Why this RAF crew started "stealing" German radar signals during WW2 — and what happened when they turned enemy technology against them. This World War 2 story reveals how electronic warfare changed night fighting forever.
November 4, 1944. Squadron Leader Branse Burbridge, 85 Squadron RAF, climbed into his Mosquito at RAF Swannington as German night fighters scrambled across Europe. He activated the Serrate detector - a device that tracked enemy Lichtenstein radar emissions. Every Luftwaffe doctrine said their radar was undetectable. German High Command called it impossible to intercept.
They were all wrong.
What Burbridge and navigator Bill Skelton discovered that night wasn't about outflying German pilots. It was about using their own technology against them in a way that contradicted everything Luftwaffe believed secure. The mission that followed would test whether this invisible hunting technique could work deep over enemy territory. And whether German night fighters would ever feel safe again.
This technique spread through RAF squadrons, crew to crew, before appearing in any training manual. The Serrate principles discovered at RAF Swannington continue to influence electronic warfare tactics today.
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