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Could it be:


PAD - Passive Air Defence

Found this, but “what the heck is “passive air defence”????


EDIT: Please note I split this topic off from Sgt Paul Barrette, RCE posts

Found this???? So now I’m trying to find a copy of this manual to see if it makes sense a Engineer Unit was doing this

That's what I arrived at too. Passive air defence seems to be mostly about siting, concealment, camouflage etc., so beyond the scope of a section of men. In our context, basically sentries against air attack?

klambie wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 01, 2022 7:12 pm

That's what I arrived at too. Passive air defence seems to be mostly about siting, concealment, camouflage etc., so beyond the scope of a section of men. In our context, basically sentries against air attack?

Well, the definition:

All measures, other than active air defense, taken to minimize the effectiveness of hostile air and missile threats against friendly forces and assets. These measures include camouflage, concealment, deception, dispersion, reconstitution, redundancy, detection and warning systems, and the use of protective construction.


And I was reading how in WW2 they found that lighting “large fires” out in the open “attracted” Luftwaffe bombers to drop their bombs (thinking that was the place they were suppose to hit, as bombers before their arrival had hit?)

And Engineers sometimes built deception (fake tanks, airfields etc)……but to have a Section of men each day/night available???? Not sure if that would help

And if it was anybody who could organize and do this, it was Engineers……. (Sorry, that’s the Military Engineer in me “bragging”)

I wonder if I can find anything in a War Diary that indicates some type of requirement for Passive Air Defence by Engineer troops???

Kevin, found this (and it pages long, so just posting the first page) on PAD in the Operation Neptune Orders…..you can see it covered all sorts of things from Fire fighting, to Gas Attacked etc

And I found their was actually a “School of Passive Air Defence”

And found this document

Sorry for the thread hijack, splitting was a good idea. Interesting digression, something I'll keep an eye out for. I don't recall ever seeing anything about PAD in infantry WDs, so maybe something a Field Coy was tasked with in a Brigade area? A few pairs of sappers sprinkled around the countryside?

klambie wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 03, 2022 7:12 pm

Sorry for the thread hijack, splitting was a good idea. Interesting digression, something I'll keep an eye out for. I don't recall ever seeing anything about PAD in infantry WDs, so maybe something a Field Coy was tasked with in a Brigade area? A few pairs of sappers sprinkled around the countryside?

Your right Kevin, I’ve never seen this myself (the everyday you learn something new about the Second World War)…….and then when I went looking and saw all the info in the Operation Neptune orders, again, surprised, must have looked thru those order hundreds of times while researching and never saw (or saw them and went by while looking for other stuff)……so again new to me.

I also noted that its still a “thing” in todays armies……but in ALL my years in the Canadian Engineers I never heard that term or had any courses etc that include PAD training or what it was.

But your right, sprinkle a few Engineers about and let them worry about it

Cheers