17-3-16 Garand Picture of the Day

[Flying10uk]

In some of the WW2 films, I've seen externally mounted telephones mounted on the hulls of U.S. tanks so that infantry could speak to the crew inside. How common/normal was/is it to have an externally mounted telephone on a U.S. or allied tank hull to enable infantry to speak to the tank crew inside or is it something that has been thought up for films?

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[Mark in Rochester]

In some of the WW2 films, I've seen externally mounted telephones mounted on the hulls of U.S. tanks so that infantry could speak to the crew inside. How common/normal was/is it to have an externally mounted telephone on a U.S. or allied tank hull to enable infantry to speak to the tank crew inside or is it something that has been thought up for films?

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Originally, US tanks were not built with external telephones. According to doctrine, tanks supporting infantry were coordinated by armor command officers installed in infantry battalion HQ. This was made necessary not only by doctrine (tanks were coordinated by tank officers and infantry by infantry officers), but also by the fact that the radios used by the infantry were not compatible with those used by tanks.

However, once in the field, it quickly became obvious to tank battalion personnel that they needed a way to communicate directly with the infantry they were supporting, be it only to avoid shooting at them! Some units managed to procure and install an infantry radio in one of their vehicles, and others even went as far as to have an infantryman with a portable radio ride in place of a crewman in one of their tanks. The most innovative solution was to mount field telephones on the rear of the tanks. Such telephones were usually stored in .30 cal MG ammunition boxed welded to the rear of the tank and wired through the engine compartment all the way to the fighting compartment.

The solution proved successful enough that field telephones were eventually made a standard feature of US tanks, although I don't know if the improvement was implemented before the war ended.

To learn more about the problems of communication between tanks and infantry during WWII, I suggest reading "Steel Victory" by Harry Yiede, which covers the experiences of the US Army's independant tank battalions in the ETO.