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Alfred Price

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Instruments of Darkness: The History of Electronic Warfare, 1939–1945 Kindle Edition

by Alfred Price (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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The rapid evolution of radio and radar systems for military use during the Second World War, and devices to counter them, led to a technological battle that neither the Axis nor the Allied powers could afford to lose. The result was a continual series of thrusts, parries and counter-thrusts, as first one side then the other sought to wrest the initiative in the struggle to control the ether. This was a battle fought with strange-sounding weapons: 'Freya', 'Mandrel', 'Boozer' and 'Window'; and was characterised by the bravery, self-sacrifice and skill of those who took part in it. However, for many years the use of electronic-warfare systems during the conflict remained a closely guarded military secret. When that veil of secrecy was finally lifted, the technicalities of the subject meant that it remained beyond the reach of lay researchers and readers. Alfred Price, an aircrew officer with the RAF where he flew with V-Force and specialised in electronic warfare and air fighting tactics, was in the unique position to lift the lid on this largely unexplored aspect of the Second World War. When it was first published in 1967, Instruments of Darkness came to be regarded as a standard reference work on this intriguing subject. This completely revised edition concludes with the Japanese surrender in August 1945 and brings the analysis fully up to date in the light of what we now know. 'This book is expertly done. An excellent treatise.' The Times Literary Supplement

Print length

360 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Frontline Books
Publication date

March 30, 2017
File size

8106 KB
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Editorial Reviews

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"Instruments of Darkness: The History of Electronic Warfare 1939-1945 is a good, easy narrative to read." --Rocky Mountain Navy

About the Author

Alfred Price served for sixteen years in the Royal Air Force where he specialized in electronic warfare and air fighting tactics. After leaving the RAF, he has published nearly fifty books on aviation subjects.

David de Vries can be seen in a number of feature films, including The Founder, The Accountant, Captain America: Civil War, and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. On television, his credits include House of Cards, Nashville, Halt and Catch Fire, the National Geographic film Killing Reagan, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for HBO. As a veteran stage actor, David appeared as Lumiere in Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway, as Dr. Dillamond in the Los Angeles and Chicago companies of Wicked, and in hundreds of shows in regional theaters throughout the country. He is an Audie and Odyssey Award-winning narrator for his performance in Pam Munoz Ryan's Echo and has voiced over 100 titles in every genre, including his Audie Award-nominated performance of the 2011 Caldecott winner A Sick Day for Amos McGee.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B06Y94D4LV
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Frontline Books; Reprint edition (March 30, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 30, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 8106 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 360 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #558,893 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #154 in Conventional Weapons & Warfare History (Kindle Store)
- #195 in Military Science History
- #525 in Conventional Weapons & Warfare History (Books)

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R. J. Morgan

The Classic Book on WWII Electronic Warfare

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2009

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Alfred Price, a career EW himself, wrote the original version of this work in 1967 when much of what he covers was still shrouded in official secrecy and myth. This book, revised twice since then, has stood the test of time and remains one of the great efforts on the subject of Electronic Warfare in the Second World War.
The majority of the coverage is on the electronic war between England and Nazi Germany as they developed competing systems to aid their respective bombing campaigns and the countermeasures that arose in the form of improved aerial radars and passive reception devices. It's strengths include interviews with many of the participants in this obscure form of combat and the amount of information provided on the incredible array of devices and gadgets developed for electronic combat between 1939 and 1945.Although he does have several chapters covering US work and the Pacific War, these areas are better covered in the series he later wrote on US EW History for the Association of Old Crows. Over 60 years later the basics of EW really haven't changed, which makes this book still important reading for anyone interested in the dark arts of electronic warfare.

20 people found this helpful

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Ancient artist

A bit boring

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2021

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I'm an engineer and found this book dull. The subject m,atter does interest me the book did not interest me.
The actual events could have been described better. There was excitment but book wasn't very exciting.

One person found this helpful

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Sierra Tango

Love to the details.

Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2022

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I have always been frustrated watching world war II documentaries that just barely mentioned some of the electronics involved with no details whatsoever. This book has answer a lot of the questions that I had.

This book demonstrates the profound effect that electronics had on the war in Europe and the Pacific.

2 people found this helpful

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Bayard B.

Outstanding and fascinating! One of the best books I have read on WW II electronic warfare.

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2020

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This is one of the best books I have read on electronic warfare in WW II. It covers the scientific and engineering efforts by Britain and and Germany to develop radio navigation systems, ground and airborne radar systems, and jamming systems. It also describes the efforts made by each country to determine what the other was doing. There is also some discussion of US and Japanese efforts in this electronic area.

Another excellent book on electronic signals intelligence or SIGINT is "Most Secret War" by R. V. Jones (1978).

