USS Shaw at Pearl Harbor. Defense Department Photo.
Today marks the 78th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Here are links to some of our earlier posts marking that event:
Shown above, in front of the Manitoba Legislative Building, are three members of the Women’s Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force. They are Airwomen Elsie Flynn of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Ricky Swedesky of Vancouver, and Dorothy Kidd of Winnipeg. They were all stationed at the No. 8 Repair Depot, Stevenson Field, Manitoba.
Elsie served as a cook in the sergeants’ mess. Ricky was a fabric worker, and repaired the skin covering the airframe of training aircraft. She also packed parachutes. Dorothy was en equipment assistant.
The photo appeared on the cover of the November 1944 issue of Manitoba Calling, the program guide for CKY Winnipeg, pointed out that the Women’s Division slogan was, “they serve that men may fly.” The appearance of women in the air force meant that men were freed up from various ground duties and moved to air training. The magazine pointed out that the Women’s Division included not only girls from every corner of Canada, but also from the United States, Newfoundland, and the West Indies.
Shown at left are Airwomen Olive Carlson of Nanaimo, B.C., Joyce Urie of Windsor, Ont., and “Petie” Houston of Hamilton, Ont. They are at the controls of radiotelephone equipment and tasked with maintaining contact between the ground and Canadian aircraft aloft.
The war plant worker shown here is conducting perfomance tests on a piece of military equipment. She is in a copper-screened booth at RCA laboratory. The picture appeared 75 years ago this month, November 1944, on the cover of Radio News.
This compelling testimonial appeared in Radio News 75 years ago this month. Somewhere in the Pacific, a soldier found a crate washed up on shore, with a National receiver inside. He and his buddies checked it out, cleaned it up, grounded it (probably a good idea), and fired it up. Despite its time spent in the brine, it functioned flawlessly.
The young man shown here is pulling in the short waves thanks to a simple receiver designed around wartime parts shortages. The set used three tubes, which could be types 30, 199, or 201-A, obsolete tubes used by older battery sets. It featured two stages of audio amplification, and could drive either headphones or a small speaker. It pulled in shortwave signals from 160 to 10 meters with homemade plug-in coils. The detector was regenerative, with a variable capacitor controlling regeneration.
If B batteries were unavailable (a likely scenario given wartime shortages), then the transformerless battery eliminator shown here could be used. The set appeared in Popular Mechanics 75 years ago this month, November 1944.
Shown above, from the November 1944 issue of Popular Mechanics, is one of the operators at an FCC Radio Intelligence Division monitoring stations. He was rotating an antenna capable of narrowing down the incoming signal to one degree, in order to track down a clandestine transmitter somewhere in the U.S., or even abroad.
The majority of operators were hams, and they had the procedure down to a science. They scanned the bands looking for unfamiliar signals. As soon as an unknown station was heard at one station, other stations were immediately notified by teletype and took bearings. Those bearings were then sent to Washington for a fix. At that point, one of 50 mobile units was notified, and would sniff out the transmitter. Finally, an RID man would find the exact location on foot. And as shown below, they would then raid the offending location, presumably with FBI men accompanying with the machine guns.
Before the war, there was little need for such extensive monitoring. But from 1940 to the date of the article, over 9000 cases of unlicensed and subversive transmitters had been spotted. Over 200 spies had been rounded up in South America thanks to RID bearings.
Some transmissions were high speed code, but the stations were equipped with recording devices, and transmissions could be played back at a lower speed. The stations were also invaluable for locating downed aircraft, both military and civilian.
Here’s another snapshot of wartime grocery prices from 1944, from the November 9, 1944, issue of the Milwaukee Journal. None, or very few, of the items shown here required ration coupons, as would be the case for sugar, meat, and some other items.
As with pre-1964 prices, one way to convert to today’s money is to remember that one dollar meant one silver dollar, four silver quarter, or ten silver dimes, or about an ounce of silver, which would be worth about $18.
Flour was $1.17 for a 25 pound bag. A pound of coffee would set you back 21 cents, and a 12 ounce box of Grapenuts was 13 cents. And a package of “Kool-Aid Ice Cream Mix” was only a nickel.
Seventy-five years ago this month, it was clear that the Allies would soon prevail against both Germany and Japan. Therefore, it was soon time to break out the surrender speakers. In fact, such speakers had already been used in all theaters of war to encourage the enemy to surrender. It was found to be particularly useful when the enemy had been encircled or contained in a small pocket.
The model shown here was rated at 175 watts, and could peak at 350 watts, allowing it to be heard two miles away. It could be operated in relative safety, since once the speaker was in place, not only could the enemy not see it, but the microphone could be a further distance away.
The set had already been used at Cherbourg and other areas in Normandy, and resulted in the surrender of hundreds of German soldiers.
The setup is shown here on the cover of Radio Craft , November, 1944, which pointed out that the operator must be fluent in the enemy’s language. The enemy is told that the situation is hopeless and that further bloodshed is useless. This is followed by directions for surrender.
Seventy-five years ago today, November 7, 1944, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term as President. Shown here is “the piano playing candidate,” the Vice-President-Elect, Missouri Senator Harry S Truman, celebrating with some buddies from his service in World War I. The picture appeared in the Milwaukee Journal, November 8, 1944.
Just five months later, Truman would become President upon the Roosevelt’s death on April 12, 1945.
This wistful look at the possibilities for postwar home appliances appeared in Radio Craft magazine 75 years ago this month, November 1944. The idea had been sent in to the magazine by George Predential of Schenectady, NY, and penned by cartoonist Frank Beaven. One wonders what they would think of modern bread machines, some of which are shown below.
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