Foxhole Radio

What should have been a simple book about radios…

Category: Wanted

Mystery soldier

bcarusella

This is Photograph 111-SC-282168 U. S. Fifth Army Mobile Unit Programs Can Be Heard over Razor Blade Sets. 1945. Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Record Group 111. National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland. It is by far the best known photograph of a soldier with a foxhole radio at Anzio. It was taken for YANK magazine but never ran. 

The other photos in series with this one include the names of the subjects. But not this one. The note with the negative only gives the title. So far this soldier remains anonymous. I would prefer to include his name in the book, naturally, so if anyone recognizes him please let me know!

A mystery

bcarusella

This message was posted in the Yahoo group “Loop Antenna News and Information Forum” back in 2007:

“Hue, as a project in my AIT class (Basic Receivers) back in the early 1980’s, I had the students gather the materials and build a foxhole radio during a weekend field training exercise. It took about two hours, and they were encouraged to improve on the design after successfully completing it. The model I used was handed down to me by an Uncle who served in the Marines through Guadalcanal, New Briton, and Peleliu, after which he transferred to the U.S. Navy for Okinawa. The first one he made while on Guadalcanal, the wire and headphones stolen from a Bell Aircobra. He told me the plans came by way of scuttle-butt, I.E. one guy would show the next. Apparently they were popular enough that aircraft headsets had to be locked up rather than left in the cockpit. He said he made several on Guadalcanal for buddies, and on New Briton, and one on Peleliu. All were sensitive enough to listen to Tokyo Rose at night, even on Guadalcanal. The plans he turned over to me were specific and detailed, down to which model number headphones were suitable. At the time I taught, Blued razor blades were the hardest item to procure. Luckily, a local small-town pharmacy kept a stock of blued razor blades. I don’t think they are available any more. The original varied in several respects from the garden variety seen on the internet in that it was designed to receive 4-10 MHz rather than the Broadcast band, among other things. I suppose they were also used in Europe, but my Uncle never met a Veteran who had used one in the European Theater, though he met many who had used it in the Pacific.”

This is one of the few references I’ve seen to a foxhole radio built in the Pacific theater, and, I believe, the only one I’ve seen built by a Marine. So naturally I’d like to find the author of this post to interview him.

Unfortunately he seems to have disappeared.

He posted under the handle mhatlau, and his real name is Mark Huss. He would be around 60 now and works in the electronics industry. If by some slim chance anyone who is reading this knows Mr. Huss please let him know I would love to interview him!