Air Ministry Experimental Station

For other uses, see Ames (disambiguation).

AMES, short Air Ministry Experimental Station, was the name given to the British Air Ministry's radar development team at Bawdsey Manor in the immediate pre-World War II era. Although the team would be forced to move on three occasions, changing names as part of these moves, the AMES acronym became the basis for naming Royal Air Force radar systems through the war. The same numbering sequence was used after the war as well, but generally dropped the AMES from the name. A good example is the Type 80, which was officially an AMES type, but rarely appears with that marque.

Equipment

Mobile units

Mobile radar units, usually consisting of COL, GCI, or similar equipment, mounted in vehicles, was used extensively overseas, and these units received numerical designations preceded by 'AMES', e.g., AMES 1505 - one of the units providing GCI coverage of the Naples sector during the Allied invasion of Italy.[1]

Fighter Direction Tenders

Three Landing Ship, Tank (LST) were converted into "Fighter Direction Tenders" (FDT), swapping their landing craft for Motor Launches[2] and outfitted with AMES Type 11 and Type 15 fighter control radar to provide GCI coverage for air defence of the D-Day landing areas. Of these ships, FDT 216 was stationed off Omaha and Utah beaches, FDT 217 was allocated Sword, Juno, and Gold beaches. FDT 13 was used for coverage of the overall main shipping channel. In the period 6 June to 26 June Allied fighters controlled by the FDTs resulted in the destruction of 52 enemy aircraft by day, and 24 enemy aircraft by night.[3]

Post-War

Post World War II in addition to the AMES Type XX designation new equipment was also allocated a Rainbow Code name during development, e.g., AMES Type 86 was allocated the code name Blue Anchor. In addition, the manufacturing company, Ferranti, had its own internal and marketing name for the equipment, in this case, Firelight.

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Linden, R. F. (2014). "The Italian Campaign: The Invasion of the South of France, 1943–1945" (PDF). Canadians on Radar: Royal Canadian Air Force 1940–1945. Robert Quirk's Home Page. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Rottman, Gordon L.; Bryan, Tony & Sarson, Peter (2005). Landing Ship, Tank (LST) 1942-2002. Osprey Publishing. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-84176-923-3. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Macaulay, Horace R. (2014). "Ground Controlled Interception Radars In Operation Neptune/Overlord" (PDF). Canadians on Radar: Royal Canadian Air Force 1940–1945. Robert Quirk's Home Page. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
Bibliography

External links

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