Wavescan features the LORAN system of World War II

 Thank you to Ray Robinson and Jeff White for sharing this week's interesting feature on the LORAN system.

LORAN

Jeff:  Back in March, we received an email from Wavescan listener Fred Waterer who forwarded an article by Eric Blunt in Port Weller, Ontario, Canada about a Mrs. Marian McKnight who had just celebrated her 100th birthday, and who had served as a WREN in World War II at a remote top secret LORAN base on the coast of Nova Scotia.  Not familiar with LORAN?  Ray Robinson in Los Angeles has been finding out more.

Ray:  Thanks, Jeff.

LORAN/Wikipedia

So first, what was LORAN?  Well, it stood for Long Range Navigation, and was a top-secret system developed in the United States, which allowed ships and aircraft to pinpoint their positions at ranges of up to 1,500 miles, or 2,400 km, from land.  It was first used for ship convoys crossing the North Atlantic, and then by long-range patrol aircraft, but it was also eventually used extensively by ships and aircraft operating in the Pacific theater during World War II.

The concept of the system was to allow a vessel or aircraft to determine its position in all weathers and at great distances from shore.  A radio wave is sent from a master station and is received both by the ship or plane and by a slave station on a different part of the coast.  On receipt of the pulse, the slave station then sends out another pulse, which is also received by the vessel or plane.  The LORAN receiver on the ship or plane measures electronically the difference in time of arrival of the radio waves from the ground stations, and then using LORAN charts for the area served by the ground stations, a line of position can be determined from the time difference.  A second line of position is determined from another pair of stations.  The intersection of the two lines provides a fix.  The system also allowed the ships and aircraft using it to maintain radio silence.

The original system, also known as LORAN-A, used two frequencies in the Marine Band, above the AM Broadcast Band, at 1850 and 1950 kHz.  These frequencies were also within the Amateur 160 metre band, and amateur operators were under strict rules to operate at reduced power levels to avoid interference, especially near the North American seaboards.  Depending on their location and distance to the shore, U.S. operators were limited to maximums of 200 to 500 watts during the day and 50 to 200 watts at night.

Because of this choice of frequencies, signals could be reflected by the ionosphere at night, and thus provide over-the-horizon operation.

Originally developed by the MIT Radiation Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts for the United States Navy, in mid-1942 the project was also joined by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy.  The Canadian liaison was required, because the ideal siting for the land-based stations to cover shipping and aircraft in the North Atlantic was along the coasts of the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

LORAN/Wikipedia

One site in Nova Scotia proved to be a battle; the site was owned by a fisherman whose domineering teetotaler wife was dead set against having anything to do with the sinful Navy men.  When the site selection committee was discussing the matter with the husband, a third visitor arrived and he offered the men cigarettes.  They refused, and the hostess then asked if they drank.  When they said they did not, the land was quickly secured!

The first locations went live in June 1942 at Montauk Point, New York and Fenwick Island, Delaware, but they were soon joined by two stations in Newfoundland at Bonavista and Battle Harbour, and then by two more stations in Nova Scotia at Baccaro and Deming Island.

Additional stations all along the U.S. and Canadian east coast were installed through October, and the system was declared fully operational on January 1, 1943, at which time, authority over the system was transferred from MIT to the U.S. Navy.  Two more frequencies were brought into use, at 1750 and 1900 kHz.  By the end of 1943 additional stations had been installed in Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and the Hebrides, offering continuous coverage across the North Atlantic.

So now we come to the article by Eric Blunt, forwarded to us by Fred Waterer.  Eric wrote:

“Mrs McKnight is 100 years old today (that was on March 11, 2025).  Some people we know may have had experiences we had no way of ever imagining.  I knew she was in the WRENs.  She never hid that and was very proud of it.  But the details she never shared.  Of course she was sworn to secrecy under the Official Secrets Act. While never enforced, the penalty for treason for most of her life was death.  So her reticence is understandable.  I knew her as a sweet and caring kindergarten teacher. Who knew she was also a badass explosives trained soldier!

Growing up, Marian McKnight was fascinated by stories of the sea.  When the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service, nicknamed the WRENs, opened in 1942, Marian knew this was her calling.  Her family and boyfriend thought otherwise, actively discouraging her.  But this negativity culminated in her going on to become the first girl from her graduating class to enlist in the military, and her determination was likely a deciding factor in her being selected to serve at an extremely remote station in Baccaro, Nova Scotia.  Taking an oath of secrecy and undergoing a thorough background check, she was among 16 women responsible for maintaining the top secret LORAN system at that location.

Maintaining the LORAN transmitter was not easy.  Working in shifts of four, the WRENs had to ensure that their signal was synchronized with two other LORAN stations, one Canadian and one American.  Marian told me the frustration of when the LORAN system went out of sync and the scramble to fix it, leaving any ship or plane using it in the dark as precious seconds ticked away.  This had to be kept running 24 hours a day.

One night two German U-boats were detected half a mile from their station.  It was a tense 48 hours before the two U-boats slipped away.  If the U-boats had landed, the women were instructed to detonate explosives underneath their machines “and run like hell.”  The women were also armed, but were terrified to use the supplied rifles.  Under no circumstances could the LORAN system fall into enemy hands.  The WRENs of Baccaro hold the unusual distinction of being the women closest to enemy forces on Canadian soil during the war.

Recently the British government awarded Marian the Bletchley Park Commemorative Badge, given to veterans who served at top secret stations across Britain and Canada.

Thanks, Fred, for forwarding that very interesting article

Marian McKnight is holding the Bletchley Park Commemorative Badge, which was awarded to her by the British Government.

The enormous distances and lack of useful navigation points in the Pacific Ocean led to widespread use of LORAN for both ships and aircraft during the Pacific War.  In particular, the accuracy offered by LORAN allowed aircraft to reduce the amount of extra fuel they would otherwise have to carry to ensure they could find their base after a long mission.  This reduced fuel load allowed the bombload to be increased.  By the end of World War II there were 72 LORAN stations, with over 75,000 receivers in use.

 Back to you, Jeff.

The Medium Wave and FM Radio Scene in South Pacific Vanuatu

Island of Espiritu Santo (wikipedia)

Back during the era of the Pacific War in the middle of last century, the islanders in the New Hebrides discovered the usefulness of radio for information and entertainment.  There were even occasions when small groups of village people crowded around a radio receiver that was tuned to the American Forces Radio Station WVUR at Luganville on the island of Espiritu Santo.

