Quote:
Originally Posted by Thoth_already_in_use
2. If the shipment loss was rendered public, was it the a source of disinformation/propaganda? Could the public reports of insurance companies be manipulated by army -- it was a war after all.
|
Possibly, but there were spies everywhere, on both sides, and the reports could be compared with distress calls. Also a spy in one port could relay a pretty good idea of what ships departed in a convoy, and the spy at the destination could report what ships put into port, and their reports could be repaired.
Quote:
|
And can you only with 2 ships determine the side of transmission? I think you need a third ship to completely resolve positions.
|
No, it only takes two. The radioman on my ship draws a line on the chart showing the direction of the signal. The radioman on the other ship does the same. The third leg of the triangle is the distance between our two ships. If we have them accurately drawn on the chart, then the point at which our two lines cross is where the signal came from. Before the days of radar and GPS airplanes used to navigate this same way. They built radio transmitter beacons all over the land, and the pilot could use his direction finder (the loop under the nose or on top of the plane, just like the u-boat one) to get the direction of one station and then a different one. He had a chart with all the beacons marked on it. Once he had the two directions he could draw lines on the chart. Then he could compare the distance between the beacons and that would give him the distance to both of them, which in turn would give him his exact position. It only takes two.
As far as plotting goes, remember that all officers and men went through weeks or even months of training to learn their jobs. I was just a radioman, and I spent four months at the US Navy's 'A' school for radio. Even then I learned more on board ship doing it every day. And it also took me almost no time at all to forget everything once I got out.