Mystery Soldier

This is Photograph 111-SC-282168 U. S. Fifth Army Mobile Unit Programs Can Be Heard over Razor Blade Sets. 1945. Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Record Group 111. National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland. It is by far the best known photograph of a soldier with a foxhole radio at Anzio. It was taken for YANK magazine but never ran. 


The other photos in series with this one include the names of the subjects. But not this one. The note with the negative only gives the title. So far this soldier remains anonymous. I would prefer to include his name in the book, naturally, so if anyone recognizes him please let me know!

A Mystery

This message was posted in the Yahoo group "Loop Antenna News and Information Forum" back in 2007:

"Hue, as a project in my AIT class (Basic Receivers) back in the early 1980's, I had the students gather the materials and build a foxhole radio during a weekend field training exercise. It took about two hours, and they were encouraged to improve on the design after successfully completing it. The model I used was handed down to me by an Uncle who served in the Marines through Guadalcanal, New Briton, and Peleliu, after which he transferred to the U.S. Navy for Okinawa. The first one he made while on Guadalcanal, the wire and headphones stolen from a Bell Aircobra. He told me the plans came by way of scuttle-butt, I.E. one guy would show the next. Apparently they were popular enough that aircraft headsets had to be locked up rather than left in the cockpit. He said he made several on Guadalcanal for buddies, and on New Briton, and one on Peleliu. All were sensitive enough to listen to Tokyo Rose at night, even on Guadalcanal. The plans he turned over to me were specific and detailed, down to which model number headphones were suitable. At the time I taught, Blued razor blades were the hardest item to procure. Luckily, a local small-town pharmacy kept a stock of blued razor blades. I don't think they are available any more. The original varied in several respects from the garden variety seen on the internet in that it was designed to receive 4-10 MHz rather than the Broadcast band, among other things. I suppose they were also used in Europe, but my Uncle never met a Veteran who had used one in the European Theater, though he met many who had used it in the Pacific."

This is one of the few references I've seen to a foxhole radio built in the Pacific theater, and, I believe, the only one I've seen built by a Marine. So naturally I'd like to find the author of this post to interview him.

Unfortunately he seems to have disappeared.

He posted under the handle mhatlau, and his real name is Mark Huss. He would be around 60 now and works in the electronics industry. If by some slim chance anyone who is reading this knows Mr. Huss please let him know I would love to interview him!

Eighth Army News

A short article from the Auckland NZ "Weekly News" dated April 24, 1945 mentions foxhole radios built by soldiers at Anzio. It refers to an article that "appeared recently" in the "Eighth Army News". What is significant about this is that the "Eighth Army News" was a news sheet distributed to British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand troops, so this is one of the few mentions of foxhole sets built by Allied troops other than Americans.

So far I haven't located the original "Eighth Army News" article, nor the issue with the original letter from a soldier requesting more information. I've tried all of the usual sources - libraries worldwide, WWII museums and organizations, university and museum archives, but no one seems to have issues from early 1945 (the original article is likely somewhere in the January - April 1945 range).

If you have, or know anyone who has, a collection of these news sheets, please let me know. You'll get an acknowledgement in the book for your trouble!

The issue pictured is not the one I'm looking for - it's only an example.

UPDATE: 

February 2016 I finally found a copy, and it was worth the wait! One of the designs is like none I had seen before.

Marlin Razor Blades

I said I'd put a few requests here for things I'm looking for, so here's the first one. In 1945 or 46 the Marlin Razor Blade division of the Marlin Firearms Company ran an ad campaign based on a letter sent to them by Maxie Rupert, US Army, who built one of these sets at Anzio. There were newspaper articles and radio spots, as well as window displays at some stores. I'm looking for a copy of the photo at right, or any material from the campaign. If you know of any, or have any leads, I would love to hear from you!