After the war, radio listening in various areas of the New Hebrides continued to increase due to the improving availability of radio receivers in the New Hebrides, and the installation of radio broadcasting stations (mediumwave and shortwave) in other islands of the South Pacific.  Then with the flood of the new cheap transistor radios from Japan in the late 1950s, the reception of radio signals from afar became increasingly popular in the New Hebrides. 

Shortwave stations that were popular among the educated and prosperous islanders in the New Hebrides back then were Radio Australia, Radio New Zealand (International), and the stations that were located in Suva Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia. 

There were occasions when the growing network of Teleradio low power communication stations (15 watts on 6900 kHz) on the various islands of the New Hebrides presented in brief what we might call radio programming.  However, the New Hebrides needed their own broadcasting stations, and somewhere around the year 1960, three enterprising Frenchmen in Port Vila took a novel approach to this matter.

A new radio program was prepared by this threesome; successful businessman Pierre Bourgeois, prominent political leader Georges Milne, and the influential Catholic Priest Zerger.  As they travelled the islands, they recorded local news, local music and interesting traditional stories in both French and the local languages.

Back in Port Vila, these village recordings were then assembled into a short radio program, using reel-to-reel tape.  Each radio program, lasting from ten to fifteen minutes, was then forwarded to Radio Noumea in nearby New Caledonia where they were broadcast on Wednesday evenings back to the New Hebrides on mediumwave and shortwave.  (The WR(TV)HB editions for both 1961 and 1962 list a Folklore Music program from Radio Noumea at 6:15 pm, though on Thursdays, not Wednesdays.) 

A theme song for this locally assembled radio program was written and sung by a village musician whose home, and language, was on the island of Ifira, in Port Vila Bay.  The words tell the story, like in a parable, of a group of crabs on a sandy beach putting their arms around each other and forming a circle.  This theme song, in the Ifira language was called Kavelicolico, and the program became known as Radio Kavelicolico.

Radio Vila in the New Hebrides was on the air only on shortwave for ten years before the first mediumwave transmitter was inaugurated.  It is understood that the first mediumwave transmitter on the air in Vanuatu was a small temporary (and therefore probably quite informal) unit in Port Vila that was installed by the Australian Radio Engineer Ken Munyard.

The first reference in WR(TV)HB for a government mediumwave station in Vanuatu is in the 1975 edition, and the station is listed as Radio Vila under the callsign YJB with 1 kW on 1420 kHz in Malapoa, near the national capital Port Vila.  Subsequent frequencies have been 1422 kHz and 1125 kHz, and subsequent power levels have been 2 kW and 10 kW.  Mediumwave station YJB was transferred from Malapoa to Emten Lagoon in 1995.

A regional mediumwave station was established near the St Michel Mission Station, three miles southwest of Luganville, on Espiritu Santo Island also in 1995.  This station was listed with 2 kW, and subsequently with 10 kW, on 1179 kHz, and programming was generally a relay from Radio Vanuatu at Emten Lagoon, Port Vila.  Though off the air at present due to cyclones and technical problems, attempts are underway to reactivate this Luganville station.

Over the years, there have been suggestions for installing additional mediumwave stations throughout Vanuatu in an endeavor to provide satisfactory radio coverage of all 82 islands.  Half a dozen of the larger islands have been suggested as suitable locations, though thus far mediumwave stations have been installed on only two of these islands; capital city island Efate, and the largest island Espiritu Santo. 

The first FM station in Vanuatu was installed by the aforementioned Ken Maynard, and this was a small informal 5 watt unit in his home in Port Vila, with the antenna attached to the top of the neighboring water tower.  The first official FM station, with 15 watts on 98 MHz, was inaugurated in Port Vila in 1982.  Since then, nearly a dozen additional FM stations (government, political, commercial, religious and community) have been installed on more than half a dozen islands.

Six of these FM stations have been installed as satellite relay stations with programming on behalf of major world government organizations.  Just as a matter of international interest, we list these foreign FM relay stations:- 
BBC World Service  Port Vila  Efate Island  99 MHz
BBC World Service  Luganville Espiritu Santo 99 MHz
Radio France International  Port Vila  Efate
Radio Australia  Port Vila  Efate
China Radio International  Port Vila  Efate
China Radio International  Lakatoro  Malakula
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 590)

Australian Shortwave Callsign VLS

The legend of Hinemoa was passed on from generation to generation, long before any migrants from Europe settled on the islands of New Zealand, the Land of the Long White Cloud.  Princess Hinemoa was the pretty daughter of a Maori Great Chieftain, and she had fallen in love with handsome Prince Tutanekai, the son of a local Maori Chief. 

Princess Hinemoa lived near the water front of Lake Rotorua a large inland lake, and Prince Tutanekai lived on Mokaia Island in the center of the lake.  The hidden romance, forbidden by local custom, became well known, and the canoes at the water front were protected, so that Hinemoa could not paddle out to the island.

However one night, Princess Hinemoa clad herself with dry, empty Calabash Gourds, and she swam out to the island, guided in the darkness by the music that Tutanekai was playing on his own home made flute.  She arrived at the island, met her handsome prince; and like all good European legends, this Maori couple in New Zealand lived happily ever after.   

Named in honor of this princess, the small New Zealand coastal vessel, Hinemoa, just 542 tons and only 207 feet long, was built in the Scott shipyards in Greenock Scotland in 1875.  At the beginning of World War 1 (1914), the Hinemoa was listed with wireless apparatus operating under the New Zealand callsign (as it was at the time) VLS.  Due to new international radio regulations, all radio callsigns in New Zealand beginning with VL were changed to ZL on January 1, 1929, and thus the little ship NZGSS Hinemoa dropped the callsign VLS and received a new callsign.

The Australian usage of the shortwave callsign VLS was taken up by the AWA shortwave station in Pennant Hills, near Sydney and it was in use during the 1920s and 1930s for the Trawler Communication Service in both voice and Morse Code for the ships that plied along eastern coastal waters.  In addition, the long distance communication service from Pennant Hills was registered under the callsign VIS, though sometimes this was erroneously identified as VLS, due to the similarity in callsigns. 

During the year 1933, Donald Mackay, leader for the Mackey Aerial Survey Expedition in Central Australia, took mobile wireless equipment for use on the ground and in the air.  It is understood that the callsign that he used while at Docker Creek on the border between Northern and Western Australia, was VLS.

