[Milsurplus] tank radio skip?

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Camp" <ham at cq.nu>

Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] tank radio skip?


> There were a number of "disinformation" campaigns during WW2 to hide 
> the fact that we had cracked Enigma.

I don't have the dates at the tip of my fingers. Was Enigma intercept in full play at the
time of the African desert campaign? Maybe so- since US fighter planes intercepted
a flight of something like 50 JU-52 transports and shot down 20 something of them.

> A number of people have questioned 
> the whole "Connecticut radio intercept" story.

Questioned it on what grounds? Maybe in terms of importance - it was absolutely
physically possible, as we have seen from numerous posts here about WW2 vhf
distance reports.

> The Connecticut 
> connection is a bit twisted and not entirely relevant.

Not relevant to what?  The Connecticut connection is not relevant to US mainland
intercept of WW2 panzer communications? Which is what we started on, recall?

 
> Radio intercept was very useful North Africa and did give significant 
> tactical advantage in a number of battles. This is pretty well 
> documented in a number of sources. The only minor issue is that it was 
> the Germans doing the intercept work and the British were the ones 
> being intercepted.

> Bob Camp
> KB8TQ

Also this: 

>As I remember the story , it was a Ham in New Jersey
that was picking up the tank comms and that he
notified the FBI...they took over his house and set up
their own monitoring station.....the German tanks were
talking amoung themselves and were giving away their
location and battle plans.....mike

-I'm pretty sure they weren't lax enuff to broadcast their battle plans. This information
would be conveyed locally by courier. As for tank to tank communication, the German
and Allied maps perhaps did not identify local features by the same name, for example,
"Hill 429". I do not believe this communication within armored units was of any real
use to the Allies. Divisional communications, carried on HF, would be a different story.
The idea that this intercept was a Big Deal would have its attraction to the writer of the
"Gee Whiz!!" article in Pop Com. 

Turn the situation around. Think about Germans listening in Germany to the skip from
Allied tanks in North Africa.  How useful would that be? It would be a curiousity, but
low yield, i would say. -Hue Miller