Ear on Chicago; They Also Serve

10, 11, 12, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, the 22nd Aircraft Artillery Group. Captain, let's begin this tour by having you tell me, what is the mission of D -Battery? This battery is one of many like batteries that comprise the 22nd Aircraft Artillery Group. The batteries are charged with the anti -aircraft

defense of the city of Chicago, defending them against enemy bombers. And you have these batteries established in a ring around the entire city and suburban areas. That is correct. And what are your hours of operation if you have such a thing? These units are on alert status 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We've noticed a lot of activity going on at this particular battery today, is this normal? Is this routine? This is routine. We keep them on their toes by having an alert at least once a day, almost every day of the year. And we never know when these alerts are going to come, so you must be ready all the time. That's right. They could come at any time of day or night. Captain, what's happening now? This is one of those practice alerts that I was telling you about a moment ago. There seems to be some activity developing. Let's come as all seem to know where they're going, Captain. Where are they

going? They're going to the various positions throughout the area, some of them on the gun, some of them on the radar, some of them into the CP. And where are they all come from? Well, they come from their normal duty stations. They're on KP in the mess hall, clerk typists, and some of them might even be lying on their bunk's reading and a break period. And you have regular time schedule for them to get to their positions? They get to their positions just as fast as they can get there. And the positions they get to amount to about three. That is the command post, the various gun positions, and any other spot. Yes, the sector operation center. I suggest we go over there now and get a better picture of what's happening. Look at the attempt to give you a word picture of this sector operation center. We're now in a room approximately 20 feet square. We're on a raised platform on one side of the room, radio gear, and operators are on this platform. I'm looking down on a circular chart directly below me,

approximately five feet in diameter. In the center of the chart is a spot which marks the battery, where we're now stationed. On the chart are various movable devices representing approaching aircraft and batteries. What's actually happening here, Captain? I'd like to introduce you to Major Elmer Mackie, the executive officer of the 49th battalion. He is one of his many duties is to supervise this sector operation center. And I believe he could give you a better picture of what's going on. All right, Major. What are these sounds we're hearing in the background? The sounds you're hearing in the background are plots which are being transmitted from our surveillance radar to our sector operations room. From there they are being relayed to the firing batteries of the battalion and of the sector. The men scattered around the room are recording these plots as they are coming from the radar and as they are being transmitted the radars are attempting to get their on target for firing purposes.

I have seven men in the room. Is that a normal crew major? That is a normal crew for a sector, W -A -O -C, or operations room. Can you tell me something about the charts scattered around the walls without disclosing any secrets? Yes, the chart we have over here on the opposite end of the wall from the bridge is known as the situation board. On this board are depicted all the enemy or aircraft activity within the area and provides us a source for showing operations officer the number of aircraft the direction of their flight and how the distance from the center of the defense. What are some of the other charts? The other ones I see around the room. Can you tell me about those? The other charts are basically called track charts. On these particular charts we have operators who are recording the information coming from the surveillance radar to the sector operations room and also record all information coming from

our higher headquarters as early warning information. Are there any sounds that are coming in major? Do they mean something? Are you listening to these with one here? These particular sounds are from a surveillance radar which we have located north of our sector operations room. At this time we have been notified that there is an unknown aircraft coming into our Gary and Chicago defense. This aircraft was picked up somewhere north of here either by civil observers or they have been picked up by radar by the air corps. This information has been transmitted to us through the primary AAOC which is located in the heart of Chicago. A few minutes ago we received from that headquarters the order to assume exercise battle stations in order that this exercise can be completed. As you know the firing unit has already alerted their personnel

and they are on their equipment. Major what happens to all this information you're collecting in this center? This information is being relayed to the command post of the batteries within the defense. I suggest we go over there now and see what they are doing. We are now in deep battery command post and radar room. We are now in a large metal van which contains a maze of electronic gear of various types. We're going to have a description of it from the man in charge in just a moment but Major Mackey suppose you tell us what's happening here. As you have just heard the plots are being received here at the radar from the sector

operations room to give you a description of how the battery acquires the target. I would like to introduce you to Lieutenant Charles Blackwell the radar officer of battery D. All right Lieutenant Blackwell I suppose that a lot of people or most people I should say understand how radar works by now but suppose you give us an idea of what actually happens in this radar van with all its mains of equipment not as radar work. Well here we have a gun laying radar which is made up mainly a three component a track radar has a receiver and a transmitter also a computer now this transmitter transmits a radio pulse into space and hits the object which reflects this pulse back to the receiver. The receiver picks this pulse up and feeds it into a computer which computes the predicted position of the target which enables us to fire on this target. Now in this particular room you have one big scope right there

