DISCLAIMER AND DEFINITIONS

In this article I will endeavor to summarize significant models of field phones used by the Soviet military during WWII, while integrating some additional information I consider relevant to the subject. All this information has been gleaned from print and on-line sources, and also from examining original phones in my personal collection. I am certain to find in the future new facts and additional resources that augment or even correct the information provided here.

In this article and in WWII reenactments I use the terms "phone" and "telephone" to define telecommunications devices that requires unbroken wire lines to send and receive signals to and from each other. I define devices that do not require wires for transmission and reception of signals to be "radios." While these definitions may seem obvious, there are exceptions -- for example, the Germans developed the Erdsprechgerat which used ground currents to transmit voice communications up to 3 miles without any wire lines. Walkie-talkies and modern cellular phones would be considered "radios" according to the definitions I am using. Wired WWII field telephones are, therefore, basically intercoms and are amazingly simple to network together into an operational communications system.

SOVIET-MANUFACTURED FIELD PHONES

The Red Army had several models of field telephones available before WWII (military field phone use dates back prior to WWI), but the earliest WWII-era Soviet-made phones I have been able to identify appear to be the UNA series (including the UNA-F and UNA-I) which were housed in wooden boxes, painted green or in natural wood, with hinged latching lids and shoulder straps.

The UNA series was superseded (nothing used by the Soviets ever appears to have been "replaced"!) by the TAI series, which were first issued in wood cases and later in bakelite cases. Virtually every war-time photo I have seen of Soviet field phone use includes what appears to be a wood-cased UNA or TAI phone (sometimes next to another phone, presumable connected to a different network). Some authors have claimed that the Soviets copied the TAI-43 from the reliable German FF-33 field phone. However, my examination of photos of these various phone models (assuming the photos have not been mislabeled) leads me to believe that the Soviets only copied the German exterior bakelite case while modifying their existing UNA and TAI technology to fit into the more durable case. Further research on this point is warranted, but this does fit with how Soviets handled technology upgrades in other areas. The TAI-43 seems to have seen continuous military field use until 1957, when the Soviets developed the smaller and more powerful transistorized TA-57 field phone.

Figure 1: Soviet wood-cased TAI-43 field phone

Figure 2: Soviet bakelite TAI-43 field phone

Another WWII Soviet field phone was the TABIP-1, which was mounted in an aluminum box. Operating distance was claimed to be up to 3 miles over field cable or up to 12 miles over telegraph wire lines but in the field it proved to be much worse. Another problem with TABIP-1 was its complete incompatibility with the other field telephones used by the Red Army.

Figure 3: TABIP-1 (1941) field phone

LEND-LEASE FIELD PHONES

A number of phone models were made available to the Soviets through the Lend-Lease program. The most commonly used Lend-Lease field phone was the leather-cased EE8A, made and supplied by the United States (which had gone through a series of models before settling on the EE8 for its own standard military issue by the start of WWII). The EE8 series of field phones included several models (EE8, EE8A and EE8B) that differed only in their internal construction and wiring; most all components were interchangeable from one model to another, with very few exceptions.

More that 300,000 EE8 field phones were supplied to the Soviets by the Lend-Lease agreement; these were essentially the same EE8A model as used by the U.S. armed forces, with some minor internal modifications to accommodate the anticipated near-Arctic conditions (including extra space for an additional set of batteries). Some of the phones had Russian-language markings, and a Russian language manual accompanied the Lend-Lease phones. All the EE8A phones used by the Soviets were issued within a heavy leather bag (originally kangaroo hide; war shortages forced a switch to cowhide). After early experience in the Pacific Theater, the U.S. quickly learned that leather rapidly mildews and disintegrates in perpetually damp rainforests; later-war EE8 phones used by the U.S. were thus cased in canvas bags (but these never made it to the Soviet Union). Previous to the EE8, the U.S. supplied the Soviets with the EE-108 field phone, which was slightly smaller that the EE8 phone and with a different configuration of external connectors, but also housed in a leather bag.

Figure 3: EE8A field phone available to Soviets through the Lend-Lease program

Another U.S.-made Lend-Lease field phone was the IAA-44, which was housed in a metal case (not dissimilar to the TABIP-1). This phone was manufactured and supplied in large quantities by the U.S. company AMTORG, which was paid upfront in full entirely with Soviet capital. The AMTORG contract requirements specified that all documentation and markings on Lend-Lease supplies they manufactured would be in Russian language.

