The Second World War, According to experts, was a war… wired communication! According to independent estimates, during the war, wire communications occupied up to 80% from the general picture with communication in the war. Suddenly? It seems to be the twentieth century, radio communications and all that ... However, it is so. Not radio communication, namely, wired was the main one in WWII.
ships, aircraft, tanks, of course, had radio stations. But then the question of reliability arose, and the question of range.
And if it was about more mundane infantry and artillery, then a friend came to the fore (Mr.) Field Phone.
Yes, World War II became the war of those very phones, wires, soldier with reels under artillery fire. This topic is usually given little attention due to the not-too-heroic picture.. A signalman sits in a dugout and only does, what is yelling someone's callsign into the phone. And the commander periodically runs up with bulging eyes and yells at the soldier: "Run to restore the connection!».
Even signalmen die not cinematically. Shell bursts, and all… Not you «one against a hundred Krauts» (although something similar happened, and more than once). Not you «For the Motherland! For Stalin!» Shard or burst machine gun, and… The next soldier with a reel on the same field. Behind your splinter or bullet.
The heroes of our story are not communications, but field telephones of the Red Army. Including those supplied under Lend-Lease.
Land lease for most of the participants in the Second World War and us, their descendants, associated with airplanes, tanks, cars, tushenkoy. clear, that such a narrow understanding of the essence of this phenomenon is not developed by knowledge, and the approach of our ideologists and propagandists to the very supplies of allies. Most Soviet people, including the authors of this series, laid down since childhood «leftist views» to this phenomenon.
Even now, when information about Lend-Lease can be obtained not only from Soviet sources, but also from foreign archives, the stereotype of perception persists. funny, probably, sounds, but radicals exist and even flourish in this matter. Moreover, radicals on both sides. But read the original source, land lease law, the opposing sides are lazy.
One side, we hear about the insignificant role of these supplies in achieving Victory over Nazi Germany. Which is somewhat true. Purely mathematical truth. If you look at the total costs of the USSR for the war, the, according to most historians, lend-lease costs are really not impressive. Total 4% from all costs of the Soviet Union!
But there is another side. readership, who follow our series closely «Another Lend-Lease», have already made an impression of the products, which were delivered to the USSR. And first of all, urgently needed materials and high-tech equipment were supplied., the importance of which is difficult to overestimate. And, high-tech products most often were not produced at all in the USSR, either produced in small quantities and clearly outdated samples.
That is why the authors considered it necessary to give their own understanding of Lend-Lease supplies.. Understanding, based on familiarity with the documents of the time, and, most important, equipment.
so, the essence of Lend-Lease, if we discard the ideology, pretty simple. And strange, that this is still not clear to some of the readers. According to the law on land lease, USA could supply equipment, weaponry, ammunition, equipment and other goods and products to those countries, whose defense was vital to the United States itself.
Pay attention to the wording? Vital for the USA! Not to defeat fascism, not out of ideological or political ambition, namely from the ability to wage war with someone else's hands and thus save your own country and the lives of your own soldiers. Why fight, if you don't know how? Why fight, if you can buy a fighter? And then you still get fame. And money too…
Americans just bought one of the sides (and in fact, given the actions of some American companies, both sides) for, so as not to get involved in an expensive conflict ourselves. agree, the war on the islands and the war in the European theater of operations are two different wars…
All deliveries were free! All equipment, Equipment and materials, spent, spent and destroyed during the war, were not payable. And here is the property, leftover from the war and suitable for civilian purposes, must be paid at those prices, which were determined at the time of delivery.
it, by the way, answer to those, who did not understand why cars and other working equipment were "destroyed" in the USSR, and that, what was left, used in Siberia and the Far East "in a spy". How it happened with trucks and tractors, for example. And so, who still counts dollars, which we allegedly "did not pay the USA" for Lend-Lease.
Field telephone. How can he compare to a tank, by plane or «Katyusha»? An ordinary unsightly phone in a wooden box. Meanwhile, any fighter will confirm this, been under real fire, sometimes a strong connection is more important than even one, and several tanks at once!
To understand the situation at the initial stage of the war, we need to go back a bit in time..
The command of the Red Army was seriously engaged in the development of new types of weapons and military equipment.. Tanks, aircraft, guns, weapon. All this is absolutely necessary.. However, in pursuit of the best tanks or planes, we have not only "forgotten" about some things, but just couldn't. And subsequently, these things cost our army many soldiers' lives.
At the beginning of the war, the Red Army had several types of field telephones at once.. According to the principle of calling, all phones were divided into inductive and phonic. According to their characteristics, they are already by June 1941 years out of date.
