----- Original Message -----
From: <Renactr2@aol.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 12:28 AM
Subject: [MV] References for WWII US/British Walkie Talkies
> Hi folks,
> Can some one steer me in the direction to pin down some reference
material?
>
The best reference is Louis Meulstee huge and exhaustive work in two volumes
called "Wireless for the Warrior". These are full size and thick books
crammed with technical data, circuit diagrams, parts lists, design history,
and cross references to the ancillary equipment.
Line drawings of vehicle fitments are abundant and there is a huge reference
and bibliography section. Needless to say these works are not cheap.
> I had read that the WWII British radios were incompatable with US radios
> because the Brits used Amplitude Modulation and the US had gone to
Frequency
> Modulation.
>
Amazingly no one was tasked with any liaison duties to see that the allies
could actually speak to each other on the radio, and they couldn't.
Canadian equipment, however, was the same as British.
To this day you will find the arms of service have no way of officially
communication at the front line.
Even more surprising being that you need the frequency charts to see what
British radio would talk to what, it seems makers went off and designed
something, later officially adopted without any concern as to the
compatibility with other radios.
> A question had come up in another list about British use of of US walkie
> talkies.
> I had thought that the Brits wouldn't have used them at platoon/section
level
> due to incompatability and supply issues.
> I know the larger Signals posts at Division or higher likely had US radios
to
> "make the leap".
>
Generally soldiers at the front line use whatever initiative is necessary to
achieve the objective. Throughout WWII there was no British hand-held
radio, low powered sets as a man-pack, operating HF only were available.
> However, someone on the list found a diary reference to a British Para
> strapping on a "walkie talkie" before the jump into Arnhem. I knew there
was
> the famous failure of the crystals in the new VHF radios the Paras had,
but
> suspect the reference to walkie talkie may have been a post-war write-up
of
> his experiances and he uses the term generically, not literally to
describe
> the US hand held radio.
>
References to ad hoc arrangements are usually found by accident in specific
unit histories or personal accounts. The Arnhem crystal failure occurred in
the WS 76, this is not a VHF radio, it is a 2MHz - 12MHz transmitter for CW
only using 6 crystal controlled spot frequencies having 9W output and being
air-dropped with its associated half-wave antenna arrangement including
masts. Its application was for traffic back to the UK, the paratroop
signallers at Arnhem would also carry the 38 set man pack, a HF AM only
radio of 200mW OP for platoon use.
> What IS the nomenclature of the WWII US hand held "Walkie Talkie" and
where
> can I find the specs for it? I would like to at least determine the freq
> range and the modulation format.
>
Pass.
> MV Content? Well, pretty thin, truthfully, but I have a WS 19 to go in my
> bren carrier and we are looking into adapting FRS radios into dead WWII
radio > shells. If the US walkie talkie seems to really be what the
reference is
> citing, it would aid in the communication project.
>
The Universal Carrier would carry the 19 set which is dealt with in great
detail in the referenced books; the 19 set replaced the 11 set and was
fitted officially in a huge range of soft-skin and armoured vehicles,
British, Canadian and American. The material has copious drawings and data
of these arrangements with the specific ancillaries used in each instance.
Jeeps especially had an official and designed fitment of just about every
British vehicle radio including hybrids with both US and UK radios, this
being the easy but somewhat unwieldy solution to cross-nation comms, put a
human in the way. Consider also the specially arranged jeeps for WWII FLOs
that had an Army and an airforce radio.
Look at the Gulf War, the only cross service/cross nationality comms was the
secure telephone, I'm sure you recall the pictures of rows and rows of mil
encrypted telephones with the ops looking like Wall St stock-brokers with a
phone on each ear, guess what they were doing. . . . . . . . . . .
One can only wonder presently if the powers that be had the foresight to
check that the frequency hoppers (doubtless) being used inside Afghanistan
by US and British forces can actually work back to back and also work to the
various support aircraft. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Do we think the NIH
scenario is alive and well ?
Richard
Southampton - England
Mng Dir (Pres) South Coast Comms Ltd
STAL II 984 - 20ET51
G3ZOE
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