SHOWCASE
7
Field
Telephones of WW II
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EE-108
- Sound powered field telephone with magneto signaling
in a leather carry bag. Designed specially for supplies to
the Red Army. Made in 1942 by Connecticut Telephone &
Electric. To
be continued after the picture set...
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The
EE-108 sound powered phones seem to have been designed specially for supplies to
the USSR in 1942-1945. No such model number was listed in TM11-487
"Electrical Communication Systems Equipment" of October, 1944. Also we
couldn't find any of EE-108 samples attributed to the Signal Corps U.S. Army in
any vintage military telephone collections on Internet (or at least an EE-108
with designations in English, not in Cyrillic).
If
it was a special order for the Red Army, not a military depot supply, such an
order had to be paid in full. Such payments in 1941-1945 were effected by Amtorg
Trading, a New York corporation with 100-percent USSR capital. Hence such
supplies should not be considered part of Lend-Lease supplies.
Strange
enough, but "EE-108, Batteryless" line was included in the U.S. War
Department document of December, 1946, titled "Lend-Lease Shipments, World
War II". Out of 80,771 pcs of EE-108 over 90% (75,261 pcs) went
to the USSR, while 5,500 pcs went to China and just 10 pcs - to
Holland. Looks like it really was a special make intended for the Red Army first
thing...
The
leather carry bag of EE-108 was of regular EE-8 size, not extended because there
were no batteries inside. WHD = 196 х 240 х 90 mm, weight - 3.8 kg. There
was one line embossed in the front wall of the bag, "TELEPHONE
EE-108".
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