"German jamming at Stalingrad" Topic

Did the Germans jam at Stalingrad and how did the Russians communicate over the river to the artillery on the far bank.

Thanks
Lord Ghee

I would imagine by either radio, or field telephones.

Semaphore perhaps?

Flags and runners would work too, but wouldn't be the most efficient.

How would a jamming unit long survive at Stalingrad?

I understand they did a 32 minute version of "Free Bird" at one point.

The tuba and fluegelhorn solos were awesome.

I thought the Germans were quite fond of strawberry jam, while the Soviets tended to prefer raspberry.

As for communication, semaphore might not be that effective at night time, so I would expect radio and telephone to be the main means of communication. Laying a telephone cable over Volga should not be particularly difficult task for the signal corps. Radios tended to be a bit on the short supply in the Red Army, though.

They needed more cowbell.

Grief – signal lamps are used for semaphore signalling at night. Of course that runs the risk of exposing one's position to the enemy but thats never stopped the navy.

The Navy doesn't usually have an enemy within a couple hundred yards.

Wouldn't that enemy have to be opposite the lamps to see them?

They probably would use a radio. A jammer is a radio that has to be constantly on and near the enemy. Thus triangulation is easy. It would attract an artillery barrage.

It would attract an artillery barrage.

Probably preferable to some of the Krasnyy Collectif Factory women!!

I remember reading about Stalingrad and it seems telegraph wires were used rather than radio--Lots of stories of heroic Soviets mending the line…Also as they had internal lines (to a certain extent) it would be easier…
As for jam the German Erzatz jam was made from coal mmmm yummy!!!

Not an Old Crow or anything, but my understanding is that radio jamming isn't surgically precise--you don't just take out one frequency, you take out big chunks of the electro-magnetic spectrum. You are likely to gum up your own comm, as well as the enemy's. Fine if your guys were maintaining radio silence anyway, and you aren't expecting a message from Berlin, but if you hoped to call in your own artillery support, you may be out of luck. And, yeah, they will know where you are.
Grelber

Both the Russians and Germans would probably run wire to their FOs and then relay from a post to the guns via radio or wire. You don't want to give away the location of your spotters. And the distance to the battery probably is greater than the range of any small transmitter. The Russians had all kinds of caves along the river bank so a long range radio would be located there deep underground. But probably telephone lines were strung out from there to many FO posts.

"I understand they did a 32 minute version of "Free Bird" at one point."

Hmm, interesting. I've heard it was "Smoke on the Water".

My friend happens to have been a forward observer for the German Army in Russia, and his book mentions that they used telephone lines and telegraphs extensively to avoid what is referred to as "W/T interference", although "wireless sets" are reffered to as being used (he disliked them for their short range and tendency to break down).

The key questions here which haven't been answered are:

- was jamming done at all on the eastern front? Now, both sides monitored the enemy's radio frequency's for intelligence (something the Germans had a big advantage in, in that they routinely used reel-to-reel recorders for this, and the Soviets depended on women furiously scribbling down what was said). But as to jamming, that's a bigger question.

- Did the Soviets lay wire on/under the Volga? Yes, wire was the primary means of commo at the battalion-regimental-division level, but what about the Volga? I would be surprised if they laid wire *on* the water, because ferry traffic would constantly be screwing it up. So I would assume they laid wire under the Volga, i.e. on the river bed.

BY THE POWER OF GOOGLE!

link

Stalingrad was an industrial city that existed before the siege so there was a net providing comms across the Volga already in place. Probably not a very big one compared to some places but it was there…

Report from the 6th Army's head of comms link

Wire phones were typical for any fixed positions. When I was in army (end of 90s) we still had tons of phone cables in stock and many of phones, of very similar design to those, used in WWII. Phones are safe as long as the enemy had not found the wire. Cases when the opponents were listening to each other communications are often mentioned in WWII books.
From my experience the worst thing can happen to wire is a tank passing on top of it, as it carries away several meters of your precious line and you're having hard time finding the ends…

I was speaking to a friend who's stationed 'somewhere in Kent' ;o) and he told me they still have a big reel of telephone cable in the stores down there.

…but no field telephones to attach to it!

How about pre-planned fires and on call pre-planned fires with signal flare sequences to all it in? Plus (as above) phones, messages, signal lamps, semaphores, air dropped signals.

I'm not sure where this idea that all artillery fire was controlled by 'radio' in WW2 comes from.

Jamming of w/t was carried out in WW2, but it was somewhat hit and miss.

Also, *if* the sides were using Morse code instead of voice, you really have to crank up the jamming volume. The human ear is capable of pulling morse out of some of the most incredible amounts of static. My stepdad's a ham radio operator who works almost exclusively in morse code, and I've heard some of the pile-ups when he's working contests. Several thousand people all trying to get their call sign across to one receiver, and the receiver can pull one call sign out and answers him, then another barrage of a thousand+ call signs.

I'd love to see any authoritative answer that addressed the original question of whether or not there was jamming on the eastern front.

Sixth Army Signal Comms report here:

link

yes, jamming was used on the eastern front and specifically at Stalingrad.

"I understand they did a 32 minute version of "Free Bird" at one point."

Hmm, interesting. I've heard it was "Smoke on the Water".

Think they also did ''Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll''

Thanks for th great information as always

Lord Ghee