High-frequency direction finding

Huff - Duff is a radio direction finder, which was used in World War II. The name is derived from the abbreviation HFDF for High-Frequency Direction Finding, German: Kurzwellenpeilung. The device was developed by the two French engineers Maurice Deloraine and Henri Busignies. They started the development in Paris and finished it after emigrating to the United States.

Use on the Allied side

This direction finder was used in World War II from about 1941 on numerous ships of the Allies. From 1943 it was installed on all vessels of the Allies, as well as in coastal stations.

Background

In the early years of World War II made ​​the German U- boats in some major successes. The pack tactics stipulated that a submarine after sighting a convoy kept in touch and durchgab its position to other boats. Boats near then tried to join the convoy to approach too. The attack took place later in the group, often at night. This has made it possible with just a few boats to monitor a large sea area.

Effects

Initially the devices were mainly used by the country. In this way, Allied convoys were herumdirigiert to known positions German U- boats. As of 1942, the Huff - Duff was also built on the Allied escort ships. This allowed a much more accurate position determination of the German U- boats. Once the tracked submarine deposed a radio message, it could be located and pushed from the convoy or sunk. This technique was combined with radar detection, among others, against surfaced and ASDIC against submerged boats.