How Britain countered Luftwaffe radio navigation beams used for night bombing during the early World War II Blitz

The Battle of the Beams was an early World War II electronic warfare campaign in which the Luftwaffe used radio navigation systems such as Knickebein, X-Gerät, and Y-Gerät to guide night bombers over Britain. British scientific intelligence responded with jamming and deceptive signals that misled German crews and eventually neutralized the systems.

The episode showed how quickly military advantage could shift from hardware to signals intelligence and countermeasures. It foreshadowed modern electronic warfare, where detecting, spoofing, and disrupting guidance systems can be as decisive as the weapons themselves.