Hawkshill's Vital Role in World War II

Cyril Highman of Newport, Gwent, South Wales recalls how a radar facility at Walmer's Hawkshill Down ensured precision bombing. He writes:

"I can find very little about the history of Walmer during the war, a period when many of its residents were evacuated because of its close proximity to the French coast and the threat of German activity. Shelling from Cap Griz Nez was a persistent danger in this part of 'Hellfire Corner' of Kent extending from Sandwich almost to Folkestone.

"As a radar mechanic in the RAF, I was posted in early 1943 to a newly built radar station sited at Hawkshill Down. The South Forelands strip of the Kent coast provided the nearest point as the crow flies to the heavily industrialised Ruhr area of Germany. Attempts to bomb this prime target in the early part of the war had been mainly a failure using the navigational systems available to the RAF up to that time. The radar research establishment, having moved to Malvern College from Dorset, contrived a radio navigational system known under the cover name of 'Oboe'. This enabled mosquito aircraft to mark targets with a 90-yard accuracy at 250-mile range. These would be the pathfinders for the masses of heavy bombers now guided by coloured flares dropped by the pathfinders.

"Hawkshill laid down radio navigational beams, working with a sister station in Norfolk, and together they revolutionised the RAF bombing success in attacking German industrial and military targets. The part played by this site in helping to win the war was immense."

Cyril later added a footnote:

"As 'Oboe' developed and enlarged, new units were set up in Kingsdown using magnetron transmitters, not easily jammed by the Germans. From the original small complement of RAF types installed in private houses (I found myself with a nice family in Walmer Castle Road near the Drum public house), the station expanded its WAAF complement taking over some of the many large empty houses in the area."