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The Coast Star
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Camp
Evans building held WWII radar array
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During World War II, Camp Evans was the home of Army radar development. And while one would expect all the work to be done inside the security fence, surprisingly, the north edge of the Camp Evans parking lot, now a favorite coffee-break spot of local utility workers and persons walking their dog, there were at least three giant radar towers and five or six buildings outside the security fence. Photos in
a declassified technical manual show this section of Camp Evans. For security reasons
the location of the photos was not specified. The manual is dated December 1942, just a year after
the
attack on Pearl Harbor. The
towers were
early-warning radars
that could
detect enemy planes up to
150 miles away.
They had obscure names like
SCR-271-D, which
stands for Signal Corps
Radio number 271
model D. A model D and a model A were located near the intersection of Monmouth Boulevard
and Watson Road. |
They were just a few feet from a massive concrete guy-wire anchor
remaining from one of the
six
400-foot-tall 1912 Marconi wireless towers. Those towers ran
from
Marconi Road along Monmouth
Boulevard to near
Hurley Pond Road. Upon
examining the photos closely,
one will note
the buildings are painted with a camouflage pattern.
At this point in
the war there was concern enemy planes would target the Wall Township
radar
site for bombing. A sign
on the SCR-271-D reads
"SCRL I & M School." We do
not know what the "I & M School"
was. Today,
only the building constructed of concrete block has survived. In the grass on either side
of it, one can see the concrete footings of the old radar
towers. All
the others buildings were of wood
construction and are long gone. |
service
to protect both ends of
the Panama Canal. Throughout
the war, Camp Evans
personnel were responsible for
upgrading the SCR-217 radar around the world with advanced components
and making
sure the radars could not be "jammed" by enemy equipment. Though the radar
towers were outside the security
fence one can see
today, they were well protected. Armed military police with guard dogs
patrolled the
grounds and Monmouth
Boulevard was closed
to civilian traffic north of Taft Street. The
declassified manual with the
link to the past was given to
the InfoAge archives
by Ray Chase,
of Plainfield. Mr. Chase is
a founder of
lnfoAge, a member of the New Jersey Antique Radio Club, and a collector and expert in
historic
World War II-era radar equipment. Thanks to Mr. Chase, the mysterious concrete building of unknown
origin by the big parking
lot can take its place in World War II history. |
What
is now just a shack at the corner of Monmouth Boulevard and Watson Road
[above]
used to be
home
to
a radar array in World War II [below]
(web editor's note: The concrete
block to the right of the stop sign is a guy wire anchor
for one of the 1914 Marconi Station 400 Foot tall towers. Click here to see the anchor in 1914.)
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