These were mainly phones of the following brands-UNA-I-28, UNA-I-31, UNA-F-28 and UNA-F-31. These are quite heavy devices weighing 3,5 kg, and UNA-F-28 and UNA-I-28 in general 5,8 kg. Add to this a fairly large wooden box, in which all these phones were located (for example, UNA-F-28 was 277x100x273 in size, and UNA-I-28 is generally 300x115x235 mm) and you will receive the main Soviet field telephone of that time.
UNA-I-28
UNA-I-31
There was truth and one more telephone - a powerful telephone (THERE). True, THERE was even larger in size. 360х135х270 мм. This model could be used both in a local network, and in the central PBX network.
A little clarification is needed here for non-specialists.. What is the difference between networks? The local network is powered by the device itself. Simply put, for the operation of this network, the presence of batteries in the phone itself is required. The telephones in the central network are powered by wires from the PBX. In this case, your own batteries are not needed..
Soviet telephones were equipped with Soviet batteries - Leclanchet manganese-zinc cells. The weight of one such battery was 690 grams. Usually, telephones were installed on 2 element. by the way, this weight was not considered the weight of the device. ie. the weight of the elements was added to the weight of the device itself. The batteries had dimensions that are quite serious for the elements - 55x55x125 mm.
And again a departure from the narrative. The Leclanchet element is named after the creator of F. Lencanshe, which collected this primary current source in 1865 year. Most readers have repeatedly held this element in their hands in the form of an ordinary household battery..
The cathode in this cell is a mixture of manganese dioxide (MnO2-pyrolusite) and graphite (about 9,5%). Further electrolyte-solution of ammonium chloride (NH4Cl). The electrolyte was originally liquid, but later they began to thicken it with starchy substances (TN. dry cell). Well, anode-zinc glass (metallic zinc Zn).
In addition to the listed phones, there were such rarities as TABIP-1 in the Red Army..
Let's say right away, that this phone is quite modern for its time. And we called it a rarity simply because, that it was rare. Although this device was intended for the company-battalion link. To a higher link (battalion-regiment) the device was not suitable due to the, that the signal with increasing distance is simply deaf.
This phone was distinguished not only by its much smaller dimensions. (the reason is in the name of the phone) but also ease of use. And TABIP is just a "telephone set without power supplies". It had a sealed steel body and was almost 2 times less than others (235х160х90 мм).
At all, in the Red Army, same, as in other armies, there was no order to use only your own telephones. So that, in real life in military units one could find phones of absolutely incredible brands and years of release. Even a joke was among the telephone operators: «Tell me what devices are in your unit, and I will tell her battle path«.
It would be especially interesting to look at the warehouses of the Red Army. How would they say today, these were treasures for collectors. Retro devices from the First World War, not only Russian, but also foreign production! by the way, it was these devices that were transferred to educational organizations, who trained civilians in military specialties (like OSAVIAKHIM).
And the saying about the "combat path of the unit" was easily proved, for example, in those parts, who fought in Khalkhin Gol or in the Finnish war. The phones of the Finnish and Japanese armies were almost the norm there.. True, they were also a headache for commanders.. Spare parts were not included, and fighting is not the most humane way to extend the life of equipment.
Here it is appropriate to cite the events on Khalkhin Gol as an example.. FROM 30 August 19 September 1939 years Soviet troops captured as trophies (in varying degrees of serviceability) 71 field telephone, 6 switches, about 200 coils for telephone cable and 104 kilometers of the cable itself.
true, there was also a positive experience of using imported phones. Finns used Estonian field telephones in their army (factory in Tartu). And after shoving in the summer 1940 Years of the Baltic states in the USSR, we received not only the apparatus of the Estonian and other armies, but also spare parts for Finnish trophies.
This is the state of communication of the Red Army on 22 June 1941 of the year. Not to tell, what is hopeless, but it's hard to call him good either. Let's say this - there was a connection. Let it be a C, but was. And then there was the fall of 1941…
Already at the end of 1941, the situation with telephone communications in the Red Army became critical.. Our commanders and chiefs understood this already in the first months of the war., including Stalin and his entourage. Therefore, the question of communication, including wired, was raised already in the first supply negotiations.
And again it is necessary to move away from the topic.. Now into the field of business. Many people know about, that the USSR, more precisely even earlier, Soviet Russia, successfully doing business in some Western countries. It is business. Although this was often explained by the need to finance foreign communist parties, supply the necessary goods to the USSR, earn currency for the government.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the company was successfully operating in the USA, created with Soviet money and also managed by our people. Amtorg Trading Corporation (Amtorg).
The company was established in 1924 year in New York and became a truly successful commercial project. It was registered under American law, mostly Americans worked there, she did not violate US laws. And the attention of US counterintelligence was only «makeweight» for a successful business.
