Below are some excellent sources for books that cover the subject
of military
communications vehicles and antennas by German Forces in WWII.
Many contain examples of what now would be called NVIS antennas,
though at
that time were referred to as "Cage" or "Rail"
antennas. See info below, along
with references to the books that are available on this subject:
WWII German Recon Vehicles, using NVIS
Antenna Systems:
The drawing above is representative of a light-recon vehicle used
in
forward areas by German forces. More detailed information on this,
and other similar
vehicles are available in a set of books on this subject , written by
Horst Scheibert, titled:
These are published Schiffer Military History, Atglen, PA. ...
details at the bottom of
this page.
Below are a few examples of NVIS antennas which were deployed in
WWII
by German Forces... The photos below are from a vast book collection
which
I have amassed over the past 30 years:
The photo below, of Heinz Guderian's command vehicle, is the
best one I have been able to find so far. The framework is insulated
from the vehicle body by the four stand-off insulators on the sides.
The entire framework is fed at the right-rear corner, via the
single-wire
feedline that can be seen in this and the photos farther below on
this
page..
The photo above is courtesy of Robert Swartz, and is from
the Panzertruppen
site..
This is a somewhat famous photo of Heinz Guderian's command
vehicle, complete with enigma machine and cipher clerks who are in
the process of receiving and decrypting a message. Note the clerk
chewing a fingernail as he ponders the text of the message...
Visible over the top of the vehicle is the open-frame HF
antenna in use for these types of recon vehicles. This is
the earliest-known implementation of HF NVIS which
allowed for high-angle skywave operations. The "cage"
type structure would appear to be a support for camo
netting, but is in fact the HF radio antenna.
The photo above is from the book "Ultra Goes to
War" by Ronald Lewin
published by McGraw-Hill Book Company 1978
ISBN: 0-07-037453-8
Below is a second photo of what appears to be the same roll of
film ( or at least the same series of plates):
Again, note the one support
pole, on the upper-left side of
this photo, for the NVIS
antenna. Next to the support pole is the connecting
feed-wire which goes to the
radio..
This photo is from the book titled "MI5 MI6 Britain's
Security and Secret Intelligence
Services, by R.G. Grant; Published by Gallery Books, Division of W.H.
Smith Publishers, Inc. NYC, New York. ISBN: 0-8317-5704-3
Produced by Brompton Books Corp
15 Sherwood Place
Greenwich, CT 06830
Note that above, this vehicle also has a telescoping mast, for the
purpose of
deploying a doublet antenna or VHF ground-plane antenna in the
field.
Naturally a full-sized dipole antenna would be a bit more
efficient than the
horizontal frame antenna arrangement, however the NVIS frame antenna
will allow communications while the vehicle is traveling.
The Drawing above is from the book
"German Eight-Wheeled Reconnaissance Vehicles"
by Horst Scheibert - ISBN: 0-88740-476-6
Schiffer Publishing Ltd
77 Lower Valley Rd
Atglen, PA 19310
This photo is an example of the command vehicle
depicted in the drawing above, except this vehicle is
dug-in in the desert, with the telescoping mast which
is used for erecting a VHF ground-plane
antenna.
The coax feed for the ground-plane antenna
is barely visible in the photo and is hanging
alongside the mast section.
Tune in to Axis Sally:
All photos and drawings on this page are the property of their
respective
authors and publishers...
Viewed since May 19th, 2001: 
