Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Radio's Great Role in the War GENERAL HARBORD TRACES ADVANCES IN RADIO SINCE THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND DISCUSSES APPLICATIONS OF RADIO-ELECTRONICS IN COMMUNICATION SO VITAL IN GLOBAL WARFARE By Lieut. General James G. Harbord Chairman of the Board, Radio Corporation of America SINCE the dawn of recorded his- tory, when couriers from look- out posts already were being em- ployed to dash back to their com- mand headquarters with news of approaching enemies, communica- tion has been a vital factor in bat- tles and wars. For centuries in more recent times military experts have studied intently its applica- tion to their profession. Yet never in any comparably brief span of years in all the written story of mankind has there been such a striking advance in the military use of communication as has come between the First World War and the current one. An absolutely complete and de- tailed account of the part being taken in the present conflict by radio communication and its re- lated developments in radio-elec- tronics would fill more volumes than could be piled into an Army jeep. A full report on radio in the First World War, which seemed to us spectacular at the time, would not take long to dispatch over RCA's automatic transmitters and receivers of today, which are cap- able of handling 600 words a min- ute as compared to thirty to forty words attained in World War I. On the day after the First World War was declared, the importance of the infant art of radio was em- [RADIO AGE 31 ]ihasized by a Presidential proc- lamation, directing the Navy to take over all radio stations in the United States and its possessions with the exception of those the Army already controlled. With the aid of engineering personnel and apparatus supplied by American radio companies, the Navy was pre- pared after this order was carried out to handle the communication requirements of its own forces, as envisaged in that period. The Navy was far from pre- pared, however, to take up the overflow from the transatlantic cables when they became loaded to capacity as great numbers of our troops arrived in Europe. Yet it was apparent that if Germany should succeed in cutting our cables, radio would have to be de- pended on to supply our only tele- graphic communication with our own Expeditionary Foi-ce and with our Allies. General Pershing strongly emphasized the need of direct radio channels. Even after improved stations capable of trans- mitting to Europe had been made available, the Navy still had the problem of return messages. It is an indication of radio's state of development in that era that exten- sive experiments were necessary before an effective transatlantic leceiving station, with 150 opera- tors, was established at Bar Har- bor, Maine. Working with the Army and the French Government, the Navy also undertook the construction of the Lafayette radio station near Bor- deaux, an establishment of the 1,000-kilowatt arc type. A 500- kilowatt arc type station was built at Annapolis to supplement this. In what was then considered a most dramatic move to combat German submarines in European waters, fourteen two-kilowatt shore sta- tions were erected in Ireland and France to cooperate with early- model aircraft scouting rather gin- gerly along the coasts. When it was later revealed that radio equip- ment was supplied and maintained by our Navy on approximately 1,500 vessels during the war, Amer- icans who heard of it were amazed by the size of the accomplishment. The dire danger of the subma- rines also forced the development of the radio direction finder into a practical instrument, after various navies had been dabbling at it ex- perimentally since 1912. The device told the British that the German High Seas Fleet had left harbor, and led to the Battle of Jutland, because the Kaiser's fleet unsus- pectingly kept using its radio transmitters. Direction finders later supplied information on sub- TWO PRIVATES OF THE U. S. AIR FORCES CARRYING OUT THEIR VITAL COMMUNICA- TIONS DUTIES IN A BOMBER EQUIPPED WITH AN RCA LIAISON AIRCRAFT RECEIVER.