10 people found this helpful

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Russell B.

WW2 ELINT

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2022

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Excellent treatment of a subject that little is written about compared to the other military operations. Highly recommended for enthusiasts of the second world war.

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Marsha

Outstanding Coverage of Electronic Warfare Techniques by both sides in World War II.

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2020

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Ourstanding, detailed coverage of radar and radar jamming techniques used by allied
forces and German and Japanese units. The author makes clear the importance of these techniques in both offensive and defensive actions, especially in air combat .

3 people found this helpful

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David Jacobson

THE BOOK on WW II electronic warfare

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2020

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If you're a WW II buff this is THE book about the back and forth seesaw struggle between RAF Bomber Command and the Luftwaffe. It also covers the EW history in the Pacific between the US and Japanese forces. If you don't know about this period Dr. Price's book will be an eye-opener AND a great read!

7 people found this helpful

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BillH

A good account, mostly about Britain and Germany

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2017

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A fascinating history of radar and its related technologies during WWII. This book concentrates primarily on British and German work, although there are a couple of chapters on US developments. There is some discussion of radar in Japan and none at all in the other belligerents like the Soviet Union and Italy.
For a good discussion of US work during the same time period and after, see Robert Buideri's "The Invention That Changed the World".

12 people found this helpful

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Lord Uther

Eye-opening.

Reviewed in Canada on November 13, 2021

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This well-researched and smoothly-written history examines a little-known aspect of WWII. I have been a student of the World Wars for 45 years at least, and this book opened my eyes to vast new details I had never known before.
Highly-recommended.

Omkar Joshi

Shelf candidate for WW-II buffs.

Reviewed in India on June 22, 2020

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First things first:
1. Such books set a benchmark for books on topics that are technologically complex but can be explained to a layman to give a rudimentary idea.
2. Another commendable fact about the book is that it is focused on the radar system evolution in a spam of 5-7 years and hasn't tried to squeeze multiple topics.
3. The book is almost neutral in it's evaluation of achievements of all the sides. It doesn't preach or make claims about morality, it stays focused on the subject.
4. I hold the opinion that the Allies were 'allies' to a considerable extent but the Axis Powers were almost isolated (well, Germany did came to Italy's rescue in Africa!) on various fronts. The book highlights how the Americans and the Brits mutually benefited to some extent by coordination while the Axis powers did too little, too late.
5. The readers get an idea about the people who made radars a reality and the aircrew who used it.

Like any war or revolution in any field, radar evolution was a series of systems, improvisations, innovation, failures. The book explains in brief the prominent radars, their fundamental functioning, usage and how it was countered. Personally, I like such presentation of facts.

The book details the field challenges and dangers faced by the operators and fighter pilots, the race against time that the scientific and engineering personnel were incessantly subjected to, the correlation and deduction methods (e.g: labels on German electronic devices to guess no. Of devices in use), how Intel. sharing helped the radar scientists, the cat-and-mouse game of deception.

The book has some limitations:
1. While I appreciate it's focus on radars, 'electronic warfare' is a broad term, which, IMHO, should also include the cryptography/encryption systems. The title is misleading and should be changed to clearly state its focus
2. The writer's RAF background makes it obvious what the focus would primarily be, however, the radar usage and events in the navies(on both sides), the Russian radars(however primitive), the budget and other monetary aspects of radar research and production and many such aspects aren't even highlighted.
3. Establishing a timeline of events, the various radar systems is quite difficult while reading this book. When did the battle of Britain begun, when did it end, when did the bombings of Germany begun - these dates are spread across chapters which doesn't allow the reader to form a coherent timeline, the focus keeps on tossing back and forth.
4. Too less diagrams of radars and operational concepts, given the no. Of systems and events covered.

Overall, this book should be present on shelf of every WW-II enthusiast(at least, the noobs like me).

Giloup

Pour tout savoir sur la guerre électronique pendant la deuxième guerre mondiale

Reviewed in France on August 20, 2019

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Tour d’horizon complet et plaisant à lire de la guerre électronique pendant la 2ème guerre mondiale

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Mario Gonzalez Montes

Reedicion de un clásico

Reviewed in Spain on January 11, 2018

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Muy bien estructurado, cronología de la guerra electrónica en la WWII explicado para el lector interesado conocedor del tema. Muy buena reedicion de un clásico que llevaba tiempo esperando. Recomendable.

