DAILY DIARY
20 RADIO DETACHMENT - SYDNEY, NS
May 11, 1944 to December 11, 1944
11 May 44
Due to the fact that equipment such as rakes, shovels, et cetera are not on our scale of issue, we are handicapped in fixing up the grounds. Baseball diamond abandoned until tool situation is cleared up. Heavy fog and mist. Track out to 92 miles, and other out to 115 miles.
12 May 44
IFF tower material arrived. Picked up an A/C at 101 miles with sig/noise ratio of 1.5/1. Shifts of diesel men changed from four 6 hours shifts to three 8 shifts. Passed plots to control tower at their request on overdue Libertor coming to the station from the south east. Weather fine.
13 May 44
Weather clear and mild. Followed an IFF track out to 130 miles. Followed a Liberator on patrol for 535 miles.
14 May 44
Passed plots on A/C at control tower's request. Four surface vessels plotted. Not verified. Rain & fog, clearing about 1600 hours.
15 May 44
LAC Wallace, playing with barbed wire, required first aid with iodine. Followed Ventura on patrol for 580 miles. Weather clear and warm.
16 May 44
LAC Farr is now the proud father of a baby girl. Weather clear, but no exceptional tracks or ranges.
17 May 44
Cloudy in the morning with fog by noon. Heavy traffic considering the weather. A/C passing over on way to Newfoundland.
18 May 44
Foggy, ceiling zero. Only two tracks. Mechanics, Bridgewater, Hoad and Huffman posted to No 4 RD.
19 May 44
F/S Bartlett's wife finally arrived via TCA, 39 hours late. Independent check of non secret inventory made: no deficiencies. Only surpluses 3 chairs and a brush. Weather clear and warm with considerable local flying. Followed one track to 105 miles with signal/noise ratio of 1.5:1. 78 tracks during the day, an exceptionally large number. R164364, LAC Hoover DL, posted to No 4 RD in place of LAC Bridgewater.
20 May 44
Reception poor this morning. Cpl Hicks, diesel fitter, posted to No 75 Detachment Riviere au Renard. Windy during day.
21 May 44
Followed an A/C out to 142 miles at 049 degrees with signal/noise ratio of 1.1:1. 74 tracks today. Considerable flying lately. Warm with a few clouds.
22 May 44
Volunteers requested for Labrador. LAC Mullen & LAC Feinstein, both Operator, posted to No 77 Detachment with no annual leave to be granted. Maximum range 93 miles at 052 degrees. Clear during day with rain in the evening.
23 May 44
No volunteers found for Labrador. LAC Feinstein granted 8 days compassionate leave. Reception good. Picked up an A/C at 86 miles at 320 degrees, and faded it at 102 miles with echo to noise ratio of 1.1:1. Weather clear and warm.
24 May 44
LAC Facey, Mechanic, posted to Louisburg. Weather clear and warm with average amount of flying. No unusual tracks or ranges.
25 May 44
Trafffic fairly heavy with several fortresses passing over enroute to Newfoundland. Weather fine, reception good. Plots at 91 and 92 miles.
26 May 44
Four men posted away, three of them guards, leaving us with only 5 guards including the sergent. One of these 5 is on farm leave, and another is in the hospital. Traffic heavy again today. Two A/C plotted to 100 miles. LAC Corr EJ, a security guard, admitted to hospital. Clear and warm.
27 May 44
Weather fine again this morning. Considerable flying, but no exceptional tracks or ranges.
28 May 44
Weather unsettled with scattered showers and electrical disturbances. Considerable flying with a plot of 90 miles recorded. EAC inquired abut an A/C approximately 15 miles out at 15:10 hours. Our track No. 8, at 060 degrees, 18 miles, proved to be the one in question. Pan-American clipper from Botwood to New York.
29 May 44
Posting of R113587, AC Flieger BW, cancelled as he is on farm leave. Weather clear and warm. Considerable flying. A/C picked up at 100 miles with signal/noise ratio of 1.5:1. Reception good. Off the air for 57 minutes when horizontal feeder snapped.
30 May 44
Weather fine today. A start was made this morning to effect a satisfactory drainage system for the grounds. Considerable flying, but no unusual tracks or ranges.
31 May 44
Three mechanics posted overseas, reporting Y Depot 19, June - R175119, Cpl Hodgson, ER - R159242, LAC Butterfield, GH - and R171651, LAC Howard, HD Mechanics now one under establshment. Work on drainage continued with satisfactory progress noted. Weather overcast, warm. Reception good but nothing unusual.
(TJ Bradbury) P/O
OC No 20 R. Detachment
RCAF, Sydney, NS
APPENDX IV
to Command Instruction
#84 as amended 27th
September/43
as of 2359 hours on the last day
of the Month of May 1944
SECRET
Station or Unit No 20 Radio Detachment
Service | OFFICERS | F/SGT'S, AND SGTS | CPLS AND OTHER RANKS | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Staff (Male) | Staff (Male) |
Staff (Male) | ||
RCAF | 1 | 4 | 36 | 41 |
|
|
| CIVILIANS | NIL |
|
|
| GRAND TOTAL | 41 |
1 Aug 44
Visit by firefighters to take inventory of our firefighting equipment. Truck still undergoing repairs: trouble with ignition and steering. Fog in the morning and overcast the remainder of the day.