in the center that I notice with the sweep going around is that recording from the radar device on top of this trailer? No it's not this is recording from a separate radar which is located outside the van which enables us to search for radars correction to search for targets at the same time we are locked on a target with a radar which is on top of the van. Now what's the specific function of the radar device on top of this van? Now the radar on top of the van points at the target, locks on it and enables us to fly gives us pointing down for our guns. I should say that this trailer is a completely self -contained unit you have your own power and everything not sure. It's sure as we can move as a mobile unit. The hum we hear in the background is not in our radio equipment it is the sound of the power being generated to operate this huge radar van. Right now in the use of the information which these radar devices are picking up and which are being

relayed to you and so on how can we get that picture best Lieutenant? Well we have to have operators which operate the equipment and I would like to introduce to you Sergeant Lamir. All right Sergeant you have a very responsible job with all this equipment how many men do you have working here? I have present time I have six men inside the van and what are the duties of those men and what are your own duties Sergeant? My particular duties fire control chief or more or less an overseer like lead radar van making sure proper mains and proper operations are being performed. Suppose we take these men one by one now and tell me what their jobs happen to be. Right sir the first one that we have over here is a very warning plotter. He receives all the information that is being given to us from the sector WLC. He records them on an early warning plotting board. He records these plots on the plotting board our PPI operator, senior operator, watches the plotting board at his scope at the same time and he

in turn is going to determine the 5 targets that he picks up on his scope so the same ones that are being designated for us. Now these sounds that I'm hearing what do they mean Sergeant? These sounds that you are presently hearing is the senior operator that located the target on his scope. He in turn is notified the radar officer that he had picked up the target. The radar somebody say a lock, what is that name? Those commands that they are given is letting the range officer know that the radar, the check radar itself is automatically under the target. Now this is being relayed out to the gun, is that right? Not right now sir the commands for the guns are becoming up very short here sir. The sound I heard a moment ago was up the sound of the big radar turning up above on the reactors. The track radar after the senior operator picked up the target on his PPI scope he had notified the radar officer that the target has been picked up and identified his

hostile aircraft. The radar officer has immediately notified the radar operators who are operating the track radar that he has a hostile target for it to come. They have what they call a slew switch. When they hit the slew switch the track radar will be automatically positioned under the one of that target. I want to get over to the closer to this sound coming in perhaps we can give a demonstration of what this sound is like. Track, dog battery, king 1, 6, coordinates, becker nane, 4, 4, 2, 6, time, 0, 8, 3, 0. Sergeant could you translate this for us? Right sir that track that you mentioned there the first word is to draw attention with the sector WLC operator that there will be a plot coming from this particular radar set to the operations

room. Now the identification of the unit being sending is dog battery. Now the next plot was the king 1, 6. Now that gives the designation of that designation of that track particular aircraft that he is tracking. The coordinates give the position of that aircraft at the time the plot is being flown in. We've now heard the command commence tracking. Right sir that's for the gun personnel. They are getting on commands over the phone line and they'll be on the milk commence tracking. The order commence tracking has been given as you probably heard. That order has been transmitted to the gun position so we shall transfer our base of operations to the gun positions and see what happens when the orders receive there. We are now at the gun position and here's our guide Captain Pagle to tell us what's going on out here.

Out here on the gun they're going to prepare to place the gun into remote control. In order to do that they have to have their pointers matched on the guns. That's just now happened. Now they're going to remote control. The sound you just heard is the gun going into remote control and is now pointing in the same direction as the radar. It puts it into an automatic track. The radar tracks the plane. The gun follows the radar. The information of the lead that is necessary to shoot down a plane comes from the radar. The gun is pointed with that lead and we should be able to knock down the target. The gun is now under control of radar as a captain. It is under control of the radar as far as direction goes. I suggest we go back to the radar van and find out what's going on there to

keep the sequence in order. Now back in the radar van Captain Pagle what's about to happen? The signal is going to come up from the guns that the guns are ready. Guns are ready sir. It just came up. Now the commands are going to come to the battery commander. The battery commander will as soon as the data is smooth. The target is when the range will give the battery the command to commence firing. Now I suggest we step outside we can listen to the guns actually firing. Hornet driving man 0409er time 1 ,2 Get back!

