[Milsurplus] Philippine guerilla radio?

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <W7QHO@aol.com>
To: <kargo_cult@msn.com>; <milsurplus@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2003 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Philippine guerilla radio?

> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Stan Wilson" <ak0b@swbell.net>
> > 
> > > I would have thought that the radios used might have been British ?

HM: 
> > Why? That might have been an idea, but the Philippine campaign
> > was a US affair. I can't see them going outside the supply chain, 
> > unless they absolutely had to.
> > 
> 
> Well, why not?   After all, MacArthur hunkered down in Australia after the 
> fall of the Philippines and the Aussies had their coast watchers reporting back 
> from number of occupied areas. Maybe the Army took a page out of their book 
> rather than reinventing the wheel once again (happens occasionally).   Special 
> Ops situation here too and entirely possible the guys running it would not have 
> been constrained to use equipment in the Army (or Navy) inventory.   

Again, why? If there was US gear available, why? Why go beyond the
PRC-1? Was there a Brit set with more power and variety of power
supplies? 

> Commercial gear could be a possibility too.

Give us some examples of commercial gear.

> 
> As a related matter, do we really know just how radio operations were 
> conducted by our guerilla forces?   Radios of the time were big and bulky, not the 
> kind of thing you would likely have at your side while hiding in the weeds 
> counting supply trucks, troop ships or mounting a hit-and-run ambush. 

Except for commando attacks, such as the Brit attempt to kill Rommel
in North Africa, i'm not aware of radios used right in any ambush or hit 
& run attack.

We do know from Europe what kind of radios agents used
while watching roads and rails and so on. There is an account
from Norway just this way, it was either watching a port or
a German installation....maybe this book was "Two Eggs on my
Plate"... can't recall.  ( The 2 eggs breakfast was an unexpressed
signal that the agent was to leave on a mission next, if i recall. )

( And from North America, i would add....but that story is not entirely known. )
We know from the CBI war front what kind of radios the Merrill's
Marauders behind the lines operations used ( PRC-1 ).  
We don't know exactly how, but we have an idea.

>  More 
> likely, the radios were well concealed back at some remote, (relatively) secure 
> location and would be used for only short durations under very carefully 
> controlled conditions to minimize the chance of getting caught.   May not have been 
> moved around all that much and so bigger, better radios could have been 
> accommodated.   

As far as i've read, the only biggish installations were for some of
the coastwatcher stations. It may even have been, i am thinking, 
that the use of the 3BZ coastwatcher radio was something of a 
liability, because of its size. But the coastwatchers seem to have
used voice, mostly if i understand, so the larger size might have
been necessary for this.

It seems the story from the Pacific is that whereever Japanese forces
were in an area, great pressure was on the radio people. The Philippines
story is one of frequent movement, and not infrequent capture of US
forces working as guerillas.

Saw a picture some time ago of an Australian coast watcher with his 
> radio which was about the size of a Globe King.   Wasn't hiding in a cave or a 
> grass hut either but set up in what looked like the living room of a plantation 
> house.
> Dennis D.   W7QHO
> Glendale, CA

If you recall from reading about the coastwatchers, the history
has also accounts of burying or hiding the radios, sometimes 
losing the radios when coastwatcher teams were force to retreat
by pursuing Japanese forces.
Hue Miller