Interestingly a total of five different shortwave locations, in use by the ABC Home Service in Australia and the international service of Radio Australia, have all operated under the callsign VLS.  We look at each of these occasions in chronological order.

Soon after the end of World War II, the ABC in Australia began assessing their radio coverage throughout the continent and they observed that mediumwave coverage in the heavily populated coastal areas north and south of Sydney was insufficient.  It was determined that it would be more economical to provide a radio service to these areas on shortwave from one single location, rather than to install a network of several medium powered mediumwave stations.

The chosen location for this new shortwave station was on the western and southern edge of Sydney, just beyond suburban Liverpool.  This was already the location for all of the mediumwave transmitters that carry the two program services, ABC National and ABC Local, for coverage of Australia’s largest city. 

Interestingly, during the planning for the new 2 kW shortwave transmitter, the evidence suggests that the suggested callsign would be VLS, with the S obviously standing for Sydney.  However, when the transmitter was installed and taken into regular service in December 1948, an even more logical callsign was granted; VLI with the LI indicating Liverpool.

Twenty years later (1960s and 1970s), another well established ABC/Radio Australia shortwave station was already on the air at Lyndhurst in Victoria with programming beamed to the Great Outback, the Pacific and South East Asia.  During each summer season, one of the 10 kW transmitters at Lyndhurst was placed into service for the broadcast of live commentaries on the ever popular sport, cricket. 

The Lyndhurst transmitter that beamed the cricket commentaries to New Zealand and the Pacific was given the unannounced callsign VLS.  Then for example during the next decade in December 1980, a 10 kW transmitter at the larger shortwave station at Shepparton also in Victoria, took over the VLS cricket broadcast for New Zealand and the Pacific.

A new and temporary shortwave facility was installed for Radio Australia at Brandon near Townsville in Queensland in 1989.  The original intent was ultimately for a much larger station, and initially only three transmitters at 10 kW each we installed.  However, only two antenna systems were erected, and thus only two transmitters could be activated at any one time. 

The third transmitter, which was originally intended to carry its own separate programming, thus operated instead as a fill in for the other two.  That third transmitter was originally allocated the callsign VLS.

During the 1990s, one of the 250 kW transmitters at the Darwin relay station of Radio Australia was allocated the line callsign S, as in VLS, as a program service to Asia and beyond.  Back at that time, Radio Australia was issuing QSLs in the form of a Form Letter, and the verification text gave the callsign as VLS.

And for the final application of the Australian shortwave callsign VLS, we mention the shortwave Aeradio station that carries aviation communications with passenger aircraft in the vicinity of the Kingsford Smith Airport at Mascot, Sydney.   Several shortwave transmitters have been in use at this location during the past half century and more, and they are rated at 3 kW, 5 kW and 10 kW.  QSL cards from Sydney Aeradio and also Sydney Volmet, identify this station under the callsign VLS.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 558)

Jungle Radio on Bougainville Island

WSSO Radio (Radio Heritage Foundation)

An additional story on Bougainville Island, from my earlier post, The Early Wireless Scene on the Tropical Pacific Island, Bougainville on 30 January 2020.

It was in March 1942 that the Imperial Japanese Army made its first landings on Bougainville Island as part of their onward progression through the islands in the South Pacific.  At the time, there were some 50,000 local people on this island, though most of the foreigners had already evacuated in advance of the Japanese incursions.

In April 1943, the Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto began a tour of the Japanese occupied islands in the South West Pacific.  Admiral Yamamoto was the key architect in the planning of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor less than two years earlier, the event that brought the United States into the Pacific War.

American surveillance teams at three widely different locations learned via Japanese coded radio transmissions from nearby Rabaul on New Britain Island that Yamamoto was scheduled to fly from Rabaul to Balalae Island, just to the south of Bougainville Island, on the morning of April 18, 1943.  A flight of 16 American fighter planes intercepted the flight of 8 Japanese planes over southern Bougainville and they shot down the Admiral’s plane, killing all on board.

Just six months later on November 1, 1943, American forces landed at Torokina on the central west coast of Bougainville Island and there they established a temporary air force base that was carved out of the surrounding tropical jungle.  Ultimately a total of 60,000 American personnel were staged at the Torokina Air base, and at the same time it is estimated, there were also 65,000 Japanese service personnel on that same island.  There were times of open conflict. 

The American base at Torokina had a frontal area against the ocean 15 miles wide, and it extended 5 miles inland up against a rugged jungle covered mountain range.  One month after the initial American landings, the first American planes landed on the jungle airstrip at Torokina (December 10, 1943). 

A temporary communication radio station was installed in a primitive jungle building on the edge of a very muddy road in a freshly made clearing in the jungle.  They also established a hospital at Torokina, with a holding capacity for 500 patients in a cluster of 70 Quonset Huts.

The first American radio broadcasting station at Torokina was a joint co-operative volunteer effort on the part of American service personnel from the army, navy, marines and seabees.  They assembled whatever radio equipment was available, and they launched a low power radio broadcasting station on 670 kHz on February 16, 1944 under the self-designated callsign WSSO.  The first station manager was Staff Sargent John A. Ettinger 

Radio station WSSO was established by the Special Service Office (hence the callsign WSSO) and it identified on air as the First Entertainment Station in the Solomons.  This new and informal station also identified on air as AES, an American Expeditionary Station, as did many other stations in the Mosquito and Jungle Networks during the latter part of the Pacific War.  There are no known loggings of this informal low power American AES station, not in Australia nor in New Zealand during the one month that it was on the air. 

The second American radio station at Torokina was an official broadcasting station that was set up by a small group of specially trained men who were flown in from California.  In the winter of 1943, AFRS Los Angeles received a request for equipment and personnel to set up three mediumwave entertainment radio stations in the South Pacific; New Caledonia, Guadalcanal and Bougainville.

On January 15, 1944, the three radio teams, together with their equipment, were flown out to the Admiralty Islands, and then from there each team flew onward to its own appointed destination.  The Bougainville team installed their station, both studios and transmitter, in a prefabricated wooden Dallas Hut imported from the United States, and it was inaugurated on April 15, 1944 as AES Bougainville. 

This new station, initially without a formal callsign, radiated 1 kW on 670 kHz, the same channel as the previous informal WSSO.  At this stage, the Torokina station formed part of the loosely federated Mosquito Network. 

