remained aloof from their attentions in spite of her being invited to events in the Mess.
I only bothered to go home once during the eight week course because I didn't want to expose myself any more than necessary to further altercations with my father. Instead, I would take the bus to Andover or to Salisbury to enjoy a Saturday afternoon. Sometimes I could hitch a lift with one of the permanent staff Officers who had a car for a look round the delightful village of Abbots Ann, or to go to Middle Wallop and walk along the river and look at the watercress beds. Life was relaxing when off work. It might even have become boring had I been there for an extended period.
In passing, I must mention that there was an experimental pyrotechnics factory not far away from which all sorts of strange plumes of smoke appeared from time to time. Similarly, but on a far grander scale, on a distant hill to the south, rainmaking experiments were being carried out. In what were presumably adjudged to be the right conditions of cloud type and altitude, we could see enormous clouds of some whitish chemical 'smoke' being released up into the atmosphere to mix with the airborne water droplets to 'wet' them, hopefully to make them grow and fall as rain. I don't remember hearing, or even reading in the press, that they were in the least successful.
As a necessary part of our training we made several visits, by RAF bus, to operational radar stations. One of these was the old wartime Chain Home Low Station with its fixed aerial array slung from tall masts. It had been in operation for many years and its performance, in simple terms, relied on its geographical location at the bottom of a steep hillside to reflect its energy forwards and so improve its coverage. This was RAF Ringstead, situated on the south coast a handful of miles to the east of Weymouth. Access was down a steep track to the operations building. It was buried in undergrowth and brambles, with evidence of its original defensive barbed-wire entanglement both over and around it. On entering its dark precincts I at once noticed that it had a musty smell, and I quickly became accustomed to the necessarily dim light. We were greeted by the Duty Watch Officer and were shown the ageing equipment, the radar display on the 'A' scope, and the use of the goniometer. The radar was good for range but heights were not at all accurate. Considerable experience seemed to be required to get the best out of it. An operator told us that one of the hazards of working there was that adders would sometimes find their way inside and look for warmth near the equipment racks. These incursions caused inevitable work interruptions, some excitement, and considerable caution exercised whenever one of these poisonous trespassers was discovered and had to be eliminated. The Station had been first opened in 1940 and was to close a few months after our visit.
The radar Station at Portland was a more modern facility. Properly, this was termed La Verne and was built in the solid rock below, and within, the precincts of Verne prison on Portland Bill at the southern end of Chesil Beach. Entry was gained through the prison gates. The operations block was 70 feet deep underground in a cavity cut in the underlying Portland stone. Entrance was by lift, the top of which was accessed through a stone 'bungalow' Guardroom built to blend in with other nearby buildings. It was said to be the deepest GCI Station in the UK. Above ground, it was equipped with a Type 54, a Type 14 upper, Type 14 lower, and at least three Type 13 'nodding horror' height finding radars. The information from these radars was displayed on PPI screens and height displays down below in the bunker.6
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6 PPI = Plan Position Indicator. This is a cathode ray tube on which is displayed a rotating radar trace which shows in its afterglow the location of echoes known as blips or, in more modern terminology, 'paints'. Heights could be determined accurately using nodding Type 13 radars which could be swung electrically by just turning a knob on the underground operator's console so that the radar faced in the right direction. The height of the detected aircraft could then be read off from a calibrated 'heights' screen.
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