Chilling!

That’s what I felt after M, B and I visited the RAF Radar Museum at Neatishead in the Norfolk Broads today.
 
Amongst many exhibits that we saw, we spent some time listening to a talk about how radar was used during WWII to find, track and shoot down German Fighters.  The very knowledgeable guide who had been stationed nearby at the associated Bawdsey Manor explained how the operations room was run (and overseen by military decision-makers) and how the combination of radar signals and communications signals were used during the battle of Britain (see extra).
 
In complete contrast (in terms of technology) we visited the Cold War Room where tiered banks of monitors and controllers overlooked a central display of information used to monitor and defend our skies from enemy aircraft and attack.  The main blip shows a chilling set of buttons that were ready for use if needed, the button marked’ Kill’ really brings home the reality of this 45-year conflict and just how tense this war was! The two buttons that have lost their illumination read 'identify' and 'squawk'.
We intend to go back and listen to the talk on the Cold War Room another time, it’ll be fascinating to hear about this conflict in more detail (and to find out what the button 'pigeons' was for).
 
We also visited a temporary exhibition of military aircraft photographs taken by a member of the North Norfolk Photographic Society…they were excellent too.
 
‘The bomb may have ended the war, but radar won the war’
Lee Du Bridge – American Physicist