Winning the Radar War: A Memoir

This short, readable autobiography will be valuable to anyone interested in the "Wizard War." The events are so important in the history of WWII, and the perspective so unusual, that anyone interested in WWII on the large scale will also find it useful. It concentrates on matters relevant to WWII, with minimal personal history. Jack Nissen (originally Nissenthal) was a teenage member of a ham radio club in England in the 1930s. The RAF was so short of money, that they asked for volunteers to do repairs on cockpit radios, in exchange for time on the RAF's big transmitters. Nissen volunteered. This led to a job helping develop the first operational radar system. That, in turn, led to a remarkable assignment: to go on the Dieppe raid, get into the German radar station there, and use his unique knowledge to bring back the parts that would be most useful to British intelligence. To prevent his unique knowledge from falling into German hands, he was accompanied by a "bodyguard" of Canadian soldiers, whose job was to kill him if necessary to prevent capture. This mission was so secret (he and his "bodyguards" didn't even know each others' names), and surrounded by so many cover stories, that probably only Nissen himself could straighten it out.