This new AFRS station on Bougainville Island was on the air for two months before it was suddenly noted in both Australia and New Zealand.  One of the first radio monitors to hear the new station was the Radio & Hobbies mediumwave columnist Roy Hallett in Sydney.  In mid June (1944), he noted this station with a good signal just before the morning sign on time for mediumwave stations in eastern Australia.  The station sign on announcement stated AFRS Bougainville.

However, a few months later, three major changes took place at AES Torokina.  AFRS management in California had determined that each of the AFRS stations in the Pacific should be granted an American style four letter callsign, and AES Torokina became WVTI.  Station WVTI dropped its Mosquito Network affiliation and it joined the Jungle Network instead, along with half a dozen other stations in the New Guinea area, all with callsigns that began with the two letters WV.  In addition, the operating channel for WVTI was changed from 670 kHz to 680 kHz. 

As time went by, American forces began to move further northward in the progress of the war in the Pacific islands during the year 1944, and thus the American usage of the Torokina Base on Bougainville Island was phased out. and Australian forces began to move in.  The Australian army officially took over the Torokina base on November 22 (1944).

The Torokina AFRS station WVTI was on the air for only nine months; it was closed on January 21 (1945) and it was then transferred to the Philippines for installation in Manila.  However in its place, a temporary low powered Australian mediumwave station superseded the now transferred American station.  It is understood that this new temporary Aussie unit was on the air under the Australian Army callsign 9AC, in anticipation of the arrival of a 200 watt transportable station under the same callsign.
More about 9AC next time.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 571)

Meet the Mosquito Network

Tarawa, Gilbert-Islands WWII 1943 (Brittanica)

Mark Durenberger

Inside the U.S. effort in a battle of the airwaves during the Pacific campaign of World War II

We can’t fully appreciate the importance of news from home to those who served in World War II. In the Pacific campaigns, G.I.s, sailors and Marines fought bloody island-hopping battles; as each island was cleared, garrison troops and hospitals moved in and carried on their own war against mosquitoes, isolation and boredom. The island fighters were fortunate if dated mail caught up with them before they moved on to the next target. Timely personal-level communications were pretty much absent.

Radio programming from America was available but only on shortwave. And shortwave radios were not generally available.

Additional story at Radio World: https://tinyurl.com/y4cf74k7

The American Voice of the Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is one of the world’s top modern day wonders, and it is a major international tourist destination with some eight million visitors a year.  It was designed and built to honor an Agra-born noble woman of Persian descent, Princess “Mumtaz-i-Mahal”, “Jewel of the Palace”.  Mumtaz Mahal died in childbirth in South India at the age of 38 in the year 1631.  Because the entire edifice was constructed to honor Mumtaz, then it became known as Mum-taz Mahal, the Taz Mahal, the Taj Mahal. 

The settlement of Agra, 125 mile south east of Delhi, dates back to very ancient times, though the city itself was established by Sultan Sikandar Lodi in 1504.  Agra became the capital city of the illustrious Mughal Empire in India at its height.

The exquisite Taj Mahal was built at the direction of Shah Jahan and it was established on the southern bank of the Yamuna River just before the middle of the 1600s.  It took 22,0000 workmen using their elaborate skills, and 1,000 elephants as beasts of burden, and exotic quantities of white marble and precious stones from nearby countries to assemble one of the world’s most beautiful buildings, a building that is to this day the most expensive building ever, anywhere upon planet Earth.

During the concentrated hectic days of World War II, the British focused some of their most constructive efforts on reinforcing their Indian Empire, and in some of these major events it was in co-operation with their ally in warfare, the United States.  The first contingent of American service personnel arrived in Agra on May 28, 1942, and their initial responsibility was the construction of accommodations for a large inflow of air force personnel which began two months later in July. 

A large new aerodrome was constructed at Kheria, just four miles west of Agra, the City of the Taj Mahal.  The 3rd Air Depot Group of the American Army Air Force ferried in a large number of combat aircraft, which were commissioned to deliver war materiel to inland China, via Burma and the famous Stilwell Road.

Because there was a large number of American service personnel on duty in India, the British Indian government gave approval on April 1, 1944 for the establishment of American radio broadcasting stations in several key locations.  The Indian Post & Telegraph Department issued licenses for each of these stations, which included an Indian callsign, authorized frequency, and a maximum power of just 50 watts. 

One of these duly approved AFRS American Forces Radio Stations was established at the new American air force base at Kheria on the western edge of the city of Agra.  AFRS Agra was inaugurated in the Summer of the year 1944, with 50 watts under the callsign VU2ZW.  Apparently the authorized frequency was 1305 kHz, though it would appear that they they chose unofficially to operate on 1355 kHz.  Or perhaps the listing of an incorrect operating frequency was just an editorial oversight that the proof reader did not catch.

Programming for this new radio broadcasting station was produced locally, it was taken from recordings that were flown in from AFRS California in the United States, and a live program feed was also taken off air from AFRS VU2ZZ shortwave in Calcutta, on 14983 kHz.  Maybe the regular news bulletins heard on VU2ZW Agra several times each day were a live relay on shortwave from VU2ZZ Calcutta.  The programming from VU2ZW was also heard over a loud speaker system at the air force swimming pool.

In a compilation of relevant information by the renowned American radio historian, Jerome Berg in suburban Boston, he presents a full page Program Schedule for AFRS Agra VU2ZW.  This program compilation, he states, is similar to a Program Schedule for AFRS Calcutta VU2ZU/VU2ZZ around the same era.

Some of the 16 AFRS mediumwave stations in India were heard on occasions in both Australia and New Zealand.  However, there is no known logging of the AFRS station in Agra VU2ZW being heard in the South Pacific.  There are no known QSLs from VU2ZW Agra anywhere.

The Pacific War was over in August 1945, and the Agra air force base was no longer needed.  The low powered 50 watt AFRS station VU2ZW was closed on the last day of March of the following year (1946), and the American air force base was subsequently handed over to the Indian authorities.  For them, it is the largest air force base in India, and it also supports civilian flights coming in from Delhi and elsewhere.

That was the story of the first radio broadcasting station in Agra, a station that was on the air in the city of the Taj Mahal; and in that sense it was the American Voice of Agra, the Voice of the Taj Mahal.  However since then, another mediumwave broadcasting station has been on the air in the city of the Taj Mahal.

