Only recently has the importance of the
role played by of the town of Chatham (pronounced "kat'-um"), Massachusetts, in
the success of World War II been recognized to the degree it deserves. Thanks to
the effort of Chatham Marconi Maritme Center / Marconi-RCA Wireless Museum's Ed Fouhy, the extent of strategic radio operations performed
there is made available both online and, to a much greater degree, to visitors at
the physical location. The entire campus was totally renovated in the 2009-2010
timeframe Foughy and his team produced a video that crams the story of years of
intense activities and accomplishments into a seven-minute video. About a third
of it can be viewed below, but if you want to see its entirety, you will need to
visit the Center.
A separate video, also
shown here, is an interview with Mr. Foughy by the
Cape Cod Chronicle where he talks about the research and some
of the surprising discoveries that went along with his project. The U.S. Navy used
the site primarily to intercept and monitor German U-boat activities in the Atlantic
Ocean. In the early days of WWII, U-boats wreaked havoc on both military and merchant
ships crossing the northern Atlantic. They operated with near impunity because of
the genius of German commanders and submarine crews. They maneuvered stealthily
underwater and surfaced during the night in order to exchange mission intelligence
and to receive orders. The success of the ploy was epic. Allied navies and merchants
were desperate to re-open supply routes. When Ed visited the office of the U.S.
Navy Historian in Washington, D.C., in search of information, he discovered that
the head dude did not know anything about the role of Chatham Radio in World War
II. "And for good reason," Foughy said, "This was a very, very secret installation."
The Marconi station in Chatham, operational since 1914 as a commercial ship-to-shore
facility, was commandeered by the Navy, Coast Guard, and Army in order to, among
other things, deal with the U-boat dilemma. Shortwave radios and antennas were installed,
and teams of operators, technicians, and intelligence officers were stationed there
for the purpose of assisting in the breaking the U-boats' messaging code, and for
using triangulation methods for locating and then attacking the demon vessels. Cryptographers
at Bletchley Park in the
UK eventually broke the infamous Enigma Machine's code, spelling the end to U-boat
dominance. I was surprised to learn that Germany's Admiral Karl Doenitz did not
know until the end of the war that a majority of his messages had been intercepted
and decoded.
Hopefully the entire video will eventually be made available online rather than
just this 3:42 minute sample, because it could be a long time before I get out to
the Boston area. I love seeing B&W footage from the war era.
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
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