Communication During War - resources

Girl Guides Australia offered a challenge for the older members to investigate the topic of Communication as part of the Saluting Their Service challenge.

 

As I have been studying my family's involvement in military service, especially in the First and Second World Wars, my granddaughter asked me to join a discussion on Communication During War at her local Girl Guides meeting.

The following four posts contain contain notes that I made for discussion:

Communication During War - communication with family and friends

Communication During War - military communication during World War I

Communication During War - military communication during World War II

Communication During War- receiving news about the war.

 

The posts provide brief introductory summary notes on aspects of the topic in order to provide an over view of themes involving Communication During War. The girls can decide which topic they want to investigate further.

Exploring the theme of Communication During War also shows the development of communication methods and systems in the first half of the twentieth century which have led to how we communicate in 2026. 

A selection of useful online resources includes:

 Anzac Portal - https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/

Australian War Memorial - https://www.awm.gov.au/

Imperial War Museum [London] - https://www.iwm.org.uk/

National Archives of Australia - https://www.naa.gov.au/

Trove (a collection of Australian digitised newspapers and other resources including images from Australian research libraries - https://trove.nla.gov.au/

Communication During War - communication with families and friends

For people serving in the army, airforce or navy during war time, keeping in touch with family members was important. For the soldiers it was good for morale to be reminded that they were remembered by family and friends at home. During the Second World War they looked forward to receiving letters and sometimes cards and even, occasionally, a parcel from Australia.

Among my father's papers I have found four surviving letters that he sent home to his mother from the Middle East to Sydney. In one letter my father commented about his health - he had recently been in hospital with lung problems and hoped to shortly return to active duty. Dad often mentioned letters he had received (or not received) and how he was about to reply to each person who had contacted him. He had also received some birthday cards.In the letters to his mother he would comment about information she had provided in previous letters and always ask him to pass on his regards to his brother, Rex, and any family or friends she met. Although they were far from home the soldiers the soldiers still had contact with home.

During the 1940s, the letters to and from Australia were written as aerograms - a thin lightweight piece of paper which was folded into four sections before sealing the gummed edges. Postage was included in the price of each aerogram. Military histories record how the soldiers looked forward to days when mail was delivered and hoped there was something for them.

In the letters the soldiers were not allowed to mention where they were stationed or anything about field operations. Before being posted, letters were read and signed and dated by a senior officer. Any information considered confidential by the army was blacked out before the letter was posted. 

Parcels from home were also sometimes received by soldiers. As they would be travelling by ship, the parcels could only contain items that would last the voyage. It was during World War I that Anzac biscuits became famous as a special treat that could be transported from Australia or New Zealand to overseas troops. Well packaged fruit cake was another item sometimes sent. 

Obviously any goods from home had to be something practical to the soldiers.

During the First World War many patriotic or comfort funds were established in Australia to send supplies or raise money to support those serving overseas. 

Soldiers receiving Christmas packages (1st WW)

Items in packages included hand knitted socks, Australian newspapers, writing paper, cigarettes, cakes and chocolates were packed and sent. The comfort fund groups included Australian War Contingent Association (in London) and the Australian Comforts Fund in various states of Australia.

Chocolate for soldiers Christmas 1915

 The package below was delivered to soldiers in 1915. It consisted of a circular tin of 'Full Strength "Capstan" Navy Cut' tobacco; a packet of ten 'Medium Strength "Capstan" Navy Cut' cigarettes; a packet of French-Egyptian 'Encore' cigarettes; a box of Swedish made 'The Ship' safety matches and a red cardboard box with two cigars.

This arrangement continued during World War II. The Australian Comforts Fund and Australian Red Cross ensured that soldiers overseas received parcels.

In Australia during the twentieth century many women were engaged in knitting projects providing soldiers with warm grey socks. The program was called Knitting for Victory. The socks had to meet required standards before being able to be dispatched overseas. 

Socks ready to be shipped overseas 1917 (SL NSW)

In a letter written in March 1941 Dad wrote about the socks and fruit cake he had received from his mother plus socks from the comforts fund. 

Communication During War - military communication during World War I

The website, Anzac Portal, provides an informative summary of developments in technology, including communication, during the First World War. There were many developments in communication between 1914 and 1918.