All India Radio Agra was officially inaugurated in March 1995, with 10 kW on 1530 kHz.  The transmitter power was increased to 20 kW 13 years later (2008), due no doubt to the installation of an additional transmitter.

The only location for the studios of Akashvani Agra are at Ashram Road, Navarangpura, Vivabh Nagar near the Agra Cantonment.  The only location for the transmitter facility of AIR Agra is at Shamsabad Road (Highway) at Kahrai.  Both locations can be seen on Google Earth.
(AWR-Wavescan/NWS # 53)

Ancient DX Report 1914

A little over one hundred years ago, a series of tragic events in continental Europe escalated into the beginning of what was subsequently described as the Great War, an international conflict that some said would ultimately be the war to end all wars.  On June 28, 1914, His Royal Highness the 50 year old Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Heir Presumptive to the throne of the ailing Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated during a state visit to Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia.  His wife, Her Highness Sophie, the 46 year old Duchess of Hohenberg, was also killed at the same time.

The Royal Couple arrived by train in Sarajevo Bosnia from the nearby tourist town Ilidza on Sunday morning June 28, 1914, a bright sunny summer day.  They transferred to the back seat of a luxury motor car, the second in a motorcade of 6 vehicles, for a short journey which ultimately ended at the downtown City Hall building.  The sixth car in this royal parade was empty, simply as a standby for any of the others if they failed. En route, there was a failed attempt at assassination by grenade, though some personnel in the cavalcade and a few bystanders were injured in the event.  The car behind the royal couple in the official motorcade was damaged by the explosion of the grenade, and it no longer participated in the official events.

After the official welcome at the City Hall, the cavalcade of cars, now numbering only five, left with the intent of traveling to the hospital so that the royal couple could visit those who were wounded in the failed assassination attempt.  At this stage, the car that the royal couple traveled in was now the third in the cavalcade. The vehicle in which they traveled was a 1910 model Bois de Boulogne Double Phaeton Type 28/32 motor car made by Gräf & Stift in Vienna.  This vehicle, with engine number 287, was owned by Count Franz von Harrach, and it was licensed with an army identification plate showing A III-118. In a remarkable coincidence this vehicle identification number can be expressed as the date for Armistice Day at the subsequent end of World War 1 four years later:  A III-118 = A for Armistice, 11-11-18, that is November 11, 1918.

At around 10:45 am on that same fateful Sunday morning in 1914, the chauffeur Leopold Lojka by mistake took a wrong turn, and he then attempted to back the car onto the main thoroughfare, a difficult maneuver for the luxury Gräf & Stift vehicle.  At that stage, 19 year old Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princi, who happened to be standing nearby, seized the opportunity to kill the royal couple. The would be assassin fired just two bullets. The first bullet penetrated the aluminium side of the motor vehicle and hit the Duchess Sophie in the abdomen; some say she was pregnant.  The second bullet hit Archduke Franz in the neck.  Both victims bled to death in the next few minutes.  The vehicle’s odometer read 8596 kilometers (5341 miles).  The young assassin Gavrilo Princi was arrested and brutally mistreated, and he died in prison four years later. That tragic event took place on Sunday morning June 28, 1914.  Exactly one month later, on July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia, and Germany invaded France.  One week later again, England declared war against Germany.  World War 1!

Interestingly, some evangelical Protestants understand that both World War 1 and World War II were foretold in the Holy Scriptures.  Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Evangelical evangelist Billy Graham states in her book, “Expecting to See Jesus” (p 27): “World War I and World War II . . .  were predicted by Jesus when He warned, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” What was the wireless scene in Europe at the time when the belligerent powers went to war?  Germany operated two major wireless stations at the time, both maritime, at Nauen and Eilvese.  During the year 1914, Germany rebuilt their station POZ at Nauen near Berlin with a new transmitter building, a massive new antenna system together with a recently installed new 100 kW ARCO wireless transmitter.  The wireless station at Eilvese near Hanover was a little smaller than the Nauen station, though it was still very effective for use in international wireless communication.
We might also refer to the lower powered 10 kW maritime station Nordeich Radio which was located near Kiel in Germany. 

At that time Nordeich Radio was on the air under its second consecutive callsign KAV.  (The original call was KND; and the more familiar call DAN was adopted in 1927.) At the very commencement of the 1914 war, Great Britain cut the German underwater cable systems across the Atlantic.  In order to communicate with the German colonies and German commercial interests in the Americas, Africa, and the South Pacific, intervening German naval vessels conducted a cascade relay of information in Morse Code between the German mainland and the distant German locations. During that early era of the Great War, the German navy used isolated and lonely Easter Island, half way between South America and the exotic islands of the South Pacific, as a safe rallying point.  For a short period of time, they even operated their own temporary wireless station ashore on Easter Island.    

Within the United States, the German Telefunken company had constructed two huge wireless stations; at Tuckerton on Hickory Island New Jersey with 200 kW, and Sayville on Long Island New York with 100 kW.  Station WCI WGG on Hickory Island (which was not actually an island but rather part of the New Jersey shoreline) communicated in Morse Code mainly with station OUI, the Eilvese wireless station near Hanover in Germany.  The Sayville station WSL communicated with mainly POZ in Nauen near Berlin.   

A map of the British Isles shows literally a hundred or more wireless stations in use in 1914, and they were scattered around the coastlines, with a few further inland.  Notable among those early wireless stations were the well known Marconi station at Poldhu (MPD & ZZ) and the Marconi stations on the Isle of Wight.  There was also the powerful new Marconi station MUU at Carnarvon in Wales.

 In addition, the English Marconi company had also installed, and in 1914 was operating, several important wireless stations in North America (and beyond), including:
  CB-VAS   Glace Bay   Cape Breton Island  Canada
  CE-VCE Cape Race  Newfoundland  (Canada)
  NFF  New Brunswick New Jersey  USA
  CC-WCC Cape Cod  Massachusetts USA
  PH-KPH Bolinas  California   USA
  KIE  Kahuku  Oahu   Hawaii
(AWR Wavescan 436)
photo: http://www.rundfunk-nostalgie.de/seefunk.html

Passed by the Censors

(Defense Media Network)

During the stressful days of World War II, in the middle of last century, there was still a flow of postal mail across the wide oceans, though at times there were lengthy delays before delivery was finally made to the addressee. Sometimes the method of transportation of the mail was by plane, and sometimes it was by boat, though as we know, there were losses due to enemy action.

