Leigh Light

Common card · No. 446614

The Leigh Light (L/L) was a British World War II era anti-submarine device used in the Battle of the Atlantic. It was a powerful (22 million candelas) carbon arc searchlight of 24 inches (610 mm) diameter fitted to a number of the British Royal Air Force's Coastal Command patrol bombers to spot surfaced German U-boats at night. Early night operations with the new air-to-surface-vessel (ASV) radar demonstrated that the radar's minimum range of about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) meant that the target was still invisible when it disappeared off the radar display. Efforts to reduce this minimum were not successful, so Wing Commander Humphrey de Verd Leigh hit upon the idea of using a searchlight that would be switched on just when the target was about to disappear on radar. The U-boat had insufficient time to dive and the bombardier had a clear view of the target. Introduced in June 1942, it was so successful that for a time German submarines were forced to switch to charging their batteries during...

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