Resources for World War II US Navy
Radio
Navy Training Courses:
Instructions for Use in the Preparation for the Rating of:
RADIOMAN 3c
RADIOMAN 2c
RADIOMAN 1c
and CHIEF RADIOMAN
Course in Eighteeen Assignments with Instructions for use
in Qualifying in Typewriting. Necessary for any RM rating.
Introduction to Radio Equipment. NAVPERS 10172. This 1946
edition covers a lot of the WW2 equipment.
TBK/TBM/TBL/TBS/TDE/TDQ/TBY transmitters and
RAK/RAL/RAO/RBH/RBA/RBB/RBC/RBK/RCK receivers.
Other Training Material:
Transmitter Servicing, Course 503/4, Naval Training
School(Radio Materiel), Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA,
May 1945. Covers TAJ, TBK, TBL, TDE, TBS
Mechanical Practice, Radio Materiel School, Naval Research
Laboratory, Bellevue, D.C. US Government Printing Office,
Washington 1943. Great information on tool use and
maintenance.
Bureau of Ships publications:
Catalogue of Naval Radio Equipment. NAVSHIPS
275. The August 1944 edition is available in a
professional copy from Robert Downs WA5CAB. This book
gives excellent descriptions of all the equipment used
extensively in WWII, and some less so. A must have.
List of Naval Radio, Radar, and Sonar Equipment.
NAVSHIPS 242A. Also available from Robert Downs, this
book gives contract dates for all the different versions of
equipment, along with contractor, frequency
range, transmitter power.
RADAR Bulletin No. 6, CIC Manual, COMINCH P-013. 7
July 1945. This manual outlines the form, function, and
personnel for Combat Information Centers on combat
ships. There is a fair amount of radio information here.
http://www.history.navy.mil/library/online/cicmanual.htm
Other texts:
History of Communications-Electronics in the United States
Navy. Captain L. S. Howeth, USN(Ret.) US Government Printing
Office, Washington DC, 1963. This hard-to-find book is a
detailed history from the beginnings of USN radio through
World War II. It describes a lot of experimental work,
infrastructure, political and industrial issues,
equipment.
Evolution of Naval Radio-Electronics and Contributions of
the Naval Research Laboratory. Louis Gebhard. Naval Research
Laboratory, Washington D.C. 19790
Resources for World War II US Navy,
general
The Bluejacket's Manual. United States Naval Institute.
This is the textbook for the "Bluejacket", an enlisted sailor.
The best starting point for general US Navy information.
I have been working with 1940 and 1944 editions.
Naval Orientation. Navpers 16138-A This is the textbook for
midshipmen of the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps
(NROTC) and for officers of the Naval Reserve.
Other interesting World War II US Naval
History:
Battleship Sailor, Ted Mason, Naval Institute Press
1982. Mason was a Radioman on USS California and wrote
about his experience up to the time that the California was
sunk at Pearl Harbor. His account gives a good look at
what life in the "radio gang" was like.
The Golden Thirteen, Recollections of the First
Black Naval Officers. Paul Stillwell, Ed. Berkley Books, New
York 1993. This is the story of the group of men who made
themselves and their country better by training to become, and
serving as the US Navy's first black officers. Though
restricted largely to yard and district duty, they served well
during the war, which was the beginning of the end of the
segregated Navy.
Aphrodite, Desperate Mission. Jack Olsen. G.P.
Putnam's Sons, New York 1970. The story of the mission to send
radio-controlled war-weary bombers full of explosives after
hard targets in France such as sub pens and V-bomb sites. Navy
Lt Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died in the process of sending one of
the bombs on its way.
Can Do! The Story of the Seabees by William
Bradford Huie Lt. j.g. USN. Stratford Press 1944.
Although kind of a "Rah Rah" wartime piece, this is a great
book about the men who built the facilities that took the
fight to the enemy. Some very interesting photos of
landing methods developed by the Seabees.