For the security of the armed forces in the war zones, censors were appointed to check outgoing mail to ensure that the items of postal mail contained no sensitive information that would be helpful to enemy personnel if by chance they happened to obtain access.  Items of half a century old postal mail that are identified in some way as passed by a censor are these days valuable collector’s items. It is true that listener reception reports, QSL cards and QSL letters were subject back then to inspection by an appointed censor, and a sticker or a rubber stamping on the envelope or the card testifies to this intrusion by the censor. Today, we examine a handful of QSLs and reception reports from that era that were examined by a censor.

 

We begin with Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, and back at that time, there were Japanese, American and Australian armed forces stationed on the island of New Guinea. Any outward postal mail had to pass over ocean waters, regardless of the intended delivery country. The mediumwave station 9PA with 250 watts on 1250 kHz was operated by both Australian and American personnel, and it broadcast syndicated programming for the benefit of both nationalities.  A QSL letter on a blank sheet of paper verifies the reception in Australia of 9PA dated March 23, 1945. Even though the correct call sign would have been 9AA. yet the station identification is shown as 9PA. The envelope carries a sticker stating, Opened by Censor, and a circular rubber stamping identifies the censor as No. 463.

 

A subsequent QSL letter from the same medium wave station 9PA was typed onto a small ABC letterhead dated June 11 (1945) though it was inserted into an army envelope. The oblong rubber stamping indicates army Censor No. 682. Much of the postal mail across the Pacific back then was examined by a censor, and many of the QSL cards from VOA the Voice of America in California and addressed to Australia and New Zealand carry a rubber stamping from an official censor. Station KWV with 20 kW at AT&T Dixon in California was logged in 1943 by both Jack Fox in Dunedin New Zealand and by Max Mudie (MEW-DEE, rhymes with Beauty) at Victor Harbor in South Australia. In both cases, the Red White and Blue QSL card from KWV was rubber stamped with a large circular stamp stating U. S. Censorship, and in both case it was the same censor, number 10177.  

 Interestingly, Max Mudie received another 1943 QSL card from AT&T Dixon, this time under another 20 kW call sign KWY, and it was rubber stamped by the very same censor No. 1017.  However Jack Fox received a similar 1943 Red White & Blue QSL card from the 50 kW KRCA at Bolinas in California and it was passed by a different censor, No. 10392.
 

During that same back then era, shortwave station WRUL at Scituate with its studios in Boston received a voluminous flow of listener mail from all over the world.  Many of those reception reports and letters were examined by homeland censors before they began their journey across the intervening ocean.  

For example, a 1942 envelope addressed to WRUL was examined by a censor in Greenland. The envelope was posted by an American serviceman on duty in Greenland and a sticker sealing the end of the envelope bears the Censor No. 6433. A 1943 envelope from Brazil was examined by Censor No. 6822; a 1943 envelope from Turkey was examined by Censor No. 457; and another 1943 envelope from Martinique in the Caribbean was examined by Censor No. 6915. This envelope was addressed simply to Radio Boston in the United States, but nevertheless it was delivered to the well known Boston shortwave station WRUL.

 

An equally vague address on an envelope from French Africa was examined by Censor No. 6915.  The address again stated quite simply Radio Boston, but the postal authorities nevertheless delivered the missive to shortwave WRUL.

 Then there was a postal card that was delivered to a shortwave station in California and it was written in the most difficult handwriting you could ever wish to see.  The 1944 postal card was addressed by Private Lawrence E. Hutchinson who was on recovery in Army Hospital 79, which we would suggest was somewhere in the Pacific. The card was addressed to Melody Roundup in Los Angeles. Now that was not a girl’s name, but rather it was the name of a radio program that was presented by the well known music group from that era, the Sons of the Pioneers.  Their programming was heard on AFRTS local stations throughout the world, and on shortwave from California. 

 

In order to provide accurate delivery, someone had added a note in pencil with two letters, SW, standing for shortwave. This card was passed by army base Censor No. 1561. The message side of the card stated that the writer was representing all of the patients in Ward A who would like to hear the song, Just Like Old Times. We can only presume that nostalgia was creeping over these wounded army personnel, and we would hope that AFRS Radio Shortwave did indeed honor their music request. 
(AWR Wavescan 463)

German Radio Station in Canada During World War II

During the era of World War II, in the middle of last century, the German armed forces in Europe were at a disadvantage regarding weather patterns coming across the Atlantic into the continent.  The Allied forces had an advantage in that they could readily obtain current weather information from Canada and the United States, as well as from Greenland and Iceland, thus enabling reliable weather forecasting in England.

            In an attempt to obtain reliable weather information from across the Atlantic, the German authorities developed a plan whereby they also could have access to this needed information.  Under the concept of the project Wetter-Funkgerat Land, Weather Radio for Land, WFL, they would plant small radio transmitters at suitable locations in North America and upon suitable islands in the North Atlantic.

            A total of 20 or 30 of these weather reporting portable automatic radio stations were constructed and assembled by the German company Siemens radio manufactory, based upon a design developed by Dr. Ernst Ploetze and Edwin Stoebe.  Each weather radio station contained weather measuring instruments, a telemetry system, and a 150 watt FK type transmitter manufactured by the Lorenz radio company.  All of the equipment for each station was stowed into 10 metal cylinders for easy transportation to desired locations.  

            The clandestine weather radio station destined for installation in Canada was identified as WFL26 which would operated on 3940 kHz and it was estimated that its almost one ton of batteries would provide power for 6 months of operation.  This automatic radio station was configured to broadcast weather information in telemetry codes for 2 minutes, every 3 hours.

            On September 18, 1943, German submarine U537, commanded by Captain Peter Schrewe, left Kiel in Germany on its first combat patrol.  On board was this weather radio station WFL26, the 6^th of 21 that were manufactured.  Also on board were two German meteorologists/radiotricians from the Siemens company, Dr. Kurt Sommermeyer and his assistant Walter Hildebrandt.  

            On the voyage across the Atlantic, submarine U537 was damaged when it struck an iceberg during a mid autumn storm.  Because of the damage, the submarine was no longer able to submerge, and it had lost its antiaircraft gun.  Nevertheless, the submarine continued on its dangerous and lonely journey.      

            On October 22 (1943), the submarine arrived at the coast of Northern Labrador, which at the time was part of the separate British territory of Newfoundland, though these days it forms part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland-Labrador.  Two days later, the submarine arrived at Martin Bay right on the northern tip of Labrador, as far away as possible from roving bands of local Inuit hunters. 

