VERY RARE! FEB 1945 OVERPRINT H2X-Equipped B-17 WWII Radar Plotting Chart - VIII Bomber Command B-17 Navigator Bomb Raid Mission Map

VERY RARE! FEB 1945 OVERPRINT H2X-Equipped B-17 WWII Radar Plotting Chart - VIII Bomber Command B-17 Navigator Bomb Raid Mission Map

$1,500.00

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*This incredibly rare and very scarce large radar plotting series map was used for navigation as well as for pre and post raid mission bomb group briefings. These would often be utilized by bomber groups to plan for FLAK avoidance to the mission target.

Navigators on H2X-equipped B-17s U.S. Army Air Forces used radar charts like this one. H2X, officially known as the AN/APS-15, was an American ground scanning radar system used for blind bombing during World War II. It was a development of the British H2S radar, the first ground mapping radar to be used in combat. It was also known as the "Mickey set" and "BTO" for "bombing through the overcast" radar.

H2X differed from the original H2S primarily in its X band 10 GHz operating frequency rather than H2S' S band 3 GHz emissions. This gave H2X higher resolution than H2S, allowing it to provide usable images over large cities which appeared as a single blob on the H2S display. The Royal Air Force (RAF) initially considered using H2X as well, but would instead develop their own X band system, the H2S Mk. III. The RAF system entered service in late 1943, before the first use of H2X in early 1944.

The first H2X-equipped B-17's arrived in England in early October 1943, and were first used in combat on 3 November 1943 when the USAAF VIII Bomber Command attacked the port of Wilhelmshaven. Those missions where bombing was done by H2X were called "Pathfinder missions" and the crews were called "Pathfinder crews", after RAF practice of using highly trained Pathfinder crews to go in before the main bomber stream and identify and mark the target with flares. American practice used their Pathfinder crews as lead bombers, with radar equipped aircraft being followed by formations of radar-less bombers, which would all drop their loads when the lead bomber did. The ventral hemispherical radome for the H2X's rotating dish antenna replaced the ball turret on B-17 Flying Fortress Pathfinders, with the electronics cabinets for the "Mickey set" being installed in the radio room just aft of the bomb bay. The system was used extensively by The 91st Bomb Group in 1945 with occasional excellent but generally inconsistent results.

This orignal VIII Bomber Command B-17 navigator bombing raid map is a rare overprint of the December 1944 RADAR PLOTTING SERIES and is updated with corrected radat plotting accuracy as of FEB. 1945. This radar map was used to target German cities and targets such as BERLIN, FRANKFURT, ETC.

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