Thank you Ray Robinson and Jeff White far sharing this very interesting story.
Jeff: Some years ago, research by our editor-in-chief, Dr. Adrian Peterson, in conjunction with "Pacific Radio Heritage" in New Zealand, revealed the fact that Radio Australia was relayed by transmitters in at least three different locations in Palestine during World War II. From Los Angeles, Ray Robinson has the story, along with some more recently uncovered information including an Australian operation in the Gaza Strip.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. Yes, for this story, we have to go back to the earliest origins of radio broadcasting for the benefit of Australian servicemen on duty overseas.
In the latter part of 1938, the Post Master General’s (or, PMG) Department in Sydney began planning for the construction of a mobile radio studio which would be used in the production of outside broadcasts, to be relayed by the Australia Broadcasting Commission, or ABC, network of medium wave and shortwave radio stations throughout Australia. Work on this project was completed early in 1939, and the new ABC Mobile Van was assigned to the New South Wales branch of the ABC.
Some sources indicate this ABC Mobile Van was actually constructed by New Zealand Railways and was in effect a shortened and modified railway carriage on the back of a truck. However, in its modified form, it was a state-of-the-art radio studio of the era, complete with transcription turntables, microphones, control console, and associated equipment. Also included was a shortwave transmitter and receiver for point-to-point transmission of recorded material. The roof of the van was specially strengthened so that it could be used as an elevated platform for outside broadcasts.
Within weeks of the declaration of war on September 3rd, 1939, the Australian government received a request from the United Kingdom to help counter German radio propaganda. Preparations began in the October to recruit troops for combat in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as in the Pacific. And then on December 20th, 1939, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies directed the ABC to inaugurate a shortwave overseas service, originally named ‘Australia Calling’ and later ‘Radio Australia’. ‘The time has come for Australia to speak for herself,’ he said.
In 1940, three AIF (or, Australian Imperial Force) infantry divisions comprising about 20,000 men were dispatched to the Mediterranean and the Middle East, where they formed an integral part of the Commonwealth forces in the area.
It had also been decided early in 1940, to modify the ABC Mobile Van in Sydney in readiness for shipping it to the Middle East, along with the troops. More equipment
was needed than was originally envisaged, so a trailer was added containing supplementary equipment such as a 32 volt generator and heavy duty batteries. Additionally, an extra pair of high frequency transmitters and receivers was stowed on board for use in coordinating the production of remote broadcasts.
The modified ABC Mobile Van was scheduled to be shipped from Australia to the Middle East in early June 1940, though the departure date was delayed until the end of August due to wartime priorities. It was shipped first to Cairo, and whilst on board the troop carrier, it produced an actuality radio series called ‘At Sea with the AIF’, although for security reasons the programs were not broadcast in Australia until after the contingents had safely reached their destination. Upon arrival in Cairo, the van was driven on into the British Mandated territory of Palestine. There it was set up in an Australian army base near Jerusalem.
Special Forces Programs from the new "Australia Calling" were received off air and recorded on large discs. These discs were then taken to the local medium wave station of the Palestine Broadcasting Service and rebroadcast for the benefit of Australian servicemen in the area. This radio station was a 20 kW unit on 668 kHz, with the callsign ZJM. It had been established by the British just three years earlier.
Unfortunately, this radio rebroadcast service in the Middle East didn’t come close to expectations. The signals from the new, low-powered ABC shortwave stations in Australia were variable, there was a high degree of local static, and the programming content was considered inadequate.
An officer in the Australian army stationed in Jerusalem complained about these matters in a letter to his father in Adelaide, South Australia, and the information was passed on to army headquarters in Melbourne in February 1941. As a result, responsibility for the operation of the overseas shortwave service from Australia was taken away from the ABC and placed under the direct control of the Department of Information.
Then, in early 1941, after only a few months of service in Palestine, the ABC Mobile Van was shipped back to Australia, although the radio personnel and several items of equipment were retained in the Middle East. The van was then refurbished and, together with additional electronic equipment, prepared for service in the islands to the north of Australia.
But, back to the Middle East. In November of the same year, 1941, PMG engineer Reg Boyle conducted a series of test broadcasts in Jerusalem for the live relay of ‘Australia Calling’ programming using a 500 watt shortwave transmitter. As a result of these tests, he concluded that a more powerful 1 kW unit would be necessary in order to provide a satisfactory broadcast service in the area.
The Australian army in Jerusalem then lodged a request with army headquarters in Melbourne for approval to erect such a 1 kW shortwave station in Jerusalem for the local relay of radio programming from ‘Australia Calling’. This station was projected to cost £5,000, and it would be under the control of the PMG engineer, Reg Boyle. The request was duly approved by army headquarters, but events move quickly in war zones, and the project was never actually implemented.
Instead, the Australian forces acquired a building in the Gaza Strip for the ABC Field Unit, which installed various receiving and transmitting antennas on the roof, one apparently for medium wave. From this location, medium wave propagation along the North African coast would have been much better, as well as covering the Australian bases in Palestine.
Researcher David Ricquish (who sadly died at his home in Wellington, New Zealand in September 2024), discovered a 1941 photograph on an Australian government website clearly depicting this building, which was identified as “ABC, Gaza”.
This building in Gaza apparently contained both studios and transmitters, and staff there also provided printed news material for soldiers by monitoring and transcribing material from the shortwave broadcasts of ‘Australia Calling’. It was actually located at the AIF’s Middle East Headquarters ‘Base Area Camp’ at Gaza Ridge, known as Kilo 89, and the station broadcast recitals, musical recordings and relays of BBC and ABC news. Soldiers were also assigned to still broadcast through the Palestine Mandate station, ZJM, in Jerusalem.
ABC, Gaza, 1941
And so the evidence suggests that Australia Calling / Radio Australia was relayed for Australian troops over three different stations in the Middle East during the period from 1940-1942:
(1) the 20 kW medium wave station ZJM in Jerusalem,
(2) a 500 watt shortwave transmitter, also in Jerusalem; and
(3) an Australian Forces medium wave station located at Kilo 89, Gaza Ridge, in the Gaza Strip.
Back to you, Jeff.
Jeff: Thanks, Ray. Next week, Ray will be looking further into the early development of radio broadcasting in Palestine and subsequently in Israel – a part of the Middle East we’ve never covered before in Wavescan.
