"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"Lawrence Dillard" wrote in message
...

SNIP



To my knowledge the Germans never developed a true proximity
fise as they lacked the cavity magnetron

SNIP
proximity fuze.

By the time the shipment had been readied, the German had in their
possession possibly several dozen "dud" Allied proximity fuses,
recovered
from the battlefield.

SNIP

More alarming was the capture of an ammunition dump that included
stock of intact unfired shells. The allies didnt know if the Germans had
seized any and so launched a crash investigation to see if jamming the
fuze was possible

As I understand the situation, early firing trails at sea disclosed that
certain types of clouds could cause proximity shells to detonate as if a
true target ad been encountered. This realization led to research into
whether such fuzes could deliberately be "foxed" by an enemy; circuitry was
incorporated into production items to neutralize such attempts.

The Germans apparently overran not one but several several US ammo dumps in
the first hours of the offensive, but in their haste failed to notice that
the fuzes of certain batches of US shells were somewhat different from the
run-of-the-mill, and therefore left them undisturbed. After all, as far as
the Germans were concerned, only the Third Reich had Secret Weapons. Otto
Skorzeny himself allegedly was the recipient of the first such shell used by
Allied forces, (without due authorization) also in the early hours of the
attack. He added to his collection of wounds in the incident when his
armored vehicle was fired on by a proximity-fuzed shell.


However, no Allied proximity fuse developed duringWWII used the resonant
cavity magnetron.

SNIP
Instead, a radio signal on a lower frequency was used.


The frequency used was 180 to 220 MHz according to
http://www.smecc.org/radio_proximity_fuzes.htm


Accepting that as accurate, Microwave Radio emissions encompass the range of
3,000MHZ--30,000MHZ frequency at wavelengths of from 10 CM--1CM.

Radar at 180-220MHZ frequency should prove to have a wavelength of at least
a meter. As usual, I am open to correction on the matter, but neither the
frequency quoted above nor the associated wavelength meet the requirements
of Microwave Radio transmission.