[Milsurplus] Signal Corps books

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

John,

The three volume set you refer to should be described as "US Army in World 
War II, The Technical Services, The Signal Corps" as there were ultimately 
nearly 20 volumes published in the sub-series "The Technical Services".  Other 
Corps covered included The Corps of Engineers, The Transportation Corps, etc.  The 
volume count of the entire set was about 76 as best I've been able to 
determine, not including the series on the Army Air Force.  I've only ever been able 
to acquire about a fourth of them.

Collectively, the entire series is commonly know as "The Green Books", as all 
of the first several printings in the late 40's through mid 60's were bound 
in green buckram.  The 1994/95 reprint series done by Barnes and Noble were 
done with dark brown covers, but I think that maybe only the Combat Arms volumes 
were done.  At least that's all that I've ever seen.

The three volumes on The Signal Corps that you are referring to have been 
mentioned here many times.  Content is sometimes slightly technical but more 
likely to be when particular sets were fielded, who wanted them built, who built 
them, where the training camps were, why they were built, where they were used, 
who died trying to use them, maybe how much they cost, etc.  However, General 
Fubar is "generally" absent.

In a message dated 11/29/2004 11:05:32 PM Central Standard Time, 
jfor at quik.com writes: 
> Is anyone familiar with the three volume set of books titled "US Army in 
> World
> War II, The Technical Services" ?
> 
> The volumes are:
> 
> Vol. 1 The Signal Corps: The Emergency (by Dulany and Turrett, 1956) 383 
> pages
> Vol. 2 The Signal Corps: The Test (by Thompson, Harris, Oakes, and Turrett,
> 1957) 621 pages
> Vol. 3 The Signal Corps: The Outcome (by Thompson and Harris, 1966) 720 
> pages
> 
> My question is this: Do the books describe development of the common systems 
> in
> any technical way, or are they just a chronicle of General Fubar visited 
> Fort
> Boondock and inspected the First and Third Battalions and signed contract 
> xxxxx
> sort of thing?
> 

Robert Downs - Houston
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