Shown here under the sheets is Brigitte Bardot from the 1959 French comedy Babette Goes to War (Babette s’en va-t-en guerre). Of particular interest to our readers is, of course, what she’s doing under the sheets, namely, sending CW.  Babette, a French country girl in London, played by Mlle. Bardot, does her part in the war effort by parachuting into German-occupied France to kidnap a German general. She bumbles through her mission with a heroic finish.

In this still from the movie, the naysayer might point out that her technique with the key leaves something to be desired. However, the criticism is unwarranted given the circumstances. She is transmitting from underneath her sheets in the very hotel that was serving as the Nazi headquarters. The German direction-finding truck pinpoints her location, a Nazi bursts into her room, only to retreat when the girl under the sheets protests that she’s naked.

The film was a big hit in France, with over 4.6 million tickets sold. On this side of the Atlantic, the New York Times review proclaimed the film to have “the anomalous distinction of being occasionally farcical and somewhat incomprehensible.” The review lamented that “Bardot is clothed almost as abundantly as an Eskimo most of the way through this World War II spoof, and a fully dressed Mlle. Bardot is downright confusing.”

The movie’s trailer, which includes the exciting scene of Mlle. Bardot being tracked by the Nazi DF’ers, in shown here:

This clip shows her send and receive the complete message;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6HDBMtshZ0

She sends mostly V’s, and a few other random characters which, according to the CW to French subtitles, mean “ALLO LONDRES – LE LEOPARD EST DAN LA CAGE AUX MOUCHES – STOP – C’EST DU PEU AU JUS – FAITES CHAUFFER LA COLLE.” She gets the message back from London, which sounds like “OK OK” to me, but according to the subtitles means “COMPRIS – TRES BIEN – MESSAGE TERMINE.”

The movie doesn’t appear to be available in North America, but you can get a PAL version at Amazon.

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This intercom from the March 1943 issue of Radio News shows the kind of ingenuity that was necessary in the face of wartime shortages on the home front.

The article notes that with defense priorities, many small business firms were in need of interoffice communications but unable to get them. The only immediate answer, according to the article, was to make a small radio do double duty.

The article describes a four-station intercom constructed with a six-tube table radio. The only additional parts, all of which were available at the “radio bargain counter” were nine switches, four speakers, and a roll of shielded cable. The hookup allowed for the station with the radio to serve as the master, able to call or receive calls from the other stations. As an added bonus, any of the four remotes could listen to the radio, but stil l make calls.

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75 years ago, this date’s issue of Life Magazine, February 24, 1941, carried this ad for the RCA Victor “Foreign Correspondent,” also known as RCA model number 14-X.  As the name implies, this set received shortwave as well as standard broadcast, and as the ad points out, the shortwave band was s-p-r-e-a-d for easy tuning.  The set covered 9.5-12 MHz, meaning that it did have reasonably easy tuning of the popular 31 and 25 meter bands.  In the evenings, the set probably did a good job of pulling in war news from Europe.

The set had a price tag of only $14.95, and looks like it was a fairly good performer for the price.  The set was a basic “All American Five,” with a tube lineup of 12SA7 12SK7 12SQ7 50L6GT 35Z5GT.  It had provision for an external antenna.  The limited shortwave frequency coverage probably did make it considerably easier to tune those bands.

A nicely preserved version can be found at the Radio Attic Archives.

Imperial War Museum image, © IWM (COM 501).

The crystal set shown here is from the collections of the Imperial War Museum.

The Channel Islands were the only part of Britain that were under German occupation during World War 2, and while islanders were initially allowed to keep their radio sets, they were eventually confiscated. In response, many residents obtained crystal sets such as the one shown here. This one was manufactured in Guernsey in 1944.

Evening Post photo of confiscated radios in Guernsey, via TheIslandWiki.org.

The plans for the set were broadcast by “Colonel Britton” of the BBC. This set, along with about 50 others, was manufactured by the person who donated the set to the museum. The coil was made of wire stolen from a German car, and the crystals were made by mixing sufur and lead, baked in a fire in a German rifle cartidge case.

Occasionally, the wavelength of the BBC broadcast would change, at which time “Colonel Britton” would announce that more windings would need to be added to the coil. Either a radio headphone or a telephone receiver could be used to listen.

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Seventy five years ago, the U.S. was clearly gearing up quickly for war, and the War Department turned its attention to the communications manpower that the war would entail. As reported here in the February 1941 issue of QST, the Army was sending out a questionnaire to all of the hams listed in the call book.

The War Department made clear that response to the survey in no way constituted “registration” and did not impose any obligation, the Army believed that the statistical knowledge was of utmost importance.

The questionnaire asked for data on code proficiency, military status, education, occupation, and dependents. For those respondents who were not fit physically for military service, it asked whether they would be interested in participation in an aircraft warning net, or whether they would be available for civilian positions as radio operators, instructors, or technicians.

In addition, the survey asked for a brief description of the station.

The ARRL opined that “this seems a needed study and we are confident that amateurs will cooperate and fill out the forms promptly.”

