The Seeburg plotting table (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Seeburg-Tisch'') was a mechanical plotting table used by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in their operation rooms to track aircraft and coordinate operations during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. It was produced by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

. Attached to the plotting table was a Freya radar and two Würzburg-Riese radars. Freya radars would pick up and track the bombing raids and an attached Würzburg radar would then select an individual bomber and track it. The other Würzburg would track the night fighter that was sent out to find and attack the bombers. This plotting was done on a large, translucent glass plate. The radar position of both enemy bombers and the friendly night fighters were displayed on the table as moving spots of light. The enemy was displayed with a red spot and a blue spot represented the

night fighter A night fighter (later known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor post-Second World War) is a largely historical term for a fighter aircraft, fighter or interceptor aircraft adapted or designed for effective use at night, during pe ...

. The table had a grid that corresponded to the Kammhuber Line system (or Himmelbett as it was known in Germany) over the sector that was covered by its radar. The grid was a series of control sectors, that had associated radars,

searchlight A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely luminosity, bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a part ...

s, and a night fighter. Each grid square was further subdivided into smaller squares, numbered 1 to 9. This smaller grid represented an airspace of roughly 9 x 11 km, a size that allowed the night fighter to find the bombers with its own Lichtenstein airborne intercept radar. As the dots moved over time, the track was marked manually on the table by six female auxiliaries that were seated by it, known as Luftwaffe Hilferin or by the Luftwaffe slang term 'Blitzmädel', or lightning maidens. A Luftwaffe officer would oversee the development and acted as a fighter controller, directing the night fighter to the closest grid via radio. Operations were previously manually coordinated using an ''Auswertetisch'', which was a precursor to the ''Seeburg''.

References

{{Reflist Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving Germany German World War II defensive lines History of telecommunications in Germany Luftwaffe Research and development in Nazi Germany Telecommunications in World War II World War II strategic bombing of Germany

See also

References