World War II
Radar picket ships first came into being during World War II to aid in the Allied advance to Japan. As they were the nearest ships to the Japanese airfields, and hence the first seen, they were often heavily attacked by kamikaze aircraft.
From 1943 the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) operated several radar-equipped night fighter guide ships (Nachtjagdleitschiffe), including NJL Togo. which was equipped with a FuMG A1 Freya radar for early warning and Würzburg-Riese gun laying radar, plus night fighter communications equipment. From October 1943 the NJL Togo cruised the Baltic Sea under the operational control of the Luftwaffe. In March 1944, after the three great Soviet bombing raids on Helsinki, she arrived in the Gulf of Finland to provide night fighter cover for Tallinn and Helsinki.
Read more about this topic: Radar Picket
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“It’s a great huge game of chess that’s being played—all over the world—if this is the world at all, you know. Oh, what fun it is! How I wish I was one of them! I wouldn’t mind being a Pawn, if only I might join—though of course I should like to be a Queen, best.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“If we don’t end war, war will end us.”
—H.G. (Herbert George)