This top-secret New Jersey lab helped save Britain from total Nazi destruction

Fort Hancock’s Secret Radar Laboratory Operation

Fort Hancock hid one of World War II’s best-kept secrets. In 1937, the U.S. Army moved radar work to this Sandy Hook base after Nazi spy Gunther Rumrich walked right into Fort Monmouth and stole key research.

For four years, scientists at Fort Hancock built radar systems that would change warfare forever. Their SCR-270 radar even spotted Japanese planes 45 minutes before they hit Pearl Harbor.

When German U-boats lurked too close to the coast, the lab packed up and moved inland. Today, Fort Hancock’s 39-stop walking tour shows where these radar pioneers helped win the war.

Signal Corps Started Radar Experiments in the Late 1920s

The Army Signal Corps began playing with radar ideas in the late 1920s under Colonel William Blair at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.

Most Army folks worked on infrared detection and sound detectors rather than radio detection. Things changed in 1935 when Roger Colton convinced Blair to look at the Navy’s CXAM radar project.

William Hershberger checked out the navy radar, liked what he saw, and got them a small budget to start their own work.

Watson’s Team Built the First Working Radar in 1936

Paul Watson led a research team that formed by late 1935. They worked quickly, and by December 1936, they created a working radar system.

Their first successful test happened on December 14, 1936, when they spotted a plane up to 7 miles away using the pulse method. By May 1937, they tracked a bomber at night, showing their system worked in real conditions.

Night Demo Wowed the Secretary of War in 1937

On May 26, 1937, the Signal Corps showed off their radar to War Secretary Harry Woodring and General “Hap” Arnold at Fort Monmouth.

The Martin B-10 bomber test became even more impressive when winds blew the plane off course. Radar operators found the bomber about ten miles from its planned location.

The Secretary liked the demo so much that the next day, he pushed through orders for full development with $250,000 from Congress.

A Nazi Spy Walked Right Through the Front Gate

Nazi spy Gunther Rumrich got orders to check out the secret Signal Corps research at Fort Monmouth. Rumrich simply drove up to the main gate where a bored guard, reading a comic book, waved him through without checking.

Rumrich gathered lots of info on radar research just by asking officers where tests were happening. Police caught him on February 14, 1938, after he tried to get 35 blank U.S. passports for the German government.

The Army Moved Their Secret Lab to Sandy Hook

After the May 1937 demo, the Signal Corps worried that German spies were watching their radar work. They packed up and moved to Sandy Hook at Fort Hancock, the coast artillery site guarding Lower New York Bay.

In early 1938, looking for better security and more space, they set up about 11 miles northeast of their first location.

The Fort Hancock site became Field Laboratory Number Three, known to insiders as the Signal Corps Radar Laboratory.

Game-Changing Radar Systems Took Shape at Fort Hancock

From summer 1937 to summer 1938, the radar team at Fort Hancock built and tested the SCR-268, the first system using both infrared and radio detection.

After moving to Fort Hancock, they jumped into an Air Corps request for what became “Radio Set SCR-270. ” The SCR-270 and SCR-271 could spot planes 120 miles away.

The key to making the SCR-270 work was a special water-cooled transmitting tube.

Mass Production Turned Prototypes into War Machines

Westinghouse got the contract in October 1938 to make the transmitting tubes. A pair of Westinghouse tubes arrived in January 1939 and went straight into the first SCR-270.

The first SCR-271 started working in October 1940 at Fort Sherman in the Canal Zone, picking up commercial airliners 117 miles away.

About 3,100 SCR-268 systems came off production lines and entered service in 1940, ready for the coming war.

Radar Spotted Japanese Planes Before Pearl Harbor

An SCR-270 picked up the incoming Japanese raid about 45 minutes before bombs fell on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Privates Joseph Lockard and George Elliot ran the SCR-270 at the Opana radar site on the northern tip of Oahu.

They reported a large radar contact as an “awful big flight” with “large number of planes coming in from the north.”

The untrained officer who got their report thought they had spotted a flight of B-17s coming from the mainland and brushed off the warning.

German U-boats Forced the Lab to Move Inland

Operation Drumbeat started in January 1942 with German U-boats attacking ships up and down the U.S. East Coast. U-123 sank the Norwegian tanker Norness and British tanker Coimbra off Sandy Hook on back-to-back nights.

German torpedoes sent a dozen or more ships to the bottom off the New Jersey coast, often attacking just a few miles from the beach.

Fort Hancock sat right on the coast, making it an easy target for German U-boat deck guns firing from close offshore.

Camp Evans Became the New Radar Research Hub

In 1941, the Belmar radio site got a new name: Evans Signal Laboratory, after Wall Township bought the original Marconi buildings.

The Signal Corps Radar Laboratory packed up from Fort Hancock and moved to the safer inland Belmar facility. Workers quickly put up more than two dozen buildings and structures for the growing radar research program.

The War Department made it official with General Order on February 17, 1942, and the laboratory got its formal name on March 31, 1942.

Radar Technology Helped Win the War

The SCR-270 and SCR-271 systems became the U.S. Army’s main early-warning radars used worldwide during World War II.

Radar technology helped win the Battle of Britain by giving RAF fighters advance notice of German bomber raids.

Allied naval forces used radar to turn the tide against German U-boats in the Atlantic, making convoy protection much more effective.

Camp Evans grew into the primary center for radar research, eventually leading to the Project Diana moon bounce experiment in 1946.

Visiting Fort Hancock, New Jersey

Fort Hancock at 128 South Hartshorne Drive in Highlands was home to secret radar development that helped win World War II. The park is open 6am-9pm daily with free parking.

You can visit the History House in Officer’s quarters Building #1 from 10am-4pm May through September, weekends only other months. The Sandy Hook Visitor Center opens 9am-5pm daily.

Cold War veterans lead Nike radar site tours on select weekends.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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