Allied Use Of Radio During World War Ii Essay, Research Paper

Allied Radio during World War II Radio had many uses during the Second World War. It was the easiest and most effective way to communicate during a battle, after a battle, and before a battle. The radio allowed captains to communicate what was needed to their commanding officers, and their men. Of course code names were invented to keep the listening in enemies from understanding the messages. Actually, both sides were listening in. People on either side of the fight were hired to crack the code of the enemy. A group of British women actually did crack the German code, bringing the allies one step closer to victory. The radio was instrumental in the victory of the allies. Without it we may have lost more men, or maybe even the entire war.Not only did the radio help in battle it presented the allies with a new way to fight psychological warfare. The best example of this was Radio Annie. Radio Annie was in actuality Radio Luxembourg. The Germans evacuated Luxembourg and they left the radio station undisturbed. The Allies took advantage of this situation by broadcasting there own programming. For a period of two months Annie broadcast descriptions of war with an eastern European accent. She invented a German resistance movement, which sought the fall of the Reich. She also caused the German citizens to become angry with the Reich, by lying. M.K. Dziewanowski stated that Annie:”Reported that Field Marshal Goering had evacuated his farm and given tons of excess produce and domestic animals to the local farmers. Right after that broadcast many civilians, infuriated that Goering had accumulated so much, began looting German trucks carrying foodstuffs to the front.” Annie also caused many unnecessary panics, saying that the allies’ tanks were on their way. When in actuality there were none. Annie is one of the best examples of psychological warfare. Both sides of the war appointed people to listen in on the enemy. This started in 1938 after the Munich crisis. Ailleen Clayton writes, “We were entering the era of sophisticated electronic eavesdropping.” Both sides prided themselves on having an uncrackable code. The Germans used a code called the Enigma, which was so sophisticated’ they thought throughout the entire war that it was unbreakable. The Enigma code was also the German business code, a little known fact. In 1936, after the Germans invaded Poland, a polish man by the name of Marian Rejewski cracked the Enigma code. He eventually escaped to England and gave the allies his information. This helped the Y Service to breakdown the code entirely. The Germans were completely unaware, and continued to use Enigma, giving the Allies an advantage. The Y service (also referred to as the Y organization) was responsible for monitoring all radio signals (Clayton, 2). It was an intricate part of the Allied armed forces; working within the army, navy, and the Royal Air Force. Operatives of the Y service were sent along on missions to intercept German radio signals, in order to avoid the Germans wherever they could. The Y service was also responsible for jamming the enemy’s radar.

Not everybody believed in the power of the radio. The French would have been able to hold off German forces if they’d have believed British reports of an impending invasion. The French were not the only ones to doubt the radio. Hermann Goering, a close friend of Hitler’s and a high-ranking member of the Reich, doubted the radio as an important invention. The Wehrmacht seized a British mobile radio station in May of 1940. According to Dziewanowski Goering referred to it, “..as too crude a device to merit close examination.” During World War II the Germans developed the first radio controlled bombs. The first models were called Fx 1400 and Hs 293. The Allies were able to listen in on signals being sent to the bomb. After a while they were able to predict where the bomb would be dropped, from how high and how much damage it could do. This way the Allies could evacuate an area or jam the signals to the bomb. This was another service provided by the Y service. The Y service was essential to the Allies’ victory in World War II. So was the radio. It allowed Communication between battles and commanding officers across the channel. It also helped to stop the Germans by intercepting their signals and jamming their radar. Radio was the most important invention of the Twentieth century. It brought about a whole new way to fight. By extending the distance allowed between officers it helped advance guerilla warfare. Also it brought about a technique that is still used to day, even not during a time of war, psychological warfare. Radio changed the world, and was the start of the technological revolution. Without it the war might have gone the other way.