Communication between the soldiers in the trenches and headquarters was essential. At the beginning of the war messages were relayed by runners - soldiers carrying messages from one place to another -  cyclists, or the use of animals such as pigeons or dogs as well as other animals. Pigeons carried messages strapped to a leg back to their base.

Other early methods of communication sometimes used were heliographs where sunlight was used to flash messages via moveable mirrors,  signalling flags, signalling lamps and whistles for transmitting Morse code. A problem when using these methods was that the enemy could also often see or hear the signals. Therefore more secretive methods needed to be used.

Early forms of telephones could be used in the trenches but they were connected by cables which could be easily cut or destroyed by explosions.

Some armies used portable Morse code machines to communicate between headquarters and those in the trenches. 

A new development during the war was the Fuller phone which included both Morse code and speech which was coded to protect the message from the enemy.

Fuller phone - Imperial War Museum

Aircraft could also be used to drop messages in canisters to trenches if necessary. Aeroplane pilots could use a hand-free microphone to keep in contact with headquarters and pass on observations from the air.

Wireless was also used to send messages between ships at sea duty or during battle.

New technical developments provided the possibility of collection of intelligence from intercepted telecommunications such as wireless signals from German Zeppelins. This provided both the location and anticipated targets of Zeppelin attacks.

Early in the war observation balloons which flew or were tethered at a great height behind the front lines carried observers trained to spot enemy troop movements and collect intelligence. Dirigibles (airships) which were more manoeuvrable and tougher than traditional hot air balloons were developed and could be seen above the trenches on the Western Front.

As balloons became a target from opposition forces they were heavily defended by anti-aircraft guns on the ground and patrolling fighter aircraft.

The use of aircraft gradually increased during the war and they were used for observation as well as for aerial warfare.

During the First World War mechanical vehicles were gradually introduced, especially towards the end of the war. Horse-drawn vehicles, however, continued to be a reliable form of transport, especially in difficult conditions.

Cars and motor cycles were tried as transport in Egypt but did not work well in the desert. [AWM]

Railways were used during the war in parts of Europe to transport some of the men and equipment including artillery.

Unloading shells from a train at Ypres [IWM]

Lorries were often used to transport supplies to the railway connection. 

Lorries delivering goods to rail depot [IWM]

In France the railways could transport people and supplies for some of the distance to drop-off points where they were met usually by horses and carts to continue the journey to the front.

Horse-drawn vehicles taking goods to the front [IWM]

Although the use of these vehicles during the First World War was limited, experiments made during the war increased the development of motorised equipment.

Communication During War - military communication during World War II

The Australian soldiers who left home in 1940 initially travelled to Egypt where they initially set up camp before being sent to other regions in the Middle East. As well as becoming used to army life the soldiers also had to become used to a new environment and lifestyle.

The British Army published a magazine, Parade, describing the life in Egypt that the soldiers would encounter, including some of the history of the area.The magazine was published weekly from August 1940 until March 1947. Parade contained information and entertainment for all Allied forces stationed in the Middle East, providing an alternative to the pressures of preparing for war.

During the Second World War, Australian soldiers primarily served in the Middle East before returning to Australia to serve in Papua New Guinea and other parts of South-East Asia. Some Australians were involved in action in other parts of Europe, particularly France.

During the Second World War military forces had signals units whose role was to operate wireless radios, lay and repair heavy telephone cables, and transmit messages using visual signals like flags (semaphore) and signal lamps

As the war developed in north west Europe, signals units laid hundreds of miles of telephone and telegraph cables. They also made use of civilian networks wherever possible. Communications to the United Kingdom were made via a cable laid under the Channel connected to signal stations at Bayeaux and Cherbourg in France.

 Many developments were made for radio communication during the Second World War.

Wireless set no. 108 developed for Australian Army 1941

In 1942 the Wireless Set no. 10 - a mobile radio station containing eight duplex telephone channels over a radio (microwave) line of sight link was developed (below).

During the North African signal units had to lay and retrieve telephone cables and establish wireless links at great speed. Valuable lessons learned in the desert helped in the mobile warfare after the Normandy landing in June 1944.