2 Aug 44
Permission from EAC for visit of Governor General to No 20 Detachment. Clear and warm. Truck still unserviceable. Approximately 100 CT Aircrew arrived on main station from No 1 MD - expected to remain here for several months. Very busy in the afternoon with 41 tracks plotted.
3 Aug 44
Truck finally repaired and returned to us. Main station loaned us 5 CT. Aircrew for the day - employed advantageously in tidying up detachment grounds in preparation for an expected visit by the Governor General. R154546 AC1 Corr, EJ and 7754 AC1 Ballantyne, ER, both recently remustered to Equipment Assistants but still employed as Security Guards, were posted, the former to Bagotville and the latter to No 164 Squadron, Moncton. The only regular guards now are a Sergeant SP and a Corporal GD. Clear and warm all day with a moderate amount of flying. Control Tower requested at 0050 hours that a sharp lookout be kept for a Digby one hour overdue from Stephanville. We were unable to locate it, and asked Halifax for information. They confirmed Tower's statement, and at 0100 hours notified us that the A/C had landed at Gander. This information was passed on to Control Tower. From 1005 hours to 1020 hours we were off the air for abnormal maintenance to repair a broken delflection coil lead in the PPI tube. Thirteen men from No 20 Detachment selected to participate in Sunday's parade through Sydney.
4 Aug 44
Governor General and Princess Alice arrived today by air. We picked up Royal Party at Queen Fox 3763, and Halifax identified the A/C as Coastal 128. LAC McCurdy, VG, Radar Operating proceeding on leave, received a flip to Ottawa on the same aircraft. Overcast and very humid.
5 Aug 44
Expected visit of Governor General to No 20 Detachment failed to materialize. F/O Robinson arrived from Scoudouc this morning to take over command of detachment during F/O Bradbbury's leave. Sgt Atkinson, WL, Cpl Thomas, WN, LAC Zarsky, O, LAC Williams, JA and LAC Wardinger, A arrived at No 20 Detachment to commence work on RH installation. Weather clear and warm. During the morning we picked up an A/C at Queen Fox 4012 which acted peculiarly, and reported it to the Filter Officer. After checking with Control Tower, & the Filter Officer with the Navy, no definite information was available, & Filter identified the A/C as Q for Query 115.
1 Oct 44
Sunday. Cold and wet. The posting of F/O Allen has been postponed until 10th October. This evening a tragedy occurred near the station: a US Naval Air Transport DC3 crashed only a few miles away with several fatalities. Only two plots on this aircraft were recorded, and no requests for assistance were received. IFF was normal.
2 Oct 44
Monday. Misty and rain. Much activity with end of month reports, but little operational work.
3 Oct 44
Tuesday. Heavy winds and rain. Gantry tied down for several hours.
4 Oct 44
Wednesday. We have been having incessant trouble with the toilet not clearing. Works & Buildings sent us two men to dig down to the pipes as we suspect a broken pipe.
5 Oct 44
Thursday. Five broken pipes were discovered by Works & Buildings, and were replaced. Toilet working satisfactory now. gravel is being laid along the road leading frm the main station to this unit.The equipment is working well.
6 Oct 44
Friday. A fine day, and the operators kept busy plotting tracks. This evening we had to go off the air due to a short across the slip rings of the PPI unit.
7 Oct 44
Saturday. F/O Allen's posting to this unit is cancelled. F/O Gruber and Cpl Batten represented this unit at a Victory Loan meeting today.
8 Oct 44
Sunday. Rain. Little operational activity today.
9 Oct 44
Monday. Rain all day. Very quiet indeed.
10 Oct 44
Tuesday. Still raining. A few tracks plotted, and a PE, presumed to be the Marconi Tower, picked up 5 1/2 miles at 090 degrees.
11 Oct 44
Wednesday. Misty and dull.
1 Dec 44
Friday. The weather turned mild today, overcast with scattered showers.
2 Dec 44
Saturday. Clear and cold with sunshine. Hastening action taken on T1 Plate Transformer for Thyratron unit, delayed since November 12th/44.
3 Dec 44
Sunday. Cloudy and cool. The usual quiet Sunday.
4 Dec 44
Monday. Cloudy and cool with scattered snow flurries. Three radar operators posted to this unit, - Cpl Smith, LAC Jones, LAC Williams.
5 Dec 44
Tuesday. Cloudy and cool.
6 Dec 44
Wednesday. Clear cool weather. Three operators, Smith, Jones and Williams reported to this unit.
7 Dec 44
Thursday. All the weapons of this unit were cleaned today, by the armament section of the main camp. Weather overcast, with rain turning to snow.
8 Dec 44
Friday. Weekly operational report completed, once again requesting hastening action on T1 Plate Transformer, which has caused us to be on restricted operations since Nov. 10/44. Weather overcast and cool.
9 Dec 44
Saturday. Overcast and cool. Transport thirty minutes late at noon. Received a call from Filter Officer re our Monthly Technical Report, which showed a 7/1 signal noise ratio at 134 miles, instead of .71.
10 Dec 44
Sunday. Overcast and cool, turning much colder in evening with snow. Field resistor in Thyratron unit burned out, replaced by spare without time off the air.
11 Dec 44
Monday. The busiest day the station has ever had, 1001 plots being passed. Overcast and cold, the ground covered with snow.
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Updated: April 8, 2003