Seventy-five years ago, American shortwave broadcasters were clearly gearing up for war, as shown by an article in the January 1941 issue of Popular Science.

The article reports that in 1930, there were only three short-wave stations in Europe, but by 1941, there were at least 40, with more being built all of the time. In particular, the German radio, financed by the government, was pumping out Hitler’s speeches on as many as six transmitters at a time. They were targeting South America in particular, and the Americans wanted to keep up. Two million dollars was being spent on new transmitters, and according to the article, the investment was paying off. America had previously had only two transmitters running 50,000 watts or more, WLWO of Crosely Corporation in Mason, Ohio, and WGEO, owned by GE in Schenectady, N.Y.

New stations coming online included WNBI and WRCA, owned by NBC in Bound Brook, N.J., WCBX in Wayne, N.J., owned by CBS, WCAB and WCAU in Newtown Square, Pa., Westinghouse stations WBOS in Millis, Mass. and WPIT in Saxonburg, Pa., WRUL and WRUW in Scituate, Mass., and GE stations KGEI San Francisco and WGEA South Schenectady, NY.

There were 2.1 million shortwave receivers in South America, and they were a major target for the U.S. signals. NBC reported that in 1936, it reeceived fewer than fifty letters a month from South America, but was then receiving 2500 a month. Most of them were reportedly full of praise and reported their disgust with the propaganda fed by European stations.

For more information on the shortwave broadcast bands during World War II, see some of my previous posts:

• The Shortwave Broadcast Bands During WW2
• World War 2 Short Wave Listening
• WW2 Prisoner of War Broadcasts
• WW2 Shortwave Broadcasting
• 75 Years of HCJB Shortwave
• KGEI, GE’s Shortwave Station
• Sackville and Dixon Transmitters, 1945
• Allied Psy Ops, 1945
• Japanese Short Wave “Negro Propaganda Operations” of WW2

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CIA image via Wikipedia.

Shown here at the key of a clandestine transmitter somewhere in German-occupied France is American spy Virginia Hall.

Born in Baltimore in 1908, she had her sights set on a career in the foreign service, and landed a job as a clerk at the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw in 1931. Unfortunately, while hunting in Turkey in 1932, she accidentally shot herself in the left leg, which later had to be amputated. She found herself in Paris at the start of the war and joined a French ambulance corps. After the fall of France, she made her way to London where she volunteered for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE).  Her cover story was as a correspondent for the New York Post, and she spent 15 months in both Vichy and occupied France, helping to coordinate the activities of the French Underground.

Forged identification certificate for “Marcelle Montagne.” Wikipedia image.

In 1942, Hall escaped to Spain and then back to London. In 1944, she joined the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and was returned to France. Since her artificial leg prevented her from parachuting in, she was landed at the Brittany coast by a British boat. Using a forged identification for Marcelle Montagne, she contacted the Resistance in central France and mapped drop zones for supplies and commandos.

She died in Maryland in 1982 at the age of 76.

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Eugène Aisberg, 1946.

After a wartime absence, the January 1946 issue of Radio Craft carried an article by writer Eugène Aisberg.  While that name might not be familiar to American readers, Aisberg was a prolific author in the early days of radio, and wrote some of the best treatises on radio for the popular audience.  He was fluent in French, Esperanto, German, Russian, and English.

Aisberg was born in Odessa, Ukraine, in 1905, and lived most of his life in France. He was the director of the French magazine Toute la Radio and a prolific author of a number of books. His most popular book, which is still in print, is La Radio? Mais c’est très simple (Radio? But It’s So Simple!)  The book, currently in its 29th edition, an extremely solid background covering all aspects of electronics, and is written in a popular, easy-to-read style. While the book was ultimately translated into several languages, it was apparently never published in English.

The book consists mostly of a dialog between Ignotus and his uncle Curiosus, along with explanations by Professor Radiol, in which the characters explain in an interesting fashion all aspects of electronic theory.

Aisberg’s first radio book was actually published in Esperanto. Jen… mi komprenas la radion (“Now I understand the radio”).

1942 edition of Amélioration et modernisation des recepteurs.

During the war, under the noses of the occupying Germans, Aisberg published a book explaining how to pull in Radio London and other foreign stations. The technical title of the book, Amélioration et modernisation des recepteurs (“Improvement and Modernization of Radio Receivers”) was undoubtedly helpful in getting the book past the German censors.

While his most famous book was never translated into English, his later TV – It’s a Cinch was published in English in 1957. While analog TV is now an obsolete technology, the book is still an extremely interesting read, and the reader walks away knowing how the technology works.

The 1946 article, which marked his return to an American audience after the war, described a radio with automatic selectivity control.  The article also contains the following sidebar, which is a fascinating reminder of conditions prevailing in France immediately after the war:

Because of the conditions prevailing in Paris, instead of a check, Aisberg preferred payment for the article to be in the form of “chocolate, cocoa, toilet soap, shaving cream, corned pork, coffee, needles and thread, canned ham, and high-speed razor blades.”

Aisberg died in Paris in 1980.

See also:  Fall of Paris, 1940

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