Wireless radio set

When we were in London in 2015 near our hotel there was a memorial to the SOE (Special Operations Executive). The plaque on the memorial read - The SOE 'was secretly formed for the purpose of recruiting agents, men and women of many nationalities who would volunteer to continue the fight for freedom by performing acts of sabotage in countries occupied by the enemy during the Second World War.' 

Those chosen for such missions were taken to France, for example, in a small plane and left in an isolated location to be collected by partisans with whom they would be working. Communication with headquarters in London was made sending coded messages via radio at a specified time.

SOE mobile radio

Many books, including historical fiction have been written based on the experiences of women in the SOE. 

Morse code and other systems of coding continued to be used during the Second World War.  Florence Violet McKenzie (Mrs Mac) funded and established the volunteer Women’s Emergency Signals Corps in Sydney in 1939 to train women in wireless telegraphy, signals and international codes. 

Mrs Mac

An important role during the war was to decipher enemy messages sent in code. In England Bletchley Park was the primary location used for code breaking. Teams of staff worked day and night to intercept messages, decode them and then pass the message on to military personnel. The biggest challenge occurred when the Germans sent their messages using an Enigma machine using codes that kept changing each day. Eventually Alan Turing and his team managed to break the codes.

Decoding machine - Turing Bombe

There were also code breakers in Australia working for the Central Bureau. The headquarters were in Melbourne but much of the work was carried out in a garage in Brisbane by a group of women. The Garage Girls used 12 British-made TypeX coding machines to both decode and encrypt highly classified material.

A number of non-fiction and novels have been written about the important work of the  codebreakers in Australia and at Bletchley Park.

Another area where scientists played an important part in assisting the military was in the study of radar. During the Second World War the Telecommunications Research Establishment occupied a school in Malvern, England. Many important advances in developing radar systems to assist the military effort were made.

Radar to monitor aircraft

There were many developments in motor transport, aircraft and shipping during the Second World War.

Communication During War - recieving news about the war

On Sunday 3 September 1939 at 9:15 pm, Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced on radio that Australia was at war with Germany. 

Radio was an important means of communication allowing people in Australia to keep up to date with news about the war.

A radio made in Australia 1940-1946 (Powerhouse Museum)

Members of the public also relied on newspapers for information about the war. War correspondents were allowed to send information about the way back to Australia provided that the information was not classified.

In Melbourne there were three daily morning newspapers - The Argus, The Age and The Sun News Pictorial. In the evening The Herald provided updates on the news. These newspapers were published six days a week. As well as stories about the war a casualty list was published in the newspapers.

Country newspapers also published news about the war, especially when it concerned members of the local community. 

War photographers also took photographs of people and events during the war. A well known Australian  war photographer was Damien Parer. He was the first Australian official photographer during the Second World War. Damien Parer initially worked as a war photographer in the Middle East before covering the war in the pacific. He was killed by Japanese machine gun fire in 1944.

Damien Parer with his camera [AWM]

Some of the soldiers also had small film cameras allowing them to photograph their new environment, especially when they were off duty visiting the sights in Egypt or Palestine.

Many of the soldiers also kept diaries. When battalion histories were later written the information that the soldiers had collected formed an important part of the published work.

Charles Bean was a well known war correspondent during World War I. He later wrote the Official History of Australia in the War 1914-1918 (12 volumes).

Magazines such as The Australian Women's Weekly also often included articles and pictures about the war. They also had special correspondents who went overseas to collect stories of interest to wives and mothers of soldiers at home. One article in the 24 February 1940 issue described the scene as the ships filled with Australian soldiers left for overseas.  A story in the issue dated October 26 1940 was based on interviews with Australian soldiers on leave in Cairo, visiting the zoo, going to the races, and general sights.

Sometimes the military needed to communicate directly with next of kin of those serving overseas. Telegrams were the quickest way for the military to do this. When a telegram boy or a postman approached a house with a telegram there was an immediate natural fear that it might contain bad news informing them that a close family member was a casualty of war - that the family member had died, was injured or was a prisoner of war. Neighbours in the street would anxiously watch hoping that the postman did not stop at their door. The military officer who sent the telegram would ensure that a follow up letter with more detailed information was sent.

But telegrams could also convey good news such as the one above where a soldier is informing his mother that he is on his way home. The ship has arrived in Perth and he will soon be in Sydney.