Wuerzburg radar was deployed by Germany during World War II. It took its name from the city of Würzburg for no other reason than the project leader liked geographical names.

Development started as a private venture by Telefunken before the war. Under the direction of Dr. Wilhelm Runge, the company's lab director development was avanced enough that by July 1939, it led to a demonstration of a practical gun-laying radar to the Wehrmacht. The military were impressed and had it put into production.

It operated in the range of 54 to 53 cm / 553 to 566 MHz, an extremely short wavelength for the time, with a pulse length of 2 microseconds, a peak power of 7 to 11 kW, and a PRF of 3,750 Hz. Range was about 29 kilometers (18 miles).

The initial "Wuerzburg A" model used a steerable paraboloid dish antenna to focus on targets. The next production model, the "Wuerzburg C", added lobe switching for greater accuracy, and the definitive "Wuerzburg D", introduced in 1941, featured conical scanning, using a offset receiver feed that spun at 25 Hz, called a "Quirl".

The Wuerzburg went into service in 1940 and over 3,000 of all variants were built.

A Wuerzburg system on the coast of France was attacked by British Paratroopers in Operation Biting. The electronics of the system were brought back to Britain for examination so that counter measures could be devised. The British technicians who examined it were impressed by the modularization for the system, which aided maintenance. As a consequence the German maintenance technicians did not have to have the same level of electronics knowledge which the British technicians had to have to maintain British equipment.

See also

• Freya radar

External links

ORIGINS OF GERMAN RADAR: SEETAKT, FREYA, WUERZBURG. There is a open source verification for this text on the home page Greg Goebel / In The Public Domain.