰的最後階段，當然是發展和發明我們反攻德國所需要的雷達。這些發展和發明，在某種程度上是從我們自己的經驗和防禦努力中得出來的。它們所起的作用將在以後幾卷中敘述。到一九四○年九月，我們還要忍受將近九個月的轟炸和苦難之後，形勢才開始好轉。可以這樣說：當前，我們一方面在同眼前的危險進行富有成果的鬥爭，另一方面也密切注視著可能出現轉機的未來。