No. 18 and No. 38 radio sets

Stumbled on to these radio sets. Wonder if someone knows how they were distributed among the troops in an infantry battalion.

No 38 Set:






Canadian soldier with No. 38 set in Apeldoorn April 1945






(with courtesy of: http://www.accionunoseis.org/search.php?search_author=Tony+Barton)

 

No 18 Set:

 

Stolpi.

The section in my War Memoirs (lawlerbrown.com) dealing with an Infantry Battalion Signals Platoon outlines under Radio Telephony that the WS18 was used between Bn. HQ and the four rifles companies and the support weapons such as Mortar, Carrier and Anti-Tank Platoons. It was also used to link into the Artillery net.

The WS38 used between companies and platoons. Also within the Support Weapon Platoons.

Joe Brown

 

According to many Infantry we supported - both 18th and 38th were fairly useless - we were very lucky in Tanks to have a reliable # 19 set with which we often

helped out with the Infantry communications…

Cheers

 

All UK WW2 radios required a fair level of operator training, IIRC it took more than 30 weeks to train an RA driver operator. The infantry problem was that casualties meant there were not a lot of experienced operators, this inevitably led to infantry radio comms being less good than they should have been. I'd also note the infantry didn't normally join RA nets, RA observers had radios to enable them to join RAC and infantry nets.

 

At Whitby it took about 12 weeks to train a Driver/op.


11th Nov ’42 Whitby, Yorkshire. Posted to 52nd Anti Aircraft Driver Training Regiment, R.A to be trained for 12 weeks as a Driver/ Op

Dec '42. Training at Whitby

1943
Jan '43. Training at Whitby

1st Feb ’43, Haltwhistle, Northumberland. Posted to 112th L.A.A. Regiment.who were just starting a 2 week’s infantry battle training course.

Ron

 

Liaison with the RA Battery in close support of the Battalion : we would not only have an FOO but they would establish a wireless link to our Battalion wireless net. This provided facility to call on opportunity artillery fire by the Rifle Company Commanders and enable the FOO to read the battle and provide close support.

True, the WS18 and WS38 had a lot of shortcomings but the WS68 brought about increased reliability.

Joe Brown.

 

No. 19 set:

 

Joe - What kind of wireless set would the FOO use, also the no. 18 set?

 

Ron,

Whitby. Good for driver training. Every road out was (is) 1:3. Bad for wireless training. Terrible reception. We had to have cable TV for years before normal aerials could be used.

Mike

 

Always worth a look:

Wireless for the Warrior

 

The FOO would have a pack WS22 or it's later equivalent and that would be netted to his Battery net. They also had a WS18 so they could listen in on the Battalion. Memory dims, but I think the Battery Commander would be at or very close to Bn.HQ and he would have a WS19 plus a WS18. On duty at the Battalion Command Post during the night, I determined from reports from forward platoons that they were under attack by a Nebelwefer, as IO quickly obtained three bearings from three platoons and an intersection provided a possible position and when I checked with APIS map (Aerial interpretation map plotted with known and suspected enemy weapon positions) found the determined map reference coincided with 'possible Nebelwefer position'. I quickly
got in touch with the Battery Commander to see if they could engage it. They did, firing all available guns except those on fixed targets. We had to be quick because the nebelwerfer being on a track vehicle could dart in and out of pre- planned
positions. It was at that stage I woke up the Bn Commander to tell him.

Joe

 

Joe - half through your wonderful article on the Signal Platoon on http://www.lawlerbrown.com/page-38.html.

It's really helpful to understand everything that came to see for control of a (battalion) operation; and the crucial role of a good and smoothly working communication net work.

Thank you!

 

For Tank crew training as a Driver /Operator in 1943 - the system was 12 weeks driving on all vehicles to Tanks - 12 weeks gunnery and 12 weeks Wireless on the 19 set- we then had to pass

various tests to become Class 3 - on joining a regiment more tests to become Class 2 - then we joined a Tank crew…

Cheers

 

As to distribution, the May 1945 Signal training (all arms) pamphlet No.10 reckons on sixteen No.18 and twenty-eight No.38 sets per Infantry Battalion.

Gary

 

See http://nigelef.tripod.com/artycomm for a fair amount of detail about arty comms, and WW2 sets in general. No 68 was a No 18 with greater range.

 

Interested to read the above posts, for which many thanks. It's prompted me to post this 'reminiscence' by a member of 76th HAA Regt in Italy in 1945, and whether anyone can decode the reference to the 38 set. My only reference to 'D.F' is 'defensive fire', which doesn't quite fit the context. Intercepting, perhaps? Hope someone can enlighten me!

"I was mortared by Jerry as I fled across a field 400yds from where the Hun was bedded in on the bank of the Cinquale Canal – me on my own. Never felt so naked in all my life. Like running in treacle every time it abated. You’ll think I was foolhardy, but I had to find a line fault because we could not get through to the guns and we were afraid Jerry was D.F.ing our 38 Set."

 

Direction Finding: determining a set location from two or more receiver positions.
Also, I'd heard that the WS38 whip antenna was a good 'sniper magnet' . I think the range was only 1/4 - 1/2 miles and only a few hundred yards if the antenna was a wire stretched over the ground.

 

Thank you!

Interestingly the war diary for the Regt notes an incident on the afternoon of 5 April 1945 when a line was found to be faulty from the O.P. to the guns, and that German music was being broadcast on the radio frequencies being used, making communications impossible.

 

Rotten scoundrels. I bet it was Wagner.