jf.ctc.history.htm -- 8 Jan. 06

Early Radar (RDF) Career of James S. Farrior

(Initially prepared 14 August 2000)

Birth Place and Date: Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.A.,  11 Jan. 1920

Address and Occupation before enrolling in the British Civilian Technical Corps (CTC):

1273 Steward Ave., Atlanta, Ga.: Radio Telegraph Operator

How I heard of the CTC: A short newspaper article stated that it might soon be possible for U.S. Citizens to volunteer for work in Britain to maintain aircraft tracking stations, and in other fields. I wrote to the British Consulate and was sent a booklet describing the CTC and also an application, which I promptly submitted on approximately 6 August 1941.

Enrolled in the CTC: At Montreal, Canada, on 23 Sept. 1941 as CTC #149.

About the CTC: CTC members wore the Royal Air Force uniform, except for  the CTC insignia. They typically lived in the RAF camps, were treated the same as RAF personnel, and received the same work assignments and responsibilities in accordance with their rank. Their ranks (and equivalent RAF) were: Craftsman (LAC), Senior Craftsman (Cpl.), Chargehand (Sgt.), Foreman of Trades (Flt. Sgt.), Principal Foreman of Trades (W.O.). The first CTC members were enlisted in August, 1941, and recruitment ended about the end of that year due to the U.S. having entered the war. Some who were the last to be accepted at C.T.C. Headquarters at Montreal, Quebec,  got as far as Halifax, Nova Scotia, and were waiting for a ship  to England, were discharged and returned to their homes. Others who had arrived at Halifax a little earlier arrived in the U.K. shortly after the first of the year in 1942. A total of about 1,000 men arrived in the U.K.  For  patriotic reasons, some men left the C.T.C. during 1942, and joined American military and other American organizations. Later the attrition rate increased for various reasons, and by mid 1943,  approximately a third of the initial members remained. However, some members remained until the end of the war. The CTC provided critical technical help when it was most needed. 

Sailed in convoy from Halifax, N.S., aboard HMTS Andes: 9 Oct. 1941

Arrived at Liverpool, England: 17 Oct. 41

Arrived at CTC Headquarters, Bournemouth, Hants.: 19 Oct. 1941

Arrived at the RAF #1 Radio School (for RDF) at Cranwell, Lincs.: 28 Oct. 1941

About the RDF (Re-radiation Direction Finding) school: The Commandant was Air Commodore H.M. Probyn. Flt. Lt. John Bond (NZAF) was in charge of instruction and was the primary instructor. Among other good instructors was a Corp. Marshall.  Initially, the instruction was mostly radio theory and system concepts, but it soon changed to generic subjects like aerials, power supplies, Cathode Ray Tubes, oscillators, amplifiers, pulse shapers, etc. It ended with a study of the actual RDF equipment and the test equipment with which  we would work with at our stations. The course was very good. Completed course: 19 Jan. 1942

Arrived at RAF Scarlett Point Chain Home (CH)  Station, Castletown, Isle of Man: 27 Jan. 1942

Released from the CTC: (Final rank: Foreman of Trades ( Equivalent to RAF Flight Sgt.) 21 May 1943 at London. 

The Scarlett Point Chain Home Station (as remembered by James S. Farrior):
     
Scarlett Point can also be spelled Scarlet Point. Although some variations existed, the Scarlet Point CH station was a typical West Coast type CH station and had both Main and Standby systems.   

The ACH station at Scarlet Point:
      I was stationed at Scarlet from January 1942 until May 1943.   As I understood it, when operation was initially begun at Scarlet Point there were  two sandbag-hardened wooden structures, called the R-Hut and the T-Hut, which were only a short distance apart.  There was also a Diesel power plant close to the R-Hut that may have been used only for backup power. This initial station was  called an ACH  (Auxilliary Chain Home) station, and was in operation during the construction of the CH station. The ACH system  operated on a shorter wavelength, which allowed for lower receiving and transmitting aerials that were located adjacent  to the huts.  The R-Hut contained a RM3C RDF receiver, and the necessary plotting boards, etc., to permit the operators to obtain plots which could be transmitted  by telephone to the central plotting station at Preston.  I don't know what kind of RDF transmitter had been in the T-Hut at that time because during my tenure the T-Hut had no equipment.
     The ACH Station was intended to be used only until the CH station could be built and was on line. 

The Planned CH station at Scarlet Point: :
      For maximum reliability, during normal operation or enemy attack, the CH station was intended to provide redundancy by having essentially two interconnected CH stations. Upon completion of the planned CH station, there would be two R-Blocks (Main and Standby) with associated receiving aerials, and two T-blocks (Main and Standby) with associated aerials. Each R-Block could work with either T-Block, and vice versa   Although only one large hardened and camouflaged diesel power generating plant, usually called the Diesel Block, would exist, a certain amount of power redundancy would be  provided by a interconnected ring system for the power distribution mains. 