            The radio station was assembled and set up on the top of  a 170 ft high hill, some 400 yards inland, and at the same time the damaged submarine was repaired.  Much of this work was performed during the hours of darkness in this northerly location.

            Weather Radio Station WFL26 was identified with the station logo and the name of a non-existent organization, the Canadian Meteor Service.  As a camouflage cover up, a few empty American cigarette packs and matchbooks were thrown around.           

            In just 28 hours, the project was completed, the radio station was actively functioning, the submarine was repaired, and they began their departure from the North American shores of Labrador.  The submarine lay underwater in the Labrador Sea for a while, and they monitored the initial  transmissions from weather radio station WFL26. 

            To begin with, the station was noted on air with a good signal, though the first broadcast was observed to be 3 minutes late.  However, on successive days, the signal began to deteriorate, until the station went completely silent just 3 weeks later.

            Another monitoring report states that there were jamming transmissions on the same shortwave channel, 3940 kHz.  However, it is suggested that this was not deliberate jamming because the station was still unknown to the Allies.  It is probable that the channel was in use at times by other legitimate users who knew nothing about this new clandestine weather station on the north coast of Labrador.             

            On three separate occasions as submarine U537 was departing the western areas of the Atlantic, they successfully repelled and escaped from attacks by single planes from the Royal Canadian Air Force.  The submarine successfully reached the shores of occupied France at Lorient on December 8 (1943), at the end of 70 days at sea.

            The silent weather radio station lay abandoned and exposed near the edge of Martin Bay for many years, and there is no record of any human sightings of this station until the year 1977.  It was then that geologist Peter Johnson with an exploratory team happened to come across the derelict radio station, but, thinking that it was an abandoned Canadian station, they simply left it as it was. 

            Then it was that a retired Siemens engineer in Germany named Franz Selinger began research for the writing of a history of his radio company.  He came across a reference to weather radio station WFL26.  He contacted Canadian Department of Defence historian Mr. W. A. E. Douglas, who then organized a team to visit the area in northern Labrador in 1981. 

            This exploration party travelled to Martin Bay on board a Canadian Coastguard ship, and the Siemens historian Franz Selinger was also with them.  They found the station that was still there 38 years after it was first installed, though some of the canisters had been broken open and the internal components had been strewn around.

            The remaining equipment was salvaged and retrieved, and it is now on display in the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 459)

Japanese radio station on an Australian island

Browse Island, Australia

During the era of the Pacific War, there were numerous rumors of Japanese armed personnel landing at isolated northern areas on the Australian continent, though it is evident that there were more rumors and less landings.  Some wartime stories even tell of Japanese scout planes landing at bush airfields up north, though it is known quite reliably that submarine launched scout planes did fly along the Tasmanian coastline, and over the cities of Melbourne and Sydney.

            There is one verified landing of Japanese personnel on the isolated coastline of Western Australia near Browse Island.  A 25 ton fishing vessel the "Hiyoshi Maru” carried army and navy personnel from Timor, and it was escorted on the earlier part of its journey by a Mitsubishi airplane, Type 99 light bomber.  The names of the Japanese party aboard the ship are given, and Lance Corporal Kazuo Ito was the radio operator.

            During the early afternoon of January 19, 1944 three separate parties from the "Hiyoshi Maru” landed and scouted the area at the very northern tip of the Western Australian coastline, and they also filmed what they saw with an 8 mm movie camera. 

            It is probable that Lance Corporal Kazuo Ito did not use his radio transmitter while in Australian waters, though there were rumors abounding back then that Japanese spies in Australia did communicate critical information by radio.  Professor Hiromi Tanaka, professor of War History at the National Defence Academy at Yokosuka in Japan, states that small bands of Japanese spies lived on small outer islands off the coast of Australia for months at a time, and they were then relieved by the arrival of a new party.  It should be stated though that government authorities in Australia have no tangible record of any such events. 

            However, there was one very interesting story as to how a Japanese spy used a radio transmitter in Australia during the Pacific War.  This is the story.

            When the subversive had collected the information he desired, he took a small boat out to a nearby island and he tuned his small low powered transmitter to a frequency just under the edge of a nearby mediumwave broadcasting station.  The spy then transmitted the information in Morse Code, and the heterodyne signal was almost impossible to hear on the mainland, except by an astute radio monitor with good receiving equipment.

            This story could be true, and it was accepted by the DX world in Australia at the time, but as it is told, there are several strange anomalies.  According to the government report, the astute international radio monitor who discovered this disturbing information was living in suburban Sydney and the transmissions were said to be from an island location near Newcastle, a distance of some 75 miles north.  Such low power reception at such a distance would be almost impossible.

            The callsign of the supposed broadcasting station in Newcastle is given, but in reality that callsign actually belonged to a mediumwave station located in Sydney.

            The subversive is said to have taken a small boat out to a small island near Newcastle, but the nearest island to Newcastle is 200 miles further north.

            The owners of the radio broadcasting station in Newcastle were named as a particular religious organization; that religious organization does own hundreds of radio stations around the world these days, but never any in Australia back then.

            The radio station in Newcastle that was said to be the innocent culprit in these subversive events was off the air before Japan entered the Pacific War; it was silent at the time when the spy radio operator was said to be active.

            We are not listing any of the known identifications in this radio story simply to protect the innocent.  However, the name of the government approved operator who discovered this interesting radio event is known. 

            Was then the story really true, and the informant was simply relying on a faulty memory?  Or was it simply a wartime ruse, a disinformation event that fitted the requirements for some unidentified wartime circumstance?

(AWR Wavescan/NWS 247)

            

World War II Began With a Radio Broadcast

Gleiwitz (youtube)

During the mid 1930's, political events on continental Europe began to focus on expansionism, until ultimately in 1939, it became very evident that a major war was on the horizon.  Historians tell us that World War 2 began over the first weekend in September (1939) when massive German air and land forces crossed the border into neighboring Poland on several fronts.

            A radio station on the edge of the city of Gleiwitz (German) or Gliwice (Polish) featured in the events leading up to the invasion, and this is the story of what happened.

            The city of Gleiwitz was first mentioned as a town in the year 1276, and at the time it was ruled by Silesian dukes.  Over the years, it was sometimes part of a neighboring dukedom, and there were times when it was an independent entity in its own rights.

