"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
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"robert arndt" wrote in message
om...
"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
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"vzlion" wrote in message
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SNIP


To my knowledge the Germans never developed a true proximity
fise as they lacked the cavity magnetron and miniaturized electronics
necessary.IRC correctly the best they could manage was the "Kranich"
acoustic proximity fuze.

By the time the shipment had been readied, the German had in their
possession possibly several dozen "dud" Allied proximity fuses, recovered
from the battlefield. Gen Eisenhower had authorized the use of these devices
over land at the onset of the Ardennes Offensive. German authorities offered
soldiers a bounty for the recovery of partial or complete "duds". Their
analysis revealed the super-tough tubes employed therein.

However, no Allied proximity fuse developed duringWWII used the resonant
cavity magnetron. Research and development on the miniaturization of such
devices had not begun by the end of the conflict in Europe. Instead, a radio
signal on a lower frequency was used.

As best I've been able to learn, the characteristics of the cavitron were
better and more fully understood only long after the war, when it was
realized that these devices could be fabricated from a far lesser amount of
material (and from materials less dear than copper) than formerly had been
used.

A form of "smart" artillery shells was built, (at least in the US, during
the 1970's) using a rather tiny, shrunken cavitron in conjunction with some
form of "guidance fins" on the shell body. The cavitron allowed friendly
artillery to loft shells to the area of an enemy advance; other circuitry
connected to the return radio-wave receiver could discern between a target
of great mass (i.e., armor) and a target of lesser mass (i.e., a lorry) and
to "select" the more massive (and presumably more valuable) target, for
which the "fins" served for terminal steering.

Individual shells could either achieve a direct hit on the selected target,
or detonate overhead of it within sufficient proximity to disable a tank or
self-propelled artillery, for example.


SNIP