A month or two ago, I was able to acquire an early edition of TM 9-705. This had the apparent previous owner's name written on it, SPR R. Anderson, who it looks like was a member of the Visual and Sonic Troop of V.I.S.T.R.E. Since the place from which I purchased the manual was in the US, I presumed the visual and sonic troop was a US Army unit, but was a bit nonplussed since those don't appear to have taken shape until a bit later and used mainly half-tracks. In David Fletcher's latest Tank Chat on the scout car M3A1, however, he mentioned that the British used this vehicle for sonic warfare to approximate the sound of moving armored units (at 6:27 since the timestamp appears not to function). A cursory web search for the VISTRE abbreviation brought up the Visual Inter-Service Training and Research Establishment, but I'm having trouble finding anything substantial on the establishment itself. Would anyone have any tips on sources for information on this organization? Thanks!
Searching, found this document, in regards to a US Unit (3132 Signal Service Company) that undertook the roll you mentioned and mounting speakers on a M3A1 Half Track And V.I.S.T.R.E. Looks like the acronym VISual & Sonic Troop Royal Engineers to me? (A guess)
Could be; to be honest I hadn't considered that the periods marked after every letter may not necessarily be 100% accurate.
M3A1 half-track with 500 pound speaker, capable of projecting sounds as far as 15 miles. Used by the US 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, aka the Ghost Army, for sonic deception, 1944
The Visual Inter-Service Training and Research Establishment (VISTRE) was established in 1948 at Netheravon, Wiltshire. It was a joint training establishment for strategic deception. It was later renamed the Joint Concealment Centre. And later still morphs into the Psychological Warfare Centre at Maresfield, East Sussex. Origins of VISTRE are from the deception and sonic warfare operations of the Second World War. Lee
Appreciate it, Lee. I had seen some references to VISTRE Flight at Netheravon in 1946, but wasn't expecting such a late date due to the age of the M3A1s at that point. If they were still running and already had the equipment installed, though, they'd have been worth keeping, I suppose.
