Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-12-03

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tons in Washington with any degree of
success.
At the focal point of the Army's great
Signal Center in Washington is WAR.
Each of it's transmitters is beamed to
particular point of the world-London,
Algiers, Naples Paris, Brisbane, Moscow.
New Delhi or some other equally distant
point. These powerful stations are in
turn control stations for radio nets in
their respective areas.
Conversion of Circuits
The most important single commune
cations service development during the
year was the conversion of many over
seas wireless circuits to radio teletype
writer. These revolutionary facilities
permitted the effective use for the first
time of standard wire teletypewriters On
radio channels, thus eliminating slow
manual methods which required highly
skilled operators, according to the an
nual report of the Army Service Forces.
The material handled by the Signal
messages to more than 100000 during
the year. The time to transmit q So
word message was reduced from more
than 40 minutes to 7. Wasteful parallel
sections of independent networks were
absorbed into a single command and
Observation-Disclosures The telephone
along the Alaska highway was COM
pleted this year and a new line was
begun from Calcutta into China Tele-
photo service for the transmission of
visual material was extended to all
major theaters during the year. On D
were available for publication sinful
taneously with news stories.
Thus the work of the Signal Corps,
embracing an inconceivable number of
varied activities, progresses as science
progresses.
The scope of communications plan
ming may be judged from a few sta
tistics of the Normandy campaign Be
fore D day an Allied communications
center the size of small town was
established 100 feet underground in a
quiet English countryside. When the
troops landed it stretched electric ten
tacles across the Channel
To meet requirements in France up
to a certain specified date after D day,
a single schedule called for TOO miles of
eight-line wire; $500 miles of special
pole line; 10000 miles of field cable
100000 yards of assault cable, and so
special radio installations.
The Signal Corps like other COM
ponent parts of the Army Service
Forces, entered the war under handi-
cap of only partial preparedness. 1t
caught up with war minded foes and
soon far surpassed them in the field
of military communications.
Enemy Equipment
A study of captured enemy radio
equipment, to mention one form of
communications, shows how far ahead
the United States Army is in its Signal
Corps equipment. German equipment,
though good and occasionally ingenious,
averages five years behind our own, in
the opinion of many experts BY the
same standard Japan's equipment is
considered 10 to IS years behind that
of ours.
The Signal Corps is the worlds larg-
est buyer of electrical equipment. The
remarkable developments in the science
of electricity, more than any other fac
tors, have made it what it is today In
the first World War, when radio, espe-
cially, was young, the official catalogue
OF the Signal Corps listed $500 items
Of equipment. Now the catalogue lists
well over 100000 items, of which about
1000 are major items-walkie-ta lkies,
radar and vehicle radio sets-an in
crease of 1000 per cent
1t is impossible to picture herein all
the activities of the Signal Corps in
modern war. For illustrative purposes
q few only will be described. Some of
its activities are still clothed In secrecy
such as details of radar.
Gen. Ingles returned recently from
an inspection Of the South Pacific the
alter and reported on the furnishing con-