Reply to post: There's a good book called Bat 21

75 years ago, one Allied radar techie changed the course of WW2

I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

There's a good book called Bat 21

On a similar vein, I read a book called Bat 21 many moons ago. Got filmed later, but they moved it from Korea to Vietnam in the film.

The guy was a US jamming specialist, I think a colonel, and the only survivor of a crash. I think they were trying to deal with some particularly difficult air defences on a main supply route.

Of course, he's now stuck there - and the rescue attempts are having to deal with the same stuff that just shot him down.

At some point they stopped trying to rescue him, and decided the info in his head was too vital - so they carpet bombed his location in order to kill him instead. Which is nice...

Spoiler alert:

He survived and came up with a truly ingenious way of communicating his escape route to the Airforce over an unencrypted radio that the other side were also listening in on. Which meant they knew where he was and could give him air support when necessary, in order to get him to an extraction zone where they could get a helicopter in, without it being shot down.

So he created a golf course. He could remember the holes from his favourite courses on various US bases - and so told them say the 3rd from a course at Pearl Harbour, then the 4th from one in California etc. Laid them out on his map to cover the right directions on the route he wanted to take - calling in airstrikes on targets he passed on the way - and they got a mate of his to draw up a similar map at their end and kept in touch with him as he went.

He seemed surprisingly un-bitter about his own side deciding to kill him as well.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon