40 Radio Detachment - Allan Island, Newfoundland

The following is a summary of events at this unit during the transition period when the Americans were still in command but personnel were largely RCAF, and a brief description of the station and its surrounding areas. The American Officer Commanding was Lt Marvin Skones, US Army Signal Corps, who had with him an administrative officer, a medical officer, and a chief warrant officer technician as well as some 48 men.

With the exception of the senior radar mechanic who had come two weeks previously and two radar men who had been attached to the American group for some months prior, maintaining the radar beacon installed here, the first main party of RCAF personnel, consisting largely of radar operators ground, arrived with the Officer Commanding on the 20 October, 1944. During the following three weeks, some 30 additional personnel of all trades arrived by boat. A few were sent out from time to time for compassionate or medical reasons, but by the 14 November, the date of the American departure, there were actually 41 personnel, including the Officer Commanding, present on the island, and most of these had become completely oriented and knew sufficiently about their particular jobs or equipment to carry on operations efficiently.

A brief description of the activities and operations carried on by this station follows:

Primarily, this is an SCR-270-BB Radar Early Warning Unit with American transmitter, modified in such a fashion that its antenna is very similar to our own CHL but operating on a considerably lower frequency. The receiver has been modified with the installation of a console similar to that of the Canadian CHL/GCI Mark V. It has proven itself effective at ranges up to 200 miles but, possibly due to the pecularities of this particular installation, it has not shown as low a lobe pattern as most of the Canadian CHL; to date, no echoes from surface vessels have been received, although strong permanent echoes are had from nearby islands such as St. Pierre. A sector from 75 to 310 degrees is being scanned, this taking in all of the water area looking out from Burin Peninsula, off which the island is situated. Included in the Operations Building is an IFF Interrogator - Responder of the Mark III variety. Some minor trouble has been experienced with this equipment to date, but if certain spare components are provided operations will be maintained, as they have been hitherto. The radar is bulkier and less easy to handle and maintain than the Canadian equipment, being separated into components which are placed about the Operating Building in somewhat awkward fashion. Also at the Operations Building is weather equipment, consisting of anemometer, wet and dry thermometer and so forth. Weather reports are transmitted to group headquarters every three hours.

The Wireless room in the Administration Building contains several receivers, two American transmitters for telling (1 large multi-channel, 300 watt job, the RC-52-Band and an SCR-188-A "Liaison" standby installation); an RCAF transmitter, Type AT3, which is used for passing administration traffic only, and a complete radar beacon installation.

The remainder of the station contains a profusion of equipment, considerably in excess of that found on most RCAF Detachments of this kind. The buildings are beginning to show their two years of use; due to the very temporary and somewhat flimsy nature of their construction, they are rather hard to keep warm with the oil stoves provided, in the face of high winds that generally prevail. Outside of the wind, the climate is generally fairly mild; considerable fog is the rule during the summer with sleet and biting, damp, cold wind during the winter. The island is but a short distance from the mainland and the village of Lamaline, Newfoundland, but it is often impossible to cross the narrow harbour because of treachorous winds, tides, and rocks. There are about sixty families on the island who have been most friendly and hospitable to the servicemen.

Unfortunately, there is among the civilian population, a high prevalence of Tuberculosis and Vincents Angina, as well as the danger of Typhoid infection from water away from the station, according to reports made by the American Medical Officer previously stationed here.