World War II U.S. Coastal Defense
Women Protect American Shores by Forming Air Raid Defense Group
By mastering the military radar sytem, the Women's Air Raid Defense group was the first line of defense against attacks by Japanese and other enemies during World War II.
Directly after Pearl Harbor and for the remainder of the war, a brave group of women was responsible for protecting Hawaii and the coast of America from enemy attack. These women, comprised of native Hawaiians, civilians, wives and daughters of the U.S. military were the Women’s Air Raid Defense.
Using radar to track planes
They used radar to track enemy planes, alert civilians for air raids and defend America’s shores from attack. The idea of using women for this role came from the British who realized their effectiveness during the Battle of Britain. In December of 1941, the U.S. began to copy Britain’s system.
Radar for the purpose of detecting incoming aircraft made its debut in 1936. In 1939 the Army began developing an Aircraft Warning System. All during 1940 the Air Raid Defense System was being built in top secret conditions on the Hawaiian Islands. By September of 1941, the Aircraft Warning Company Center was finished. In 1942, it was moved to an underground site.
The beginning of the program
Within a month of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the first twenty women were chosen and training began to replace the men in the plotter rooms. This put women for the very first time in the front lines of defense of U.S. shores. Eventually, there were 104 women in this program. They were given military insignia and the executive officer was so well respected for her work, she wore the insignia of a full colonel. Gwen Williams was the first chief supervisor.
The women chosen had to be between 20 and 34 years old, be childless, willing to relocate to barracks, wear military uniforms, pass a physical and a military intelligence test and keep their actions top secret. All the women were designated as officers in case they were captured by the enemy, so they would get better treatment.
The women's job descriptions
There were two basic jobs; the plotters and the filterers. The plotters sat in front of a huge map of the Hawaiian Islands with a grid drawn on it. Through the headsets they wore, they heard the radar coordinates from the men at the radar stations and plotted them on the map, noting speed, direction and time of reception, continuously keeping them updated as each report came in. The filterer took the raw reports from the radar stations, and used them to weed out conflicting reports, false radar readings, plot actual courses of the planes, understand codes, determine enemy from friendly planes and aid with planes in distress.
The first group of WARD’S began training on January 1st 1942. The women were trained for two weeks, two hours a day and by January 12th the women worked their first shift. Mary Erdman was the first shift supervisor. Soon every shift was fully staffed by women. The men they replaced moved on to other positions farther out into the Pacific.
The first actual test in combat
With each Japanese victory after Pearl Harbor, the enemy moved closer and closer to Hawaii and the American Mainland and the pressure on the WARD’S grew. They got their first major test on March 5, 1942. That night, Oahu radar picked up two Japanese flying boats coming in from the west. As the WARD’S successfully tracked the planes, the room came alive and the Navy and Army officers were alerted and planned their strategy. They decided to send interceptor planes up to shoot down the incoming planes and the decision to sound the air raid sirens went out. As the interceptor planes flew out, the Hawaiians took shelter and blacked out the island.
The two Japanese planes were each carrying two 500 pound bombs, looking for American carriers. The night was cloudy and dark and our interceptor planes could not locate the Japanese planes, but due to the air raid signal, the Japanese planes, also dealing with the dark and clouds could not see the harbor or the cities as they had been blacked out and so the bombs they dropped missed their targets. The first of many trials of the Women’s Air Raid Defense was a success.
Reference:
For more information in this subject, read Shuffleboard Pilots by Candace A. Chenoweth and A. Kam Napier
