I can remember my dad, who served as a signalman on HMS Jervis, telling me of a story where he was using a device called X-Ray 48, a ship-to ship signalling lamp that used infrared. The idea was that only the receiving operator would be able to read the signal. I'm not sure if any of his other ships were fitted with it. Does anyone know of the deployment of this system i.e when and to which ships?
I think this was fairly common in the late war period. I have only come across it being used off the Normandy beaches but it was a simple system. It only needed a filter fitting to a signal lamp for sending and an infra red telescope for receiving. It was secure for use where the enemy might read ordinary Morse signals sent by lamp. It was necessary to warn the recipient that a signal was about to be sent. This could be done using a code word over the TBS radio. Mike
Thanks Trux. Do you think it's feasible that this would have been in use in the Med in spring 1941, as that was when I think this story originated
All things are possible. The earliest use I know of was the N.African landings in 1942. I imagine if infra red signalling was available in even a trial form in 1941 the Mediterranean would be the place where it would be most useful. Mike
Just come across this thread while doing a bit of minor digging into infrared myself. When Nigel Clogstoun-Willmott (COPP) and Roger Courtney (SBS) did a beach reconnaissance of Rhodes in March-April 1941, they used (apparently 'borrowed' from the RAF) some infrared gear - both a transmitter and a receiver. Supposedly these were some of the first bits of RG (red/green) gear in existence. These would have been small, handheld units, used to help them in their canoe rendezvous back with the submarine HMS Triumph. So it was certainly 'around' in the Med in early 1941 but would still have been classed as 'top secret', I think -- another story from COPP has them travelling with the units from Scotland back down to their depot on Hayling Island in Hampshire and having to sit with revolvers to guard the units. That would have been around early 1943.
So I've had a sniff around the forums for other infrared discussions but I think this is as good a place as any for me to follow up. Lots of the other threads seem to be about infrared vision on vehicles or sights. I've just been delving a bit more into Operation KJH, the reconnaissance that COPP did of beaches in the Ver-sur-Mer area of Normandy before D-Day. There's a copy of the report at the Royal Engineers Museum and I popped down there earlier in December and had a look. In the Lessons and suggestions part of the document, Nigel Willmott talks about their RG gear -- see attached image. It got me a bit excited. It suggests that the LCP(SY) survey boats of 712th Landing Craft Personnel (Survey) Flotilla had their own infrared transmittered fitted -- range of a little over a mile. It names two types of infrared transmitter used by COPP: RG3 Type 308 [I think] transmitter -- range 3 miles, 120-degree dispersion RG8s Type 310 transmitter -- range just over 2 miles, 45-degree [I think] dispersion It confirms that at least earlier in the war COPP used Type D receivers -- I guess they would probably by December 1943/January 1944 have moved on from Type D to one of the more recent versions. Which is all very exciting. But of course I'm now struggling to find further details. Sites like Arnhem Jim's cover the Type K receiver but doesn't seem to mention transmitters at all. Does anyone have any suggestions about where I might be able to have a rummage for more info about the transmitters?
Just found a suggestion that the RG3 transmitter had "special connections for submarines", suggesting this is the transmitter used from the conning tower of the sub during post-recce rendezvous.
