1 August 1945 leaflet. From CIA website.

70 years ago today, August 1, 1945, five days before the bombing of Hiroshima, the United States dropped millions of copies of this leaflet on 35 Japanese cities, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Japanese text on the reverse read as follows:

Read this carefully as it may save your life or the life of a relative or friend. In the next few days, some or all of the cities named on the reverse side will be destroyed by American bombs. These cities contain military installations and workshops or factories which produce military goods. We are determined to destroy all of the tools of the military clique which they are using to prolong this useless war. But, unfortunately, bombs have no eyes. So, in accordance with America’s humanitarian policies, the American Air Force, which does not wish to injure innocent people, now gives you warning to evacuate the cities named and save your lives. America is not fighting the Japanese people but is fighting the military clique which has enslaved the Japanese people. The peace which America will bring will free the people from the oppression of the military clique and mean the emergence of a new and better Japan. You can restore peace by demanding new and good leaders who will end the war. We cannot promise that only these cities will be among those attacked but some or all of them will be, so heed this warning and evacuate these cities immediately.

This warning had been preceded, starting on July 26, of transmission by by 50,000 watt KSAI Radio in Saipan the contents of the Potsdam declaration, warning the Japanese people of the “prompt and utter destruction” of Japan if the Japanese government failed to surrender.   KSAI’s medium wave signal (1010 on the standard broadcast dial) was as strong as any Japanese domestic station, and could be heard by millions of Japanese.

After the bombing of Hiroshima, an updated leaflet was prepared, stressing the special nature of the Hiroshima bomb, and warning of the same fate to other cities.  Similar warnings were transmitted by KSAI and repeated every fifteen minutes.

For more information on leafleting and other allied propaganda operations, see my earlier post.

References

• Hellegers, We, the Japanese People: World War II and the Origins of the Japanese Constitution.
• The Information War in the Pacific, 1945 at CIA website.

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

Today marks the 70th 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.

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 lifejackets.

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 succomed to exposure and dehydation, with the dead being driven off 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

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The cover of this wartime issue of Radio Craft magazine, May 1943, shows a radioman, as her designation is called, of the U.S. Coast Guard.  The accompanying article explained that she was a membe of SPARS,  the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, which had just been created in November of 1942, and largely followed the Navy’s WAVES model of allowing women to serve in stateside positions. More than 11,000 women served in SPARS during the war.

The article explained that the women who would serve as radiomen underwent a sixteen-week training at the University of Wisconsin, which included Morse code, typing, and radio procedure and theory. At the conclusion of the training, the women would pass a code test at 22 words per minute, at which time they received a rating of Radioman 3rd Class.

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When I think of glamour, one of the first things to cross my mind would be a wooden five-tube broadcast/shorwave receiver, and in this 1940 advertisement, the Crosley Radio Corporation agrees with me. It is taken from the July 15, 1940, issue of Life Magazine.

According to the ad, certain cities such as Paris and Hollywood have Glamour. (Apparently even Nazi occupation can’t erase the glamour of the City of Lights.) Glamour can be found in certain ships and trains. And it can be found in certain people: Athletes, actors, statesmen, and musicians.

And there was glamour in the Glamour Tone of the Crosley Radio, “a new type of fidelity in sound.”

The glamorous object shown here is the Crosley model 18AN, a five-tube two-band AC-DC superheterodyne which retailed for $19.95 (slightly higher in the West and South). It featured a personal tone control and tuned both the standard broadcast band and shortwave for pulling in war news direct from Paris and other capitals of Europe.

Another nice example of this radio can be found at the Radio Attic Archives.

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75 years ago, 25-year-old Les Paul had his own radio station in the basement of his New York apartment building, as shown here in the July 1940 issue of Popular Science.  Paul had moved to New York in 1938, performing with Chet Atkins‘ older brother on Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians radio program.

The building was equipped with an antenna and ground wire that had never been used, and Paul took advantage of it by installing his station’s studio in a soundproof room near the furnace.  A control room was located in his second-floor apartment.  On Friday and Sunday evenings, they transmitted to the other tenants in the building.  Occasionally, big-name guest musicians and announcers would drop by to take their turn at the mike.

The next year, Paul nearly electrocuted himself while experimenting in his apartment.  He relocated to California where he recuperated.  In 1943, he was drafted and served as a performer on the Armed Forces Radio Network.

