The Unit

The 3132 Signal Company

The men of the 3132nd were the sonic deception experts. The unit came together under the direction of Colonel Hilton Railey, a colorful figure who, before the war, had discovered Amelia Earhart and sent her on her road to fame.

Dick Syracuse recalls his first meeting with Col. Railey

With the help of engineers from Bell Labs, the men of the 3132nd painstakingly recorded sounds of armored and infantry units onto a series of sound effects records that they brought to Europe. For each deception, sounds could be mixed to match the scenario they wanted the enemy to believe. This program was recorded on state of the art wire recorders (the predecessor to the tape recorder), and then played back with powerful amplifiers and speakers mounted on halftracks. The sounds they played could be heard 15 miles away.

We could go in at night and crank the speakers up out of the back of the half-track, and play a program to the enemy all night, of us bringing equipment into the scene. And we could make them believe that we were coming in with an armored division.
-Lt. John Walker, 3132 Signal Company

updated 3 years ago