is firing, he is German. The series of commands ending with the gun is clear captain I suppose means the end of the firing, right? That's right. The C's firing command is obviously stopped by all firing. They C's tracking. They do not track the airplane anymore. It's the take the asthma out of remote and elevation out of remote to stop the gun from moving and the gun is clear means all the ammunition is gone. The gun is settled down and it will not move anymore. It's for safety purposes. What's happening in the radar room at this time? In the radar room they are submitting reports to the higher echelon command as to what actually happened. I suppose we're looking on that. Flash, sir. Track, dog battery, King 16, exercise

import, ordinate, Charlie Nann, 090, 05, 8, 0, slash, 0 rounds fired, 9, 1, 3, 3, 0. These are the sounds inside the radar truck. Now Captain Piggle tell us what all these commands mean. The command splash means that the target has been engaged and destroyed. The series of information that was given later, the information given up to sector 00C to show that this battery has knocked down that target and has kept for record purposes. It was also sent on up to the group 00C where it is again kept and that way we can tell how many planes we have knocked down within any certain period. What about this phrase, import, or import? What does that mean? The phrase, import means a report of action taken on the enemy. Well, Captain, this has been most interesting watching the procedure in the radar fan and in the other sections that we've been following, but the real action in this particular case happens at the guns. You suppose we can go out and

see what's happening out there? Yes, we could. I'd like to take you out and introduce you to Sergeant Jones, the gun section chief, gun number three. All right, Sergeant, suppose you tell us what was going on here at the gun while we were in the radar role. But, Sarah, when we were here at the gun, we were waiting for our signal to commence tracking, going remote, and get ready to fire fire in mission. Now, on the first thing that we have to get data from the radar to position our clocks. Now, in order to position these clocks, the purpose of it is that the elevation and the ground. Let me stop you just a minute. By clocks, you mean this large dial to the right of the gun that I am seeing right now? Yes. The return is the elevation clock on the right, and asthma is clocked on the left, and we have two setters that position these clocks manually, and then they push the transfer leave and they'll go into remote. At that time, the radar will take charge of the gun and position it. Now, an elevation is positioned high above the target in order to take care of the

gravity of pulling down on the round, and the asthma is to position the gun in front of the target as to take care of the lead. I see. Now, asthma, in other words, is the north and south direction of the gun. Right or left? Right. The elevation, of course, is up and down. Yes, sir. Now, in other words, you position these clocks on the basis of information you get, then you turn the control of those clocks, as you call them, over the radar. Yes, sir. By throwing the transfer leave or into a remote, the radar will immediately take over the control of the gun and position it according to the lead and the elevation. Now, in other words, then, the radar takes care of the elevation and the lead. Yes, sir. Tell me a little bit generally about this weapon, Sergeant, first of all, what size is it? This is a 90 -millimeter weapon, sir. It is capable of firing from 23 to 28 rounds per minute, and how many men are needed to operate this gun? To complete gun crews, 14 men, sir, including the section leader myself. And you all have to operate as something of a team, aren't you? Yes, sir. We have to have great teamwork here in order to make

this gun operate sufficiently. Well, now, what's the process? You get the ammunition up to the gun manually, do you? Yes, sir. We have what is known as ammunition crew, which have a leader in charge of them known as ammunition chief. And on the gun, we have a gun crew, which is a gunner in charge of a gun crew. And the man in charge of the ammunition crew, here's to see that, the loader who is standing over here on your left, has the right amount of ammunition at all time until the firing mission is over. He used to see that those men keep the ammunition coming to the gun, to this loader here. I'm standing directly in front of the breach of this gun. Is that right? Yes, sir. It wouldn't be a good place to stand, I don't suppose, during firing. Well, no sir, doing firing, the gun is what we call, whenever around is loaded, the gun will go, it will load until the chamber, and the firing lever here is pulled by the gunner. The gun will fire. When the gun fires, the gun will start a process of recall. This recall is worked by a pressure from the round, and the gun will come back in a back with motion. And then it's

