Wireless card
A wired radio card was a hand-made card that gave an orientation in which grid squares of the German Reich an air raid was to be expected during the Second World War .
method
The coastal command posts used radio measurements to clarify the position and direction of the incoming combat units and, by coordinating them, brought the fighters closer to the enemy. The flaka divisions were also warned ahead of time of possible targets. In addition, the population was warned with an air raid alarm .
history
The German air defense had subdivided the German Reich in its Planrapezen according to the hunting level network reporting procedure and from May 1, 1943 into a hunter reporting network , which was further developed by Wolfgang Martini . These trapezoids were named after Cartesian coordinates , both in the abscissa and in the ordinate, after spelling tables of the German Reich (1934) and (1926): Anton for A, Berta for B etc. Thus Heinrich-Richard was a grid square on the Map. Further examples: "Anton-Heinrich" was the North Sea , "Nordpol-Heinrich" was Belgium south of Ghent, "Anton-Ulrich" was north of Stade and "Nordpol-Siegfried" was Marburg. Each grid square in turn was subdivided into nine fields, the so-called small trapezoids of the hunting degree network reporting procedure of around 9 × 11 km. These were to be counted from left to right and from top to bottom: Heinrich-Richard-7 was z. B. the eastern Münsterland . By listening to the air force transmitters on wire or radio , such as the air force transmitter Prima donna and the experience of the onset of air alarms, the civilian population soon oriented itself to this scheme. In fact, apart from the air situation reports that were broadcast by the Reichs Rundfunk-Gesellschaft , the general radio stations stopped broadcasting in order not to provide any orientation for the incoming enemy. The military transmitters reached the listeners via wire radio or via mobile, ie difficult-to-locate stations. These were never intended for the civilian population, but to coordinate countermeasures, but could be reached without any problems via the general radio receivers, such as the people's receiver . Wiretapping was also not made a criminal offense. These cards were never officially issued. They were made by civilians who drew the experience gained from the reports of the military broadcasters and the air situation reports and the alarms, or who were oriented towards the distribution of the grid squares through relationships with members of the air force and air protection. It is therefore not surprising that many of these wireless cards deviated from each other and were accordingly inaccurate. These were, although not legally, copied and passed on by hand. The situation is different with the overview maps for air situation reports , which were printed in the daily newspapers and were probably a measure to counter the spread of wireless radio maps . Most of the time, readers were asked to hang them up in their homes or in the air raid shelter. These must therefore not be confused with the wireless radio cards.
“Long after the war, the radio receivers were occasionally stuck to 'wire radio cards': cards for the wider area around Berlin with a network of letters and numbers. Using the radio announcements, the Berliners were able to work out whether the air raid was on Berlin or not and when they had to go to the air raid shelter. Overall, this was not a protective measure against air raids, it served rather to inform and get people used to the air war. "
Web links
literature
- HJ Zetzmann: The transmitters and transmission systems of the Reichsflugsicherung - Part I and II. Berlin 1938/39
Individual evidence
- ↑ various sources in: SWL 1943/44: Listen to the station "Primadonna". DARC local association Kassel (fox12.de)
- ↑ Thorsten Fuchs, Stefan Wittke: Between Fear and Everyday Life - Bombs on Hanover - Summer 1943, Wartenberg 2004, ISBN 3-8313-1400-4 , p. 47
- ↑ Air raids on Berlin, The reports of the main air raid shelter 1940–1945, Ch. Links Verlag 2012, p. 87