French Radar Sets

[Tzoli]

Not sure where to ask but here it is:
Is there a comprehensive list of French Radars (Both land and naval based) which was developed?
Did France able to start developing radar technology before the capitulation or it was kick-started by British and American equipment after the war?
To my knowledge the Soviets were in similar "shoes" but they had some early developments before received the lend-lease sets from the UK and US?

 

[fortrena]

The following French PDF file may be of interest. The photo of a centimetric radar prototype on page 13, especially so. A cropped version of that image can be found in the December 1935 issue of Popular Mechanics, page 844.

http://radars-darricau.fr/livre/2-PDF/histoire.pdf

 

[Archibald]

One of the best resources I can think of. I would say

COMAERO - EUROSAE

LE COMITE POUR L’HISTOIRE DE L’AERONAUTIQUE Au cours de la période 1945-1995, l’aéronautique française a vécu une aventure passionnante. Réduite à peu de choses au lendemain de la deuxième guerre mondiale, il lui fallait se reconstruire. C’est ce qu’elle a fait avec brio. Qu’il s’agisse des...

www.eurosae.com

These three but all the others are worth a read (in French, maybe Google translate can help ?)

L’électronique militaire – 2,3 Mo

Les équipements de bord (Tome 1) – 6,3 Mo

Les équipements de bord (Tome 2) – 3,2 Mo​

 

[Archibald]

Did France able to start developing radar technology before the capitulation or it was kick-started by British and American equipment after the war?

There was some limited research done pre-war but considering the sheer misery back then, it mostly took off post war.

 

[Tzoli]

Thanks I will check them out.
My limited knowledge on this area (together in naval electronics) that the French sets named
DRBC-xy
DRBI-xy
DRBV-xy
and DSBV-xy
with the latter being sonars
and
DRUA-xy
DUUA-xy
and DSUV-xy
being the Submarine versions

but I don't know which are the air search, surface search, and fire control ones.

 

[DWG]

ISTR reading about pre-War French experiments that were basically multi-site - one broadcast station, others that were looking for a hole in the broadcast signal rather than a bounced return. Unfortunately I can't remember where I was reading about that - might possibly be one of the John Jordan books on French warships?

 

[Sgt_Miller]

France was developing radar sets since at least 1934, marked with CSF's installment of a radar set on SS Normandie the year after. But it didn't stop there. Intriguingly, the French also managed to continue developing radar in the German-collaborating Vichy France. There are a ton of historical material on this paper:

Clandestine radar studies in France under the German occupation (1940–1942)

In the pre-WWII years the French CSF company, relying on its magnetron researches, was the first to take a specific interest in centimetric radar. Its “obstacle detector” installed in 1935 on the liner Normandie is well known. Two military versions, a “naval telemeter” and an anti-aircraft...

ieeexplore.ieee.org

 

[Sgt_Miller]

ISTR reading about pre-War French experiments that were basically multi-site - one broadcast station, others that were looking for a hole in the broadcast signal rather than a bounced return. Unfortunately I can't remember where I was reading about that - might possibly be one of the John Jordan books on French warships?

It's probably explained in this paper: they tried to make a basically multi-static radar as an early warning system (somewhat primitive to today's standard but state-of-the-art at the time). It was a rather interesting approach to the early warning problem, which the British sought through a different way, Chain Home, that is.

A French Pre-WW II attempt at air-warning radar: Pierre David's “electromagnetic barrier”

Pierre David, a French pioneer of the 1920s in the VHF domain, is best known for his early work on air defense and detection of aircraft. His approach, which he called DEM (electromagnetic detection), was quite similar to the “beating method.” There was experience with this at the same time at...

ieeexplore.ieee.org