Luftwaffe responses.  
     
  Home  
     
  Back  
     
  Part 8.  
         
  The Bernhard/Bernadine.  
         
 

In mid 1944 the cockpit of a German night fighter was a very busy place, not the least for the radio-operator (Bord-Funker).  He would be operating 2 radios (FuG 10 and 16 ZY), a radar (some version of the Lichtenstein), watch the FuG 227 Flensburg for indications of Monica emissions, the FuG 350 Naxos for H2S emissions, operate the radio compass in order to obtain fixes, plot the fighter position and give the pilot a course to steer when performing Gebietsnachtjagd.  It was becoming increasingly difficult for the JD to find a frequency, which was not jammed and on which, the Reportage could be transmitted.

 
     
 

A small number of FuS AN 724/725 "Bernhard" UKW-Richtstrahl-Drehfunkfeuer were already in operation.  The system consisted of a very large antenna (please see below) which rotated 360 dg. twice a minute.  The receiver in the aircraft (FuG 120 "Bernhardine") displayed the bearing to the station on a narrow paper strip.  The system was now modified to transmit a very abbreviated Reportage Lage consisting of the height of the Bomber Stream, the position, heading and strength.  The system worked on 30 - 33,3 Mhz, was high powered and directional and hence very difficult to jam.  By switching between 2 stations the radio operator could now obtain a fix every 1 minute and he did not have to work 2 radios to find a jamming free frequency.

 
         
   
  FuS AN 724/725 "Bernhard"  stations.  Some of them might never have been modified to transmit the Reportage Lage.  
         
         
 

One such system was established in Denmark at Hundborg, Thisted.

 
         
     
  Map of location.   Aerial view 1945.  
         
     
  The Bernhard at Hundborg.   Immediate post war map of the site.  
         
     
  A decoy erected 1 km west of the site.   The site after the antenna had been removed..  
         
       
  Receiving station, which monitored the signal.      
         
         
         
   
     
  Back  
     
  Home