[Milsurplus] "The Radio Officer's War"

[Hubert Miller]

"At sea you lose count of the days, and apart from scraps thrown by the Old
Man who has a radio, no news of current happenings percolates to us.

A world apart. Only one radio is permitted to operate on the ship at a time.
This because sensitive direction finding apparatus could pick up our
position 

by the oscillations of the radios."

 

"The grey and black tones of the receiver stood out under the bench lamp's
glare. Reaction 46, anode tuning 10...Prickly-eyed, the Radio Officer read
the 

name tabs on the instrument - Marconi International Marine Communication Co.
Ltd. London." 

 

This quote from journal of Ian Waddell, nineteen year old British merchant
marine radio officer, in his first days on the job in May 1940. 

Quoted from book, "The Radio Officer's War - Ships, Storms, and Submarines".
Harry Scott, 2015. Softcover; must be a privately printed book as there

is no imprint name anywhere. Bought online.

 

I quoted the above just because it's interesting that some of the same
concerns were shared in Britain. Although as you can see, the concern seems
to 

be more loosely, less officially defined. Later in the book, as he has
gained experience, it seems the concern dissipated, and he listens to BBC
while also

maintaining regular radio watch.  Mentions copying from stations GBR, GKU. 

 

If you are looking for detail of radio operating, this is not the book.
There are actually few mentions of anything radio. There are accounts of
his ship being

bombed, hunted by submarines, rescuing oil-soaked, depth-charge injured
survivors, blood and oil in the water, shore visits overseas and so on. You
could 

call the book thoroughly researched, as there are logs of the submarine that
sank  his ship, and lists of crew, and lots of family photos, or you might
think a

kind of slim story has been fluffed out a bit. I found the book interesting
( but not super-interesting ) and worth the small price to fill in more
detail on a subjects 

that interest me. One does get the feeling of what it was like to sail in
the early year of the war, when U-boats like bold wolves were pulling down
victims every 

day and everywhere and ship's calls were being steadily crossed out of the
lists. 

 

Ian Waddell's last ship, oil tanker Narragansett was on way from Port
Arthur, Texas to join a convoy to England when it was torpedoed at 06:18

25 March 1942. An SOS was sent and rescue dispatched, but the ship sank with
no survivors.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/attachments/20160826/c6dea2a2/attachment.html>