Category Archives: World War 2

1945 FM Phono Oscillator

1945AugPM21945AugPM3The woman shown above, in the August 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics, appears to be tuning in a program on her broadcast radio. But looks are deceiving, and the set actually tunes the prewar FM band, which covered 42-49 MHz.  And she’s not listening to a radio station.  Instead, she’s listening to a record being played by the gentleman at left, who is a few feet away.

Phono oscillators which played records over a standard AM broadcast radio were fairly common, but this one played the records over an FM radio. According to the article, no claim was made that the simple circuit would give absolutely perfect reproduction, but results from the Popular Mechanics laboratory were satisfactory. The set was more a challenge to the experimenter to open up the new field of FM radio.

The whole circuit was remarkably compact, and consisted of a 6C5 triode tube along with a few other components. Even with wartime parts shortages, most of the parts could probably be scrounged up fairly easily. The whole circuit mounted right on the tone arm, which was constructed of hardwood.

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Order to Liquidate Allied Prisoners

Louis Zamperini in 1943. Wikipedia photo.

Louis Zamperini in 1943. Wikipedia photo.

Thankfully, nothing happened 75 years ago today, August 22, 1945.  The war ended before the scheduled event could take place.

In 1944, the Japanese War Ministry issued orders to prison camp commandants for the “final disposition” of Allied prisoners of war. Under those orders, all POW’s were to be killed at such time as Allied forces landed in the territory in which they were being held. The rationale behind the order was to prevent the POW’s from being repatriated and becoming a part of the liberating force.

For example, on December 14, 1944, about 150 prisoners of war at Palawan in the Philippine Islands, were ordered to the air raid shelters, at first in apparent response to an actual air raid. But after the raid, because of a mistaken belief that an invasion of the island was underway, they were ordered to remain, at which time the wooden structure was doused with gasoline and set afire.

According to the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the date set for at least one camp on the home islands was 75 years ago today, August 22, 1945.

That book is the story of Louis Zamperini, a record-breaking track star of the 1930’s. Among his claims to fame was a personal meeting with Hitler at the 1936 Olympics. In 1943, his plane crashed in the Pacific and he drifted in a small raft for 47 days until his “rescue” by the Japanese. He remained a prisoner until the end of the war, enduring much torture. After the war, haunted by nightmares of his experience, he drifted into alcoholism until attending a Billy Graham crusade in California.

Because of the Japanese decision to surrender, motivated at least in part by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the orders to execute Zamperini and other prisoners in Japan were never carried out.

References

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V-J Day

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Today is the 75th anniversary of the end or World War II.

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, surrender quickly followed. The Japanese communicated their intention to surrender on August 15 Japan time, which was the evening of August 14 in the United States. While the official U.S. date for V-J day was the date of the surrender in Tokyo Harbor, September 2, V-J Day was celebrated in the United States the night of August 14 and August 15. The newspaper shown here is the Milwaukee Journal, August 15, 1940.

US Navy photo, via Wikipedia.

US Navy photo, via Wikipedia.



A Preview of Postwar Television

1945AugSepNRNWhen this issue of National Radio News, August-September 1945, went to press, the war was still raging in the Pacific. But the end was in sight, and despite the cynicism of skeptics, the editors of the magazine knew that television’s role in the postwar electronic era was a foregone conclusion, “witness the rapt attention of these comely lasses as they view the screen of the General Electric receiver.”



Nagasaki

19450809Today marks the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, 1940.  The attack is reported here in that day’s issue of the Chicago Tribune.  If the Japanese needed further convincing to surrender, that day also brought news that the Soviets had declared war on Japan and were attacking Japanese forces in Manchuria.

The video below is a radio broadcast that day by President Truman promising that the bombings would continue until the Japanese surrendered.  The war would be over in a few days.



Light Bulbs as Dropping Resistors

1945AugPMThis photo isn’t as sinister as it looks, and nothing untoward is going to happen to the gentleman at the left. The photo is from the August 1945 issue of Popular Mechanics, and these gentlemen are dealing with wartime parts shortages. They’re doing an emergency repair on this set, and need some way to power the filaments of the six-volt tubes. The filament transformer they need is a wartime priority item, so they instead wired the filaments in series and used a 40-watt light bulb as a dropping resistor.

The picture is accompanied by a table showing the resistance of common lamps.



Hiroshima

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the U.S. dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945.  At least 129,000 were killed.  The gun-type weapon (one sub-critical mass fired into another sub-critical mass) exploded 2000 feet above the city, unleashing the power equivalent to 12 to 15 thousand tons of TNT.

The Potsdam declaration, demanding unconditional surrender, had been broadcast directly to Japanese civilians over KSAI radio, and millions of leaflets had been dropped.

Preparations were underway for an invasion of the home islands, and U.S. planners estimated U.S. casualties between 130,000 and 220,000, with between 5 and 10 million Japanese deaths. Nevertheless, the Japanese leadership did not heed the Potsdam Declaration, and made preparations to continue defending against an apocalyptic invasion.

On August 14, only after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Hirohito addressed the nation by radio:

Moreover, the enemy now possesses a new and terrible weapon with the power to destroy many innocent lives and do incalculable damage. Should we continue to fight, not only would it result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization.

Such being the case, how are We to save the millions of Our subjects, or to atone Ourselves before the hallowed spirits of Our Imperial Ancestors? This is the reason why We have ordered the acceptance of the provisions of the Joint Declaration of the Powers.

