Preface
The scope of this, the second Volume devoted to the history of the Signal Corps during World War II, covers the events of 1942 and the first six months of 1943. Like the first volume in the subseries, The Emergency, by Dr. Dulany Terrett, this book presents a broad, panoramic view of the progress and problems, the defeats and triumphs, of a technical service in wartime. Since the time span covers only eighteen months, it has been possible to examine certain operations in considerable detail. Such emphasis on particular matters should not be taken to mean that they are necessarily more important than others which are touched upon lightly or omitted altogether, but only that they are illustrative or typical of the three main streams of Signal Corps effort. Research and development, training, and supply each swelled so quickly to proportions so vast that they almost engulfed the Signal Corps in the first year of war. How the Corps met the test is the subject matter of this volume.
The treatment is in general chronological. The story opens with an account of the beginning, for the United States, of the war itself: those tense moments on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu when two young Signal Corps men at their radar picked up and tracked the Japanese bombers winging in to attack Pearl Harbor. Succeeding chapters carry the account forward on a broad front through the following months of severe shortages, worried production efforts, and feverish preparations for the first tests in combat with the enemy. They present the confusions and frustrations that attended the Army’s call for signal specialists and items of signal equipment in incredible numbers. The story is told from the viewpoint of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer in Washington, where the important decisions were made that laid the groundwork for the eventually triumphant outcome. This viewpoint permits only side glances at Signal Corps activity in the theaters around the world until mid-1943, detailed theater accounts being reserved for the third and last volume in the Signal Corps’ World War II subseries. Finally, this volume touches upon two problems riot unlike those experienced by some other technical services: how the Signal Corps fared within the framework of the conglomerate Army Service Forces, and how a conflict between development and procurement, and between operations and both, reached a crisis. The book ends with this crisis brought into focus in a conflict which led to the retirement of the Chief Signal Officer, but which brought forth no solid solution.
This book is a product of truly collaborative effort. Four writers working together produced the first draft, often two or more having labored over the same chapter. The chronological arrangement is owed to Dr. Terrett, until mid-1952 the chief of the Signal Corps historical office when it was located in the Office of the Chief of Military History. The contents of the book are in general handled according to subject in time segments: first, through the early months of the war, then through the second half of 1942, and finally through the first half of 1943. Only one subject receives strictly topical treatment. It is Signal Corps photography, or the story of the Army Pictorial Service, which Chapter 13 covers for the entire 18-month period. The research and writing on the procurement and supply chapters are principally the work of Mrs. Harris, the training chapters the work of Miss Oakes, and the equipment studies the work of Dr. Thompson. The final reworking and revision of the first draft, together with much additional research and writing, were accomplished by Dr. Thompson and Mrs. Harris after this office was reorganized within the Signal Corps in August 1952.
The authors are indebted to the Historical Section which existed in the Signal Corps from 1943 to early 1947 and whose members compiled a number of useful monograph studies, recorded many interviews, and collected a considerable quantity of valuable historical files. A large debt is owed to Mrs. Helen Sawka for her faithful and meticulous care and accuracy in checking and typing the manuscript throughout its several drafts and revisions. The authors are grateful for the corrections and comments of the many Signal Corps officers and personnel who reviewed the manuscript. They recognize, too, the invaluable advice and suggestions of those in the Office of the Chief of Military History who supervised and edited the text, especially Lt. Col. Leo J. Meyer, the Deputy Chief Historian, Dr. Stetson Conn, his successor, and Miss Ruth Stout, the editor of the subseries. Many thanks are due likewise to others who aided the editorial process: Mr. David Jaffe, Mrs. Loretto Stevens, and the photographic editor, Maj. Arthur T. Lawry, who searched out and prepared the illustrations.
George Raynor Thompson
Chief, Historical Division Signal Corps
Washington, D.C.
3 December 1954