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Chris Foulkes was a young valve design engineer working on valves for radar. A story circulated in the factory, of how a German battleship became the first ship to be sunk under the control of radar. Details are sketchy but it appears to have been one of the ships that put to sea with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau when they made a break from the French port of Brest.

A marine radar system under development using STC valves was installed in a battleship for testing under real conditions. Which ship is not clear although Naval records mught shed some light. The test was more realistic than planned as it turned out, because the technician installing the equipment was working on board when the ship was ordered to put to sea immediately and try to intercept the German ships. Unable to go home and with nothing better to do, he continued with the installation.

When the ship arrived in the search area there was no sign of enemy shipping but the radar technician was running the equipment and saw a 鈥渂lip鈥� on the screen about 7 miles distant, invisible behind a fog bank. It would have been just over the horizon but British radar waves tended to 鈥渂end鈥� and follow the curvature of the earth. It meant that they could 鈥渟ee鈥� over the horizon. German radar beams could not. They were generated at a different frequency and the wave travelled in a straight line and could only 鈥渟ee鈥� as far as the horizon.

The technician told a junior officer about the blip on the screen and recommended him to tell the captain. The captain was sceptical and unwilling to believe that the equipment could actually find something not visible to the eye. The technician made a robust suggestion that he should fire a trial salvo on the range and bearing indicated by the radar and see what happened. Finally, having verified that there was no allied shipping in the area the captain gave order. The blip disappeared from the screen a few seconds later. Spotter planes sent over the area reported wreckage and an oil slick corresponding to a large ship in the target area.

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