[ARC5] Off topic

[Dennis Monticelli]

In the recent book, "Crystal Clear.  The Struggle for Reliable
Communications Technology in WW2" the author, Richard Thompson, makes
the case for the allies (especially Americans) having much better
tactical communications on the battlefield than the Germans.  The US
made a key decision early on to depend upon crystals for setting
frequency in their field radios.  A very small pre-1940 domestic
crystal making industry in the US grew by leaps and bounds during the
war and Brazilian quartz mining was heavily leveraged.  US crystal
making technology and capacity far outstripped the Germans.  As a
result the German tank radios had temp drifty VFO's with vibration
issues along with difficulty in changing frequency rapidly and tuning
in another "channel."  The US could field a group of armor that had
reliable comm on multiple fixed channels with rapid hopping from
channel to channel (with different tank/artillery groups on different
channels).  In the chaos of a tank battle where close coordination is
required and every second counts, the American tactical comm was far
superior.

Dennis AE6C

On 1/5/12, Robert  Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Gordon, the book "Armored Thunderbolt" about the development of the Sherman
> tank is a great read and presents a rather different view.  Among other
> things the Shermans that hit the beach at Normandy sometimes had as much as
> 10,000 miles of training on them and were good for many more.  The typical
> Panther or Tiger was worn out at 7500 miles and needed to go back to a depot
> to be rebuilt.
>
> In the book Citizen Soliders Stephen Ambrose describes an incident where
> American tanks were going thorough German town and a little boy kept saying
> "Deutsh panzers ist better."  Finally an US soldier turned to the little boy
> and said "If the German tanks are better, where are they?"
>
> Answer:  Either blown up or in the shop.
>
> By the way, one thing I have never read is how German and Amercian tank
> radios compared in terms of effectivness.
>
> Wayne
> WB5WSV
>
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