[Milsurplus] The Great-Army Navy Game ( in China )

[Hue Miller]

While the manual for the Navy's MBM radio has no date of any kind in it,
i see from a Navy stock list that the contract date on this radio is Jan. 1945,
and it's not rated higher than restricted.  Also i note the Army's MIS radio
TRC-10, which is basically the same radio as the PRC-1, except in a metal
cabinet with legs like the BC-654, and with AC, vibrator, or handcrank 
supplies, has a manual date of Mar 1945, while there is Army - manufacturer
correspondence indicating modifications were requested in Apr 1945 -
whether these improvements were ever actually realized is unknown to me,
and maybe doubtful, considering the limited production numbers of the
radios. Of course, with these dates, the radios were clearly not intended for
Europe - besides, the formats are rather large for any kind of central Europe
clandestine use. The intention, then, had to be to employ them in Asia. 
And the largest "market", or playing field, was China. SACO started 
gearing up their network of Navy weather and coastwatcher stations in
'43. From "The Great Army Navy Game" and one SACO photo we get the
idea that the standard radios were TBX for outstations and TBW for
the centrals, working to Australia, Hawaii, and fleet. At this time it was
thought the war would go on for years yet, some thought even 5 - 10 years.
Maybe the TBX's upper limit of frequency range, even with the Navy's
7 Mcs. modification instruction, was not high enuff to allow for good
long distance working. It seems likely that Meulstee's comment that the
MBM is the Navy's answer to the Army's PRC-1 and other such radios
is correct. 
At one time there were quite a few different players in the China theater
and all had their own radio networks:  Communist Chinese, Nationalist
Chinese, Japanese, Chinese puppet troops of the Japanse, US Navy,
US Army, and OSS. The US Army and Navy were in open competition
to expand their operations in China; in some areas both had collocated
radio stations ( quoting "The Sampan Navy" ). Hence the title, "The
Army-Navy Game".  The Navy had just gotten its networks in place and
working when the war wound down ahead of schedule. "Sampan Navy"
sez the Navy had 150 radio stations in China; that's a pretty good number
of personnel; altho the outstations had only 2 Americans, generally,
per station, the rest being Chinese army. I don't know, but i suspect the
gear was left behind; and one reason i suspect this is that the US had
already delivered tons of radio gear, even to the Communist forces.
Whether the PRC-1, TRC-10, and MBM ever actually got into use is
still a mystery to me; if they did, it was for a short period, say, basically
the summer of '45. I would tend to think the TRC-10 did not, if there 
were still problems to be worked out in it, in April 1945.  The TBX seems
to have done well enuff for the coastwatchers, with its frequency range
and power. Possibly you'd want the higher frequencies for farther-flung
weather stations, altho maybe around this time also, i mean mid-1945,
the Communist forces were beginning to press Americans out, in these
less central-China places they controlled.
The war in China seems to have been a more traditional war, compared to
the island campaigns. No banzai charges. Two American coastwatchers
were captured and surprise- even sent to a prison camp, and survived
the war. Maybe the large presence of Japanese civilians somehow made
the stakes different? Who knows. More for me to learn.
Anyway, thought i'd share some facts and speculation; maybe some others
interested in these obscure topics.
-Hue Miller