The U.S. Forest Service developed a field phone which appears to have been made available to the Soviets through Lend-Lease or (depending on what source you read) whose entire production was sold to the Russians. The Forest Service phones I have seen are wood-cased, but one online source states that the ones that were used by Soviets were metal-cased and "resembled the TABIP-1", with all the markings in Russian. From the limited information available, it almost seems that the IAA-44 and the Soviet-used Forest Service phones are actually the same phone; I hope to eventually compare samples of both to understand any differences.

BASIC FIELD PHONE OPERATION

The EE-8 is an analog telephone that can signal using either (1) Local Battery: a hand cranked magneto generator to send a 65 to 85 volt AC current down the line causing the ringer to ring in any other phones connected on the line, or (2) Common Battery: the hook switch to signal a central office or switchboard. In either signaling method there must be a pair of batteries connected in the phone in order to power to the microphone, and the user must activate the PTT (Push To Talk) button/switch on the handset. Unlike military radios, where you cannot listen while you are talking, the EE-8 is a full duplex phone like a regular telephone, permitting simultaneous talking and listening. When the PTT is released, the battery circuit is opened, thus saving the batteries. Nonetheless, the batteries must be removed for storage to prevent the cord or other obstruction from accidentally activating the PTT switch, draining the batteries and possibly damaging the phone from leaking dead batteries.

For sake of brevity, I will not address here how to hook up a phone network. This is best demonstrated live during a reenactment but, as mentioned previously, it is quite simple. I similarly refrain from addressing field switchboards (portable field telephone exchanges) in any detail, especially since I have barely scratched the surface of research available in this area. While “Local Battery” mode allows for a simple phone-to-phone "intercom" system, the incorporation of a switchboard (and "Common Battery" mode) has distinct advantages and eliminates a "party line" -- but it also requires a bulky switchboard with phone operator. The Soviets manufactured their own switchboards; examples include the FIN-6 and FIN-10 (Feno-inductive), PK-10, PK-30 and R-193. The U.S. designed the BD-71 and BD-72 switchboards for use with the EE8 field phones (as well as other switchboard models), but I do not yet have research available dictating what switchboards (if any) were made available through the Lend-Lease program. The list of additional communications devices supplied to the Soviet Union through Lend-Lease is much too long to mention here.

OTHER EUROPEAN FIELD PHONES

As mentioned briefly above, the Germans used a bakelite-cased FF-33 (Feldfernsprecher) field phone. After the Soviets copied this bakelite case idea, it appears that virtually all European and Asian nations followed suit in this regard. As a result, most WWII European field phones closely resemble each other.

The Soviet TAI-43 was apparently copied by the Hungarians for their own field use (and also, incidentally, by the Chinese). I find this important to mention because I have operational Hungarian field phones that we may elect to hook up at events because they are virtually identical to the phones used by the Soviets. As of this writing, I am in the process of acquiring operational Czechoslovakian field phones (perhaps TP-25) that we may also wish to use during events.

There is a commonly-available German field phone made by the Swedish Ericsson company (I networked two of these with an EE8A during the 2007 Rockford event). I cannot with complete certainty date the manufacture of these Ericsson phones to WWII, but I want to mention that the television "Band of Brothers" miniseries used this exact phone to represent WWII German field phones -- so it carries the albeit skewed Hollywood Seal of Authenticity. It might also be of interest to our members that the first foreign factory opened by the L.M. Ericsson company was in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1899. The Russian market dissolved in 1918 when the new Bolshevik government nationalized Ericsson's Soviet operations (and seized about 20 million Swedish kroner worth of assets). Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland eliminated a foreign market that had been an important source of revenue for the company, and it lost about a third of its export sales during the war as well as foreign assets that were destroyed or nationalized (although the company greatly benefitted from Sweden's military buildup in manufacturing telephones and other items needed for the military).

While this article has focused on field phones, I am working to integrate a WWII-era Hungarian PTT (Push To Talk) rotary-dial office phone into a workable field phone network. Personally, whenever I think of a Soviet commander yelling into a telephone, I envision him yelling into a rotary dial black telephone…

SUMMARY

The Soviets were able to rebuild their communications system that had been crushed in 1941 by the advancing German forces, both through their own ingenuity (and relocated industry) and with assistance through the Lend-Lease program. I have an ever-growing collection of operational period field phones which I will make available to hook up though our camp (as we did in Rockford 2007) or with other camps (Lowell 2008 will see the trial of this attempt) whenever our Command deems such a network to be appropriate for our needs and/or for public display. The Soviets occasionally had multiple models of phones set up next to each other; such a multi-phone display at an event may permit us to establish separate phone networks, as well as allow the opportunity for educating the public about Russian resourcefulness, the Lend-Lease program, and the different phones that were available to the Red Army during WWII.

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