Here is an example of Amtorg's work from the report 1926 year chairman of the board A. AT. Пригарина:
«Until now, loans have been received by all organizations, except for the State Bank, about $18 000 000, with about $13 000 000 - bank loan and $5 000 000 - commodity. The amount is quite significant, but all loans are short term, and most are provided with goods».
Now back to our story. It was "Amtorg" that got involved in solving the problem of wire communication of the Red Army at the initial stage of the war.. Therefore, we cannot forget the work of these people.. And confirmation of this fact can be found in any museum., which has, for example, american field telephones during the war. To the surprise of visitors, phones russified!
American EE-8B and EE-108 have inscriptions in Russian! What we will not see on equipment and weapons, supplied under Lend-Lease. Simply put, some of the telephones were supplied to the USSR as commercial. And in this case, the product must really be adapted to the user of the importing country..
And for dessert, we will inform the specialists about, that really exotic devices IAA-44 and 2005W were not supplied under Lend-Lease at all. They all ended up in the Soviet Union through Amtorg. At least we could not find a refutation of this fact in reliable sources..
What about military supplies? When they officially started? And what did they supply?
Surprisingly, but we have no clear answers to these questions. First of all, you need to remind, that the lend-lease agreement was concluded 11 June 1942 of the year! However, it included deliveries from 1 October 1941 of the year.
so, those supplies, what were held before 1 October 1941 years are not made under Lend-Lease, and on a loan 10 $ million to the Treasury, 50 $ million to the Defense Supply Corporation and others (total 1 billion $), what we wrote about in the first part of the cycle. Well, the already mentioned company "Amtorg".
Besides, it is quite difficult to track these deliveries at all. The phone is not a tank or an airplane. It may not "float". Considering that, that supplies came from four directions: northern route to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, Through the Persian Gulf and Iran (especially valuable materials and raw materials), to the ports of the Black Sea and the Far East (Vladivostok, Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky and other ports), the task becomes simply overwhelming.
There is only one document, which has some numbers, concerning field telephones in the first year of the war. This is a report by Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan (People's Commissar for Foreign Trade of the USSR) AND. AT. Stalin and B. M. Molotov at the beginning 1942 of the year.
Help, drawn up 9 January 1942 city, it was said, what for october-december 1941 g. delivered to the USSR 5 506 telephones, and more 4 416 was on the way from among 12 000 PC. which the United States undertook to deliver monthly and accordingly 36 000 which were generally expected to be received in 1941 g.
by the way, should not forget, what is the number of phones, received by the USSR, only those devices are included, what was actually delivered. Sent, but lost in the delivery process are not counted. here, an interesting fact to be cited, which our colleagues found in the Arkhangelsk port.
The thing is, that the Northern Delivery Route was the shortest, although the most dangerous. And the records of the delivered property were kept there with military precision.. so here, over the entire period of the war, according to the financial statement, surplus and shortage of imported cargo in the Arkhangelsk port was lost 1 (one!) telephone set from among the delivered. Its cost 30$ USA.
What phones came to us under Lend-Lease??
According to experts, the first field phone model, delivered to the USSR from the USA became army induction telephone EE-8-A. Compared to models, produced at that time by the Soviet industry, the apparatus was quite advanced. Later, EE-8-A was upgraded to EE-8-B. Manufacturer - US Federal Telephone and Radio Corporation.
Both phones were devices of the MB system - with a local (built) battery voltage 3 AT, which was intended to power the carbon microphone of the TS-9 tube. And further, all phones of this model are assembled according to the "anti-local" scheme.
The difference between model A and B is in the batteries. The set of EE-8-A telephones included two VA-30 round dry batteries, which are known to modern readers as "the type D element". They were produced by Ray-O-Vac.. The Soviet industry did not produce such elements..
EE-8 phones were produced in non-standard (expanded) leather bags. Such bags were made specifically for deliveries to the USSR on the orders of "Amtorg" with payment in hard currency.
The bags of such phones were being finalized, to ensure the use of not only American, but also of Soviet dry batteries type 2C (42 x 92 x 42 mm), which were supposed to fit inside the same phone bag.
A special wooden block was installed inside the bag, on which Soviet batteries were installed. And the fastening was provided by a special leather cover with a button.
Above we wrote about the supply of commercial phones by Amtorg. On these models of the Americans, this is visible even visually.. Army EE-8 on the bags necessarily had an embossing with the brand of the device-«TELEPHONE EE-8-A». Experts say, that EE-8-B had such inscriptions.
But on the "Amtorgovskih" machines there was no such embossing. But the devices were Russified and had instructions in Russian.. The weight of the phone with batteries was only 4,5 kg.
Well, "fly in the ointment". The apparatus was reliable, it easily changed the phone and microphone in the microtelephone receiver, however, it was significantly heavy and could not work with phonics and switches, which were significantly widespread in the troops of the Red Army.
