Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Note
Although this fact was not known during the war itself, as men-
tioned earlier in the chapter, German spies had passed along in-
formation about the Norden bombsight to Germany as early as
1938. Giving the Norden bombsight to Great Britain would not
have degraded its security because the Germans were already
building a similar bombsight based on stolen technology passed on
by German spies.
The impasse between Britain and the United States on military weapons led to
the famous Tizard mission of 1940 to try and improve technical information trans-
fer. This mission was named after Henry Tizard, the chairman of the British Aero-
nautical Research Committee.
Although the Tizard mission did not acquire the Norden bombsight, it did
smooth the animosity between British and American military leaders. The United
States benefited greatly by receiving information about British jet-engine develop-
ment, the cavity magnetron which enabled small radar sets, self-sealing fuel tanks,
plastic explosives, and other technologies where the United Kingdom was a world
leader.
The magnetron was a critical product that allowed radar sets small enough to
be placed in fighters and bombers, which greatly improved combat effectiveness.
Even better, these airborne radar sets allowed planes to locate submarines at great
distances and even at night. Small radar sets operating in aircraft were one of the
most important inventions of World War II, and this has had significant civilian
benefits as well.
It is an interesting historical fact that both analog and digital computers
changed the course of World War II. In fact, the strong British desire for the
Norden analog computer yielded extremely valuable technologies that benefited
U.S. war efforts, with the magnetron being a key invention that revolutionized air
combat by introducing radar to combat aircraft.
Analog computers were the workhorses of World War II computation. Every
war ship, bomber, and artillery battery used analog computation as a standard
method of operation. These devices increased both the accuracy and the rates of
fire of land artillery and naval guns. They also increased the accuracy of bombing
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