The CH station as it developed at Scarlet Point:
     While the CH Station was being built, RDF operations continued using the ACH Station. The CH facilities that were constructed were as follows:
     The hardened and camouflaged T-Block (bunker) contained an MB-2 RDF transmitter with open-wire feeders on wooden posts to  the base of a curtain arrays supported by two 325 ft. guyed masts. There were separate feeders and arrays for the short and long wave frequencies. It also contained a T1087 R/T W/T  HF communications transmitter that had a nearby vertical antenna fed by a buried coax cable. It was used only on W/T (wireless telegraphy) as a backup means of transmitting aircraft plots to the Central Plotting station in Preston, England.
     The hardened and camouflaged R-Block contained one RF-7 RDF receiver that received signals from crossed dipole arrays that were mounted on a 240 ft. high self-supporting wooden tower. These signals were displayed on a Cathode Ray Tube as vertical blips on a horizontal timebase scale, and the distance of the blip from the origin was proportional to the target distance.  A goniometer coils were connected to the crossed dipoles on the tower, and when the operator rotated the knob of a goniometer to obtain a minimum signal, the goniometer reading gave the target direction. A switch was used to connect the goniometer coils  to two dipoles located at different heights on the tower, and the minimum goniometer reading could be used to determine the target's altitude.  Operations were normally conducted in the Main R-Block, which also housed the electromechanical plot calculator (known as the Fruit Machine), the plotting tables, supervisor's desk, and the radio telegraph (W/T) operating table and short wave receiver and telegraph key.  Plots were typically passed to the central plotting station at Preston, England, by telephone, but when the telephone was down, they were passed by W/T (wireless telegraphy).  The R-Block also contained an RCA communications receiver that worked in conjunction with the T1087 R/T W/T  HF transmitter in the T-Block.
     When the first R-Block, the T-Block, and the Diesel Generator Block came on line, the resulting CH station became the Main System, and the ACH station became the Standby System.  Operations were moved from the T-Hut to the R-Block where much better equipment existed. The MB-2 transmitter in the T-Block could transmit on both long and short wave frequencies,  thereby providing redundancy in case the T-hut transmitter should fail. However,  the T-hut was still needed because it could not transmit on the long wave frequency  which would be needed if the MB-2 failed. 
     The next construction phase was to have been to build and equip  another T-Block and R-Block, both with their associated aerial systems. When the second T-Block came on line, there was no longer a need for the  T-Hut, and it was taken out of service. However, the R-Hut was still needed to provide a backup to the R-Block.  At that point, since there were functional Main and Standby Systems, there was no urgency to provide the second R-Block with equipment, and the second R tower with dipoles, so they stood vacant during my tenure at Scarlett. That was probably a good choice, since there were only a few times during my tenure that the CH station was off the air, and that was only for the few minutes required for the operators to walk the short distance from the R-Block to the R-Hut.
     Since they worked on different frequencies, the Main and Standby systems could be operated simultaneously, which meant that if the Operations in the Main R-Block had to be shut down because of maintenance or modification to the equipment located there, the Standby System could be brought on line prior to shutting down the Main System.  The operators very much disliked having to shift from Main to Standby because the R-Hut had no plot calculator, and and they would have to plot by hand.  The HF wireless telegraphy  backup for the telephone circuit to the central plotting station still existed after the going to Standby Operation because the W/T equipment was independent of the RDF equipment.

.Closing comments:
 I don't  know what happened at the Scarlet Point CH Station after I left.  During my tenure (January 1942 until May 1943),  the Standby R-Block contained  no equipment and the associated 240 ft. self-supporting wooden tower had no receiving dipole arrays  installed. The station also had no IFF equipment, but at the time that I left it was scheduled to be installed in the near future. Since the station was working efficiently, I doubt that there was much priority for upgrading the Station.

Photo of Jim Farrior CTC #149

Jim Farrior - CTC 149

Douglas, Isle of Man, 1943

Wartime Experiences following CTC service:

Joined the U.S. Merchant Marine: 21 May 1943 at the American Embassy, London, England.

Reported to Glasgow, Scotland, to await assignment to a ship: 24 May 1943

Joined the Liberty Ship, S.S. John Chandler, as Chief Radio Officer: 7 June 1943 at Hull, England. Because no other radio officer was available, I was signed up as the Chief Radio Officer,  even though at the time I had no radio operator's license or seaman's passport, or other seaman's papers, and had only had a brief visit to a Liberty ship to view the ship's radio room. However, I had had extensive radio operating experience ashore and had no difficulties.

About Merchant Marine service: In addition to the return trip to the U.S., I made six voyages on the S.S. John Chandler: Southampton (England); Bone (Algeria); Hull (England); New Port (Wales); Ancona (Italy); and Puerto Padre (Cuba). I then joined the Liberty Ship, S.S. Anthony Ravalli, at New Orleans on Nov. 27, 1944, and made two voyages to various destinations in the Pacific theater (Philippine Islands, New Guinea, Australia, New Caledonia, Okinawa, and others).
  

 

From left: Second Mate Charlie Johnson, Chief Radio Officer Jim Farrior, Naval Gunnery Officer Johnny Johnson, Third Mate Paul Blowers -- The Coconut Grove, Los Angeles, Nov. 9, 1945.

Discharged from the Merchant Marine: On 29 November 1945, I left my ship which was docked at San Pedro (Los Angeles) and returned to civilian life in my home state of Alabama. Attended Auburn University, BS Electrical Engineering, August 1949. During my career in aerospace engineering and management I had post graduate courses at the University of Alabama, Stanford University, MIT, and Northwestern University. I retired in July, 1980.

Address: My wife, Peggy, and I had two daughters, Sue Farrior Harden and Janis Farrior Nall. Janis has a daughter, Jennifer Nall Petrandis, and Jennifer has two daughters,  Marina and Savannah Petrandis. Peggy and I live at 1232 Harrison Pt. Tr., Fernandina Bch., FL 32034

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