Leather bag in the conditions of Russia, where autumn-spring thaw and rains are common, got wet quickly, brass screws for fixing the device in the bag and the clip of the fastener were oxidized, which somewhat limited the use of such devices on the front line.
Later modifications in the number of deliveries to the Red Army of the EE-8A devices were American army field telephones in a canvas box bag. This is how Russian weather modernized American technology..
The next device, which certainly deserves our attention, is an phone EE-108.
Deserves at least that, that was specially designed for supplies to the Red Army. This is a classic American with an inductor call, without power supplies, in a leather bag. Worked at the expense of EMF, created in the line by the electromagnetic caps of the TS-10 handset.
The TS-10 handset had two electromagnetic capsules, similar in design to the reversible capsule of the Soviet apparatus TABIP. One of the capsules had the inscription «Transmitter M», second - «Receiver T».
Conversational push-button was made in the form of a flush round brass button. Designation «TS-10» on the tube itself is missing, it can only be seen in the documentation.
EE-108 devices were supplied in hard leather bags, on the front walls of which the inscription was embossed «TELEPHONE EE-108». A leather shoulder strap was attached to the bag. The dimensions of the bag were 196 x 240 x 90 mm, telephone weight - 3,8 kg.
by the way, there is one surprising fact, concerning this particular device. In the reference manual TM-11-487 on communications equipment of the US Department of War (October 1944 city) there is no this apparatus at all. Although according to the memoirs of American army veterans, single copies of this phone in the US Army have been used. In particular, when laying telephone lines.
manufactured 80 771 phones. Delivered to the USSR 75 261 apparatus. In China - 5 500 vehicles. AND 10 the Americans gave the kits to the army… Netherlands. This is according to the docs.
Next device, probably, best known. This is a field telephone with inductor calling, MB systems, by Connecticut Telephone & Electric, IAA-44. End of the war phone. issued with 1944 of the year.
The description of this apparatus should begin with, what… according to documents and in Soviet, and in the American archives, such a phone was never delivered to the USSR under Lend-Lease! Although many sources say otherwise. Only here are the documents…
Here we again come to the work of the Amtorg company. truly, these guys did their job just fine. A grip on the envy of bulldogs. IAA-44 - the fruit of their work. We were struck by the "American" letter "I" in the title. With humor, Soviet Americans were all right. Although, according to some sources, there were devices with the name «IAA».
The IAA-44 device is very similar to the American field telephones EE-8.. As in EE-8, the microphone was powered by two American dry batteries of the VA-30 type with a total voltage 3 AT. The initial capacity of American batteries was 8 ampere hours.
Inside the apparatus there were compartments for two dry batteries 3C Soviet production, the initial capacity of which was 30 ampere hours. In a war, replace American batteries with a capacity 6-8 ampere hours per battery capacity 30 ampere hours is great! Terminals were also provided for connecting an external battery with voltage 3 AT.
As in the EE-8 devices, in the field telephones IAA-44, a microtelephone handset of the TS-9 type was used. There were jacks for connecting an additional handset.
Field telephones IAA-44 were delivered in metal cases with dimensions 250 x 250 x 100 mm. The weight of the device with two Soviet 3C batteries - 7,4 kg.
clear, that now veteran readers are waiting for a story about, how we used the American experience to develop the production of something similar at home. What and when appeared on the basis of. Meaning Soviet field telephone TAI-43.
Yes, wonderful constructor, holder of several military orders, engineer-lieutenant colonel Olga Ivanovna Repina really created a field telephone, which was in service with the Soviet Army for more 20 years old outwardly similar to a foreigner. But not an American, and on the German. And as you already understood, this phone has nothing to do with US-British shipments.
even those, who has not heard this name before, not only saw her inventions while serving in the Soviet army, but also used them. These are the early TA-41 (for very veterans), TAI -43 (for veterans of the Great Patriotic War and the post-war generation) and TA-57 (for today's readers). Thanks to the wisdom of women on the battlefield, tough men communicate efficiently.. Paradox.
Military field telephone TAI-43 was created on the basis of captured samples of German field telephones FF-33 (Field telephone 33) sample 1933 of the year. It is about this phone that our signalmen say “works «fritz» even under water ".
more precisely, probably, will be so: Repina took the design and layout of the controls from the German. But the arrangement of the telephone nodes is practically new.. In one of the sources, we even found this: «TAI-43 on 90% ours and only on 10 German". Let's leave this opinion without comment.. This is the business of really communication specialists.
But our devices are worthy of a separate topic. (Consequently, right after Lend-Lease and let's get started).
Let's repeat a simple and startling figure for the second time.. Nearly 80% all messages in World War II are transmitted by wire!
And underestimate the contributions of our allies (then real) in the form of thousands of telephones and hundreds of kilometers of cable would not be very smart.
