Wacław Struszyński

Who was Wacław Struszyński?

Wacław Struszyński -, was a Polish electronics engineer. During War World II, working at the Admiralty Signal Establishment, he led a team that developed a high frequency radio direction finding system for use on ships, which was used very effectively to find and destroy German U-boats. The technical problems were severe in comparison to the design of land based high frequency direction finding systems, due to the very detrimental effect of unwanted radio reflections from the ship's superstructure. The Germans considered the problem insoluble, and U-boats continued to use their high frequency radios to communicate with base stations in Western Europe, thus giving their positions to convoy escort vessels.

In his book 'Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted, 1942-1945', the American naval historian Clay Blair Jr., refers to Struszynski's achievement as 'a breakthrough of transcendent importance'.

Struszynski subsequently worked at the Marconi Research Laboratories, Great Baddow, Essex, where he was a Consultant in communications research until his retirement.

The father of Wacław Struszyński was Professor Marceli_Struszyński, a member of the Polish resistance, who analysed the fuel used in the V2 rocket, the formula being subsequently sent to England.