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A. Callow

Fascinating and gripping

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2017

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Having noticed that R V Jones referred to this book frequently in his ‘Most Secret War’, I decided to get myself a copy. When originally written, Price was serving as an Electronic Warfare Officer on Britain’s V Force and much of the material it covered would still have been classified, happily although first published in 1967, it has since undergone several updates and this paperback edition was published in 2017.
Even though the 1st recorded incidences of Electronic Warfare occurred during the American Civil War when the combatants tapped each other’s telegraph communications, it was really during the Second World War that Electronic Warfare came of age with both Germany and Britain in the forefront of Radar development as the war commenced. Price’s book tells this story and how measure and counter measure continually leap-frogged though by the end Britain and the US were, as Goering would admit, able to outpace the German efforts.
Price did not have access to some of the material available to R V Jones but his story remains equally fascinating and excellent reliance is placed on the work of the author of the 1st edition’s preface, Dr Robert Cockburn of the Telecommunications Research Establishment. The book begins with the attempts in August 1939 of the Graf Zeppelin airship equipped as the world’s first airborne electronic intelligence, or Elint, collector, attempting to evaluate the RAF’s Radar system and comprehensively failing to do so not because it wasn’t there but because they made the error of thinking the British would use the same frequencies as the Germans for Radar, a mistake the British would benefit from and would themselves not make.
In Britain, the likes of Cockburn and Jones were not as bound by paradigms as the Germans which allowed them to identify and successfully jam Knickebein ( which ‘surrendered almost without a fight’) X-Gerät and ϒ-Gerät in the Battle of the Beams in 1940/1. From the ‘Battle of the Beams’ and the piecing together of the operation of the Reich Air Defence system, covered by Jones, Price adds to the picture by going onto the offensive use of EW so here is told the story of the development of the Mandrel jammer, to screen RAF attacks, and its initial deployment in Boulton Paul Defiants. Indeed, that whole development of the RAF Bomber offensive electronic battle with the Luftwaffe is grippingly told.
By the war’s end, each RAF heavy raid was a sophisticated and complex plan with Radar led Pathfinders, spoof raids by Mosquitos (usually identified as such by the Luftwaffe as the Mosquitos emitted no H2S transmission unlike the heavy bombers) and by Heavy Bombers, or even multiple heavy raids. During the raid, direct jamming by Mandrel carried within the bomber stream (often in B17s) would occur whilst engine noise from all bombers would be transmitted on German GCI frequencies via ‘Tinsel’ and same bombers would drop ‘Window’. Later ABC Lancasters of 101 Sqn would fly in raids with German speaking operators mimicking GCI controllers. As this was going on Serrate equipped Mosquito and Beaufighter night fighters would lurk in the stream homing on the transmissions of German night fighters to shoot them down. Navigation and bombing accuracy would outclass that of the 1940 Luftwaffe as the RAF developed and used Gee and Oboe.

Of course, the Germans did take countermeasures to all this. Tactically the introduction of fighters into the bomber stream using Wilde Sau and then Zahme Sau to counter the effect of Window was effective, particularly when the Zahme Sau aircraft were fitted with ‘Naxos’ which ironically homed on the RAF bomber’s using ‘Monica’ fighter approach warning device! (when the RAF belatedly realised this when evaluating a captured Ju88, Harris insisted Monica was removed from all aircraft immediately. The RAF’s transmissions of jamming and radar emissions was often the cause of the death of the bomber crew as any transmission could be homed on and H2S allowed the tracking of the bomber stream even through ‘Window’. Nevertheless, Price’s evaluation is that ‘the various jamming methods reduced RAF bomber losses between December 1942 and the end of the war by something of the order of one per cent. Yet, over an extended period, that amounted to a saving of more than 1,000 bombers and their crews.’
Whilst the RAF’s battle against the Luftwaffe forms the core of this book, the USAAF is not left out. Over Europe, there was obviously no point in trying to hide from fighters in daylight. Nevertheless, the problems of bombing accuracy through the North European overcast existed for the USAAF as it did for the RAF hence the adoption of H2S and its derivative H2X by the day bombers. Against Radar directed Flak ‘Window’, known as ‘Chaff’ by the Americans, was particularly effective. Price’s evaluation is that ‘When cloud or (over Japan) darkness forced AA gunners to rely on radar-controlled fire, jamming greatly reduced its accuracy. As a ‘ball park figure’, radio countermeasures probably saved about 600 US heavy bombers over Europe, and a further 200 during operations against Japan.’
Price’s conclusion is that during the war there were 2 occasions when allied ECM (RCM in the terms of the day) brought about a near-collapse of an enemy air-defence system. ‘The first was the devastating initial effect of ‘Window’ on the German air defences at the end of July 1943. The second was over Japan in 1945, when the USAAF jamming paralysed the Japanese night-air-defence system. For the rest of the conflict radio-countermeasures brought about a somewhat smaller, though still significant, reduction in bomber losses.’ It is hard to disagree that the Allied radio-countermeasures effort during World War II was ‘a remarkably cost-effective investment.’
This book is a fascinating read that I cannot recommend highly enough.

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