MUSEUM "WAALSDORP"

In 1977, however, the curtain fell for the Würzburg-Riese antenna. After be used for three decades as the pivot in radio-communication for the Physics Laboratory RVO-TNO, the antenna was returned to the country of origin.

The 1997 annual report of the Physics Laboratory RVO-TNO stated that the Würzburg-Riese antenna was dismantled by German Army personnel and was transported to the village of Appen, located west of Hamburg. Already in the year1957, the "Luftwaffenmuseum of the Bundeswehr" was started on the airfield named Uetersen near Appen. This museum showed the development of the German aircraft with its air planes. Also the air planes of the "Nationale Volksarmee" in the "Deutsche Demokratische Republik" were exhibited there. On September 23, 1995, the new "Luftwaffenmuseum: Berlin-Gatow" on the former British airfield Gatow near Berlin was opened.

A Würzburg-Riese parabolic antenna was mounted there as well. After inquiring about the details of this antenna, the museum explained that the Funkmessgerät (Radar) FuMG 65 was mounted till the year 1944 in Scheveningen and belonged to the German aircraft warning line. This line was set up with 1500 Würzburg-Riese antennas from Normandy in France, through Belgium and Holland till the border of Germany with the Netherlands.

It was indicated that this FuMG 65 was dismantled by the Allied Forces and used for experiments. From this, several indications are present to support the idea that the radar system at Gatow was earlier used by the Physics Laboratory RVO-TNO.

After inquiring with the former co-operator of that Laboratory, mr. P.J. Jansen, and showing him the photographs of the radar antenna at Gatow, he could certainly confirm that this antenna was used by him. Mr. Jansen mentioned various details such as the windows of the control-cabin that were replaced by the windows of a motor bus (coach). Also ventilation gaps were constructed in this cabin against the heat in the summer in Scheveningen with the white sand dunes around.

Also a part of the parabolic reflector was replaced. The aluminium strips fastened with iron bolts, were liable to corrosion by the potential difference of these materials in the salty air near the coast of the North Sea. By pointing out the present residence of the Würzburg-Riese parabolic antenna at Gatow, a part of the history of the Physics Laboratory RVO-TNO, until January 1st, 2005 called TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory (TNO-FEL) at The Hague, prolongs in Germany.