Blind Bombing: How Microwave Radar Brought the Allies to D-Day - Author Talk

Blind Bombing tells a tale from World War II.

On the eve of WWII, late in 1939, a top-secret gadget—the resonant cavity magnetron—was invented by two British scientists. Small enough to be held in the palm of a man’s hand, it was brought to the U.S. and showed to American scientists and military leaders. Immediately, the Radiation Lab was set up at MIT in Cambridge, MA to help the Brits develop microwave radars, without which we would not have been able to launch D-Day on June 6, 1944.That invention was the key that unlocked the promise of radar. And only the Allies had it. It proved to be the technology that conquered the 2 primary obstacles to D-Day, and the enemy couldn’t figure out how.

Author, Norman Fine will give a talk at this program.  He'll tell the relatively unknown story of radar’s transformation from a technical curiosity to a previously unimaginable offensive weapon. Blind Bombing brings to light two characters who played an integral role in the story as it unfolded: one, a brilliant and opinionated scientist, the other, an easygoing twenty-one-year-old caught up in the peacetime draft.This unlikely pair and a handful of their cohorts pioneered a revolution in warfare. They formulated new offensive tactics by trying, failing, and persevering,ultimately overcoming the naysayers and obstructionists on their own side and finally the enemy.

Norman Fine is a retired electronics engineer, founder of a high-tech company,and the editor and publisher of an annual engineering design guide series in the1990s.

Books will be available for purchase and provided by Winchester Book Gallery.