World War II Radar Station: B-71 (U.S. National Park Service) (2024)

The Klamath River Radar Station B-71, located near Klamath, California,is a rare, surviving World War II early-warning radar station. Modern radarwas a very new technology in the 1940s and radar stations like B-71 wereone of thefirst steps towards today's more sophisticated early warning radar defense network.

Why build radar stations?
As a result of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Aleutian Islands, the need to guard the American coastline on the Pacific Ocean became more important. This was made urgent when Japanese submarines shelled an oil refinery north of Santa Barbara, California, on February 23, 1942; Esteven Point in British Columbia, Canada, on June 20, 1942;and again at Fort Stevens, Washington, on July 21, 1942. On September 9, 1942, a Japanese submarine-launched aircraft dropped incendiary bombs on Oregon forests roughly 40 miles north of the Klamath River.

To protect the Pacific Coast from further attacks, a

network of 72 radar stations was proposed as part of a radar air defense network. Although only 65stations were actually built, the network stretchedfrom the US/Canadaborder into Mexico.

About the Station
As part of the coastal radar air defense network, a station was builtapproximately two miles south ofthe mouth of the Klamath Riverin what is now Redwood National and State Parks. The radar station was designatedStation B-71, (named "Trinidad") by a memorandum from the Office of the Commanding General, IV Fighter Command dated November 6, 1942. Itwas also referred to as the "Klamath River" station and was the northernmost coastal radar stationin California.

The radar station was manned by members of the US Army Air Corps quartered in barracks near the town of Klamath. It was commanded during part of 1943 by 2nd Lieutenant Neff, later replaced by one or more 1st lieutenants in succession. The station was manned around the clock. A single day's

operation of the station required a crew of about 35 men to work the 24 hours in shifts. It was also guarded by military police with dogs and had threeanti-aircraft guns.

The buildings that made up the station were fairly unique in that their camouflage was "built-in". Most camouflage of structures disguised already existing buildings, but the buildingsatRadar Station B-71 were new. This meant that they could be built with camouflaging as part of their new construction. The buildings were built to be disguised as a farm.

The station consisted of three buildings: a Power Building disguised as a farmhouse, an Operations Building disguised as a barn, a functional wood frame two-stall Privy or outhouse, and threeanti-aircraft guns.

Power Building

As its name implies, the Power Building housed the power generators needed to run the radar equipment. Located south of the Operations Building, it was camouflagedto look like a farmhouse. The actual building was a rectangular structure made of concrete blocks. In order to disguise the concrete walls they were covered withfalse exterior wooden walls. The false wallswere made of vertical board and batten siding on a wood frame and weresecured to the concrete blocks. A number of fake windows were built Into thefalse walls but they did not penetrate the concrete walls.The building also hada large wood-shingled gable roof withtwo false dormer windows. The dormers sat on top of the roof but didn'topen into the roof space.The roofstyle, dormers, and wooden walls and windowsall disguised the concrete building and added to the impression that it was really a farmhouse.

Operations Building

The Operations Buildinghousedthe oscilloscope andoperating personnel andwas disguised to look like a barn. A false barn door at the north end satunder a roof gable. An extension of the roof simulatedthe track for a traveling pulley hoist which, in a realbarn, would have been used for moving bales of hay. The exterior concrete block walls were disguised with false wood siding whose outer edge was five or six inches beyond the outer face of the concrete walls.The interior of the operations building was divided into about seven rooms. The rooms all had acoustic tile ceilings and at leastone room also had acoustic wall tiles.

During the first half of 1943 a mobile SCR-270B radar antenna wasinstalled uncamouflaged about 30 feet west of the operations building. Itconsistedof a rectangular metal grid mounted vertically on a pole of triangular metal framework. The whole assembly was carried on a wheeled trailer to make it mobile. At a later date more permanent antenna wereinstalled.

P

rivy(outhouse)

The two-stall privy was awood frame structurelocated 95 feet north of the operations building. It has largely eroded away.

Anti-Aircraft Guns

Southwest of the power building is the remains of a circular pit about twelve feet in diameter which may have been the location of one of the three M2 (Browning) .50 caliber machine guns. The guns were on anti-aircraft mounts and protected the station. Northwest of the operations building is the remains of a similar circular pit which is believed to be the site of a second .50 caliber machine gun. The location of the third gun mount site is unknown.

End of Service

As the threat of Japanese attack waned towards the end of World War II, the coastal early radar stations began to be phased out of service. Whilethe need for early-warning radar decreased,the need for air-sea rescue radar increased, Effective July 1, 1944, Radar Station B-71 was converted to emergency rescue service, with the SCR-271 radar being replaced with RC-150 IFF equipment. The station was thus one of only 22 radar stations on the entire Pacific Coast to remained in operationuntil the end of World War II

Preserving the Station
After the war, Radar Station B-71 was abandoned and it reverted to private ownership until the National Park Service acquired it with the creation of what was then known as Redwood National Park. The topography of the site has createdconservation challenges with runoff and erosion causing mud to be deposited against the structure. The constant moisture has also damaged the remaining siding in some areas. The buildings are still standing, but are weathered. The first known photographs of the site date to the 1970s. Unfortunately, nophotos of the site are known to exist from World War II.