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Seventy years ago, the cover of Radio Craft magazine, July 1945, featured this new radio designed for use in lifeboats. The lifeboats of passenger ships were required to be equipped with radio, and when the U.S. entered the war, this requirement was extended to cargo ships as well. The early sets were battery operated on 500 kHz and had limited range and transmitting time. The Germans were the first to develop a lifeboat radio similar to this one, the Notsender NS2. It was powered with a hand crank, and designed to be held between the operator’s legs. In addition to powering the unit, the crank keyed the transmitter, sending SOS, alternating with long dashes to facilitate direction finding. It also had provision to be keyed manually. It operated on the distress frequency of 500 kHz, and utilized a wire antenna held aloft either by a hydrogen balloon or kite.

American BC-778 “Gibson Girl.” Photo by ArnoldReinhold via Wikipedia, file licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The British soon captured a few examples, and duplicated them as transmitter type T1333. In 1941, the British, recognizing that they didn’t have the industrial capacity to manufacture the sets in quantity, sought a North American builder. The U.S., recognizing the value of the unit, proceeded with the project jointly, resulting in the BC-778, later upgraded to the AN/CRT-3, which became known as the “Gibson Girl” transmitter. The earlier version, the BC-778, operated on 500 kHz exclusively. Later models also operated on 8280 or 8364 kHz. The American version could also use the generator to power a signal light.

All of the wartime units included a hydrogen generator to fill the balloon, as well as a box kite which could be used to hoist the antenna.

The accompanying article was written by an executive of the manufacturer, Radiomarine Corporation of America, and touted the advantages of the new set. It operated on both 500 kHz and on 8280 kHz, and the primary means of hoisting the antenna was with a balloon, but one filled with a helium cannister. But it had two notable differences. First of all, it was capable of transmitting radiotelephone signals as well as radiotelegraph. But it also included a receiver capable of tuning 8100 – 8600 kHz. Thus, it would allow the occupants of the lifeboat to communicate with rescuers, and also with neighboring lifeboats.

While it was not used during the war, it appears that sets similar to the one shown in the article did go into production. The model ET-8053 appears to have most of the same features, albeit in a more portable set. The model ET-8030 appears to be very similar to the one shown.

References

• Gibson Girl Part 1 at Wireless for the Warrior
• Survival Radio at Wikipedia

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Control room of Dixon shortwave transmitters.

Seventy years ago, two famous RCA transmitter installations were featured in the company’s quarterly journal, Radio Age, July 1945.

The first was Canada’s shortwave transmitter at Sackville, New Brunswick, which opened on February 25, 1945. What was then referred to as “Canada’s Loudest Voice” featured two 50,000 watt RCA transmitters. The 213-acre site had been selected due to the lack of unfavorable magnetic conditions and because the moist earth was conducive to radio transmission.

Main control console at Sackville.

While Canada had a number of commercial shortwave broadcasters, the intent of the station was to provide a voice comparable to that of the United States and England, in order to communicate news and entertainment to soldiers, placing the Canadian point of view before Allied nations, and to “join their fighting allies in telling the enemy the real uncolored truth about the war’s progress.”

V-E Day eliminated the need for some types of programs, but the article notes that other features would continue to expand.

Sackville transmitter site.

The station, operating with the rarely stated call letters CKCX, continued in operation until 2012. In addition to CBC programs, it served as a relay for a number of other broadcasters, including Radio Japan, China Radio International, Voice of Vietnam, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, and Radio Korea. In addition to international programming, it broadcast CBC Northern Service programs in English, French, and Innuit.

The other RCA transmitter featured in the issue was that of the station that later became the Voice of America relay station in Dixon, California. Under contract with the Office of War Information, both CBS and NBC were contracted to construct shortwave transmitters on the West Coast to provide a strong signal to the Far East. The CBS effort resulted in what later became the VOA relay station in Delano, California. And the NBC station with its RCA transmitters featured in the RCA publication, became the VOA station in Dixon, California. That location was on a great circle that included both Asia and Latin America. Therefore, by reversing the direction of the antenna, it could cover two target areas. By beaming North, the station could provide a signal to Asia. And by beaming South, the same booming signal would carry the American message to Latin America.

The Dixon station was operated by NBC until 1963, with call letters KNBA, KNBC, KNBI, and KNBX In 1963, the federal government assumed control until the station was shut down in 1979. The installation was mothballed, and resumed operation in 1983, at which time its primary function was to transmit Spanish programming to Central America until 1988. The site was sold by the federal government in 1993, and has been used by Globe Wireless since then as KFS, providing wireless HF e-mail service to maritime interests.

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