A few more questions for the experts

[blottogg]

Originally Posted by PeterD

Get a vector means know their (approximate) location if I'm not mistaken, not the same as communicating with them.

The bomber using the radio to determine the relative position of intercepting fighters would depend on a couple of things:

1) Being on the right frequency. From Bolox's link, the British TR9 HF radio was tuned to a single frequency on the ground (4.3-6.0 KHz). I don't know about the frequency tuning abilities of German bomber radios, but if they could tune to this frequency, they could listen in.

2) The bomber crew would have to know that they were the target the fighters were being vectored towards. With multiple interceptor and bomber flights, this might not be easy to suss out. Given the short duration of fighter transmissions, D/F-ing the interceptors directly would be difficult, unless they were "holding down" to allow their own GCI to D/F their position. The TR9 apparently had a separate transmission frequency for this purpose.

3) The German on the radio would need to know not just English, but RAF GCI terminology. "Judy", "Buster", "Bandit", "Bogey", and "Angels" are all terms we're familiar with after years of flight sim experience (these terms also still mean the same thing in modern GCI, too), but they're not exactly conversational English.

If they could do that (and remember to take GCI's vector heading and use its reciprocal to look for the incoming interceptors), they could get an advanced warning of the Hurricanes and/or Spitfires. Other than the above example, I don't know of the Germans trying to listen in, though I don't think it would be too difficult. The example above makes sense to me, as I would think the Polish (and other pilots who weren't native English speakers) would be more vulnerable to spoofing.