Morrison shelters abounded, queues at local shops for rations, dogfights in the
air above the town and aircraft taking off and landing continuously at
Northrop—children often ‘counting them all out’ and (sometimes) counting
‘them all back in’. Disturbingly, rumours abounded about how local land
marks such as Harrow-on-the-Hill church were used by the Luftwaffe as
‘markers’.
31 7 St. John’s Road however survived and ‘Harrovians’, with
infinitely more conviction than some others, could certainly ‘look the
‘East-Enders in the eye’.
By 24 September incendiary ‘roof watching’ duties were organised at the
Laboratories, with Paterson and other senior staff taking their turn, often
experiencing ‘more excitement than … expected’. In late September Paterson
and Robert attended the Air Ministry with a view to a new contract for
‘Signals’, and although the Diary makes no mention of the Tizard mission
during September 1940, by 17 October 1 Paterson records that at a meeting
‘in the Club’ after the mission, Tizard reported ‘laudatory remarks regarding
our valves from experts in the USA’. Mid-to-late October saw a new edition
of the milli-micropup achieve 30 kW at 25 cm, Robert and a colleague
travelled to the Government’s Telecommunications Research Establishment
(TRE) at Swanage, where they had ‘none too easy a time’, (see below) and in
November with heavy air raids continuing on London, Bristol and Coventry,
working times at the Laboratories were ‘re-jigged’; work now started at 7.30
am, and with Paterson recording that ‘ … we don’t seem to have mastered the
night raider yet’, staff had to be well-away before dark. But even on Boxing
Day 1940, commitment was such that the Laboratories had a ‘full house’.
However, apart from Roosevelt being elected for a third term in America
suggesting some continuity in the relationship between the two countries, the
passing of 1940 gave little to lament.
17.3.1.2 January–May 1941
The new year however began on an optimistic note following the capture of
both Tobruk and Benghazi in late January and early February. At the
Laboratories, these early months were marked largely by ‘teething troubles’
with the new magnetrons, whose reported ‘idiosyncrasies’ began to grip all
concerned, the very same that caused Robert to have ‘none too easy a time’ at
Swanage the previous October. These alleged anomalies prompted Paterson
to record in early January that they had by now ‘stirred up a regular panic,
and half of Westminster appears to be boiling!’. Paterson received a number
of worried telephone calls demanding ‘the truth’ about the devices, but he
17 The GEC Laboratories 1939–1949
417
air above the town and aircraft taking off and landing continuously at
Northrop—children often ‘counting them all out’ and (sometimes) counting
‘them all back in’. Disturbingly, rumours abounded about how local land
marks such as Harrow-on-the-Hill church were used by the Luftwaffe as
‘markers’.
31 7 St. John’s Road however survived and ‘Harrovians’, with
infinitely more conviction than some others, could certainly ‘look the
‘East-Enders in the eye’.
By 24 September incendiary ‘roof watching’ duties were organised at the
Laboratories, with Paterson and other senior staff taking their turn, often
experiencing ‘more excitement than … expected’. In late September Paterson
and Robert attended the Air Ministry with a view to a new contract for
‘Signals’, and although the Diary makes no mention of the Tizard mission
during September 1940, by 17 October 1 Paterson records that at a meeting
‘in the Club’ after the mission, Tizard reported ‘laudatory remarks regarding
our valves from experts in the USA’. Mid-to-late October saw a new edition
of the milli-micropup achieve 30 kW at 25 cm, Robert and a colleague
travelled to the Government’s Telecommunications Research Establishment
(TRE) at Swanage, where they had ‘none too easy a time’, (see below) and in
November with heavy air raids continuing on London, Bristol and Coventry,
working times at the Laboratories were ‘re-jigged’; work now started at 7.30
am, and with Paterson recording that ‘ … we don’t seem to have mastered the
night raider yet’, staff had to be well-away before dark. But even on Boxing
Day 1940, commitment was such that the Laboratories had a ‘full house’.
However, apart from Roosevelt being elected for a third term in America
suggesting some continuity in the relationship between the two countries, the
passing of 1940 gave little to lament.
17.3.1.2 January–May 1941
The new year however began on an optimistic note following the capture of
both Tobruk and Benghazi in late January and early February. At the
Laboratories, these early months were marked largely by ‘teething troubles’
with the new magnetrons, whose reported ‘idiosyncrasies’ began to grip all
concerned, the very same that caused Robert to have ‘none too easy a time’ at
Swanage the previous October. These alleged anomalies prompted Paterson
to record in early January that they had by now ‘stirred up a regular panic,
and half of Westminster appears to be boiling!’. Paterson received a number
of worried telephone calls demanding ‘the truth’ about the devices, but he
17 The GEC Laboratories 1939–1949
417