Radio, radar and countermeasures equipment
The Lancaster had a very advanced communications system for its time. Most British-built Lancasters were fitted with the famous R1155 receiver and T1154 transmitter, whereas the Canadian built aircraft and those built for service in the Far East had American radios. These provided radio direction-finding, as well as voice and Morse capabilities.
H2S
Ground looking navigation radar system - eventually, it could be homed in on by the German night fighters' NAXOS receiver and had to be used with discretion.
Fishpond
An add-on to H2S that provided additional (aerial) coverage of the underside of the aircraft to display attacking fighters on the main H2S screen.
Monica
A rearward looking radar to warn of night fighter approaches - a notable disaster, since it could not distinguish between attacking enemy fighters and nearby friendly bombers. Much worse, it inadvertently served as a homing beacon for suitably equipped German night fighters, who would then use Schräge Musik to attack the bombers. Once this was realised, it was removed altogether.
GEE
A receiver for a navigation system of synchronized pulses transmitted from the UK - aircraft calculated their position from the time delay between pulses. The range of GEE was 3-400 miles.
Boozer
A system of lights mounted on the aircraft's instrument panel that illuminated when the aircraft was being tracked by Würzburg ground radar and Lichtenstein airborne radar. In practice it was found to be more disconcerting than useful, as the lights were often illuminated with false alerts in the radar signal-infested skies over Germany.
Oboe
A very accurate navigation system consisting of a receiver/transponder for two radar stations transmitting from the UK - one determining range and the other the bearing on the range. As the system could only handle one aircraft at a time it was only fitted to Pathfinder aircraft which marked the target for the main force.
GEE-H
Similar to Oboe but with the transponder on the ground allowing more aircraft to use the system simultaneously. GEE-H aircraft were usually marked with two horizontal yellow stripes on the fins.
Village Inn
A radar-aimed gun turret fitted to some Lancasters in 1944.
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