The Battle of the Beams

Sep 20, 2024 1:32 AM

Author:Tom Whipple,Tom Whipple

Brought to you by Penguin.

Summer 1939. War is coming.

The British believe that, through ingenuity and scientific prowess, they alone have a war-winning weapon: radar. They are wrong. The Germans have it too.

They believe that their unique maritime history means their pilots have no need of navigational aids. Flying above the clouds they, like the seafarers of old, had the stars to guide them, and that is all that is required. They are wrong. Most of the bombs the RAF will drop in the first years of the war land miles from their target.

They also believe that the Germans, without the same naval tradition, will never be able to find targets at night. They are, again, wrong. In 1939 the Germans don't just have radar to spot planes entering their airspace, they have radio beams to guide their own planes into enemy airspace.

War is coming, and it is to be a different kind of war. It will be fought, as expected, on land and sea and in the air. It will also be fought on the airwaves. It will be fought between scientists on both sides at the forefront of knowledge, and the agents and commandos they relied on to bolster that knowledge.

Luckily there was one young engineer, Reginald Jones, helping the British government with their own scientific developments. In June 1940, when Jones quietly explained the beams the Germans had devised to a room full of disbelieving sceptics, Churchill later described the moment as like sitting in the parlour while Sherlock Holmes finally reveals the killer. Churchill immediately supported Jones's efforts to develop radar technology that went on to help the Allies win the war.

Relying on first-hand accounts from Reginald Jones as well as papers recently released by the Admiralty, The Battle of the Beams fills a huge missing piece in the canon of WW2 literature. It is a tale that combines history, science, derring do and dogged determination and will appeal as much to fans of WW2 history as to those fascinated by the science behind the beams that changed our lives.

The radio war of 1939-45 is one of the great scientific battles in history. This is the story of that war.

Reviews

Many histories claim without justification that their particular area of study changed the course of the Second World War. Whipple's deeply researched and engagingly written account of the secret science of radar is, by contrast, a genuine contender.

—— The Times

The struggle for electronic supremacy, the so-called battle of the beams, is enthrallingly recreated by Tom Whipple in a book that has the pace and style of a well-crafted thriller.

—— Mail on Sunday

The gripping true story of a war fought in the shadows. From critical strategic decisions made in Whitehall to daring special forces operations behind enemy lines, Tom Whipple has vividly brought to life a scientific arms race that would determine the outcome of the war. Chock full of memorable characters and written with all the drama and pace of a Robert Harris thriller, The Battle of the Beams reminds us that both brains and brawn were required to stay ahead of a sophisticated and dangerous enemy. Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear lab coats.

—— Rowland White, author of Mosquito

Told with humour, the science is easy to understand in this tribute to a war without weapons.

—— Sun

Decoding the science in a digestible way for readers, The Battle of the Beams is a fantastic way into to a less discussed period of World War Two history.

—— Britain at War

An extremely well-researched and readable account, full of fascinating, anecdotal evidence of how, almost single handedly, the young radio scientist, RV Jones, worked out how the Germans were painting the night skies over Britain with electromagnetic crosses, enabling them to drop their bombs with accuracy. Highly recommend.

—— Soldier

Tales to delight and excite ... A highly enjoyable account of a largely forgotten slice of wartime history.

—— The Critic

An account of real-life WWII technology is as engaging as a thriller and provides a 'howdunit' rather than a 'whodunit'. Excellent.

—— Engineering and Technology

Mesmeric ... their contribution to Britain's victory was vital ... skillfully interweaves details of the brave pilots' lives with a weighty account of British military strategy

—— Observer

This book, from a man who had a front-row seat to much of the history he describes, draws on his experiences and those of his friends to bring events to vivid life

—— M. E. Sarotte, author of Not One Inch

Garton Ash deftly combines scholarship, journalistic experience, and personal observations and stories in Homelands ... delightful and thought-provoking

—— Robert B. Zoellick, author of America in the World

Garton Ash has carved out a unique niche as a 'historian of the present.' Homelands combines his eye-witness account of Europe's evolution with his keen historical insight to offer an innovative and compelling book

—— Charles A. Kupchan, author of Isolationism

Insightful

—— Irish Independent

Rich with originality and memoiristic detail

—— New Statesman

A fluent and authoritative account of Europe since the Second World War

—— Literary Review

An insightful analysis of the transformation of central and eastern Europe in the decades between the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

—— Guardian

Garton Ash is a clear-headed chronicler of the Continent [and] Homelands is an engaging read

—— Irish Times

An authoritative big picture well matched with revealing, important human details

—— The Tablet

Timothy Garton Ash tells the epic story of ... [postwar] Europe

—— Irish Times

Excellent ... Read as a letter, such gemlike vignettes can be treasured. Because in them, Garton Ash has captured something of what it means to be European. Though he is proudly in love with Europe, he is not blind to its faults

—— Washington Examiner

Part memoir, part history and is fascinating, rich in anecdote, and at times intensely moving

—— The Times, *Summer Reads of 2023*

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir — drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

—— Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

Vivid and starkly unsentimental... X Troop is a gripping story of Jewish courage and empowerment in the midst of darkness and sorrow

—— Jewish Review of Books

The Lion House presents a historical universe that captivates and astonishes and is near-impossible to put down. A superb example of historical literature and research

—— RICHARD WHATMORE, Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews

Full of breath-taking events at the cross-roads of empires at a moment in history when notions such as Europe, Asia, Christianity and Islam were infinitely more fluid and permeable than they are today

—— KEREM OKTEM, Professor of International Relations at Ca' Foscari University, Venice

Original... de Bellaigue... offers a vivid presentation of events, re-imagined as scenes and episodes... a different, literary kind [of history]

—— Noel Malcolm , Times Literary Supplement

De Bellaigue writes with impecable scholarship, piecing together contemporary accounts to create a thrilling narrative

—— Church Times

De Bellaigue is an expert stylist, sensitive to rhythm and vocabulary, and passionate in his pursuit of the fugitive detail that gives meaning to a whole episode

—— Literary Review

An exhilarating read

—— Rose Shepherd , Saga Magazine

An engrossing book... This is history turned into drama and poetry, awesomely spectacular yet also intensely intimate

—— Yasmin Alibhai-Brown , iNews

The world of Suleyman the Magnificent...is brought to life in this history

—— The Times, *The Year’s Top 50 Non-Fiction Books*

A masterpiece

—— Monty Don

Jessie Child's The Siege of Loyalty House turns an English Civil War stand-off into a fable of murderous polarisation: gripping, timely history

—— Spectator, *Best Books of 2022 I*

The Siege of Loyalty House ... tingles with a discerning historical imagination

—— Spectator, *Best Books of 2022 II*

[A] thrilling tale of war

—— Mail on Sunday

[A] gripping tale of a royalist house standing its grown against the Roundheads ... Atmospheric, unflinching, and at times extraordinarily witty

—— UK Daily News, *Best History and Politics Books of 2022*

[A] poignant book... the story is timeless

—— Economist, *Books of the Year*

Compelling

—— Spectator, *Books of the Year 2022*

Exhaustively researched and beautifully written, [The Siege of Loyalty House] tells the story of the epic two-year siege of Basing House, a royalist mansion finally captured by Oliver Cromwell in 1645.

—— Daily Express, *Books of the Year 2022*

When you are as good a writer as Jessie Childs, and as assuredly immersed in the archives, the pages zing with the technicolour of celluloid. ... [A] masterpiece.

—— Critic, *Non-fiction books of the year 2022*

Childs writes an engrossing, spellbinding narrative while laying out a clear and comprehendible history

—— New York Journal of Books

The broad subject of this poignant book is what happens to people during civil war: how quickly and imperceptibly order becomes chaos and decency yields to cruelty. In other words, how close to inhumanity humanity always is. The focus is on an episode in the English civil war, but the story is timeless

—— Economist

A gripping account of the agony at Basing, The Siege of Loyalty House is also a potted social history of the civil wars and how they started. Jessie Childs, [is] a gifted storyteller

—— London Review of Books

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