            In the 1300s, Gleiwitz became a possession of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and two hundred years later it was absorbed into the Austrian Hapsburg Empire.  Subsequently, the city was absorbed into the Prussian province of Silesia, and in the late 1800s during the unification of Germany, Gleiwitz was recognized with the status of a Stadtkreis, a city with its own urban district.

            During the development of the industrial era in continental Europe, Gleiwitz became a center for heavy industries and mining.  At the time, there was strife between the German and Polish inhabitants, and under a plebiscite administered by the League of Nations, a vote of nearly 80% ensured that the city would remain as an integral part of Germany.  However, after the end of World War 2, the city of Gleiwitz was mandated to Poland; and this prosperous and modern city of two million citizens remains Polish to this day. 

            Along with many other countries throughout the world, the radio revolution of the 1920s was evident in Germany, and their first radio station in Gleiwitz was inaugurated on November 15, 1925.   At the time, this small station served as a relay transmitter for the programming from the Silesian radio station (callsign GPU) located in the neighboring city of Breslau.

            This original radio station in Gleiwitz was located on Raudener Strasse in suburban Petersdorf and it radiated with 1½ kW on the medium wavelength 251 meters (1195 kHz).  The aerial system was a center fed T antenna, mounted on two steel towers standing at 245 feet high.  In 1928, the power of the station was increased to 5 kW and the frequency was adjusted to the nearby channel 1184 kHz.

            Work commenced in August 1934 on a new station on a nearby country property amidst a pine tree forest on Tarnowitz Road, on the edge of Gleiwitz city.  At the time, this location was still inside Germany some four miles from the border with Poland. 

            Several new buildings were constructed, including a new three storey transmitter building, together with a new high self standing tower; and new electronic equipment that was manufactured by the Lorenz, Siemens and Telefunken companies was installed. 

            The new tower, standing at 365 feet high, was constructed entirely of Larch timber, a tree that is related to the pine tree with a very durable quality.   The timbers in the high tower were fastened with more than 16,000 brass bolts.  This new radio broadcasting station was inaugurated just before Christmas in the year 1935, on December 23, still with 5 kW on another new though nearby channel, 1231 kHz.  

            Close on four years later, the Gleiwitz radio station was suddenly and unexpectedly thrust into an ignominious prominence as a pretext for the launching of a massive invasion of nearby Poland.  The Gleiwitz incident was one of twenty-one provocative border incidents that occurred on that same evening, and they were intended to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany in order to justify the subsequent invasion of Poland.

            As revealed in the best available documents, this is what happened.  Shortly before 8:00 pm on the night of August 31, 1939, two cars drove through the entrance gateway to the station and stopped outside the entrance to the transmitter building.  The small contingent of German troops in these two cars, six men with 26 year old Major Alfred Naujocks as their unit leader, were all clothed in Polish army uniforms. 

            The soldiers stormed the radio station building and quickly overpowered the two security guards at the entrance doorway and the three radio engineers on duty.  Major Naujocks fired a few shots into the air to intimidate the radio personnel, and all, except Engineer Nawroth, were led to the basement with their hands tied.

            The Gleiwitz radio broadcasting station was a slave relay station, carrying the programming from the mother station in Breslau, and at the time of the incident, a music program was on the air.   There was no production studio here in Gleiwitz, and a microphone was inserted into the transmitter circuitry only for the broadcast of local weather and for occasions of emergency, if needed.

            Engineer Nawroth was ordered to connect the microphone.  It is stated that they were unable to use the main transmitter and that they used a second transmitter.  This seems to be an non-technical way of describing the use of the inserted microphone; there is no way that a standby transmitter back then could be spliced into service so quickly.

            One of the German soldiers, Karl Hornack, grabbed the microphone and attempted to make a clandestine broadcast in Polish.  The broadcast lasted no more than part of a sentence before they were cut off the air by Engineer Nawroth who surreptitiously pushed a button, effectively putting the station off the air.

            A multitude of local citizens heard the botched broadcast, but apparently it made little impact upon them.  During an interview just last year, 85 year old Joachim Fulczyk in Gliwice recalled that he, his mother and her sister heard the broadcast and they were puzzled as to what was happening.   

            On the previous day, an unmarried 43 year old Catholic farmer was arrested on suspicion of partisan sympathy with the Poles.  This man, Franciszek Honiok, was brought by car from a local encampment to a pre-arranged location near the station.   He had been injected with a lethal drug and was unconscious. 

            Honiok was shot and killed and dragged into the doorway of the station.  There are reports that other unconscious or dead people were brought in and shot and laid at strategic locations to indicate supposed evidence of a Polish attack.

            This raid on the radio station at Gleiwitz was a sufficient pretext for a massive onslaught into Poland; and so that radio broadcast was the beginning of World War 2. 

And so, what happened to them all afterwards?

            Due to the realignment of international borders after the war, Gleiwitz and the surrounding areas of Silesia became part of Poland, and the city adopted the Polish name Gliwice.

            The radio station survived the war without damage.  On October 3, 1949 the frequency at Radio Gliwice was changed to 737 kHz, and then on March 15, 1950, the transmitter was re-tuned to 1079 kHz.  At this stage, it was in use only as an emergency backup transmitter for the mediumwave station at Ruda Slaska. 

            In 1955, this medium wave station at Gliwice was withdrawn from service, and the facility was used for jamming Polish programming from Radio Free Europe.  These days, the tower is in use for the transmission of 50 or more mobile phone systems, and a low power FM station.  The transmitter building was turned onto a museum in 2005, and the tower is now a tourist attraction.  It is the tallest wooden tower in the world, and the only wooden tower that is still in use for radio transmissions.

            The Polish partisan Franciszek Honiok was killed at the radio station and he was buried in an unmarked grave, the location of which is forever unknown.  He is listed officially as the first casualty of World War II.

            Major Alfred Naujocks survived the war and he became a businessman in Hamburg Germany; he died in 1966.

            We would presume that Engineer Nawroth who put the station off the air during the surreptitious broadcast, continued in service at the station.

            Nothing more is known about the German army man who spoke both German and Polish, Karl Hornack; he was the temporary announcer who made the short broadcast over Radio Gleiwitz.

            Last year, (2014) 75^th anniversary celebrations of the Gleiwitz Incident were conducted at the radio station, with representatives attending from both Germany and Poland. 

            And that’s the end of the story: the radio broadcast that began World War II.

(AWR-Wavescan/NWS 340)