[Milsurplus] Military vehilce interiors

[David Stinson]

> You have all these ships, vehicles, men and equipment, 
> yet I have asked before without reply if there was some
> kind of parameters used in who communicated with whom
> and how messages were routed. 

I have a lot of this information in Signal Corps documents,
but that's a big post and it will take a while to get 
it all together in a coherent fashion.  I'll keep your
letter on hand so I can get to it as time permits.

> Here's a link for a an article on the LVT(4) landing
> craft,  with photos of the TCS install. To me, having
> a TCS class radio here is really overdoing it - way
> too much radio for a 2-crew armored vehicle, a
> simple 2 channel FM radio would have been more
> realistic...

Many of these type vehicles were equipped with HF, and 
the TCS is an extremely rugged little radio, capable of
being lock-tuned. The radioman would have tuned the radio
up before the invasion.  

HF was more extensively- though by no means exclusively-
used in the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO).
For instance- did you know that, unlike earlier and later
versions of the GF/RU,  the GF-11 / RU-16 radios
were intended for landing craft and ground vehicles
(Yes- I can quote a primary source)?
And the SCR-288 stayed in service in the Pacific 
theater long after it was officially to be replaced by SCR-284
(also from primary sources). 
Come to think of it- has anyone seen a photo of an FM 
vehicular set deployed in the PTO before 1945?
I can't remember one.  The official Army history of the 
campaign to recapture the Philippines should provide 
some information on this, and I'll see what I can find
next time I'm in a major library.

I think the ETO got the bulk of the FM sets because 
of the "Germany First" policy.  The Army Air Corps units
in the PTO made do with the older aircraft much longer
then the ETO guys, so it follows that the PTO would get
the older radios as well.

73 Dave S.