 

References

 



WW2 Music at Work

1945AugRadioServiceDealerThis image could be mistaken for the studio of a small radio station, but it’s actual the public address console of a wartime industrial plant. Specifically, it’s the console of the RCA Plant Broadcasting System. It appeared in the August 1945 issue of Radio Service Dealer, as part of an article penned by the manager of RCA’s Music Library Service. The article is one of a series giving dealers ideas on how to promote the P-A business, and focused on providing music in the industrial environment.

Plant managers learned that by piping in the right mix of music, they would increase productivity and worker morale. Such sound systems were suitable for industrial plants, as well as office areas devoted to stenographic and clerical work. Business offices such as banks and insurance companies could play music both for workers and customers. And in hospitals, hotels, and stores, music could be piped in over sound systems.

RCA had the musical programming down to a science, and had packages of records available for sale to companies. Musical selections were broken down into four categories.

First of all, there was music for the opening period. These songs would play as workers arrived, and would continue for about fifteen minutes after starting time. These were invariably marches or patriotic tunes, such as “Stars and Stripes Forever,” or the “Washington Post March.” Other possibilities would be upbeat or fast tempo dance selections such as “Pennsylvania Polka.”

About an hour and a half after starting time, and again about an hour and a half before lunch, songs from the “Fatigue” playlist would be played. More songs from this list would be played similar times in the afternoon. Many of these were waltzes, and also popular hits, Latin and Hawaiian tunes, or old time favorites. Some songs on this list included “Green Eyes,” “Star Dust,” and “Begin the Beguine.”

The magazine stressed that the playlists had to be fine tuned to the audience. For example, it noted one small plant where about 75% of the workers were girls between 18 and 23. The music picked for that audience simply wouldn’t work at a plant where most workers were over 35.

RCA’s library also included some records for special occasions, such as Christmas songs and more patriotic tunes.

Workers at Davis & Geck, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., pack surgical sutures with the help of music piped in from wall-mounted RCA speakers.

Workers at Davis & Geck, Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., pack surgical sutures with the help of music piped in from wall-mounted RCA speakers.

One office employed 600 girls doing monotonous filing duties. Normally, at about 3:00, fatigue would set in, but the author observed those 600 girls instead singing along softly with a popular recording. The office manager was initially skeptical, but experience showed that the vocals did not impede efficiency.

A plant with many Polish or Slavic workers would get more polkas and folk dances. One plant in Trenton employed mostly Italians, and that plant had almost every record Caruso ever made.

Toward this end, one service featured by RCA was a survey that could be given to workers and analyzed at headquarters in Camden, N.J. to come up with a custom record library from the RCA catalog. “The psychological effect of having the personnel feel that the music is theirs, played for them, gives them a personal interest in the project which is otherwise unattainable.” The overall effect was greater efficiency, less absenteeism, and better output.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Britain was also seeing to it that war workers had music. The BBC program Music While You Work was programmed following similar principles. One interesting rule for the BBC program was the banning of the song “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” due to the potential danger of workers taking their hands off their work to perform the hand claps in the chorus.



USS Indianapolis

Front page story announcing ship's loss, Chicago Tribune, Aug 15 1945.

Front page story announcing ship’s loss, Chicago Tribune, Aug 15 1945.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the greatest loss of life in American Naval history, the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis on July 30, 1945. On July 16, the Indianapolis left San Francisco with the enriched uranium which would be used in the Hiroshima atomic bomb. She reached Pearl Harbor on July 19 and raced on to Tinian with the cargo, where she arrived on July 26. After delivering this top secret cargo, the ship continued to Guam and then Leyte, where the crew was to receive training.

USS Indianapolis in 1937. Wikipedia photo.

USS Indianapolis in 1937. Wikipedia photo.

Shortly after midnight on July 30, she was struck by two Japanese torpedoes, sinking in minutes. About 300 of the 1196 crewmen went down with the ship. The remainder were set adrift with few lifeboats and many without life jackets.

Due to radio silence and general miscommunication, the ship was not missed when its scheduled arrival time passed. The 880 men drifted forgotten. Most perished from exposure and dehydration, although the attack is most famous for the sharks the men had to contend with. Undoubtedly, some of the men were killed by sharks, but it is more likely that most of the victims succumbed to exposure and dehydration, with the dead being consumed by sharks.

The men were discovered by accident three and a half days later when Lt. Wilbur “Chuck” Gwinn and Lt. Warren Colwell spotted the men adrift during a routine patrol fight.

Only 317 men ultimately survived. Over 800 men lost their lives.

Ironically, the disaster was not reported by the newspapers until August 15.  The greatest naval disaster in American history was decidedly a less important news story that day, since the papers also reported Japan’s surrender and the end of the war.

Of interest to radio amateurs is the recreation of the ship’s radio installation (whose call letters were NABD) at the USS Indianapolis Memorial.

References

History at USSIndianapolis.org

 



Sentinel Postwar Portable

1945July30BCIn the final months of the war, American companies knew that they would soon have the ability to produce consumer products, and that there would be a huge pent-up demand for them. Most of them, like Sentinel Radio Corp. of Evanston, Illinois, were planning for that day. Shown here is that company’s vision for what it would produce after the war, a miniature portable that would fit in a vest or shirt pocket or handbag. Smaller than the smallest camera, it was several times smaller than the smallest prewar set.

This model would use a hearing-aid style earpiece, and that wire would double as the antenna. The whole set, including batteries and tubes, would be little larger than the ubiquitous cigarette case.

This teaser appeared 75 years ago today in the July 30, 1945, issue of Broadcasting. The magazine noted that the company was still engaged in war production and wasn’t able to say for sure when the new set would be available. But the new set had passed preliminary tests, and they hoped to start production the moment restrictions were lifted.