Towards the end of the decade the Laboratories were becoming more and
more involved in preparations for national defence as tensions rose once again
across Europe. Hitler’s election as Chancellor in 1933, his abolition of
democracy and his seizing of absolute power in Germany, led almost
immediately to a massive German re-armament campaign. Many political
scientists at the time predicted the possibility of a second ‘Great War’, a view
firmly established when in 1935 Hitler rejected the Versailles Treaty, accelerated his re-armament campaign and introduced conscription. In August of
the same year, concerned about developments in Europe, America declared
herself neutral. Over the next few years a variety of territorial occupations
occurred across Europe and Treaties were signed as nations tried once again to
protect themselves against the catastrophe of another conflict. When the
Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, both Germany and Italy supported the
Nationalists against the Republicans and used the event to test new weapons
and methods of warfare. The war ended in 1939 and in January of the same
year Hitler ordered a major covert expansion of German Naval power to
challenge British supremacy. On 01 September 1939, the inevitable occurred
and Germany invaded Poland on the pretence that Poland had violated
German territory. On 03 September Britain, along with France and much of
the British Commonwealth, declared war on Germany. At the Laboratories,
in anticipation of another war, the illumination-group had already carried out
a study on visibility from the air in relation to a potential national ‘blackout’,
and the development for GEC’s own purposes, of metal-to-glass seals in
valves with which Robert Le Rossignol was intimately concerned, led to the
earliest involvement of any industrial organization in the Armed Services
programme to develop valves for radar. The pre-war work of the television
and cathode-ray groups also allowed them to rapidly transfer to military work
on radar.
Immediately on the outbreak of war, Lord Hirst sent for Paterson and told
him to place the Laboratories at the disposal of the Government and not to
permit commercial considerations or industrial rivalry to stand in the way of
the war effort. Nor did he wish the Laboratories to make any profit on
research done for the Services.
37 This instruction would have been entirely in
keeping with Paterson’s own views, and for all those working at the
Laboratories this was how they conducted themselves over the war years.
Work was undertaken because staff had the best expertise to achieve a solution and not because it would place GEC in some advantageous position after
the war. Sometimes, solutions provided by the Laboratories were taken to
production by other companies and so GEC ‘lost out’, even so Paterson had
no time or respect for anyone in any position whom he believed to be
16 The GEC Laboratories 1930–1939
397
more involved in preparations for national defence as tensions rose once again
across Europe. Hitler’s election as Chancellor in 1933, his abolition of
democracy and his seizing of absolute power in Germany, led almost
immediately to a massive German re-armament campaign. Many political
scientists at the time predicted the possibility of a second ‘Great War’, a view
firmly established when in 1935 Hitler rejected the Versailles Treaty, accelerated his re-armament campaign and introduced conscription. In August of
the same year, concerned about developments in Europe, America declared
herself neutral. Over the next few years a variety of territorial occupations
occurred across Europe and Treaties were signed as nations tried once again to
protect themselves against the catastrophe of another conflict. When the
Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, both Germany and Italy supported the
Nationalists against the Republicans and used the event to test new weapons
and methods of warfare. The war ended in 1939 and in January of the same
year Hitler ordered a major covert expansion of German Naval power to
challenge British supremacy. On 01 September 1939, the inevitable occurred
and Germany invaded Poland on the pretence that Poland had violated
German territory. On 03 September Britain, along with France and much of
the British Commonwealth, declared war on Germany. At the Laboratories,
in anticipation of another war, the illumination-group had already carried out
a study on visibility from the air in relation to a potential national ‘blackout’,
and the development for GEC’s own purposes, of metal-to-glass seals in
valves with which Robert Le Rossignol was intimately concerned, led to the
earliest involvement of any industrial organization in the Armed Services
programme to develop valves for radar. The pre-war work of the television
and cathode-ray groups also allowed them to rapidly transfer to military work
on radar.
Immediately on the outbreak of war, Lord Hirst sent for Paterson and told
him to place the Laboratories at the disposal of the Government and not to
permit commercial considerations or industrial rivalry to stand in the way of
the war effort. Nor did he wish the Laboratories to make any profit on
research done for the Services.
37 This instruction would have been entirely in
keeping with Paterson’s own views, and for all those working at the
Laboratories this was how they conducted themselves over the war years.
Work was undertaken because staff had the best expertise to achieve a solution and not because it would place GEC in some advantageous position after
the war. Sometimes, solutions provided by the Laboratories were taken to
production by other companies and so GEC ‘lost out’, even so Paterson had
no time or respect for anyone in any position whom he believed to be
16 The GEC Laboratories 1930–1939
397