Military phones
Hello!
I'm a phone collector who was once in the
U.S.Army Signal Corps.
I got to use everything from a switchboard
that had to have been in use during the Korean war [remember tip and ring?],
to modern computerized commo equipment housed on the back of trucks [repair
consisted of whole circuit boards that you removed instead of replacing
a bad diode] and equipment that you strapped to your back.
It was quite an education and definitely aided
in fitness [hauling those reels of cable up the side of mountains on field
exercises didn't hurt either!].
Dwelling on this made me think that we
needed a site featuring the phones of the American Military. Here
I've included a few pictures of phones I've seen, have in my collection
or that others have in their collections. Where I've found info it's
been included with the picture. A few great people have contributed
info.
As you can see I haven't gotten pictures or
info on all the phones that have seen service, nor is my list complete,
but we're adding to it all the time.
Do you have a picture of a phone in your collection
or info about how these were used? If you'd like to add to the page,
you can e-mail me at the address below. I'd love to hear from you!
Wind 'em up!
Phonelady
We've come a long way in military
communications. Did you know the first time commo was organized for
use in combat was during the Civil War. We started out with flags
and torches.
It's come a long way hasn't it!
{Click the picture above to find
out more}
The US did go through a series of telephones going from the 1918 Service Buzzer in a leather case to the EE 3 Field telephone in a wooden case to the EE 5 Field Telephone in a leather case and then to the EE 8 telephone. By the start of WW II, the EE 8 in a leather case was standard issue. Early experience in the Pacific showed that leather did not hold up well and the EE 8 was then put in a canvas case. excerpt from Army Radio Sales page www.armyradio.com
Carla,
Take a look at these.
They are out of a 1910 signal corps manual.
The field phone is only identified as a artillery
field phone, I believe,
don't know brand, not Sumter.
The fiddleback is a Sumter and is a little
different than the commercial models that
I have or have seen. This does
not have the lightning arrestor like the commercial
models and it has a
Signal Corps marked name tag.
EE5
in use.
W.W.II telephone equipment page
TA43/PT, Western Electric predecessor
to the TP312
[picture donated by Mike Brueckmann]
More contemporary military telephone equipment
