Field telephone

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modified TA-312 field telephone Tel-312AH-latrun-exhibition-1.jpg
modified TA-312 field telephone

Field telephones are telephones used for military communications. They can draw power from their own battery, from a telephone exchange (via a central battery known as CB), or from an external power source. Some need no battery, being sound-powered telephones.

Contents

Telephone linesmen ford Lunga River during the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II Telephone linesmen ford Lunga River.jpg
Telephone linesmen ford Lunga River during the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II

Field telephones replaced flag signals and the telegraph as an efficient means of communication. The first field telephones had a battery to power the voice transmission, a hand-cranked generator to signal another field telephone or a manually-operated telephone exchange, and an electromagnetic ringer which sounded when current from a remote generator arrived. This technology was used from the 1910s to the 1980s. Later the ring signal was operated by a pushbutton or automatically as on domestic telephones. Manual systems are still widely used, and are often compatible with the older equipment.

Shortly after the invention of the telephone, attempts were made to adapt the technology for military use. Telephones were already being used to support military campaigns in British India and in British colonies in Africa in the late 1870s and early 1880s. In the United States telephone lines connected fortresses with each other and with army headquarters. They were also used for fire control at fixed coastal defence installations. The first telephone for use in the field was developed in the United States in 1889 but it was too expensive for mass production. Subsequent developments in several countries made the field telephone more practicable. The wire material was changed from iron to copper, devices for laying wire in the field were developed and systems with both battery-operated sets for command posts and hand generator sets for use in the field were developed. The first purposely-designed field telephones were used by the British in the Second Boer War. [1] They were used more extensively in the Russo-Japanese War, where all infantry regiments and artillery divisions on both sides were equipped with telephone sets. [2] By the First World War the use of field telephones was widespread, [3] and a start was made at intercepting them. [4]

Field switchboard, 1943 SC 171567 - American soldiers teach French Army officers and man the use of American military equipment. A BD-72 Field Switchboard in operation near Algiers, North Africa. 9 February, 1943. (52271088907).jpg
Field switchboard, 1943

Field telephones operate over wire lines, sometimes commandeering civilian circuits when available, but often using wires strung in combat conditions. [5] At least as of World War II, wire communications were the preferred method for the U.S. Army, with radio use only when needed, e.g. to communicate with mobile units, or until wires could be set up. Field phones could operate point to point or via a switchboard at a command post. [6] A variety of wire types are used, ranging from light weight "assault wire", e.g. W-130 —8.5 kilograms per kilometre (30 pounds per mile)— with a talking range about 8.0 kilometres (5 mi), to heavier cable with multiple pairs. Equipment for laying the wire ranges from reels on backpacks to trucks equipped with plows to bury lines. [7]

War in Ukraine

During the Russo-Ukrainian War Russian electronic warfare (EW) has excelled. During the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas Russia used "electronic warfare systems to jam and intercept communications signals, jam and spoof GPS receivers, and tap into cellular networks and hack cell phones." Russian EW was poorly optimized and as a result, usage of the EW system caused problems with their own communications and GPS. Due to the negative effects on their own forces, it fell out of use.[ citation needed ]

During the Battle of Bakhmut Ukraine's forces made heavy use of field telephone as "Russian technologies aren't able to track or block field phones." One commander told the BBC that: "This technology is very old - but it works really well." and it's impossible to listen in". [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

Torture of POWs

It has been documented in human rights reports as an instrument of electric torture with euphemisms utilizing the TA-57 telephone as a "phone call to Putin" or "call to Lenin". [14]

In 2024, a leaked photograph showed one of the suspects accused of the 2024 Crocus City Hall attack being tortured by Russian FSB interrogators by having his genitals electrocuted by a TA-57.

According to the United States Army's Vietnam War Crimes Working Group Files, field telephones were sometimes used in Vietnam to torture POWs with electric shocks during interrogations. [15]

United States Army

Soviet Armed Forces

Royal Norwegian Defence Forces

Finnish Defence Forces

German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht)

Austrian Armed Forces (Bundesheer)

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. Sterling, Christopher H.; Military Communications: From Ancient Times to the 21st Century (2008). Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. ISBN   978-1-85109-732-6 p. 444.
  2. Ivanov, Alexei and Philipp S. Jowett; The Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 (2004). Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN   1-84176-708-5 p. 11.
  3. Sterling p. 445.
  4. Beach, Jim; Bruce, James (2020-01-02). "British signals intelligence in the trenches, 1915–1918: part 1, listening sets". Journal of Intelligence History. 19 (1): 1–23. doi: 10.1080/16161262.2019.1659580 . ISSN   1616-1262.
  5. Wire stringing in combat
  6. Signal Operations in the Corps and Army, FM 11-22, U.S. War Department, January 1945
  7. "Wire and Cable Equipment, World War II". U.S. Army. Archived from the original on 2013-03-07. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
  8. David Axe (2022-12-24). "Russia's Electronic-Warfare Troops Knocked Out 90 Percent Of Ukraine's Drones". Forbes.
  9. Alex Marquardt; Natasha Bertrand; Zachary Cohen (2023-05-06). "Russia's jamming of US-provided rocket systems complicates Ukraine's war effort". CNN.
  10. JOSEPH TREVITHICK (2019-10-30). "Ukrainian Officer Details Russian Electronic Warfare Tactics Including Radio "Virus"". The Drive.
  11. JOSEPH TREVITHICK (2022-06-03). "They're jamming everything: How secretive electronic warfare shapes war in Ukraine". Times of Israel.
  12. "The old-school way that Ukraine's forces are avoiding Russian detection". The Jerusalem Pos. 2022-12-24.
  13. Jonathan Beale (2023-05-03). "Ukraine war: How old tech is helping Ukraine avoid detection". BBC.
  14. UN Office of the High Commissioner (5 March 2023). Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.
  15. Deborah Nelson, "THE WAR BEHIND ME: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth About U.S. War Crimes" Archived July 17, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , Basic Books, ISBN   978-0-465-00527-7, October 28, 2008
  16. EE-8
  17. TA-312
  18. TA-838