back with motion. It would reach probably back here to where about we are standing now. And it's known as the length of recall. Now the length of recall is determined by the elevation of the gun. And where you are standing now, you'll probably be struck by the recall if you were standing there doing a firing course and probably knocked off the gun and hurt. Well, now we have a practice round here. What are your men going to do? And, sir, I would like to show you how this gun operates during the normal operation of the firing. Go right ahead, Sergeant. The first here is the level we call the transmission button. You push that button, and the transmission starts to work. And here we call this the Rammer Rolls, these two rollers, you see. Now these rollers will grab inside the inside the breach. Great, sir. Now these rollers will grab this round as the loader puts it up here on the loading tray. And when they grab this round, it will load them into the fuse knives, which is just inside of these rollers. The fuse knives will position the fuse on the nose of this round here, I assure a certain fuse second. Now, if we have that

round sail on 23 seconds, from the time this round leaves the tube with the gun, it will reach the point in the sky of 23 seconds, then it will burst. Now, if you will notice, I'll have him to load this round into the chamber and show you just how the operation goes. Now the round has loaded, now it's ready to fire. All right, sir. What would happen next now if they were standing here? Now, the next motion would be the gunner would fire. Now, this lever here on the right side is on the side of the breach ring. And the gunner grabs this lever, and he has to twist it kind of clockwise. And when he's twisted kind of clockwise, the command of commence firing is given. When the command of commence firing is given, he will pull back on his lever and the round is fired. When the round leaves the tube with the gun, then that starts the recall motion. As I told you before, the backward motion, and that will recycle the gun. Now, everything that it took the gun to fire the first time was done manually. But from now on, until we give the command of C's firing and the loading of these rounds, all the other motions are done automatically except the loading

of the round by the loading. So your handlers of ammunition have to be almost machines, don't they? Yes, they have to be very fast there. I notice your crew here on the gun out the firing exercises over are still pretty busy. What are they doing, Sergeant? When sir, after a fire and mission, we'll have to pull what you call maintenance. We have to perform that job daily. But we have to perform this job more specifically because we have had a fire and mission. Now, there is powder from the shell itself inside the chamber of the gun, which has corroded and clotted up. And we have to clean that out of the tube. And we have various solutions we have to do a use to clean that with. And it's a very tough job and every man don't have to do his share. Now, this maintenance is performed by the men of the gun crew. Now, every man has a position on the gun that's in the gun crew. And the position he holds on the gun, that's the part of the gun that he performs his maintenance on, except from the cleaning of the gun tube, which takes every man on the gun. Do the various gun crews at the various gun positions compete, Sergeant? Yes, and we have very good competition out here, sir. I mean,

it is really tough. Sergeant Jones, how does your gun crew rate? Sir, I rate my gun crew as the best. Mr. Flynn, this is Lieutenant Colonel Heinz, the battalion commander of the 49th AAA gun battalion. Captain Pegel, I want to thank you for serving as our guide on our tour of Battery D. Colonel, the job that you and your man are doing is a very responsible one, is it not? Yes, it is. We're involved here in our part of the defense of Chicago and its outlying suburbs on a 24 -hour day basis. We have several hundreds of men, of course, in these organizations, and we're constantly active frequently during the long hours of darkness. As we drive past these various installations around the Chicago area, we can always rest assured that you people are on the alert all the time, can we not? You certainly can do that. We have a manning table, which is present on these

tactical sites at every minute of the day, just waiting for a signal. And as you have heard previously, our signal is generally a rather loud siren. The siren to us, we feel, is necessary because all of our calls to a immediate business don't occur during ordinary daylight hours. And our type of work is such that we must get at it instantly. And we feel it takes a signal of this type to awaken us, to get us on a job in a maximum hurry. So that sometimes if we hear these sirens at all hours, we must recognize the fact that they are for our own protection. That is the final result it surely is. Now, Colonel, you're engaged in the constant job of training and bringing a new personnel, releasing personnel, and so on. Your morale seemed to be very high here today. We feel that it is in spite of our personnel turnover. And the fact that you do turn over the personnel

increases your necessity for proper training, is it not? It makes a continuous and cyclic job of training. And cooperating with all the other sections of defense, air defense in our area and throughout the nation, you feel that we do have an adequate defense as of the present day based on the equipment available against the possible enemy assault. We have the very finest of equipment. We have men who are certainly competent to use that equipment to its utmost. We sit here training daily, waiting any sudden call. And we feel and it is our every intention to be found not wanting should that call come. We certainly believe in our people and in our material. Thank you, Colonel Hines. And when you express our thanks to the officers and men of de -battery of the 49th anti -aircraft gun battalion for making this broadcast possible.