[ARC5] German Tank Radios (was Re: Off topic)

[Jim Haynes]

On Fri, 6 Jan 2012, Lenox Carruth wrote:

> This is a very interesting story.  It seems the German radios were AM and
> the American radios were FM.  They apparently used a similar frequency band
> and the German system was often unreadable because of interference from the
> American FM system.  I have also gathered that most German tanks did not
> have radios and some had only receivers whereas all American tanks
> apparently had radios.

This may be incorrect.  I once read an article in the AFCEA magazine 
Signal - I couldn't begin to give you a reference.  The author argued
that the rapid fall of France early in WW-II could be attributed to the
fact that every German tank had a radio, while the French tanks did not
have them.  The French tank commanders relied on motorcycle couriers
to tell them where their tanks were.

One book I read on radio intercept work in North Africa said something
to the effect that the German forces were using frequencies in the
vicinity of 2 MHz.