WS19 "B"-set.

[Arqiva BOC]

Originally Posted by trh01uk

I have never heard anything like this ever said before. For either German or Allied troops. It's such an obvious "gotcha" that it's hard to believe such a problem would not have been weeded out at the development stage.

What I am aware of suggests quite the opposite was true. A big tactical advantage for the Germans at the start of WWII was the extremely good tank communications they had. Their radios were using AM to be sure, but at 20 - 40MHz, and that gave them virtually interference free operation, because back then there wasn't a lot of traffic about at such high frequencies.

I have heard it said that their "blitzkrieg" tactics where they stormed through unsuspecting countries in a matter of days, was largely down to the ability to co-ordinate whole formations of tanks and other vehicles while they were on the move. That hardly fits with your suggestion that they had to stop every five mins to check in on the radio!

Indeed Richard, which is entirely why I wanted a 'sanity check'. I don't recall now where this idea came from, but it seems to have got rooted into certain training notes I've had to use! I suspect it started out as being a comment about how the use of VHF tank radios helped in the Blitzkrieg, and bit by bit got corrupted

The other, related, comment that keeps appearing along side this, is that the Wehrmacht had chosen 28MHz at their main operating frequency and that, being a peak solar cycle year, their comms were being intercepted by US hams and reported to the US government. Plausible, but I've not seen any evidence of this either!

[Radio1950]

This is a fascinating thread - thanks to all contributors.

[G3VKM_Roger]

Originally Posted by Arqiva BOC

Indeed Richard, which is entirely why I wanted a 'sanity check'. I don't recall now where this idea came from, but it seems to have got rooted into certain training notes I've had to use! I suspect it started out as being a comment about how the use of VHF tank radios helped in the Blitzkrieg, and bit by bit got corrupted

The other, related, comment that keeps appearing along side this, is that the Wehrmacht had chosen 28MHz at their main operating frequency and that, being a peak solar cycle year, their comms were being intercepted by US hams and reported to the US government. Plausible, but I've not seen any evidence of this either!

Hi,

CQ magazine did an article in Dec 1996 on the interception by American hams of Wehrmacht sub-VHF comms, pre Pearl Harbor. The three pages are too large to post here but P/M me if you want a copy.

Regards

Roger