[Milsurplus] "1917"

[Gene Smar]

SPOILER ALERT!

SPOILER ALERT!

If you haven't seen the movie "1917" and intend to, read no further.  Hit
DELETE immediately.

















Gents:

     My YF and I went to the local theater to see "1917" last evening.  It
was riveting and an edge-of-the-seat experience.  

     However, being an experienced Ham radio operator and one who also
collects milrads and is, therefore, familiar with the evolution of RF
technologies over the past century-plus, the basic plot of the movie
disturbed me a bit.  Weren't there wireless sets of appropriate capability
extant during the spring of 1917 (the period during which the movie's action
occurred) to enable one British HQ field office to contact another only a
day's walk away and warm the remote forces of the trap being set for them by
the Kaiser's forces?  Would it have been unnecessary to send two Brits on a
march across No Man's Land to deliver a written message to the forces in
danger?  

     I didn't mention anything about this conundrum to my YF who paid the
$20 for the tickets until we were in the car after the movie.  Might the
state-of-the-art at the time have made this movie plot more of a fantasy
than it was portrayed?


73 de
Gene Smar  AD3F