Electronic Warfare in WW1- The Telegraph War

There is a common misconception that electronic warfare began with the Second World War but, even if it was not so labelled, it played a significant part in the First World War at both a strategic and a tactical level.

Both sides relied on complex cable and wireless links for communication and intelligence gathering on an international scale whilst, at the fronts, they maintained a complex web of trench and field telephone lines and exchanges. It has been said that in 1918 that there were probably more military telephones serving the Allied lines on the Western front than there were domestic ‘phones in Britain, America and France. It would therefore be surprising if the Allies and the Central Powers had not attempted to damage each others networks, protect their own, gather intelligence from their opponent’ networks and disseminate misleading information through it.
The Telegraph War

The electric telegraph played an important role as early as the American Civil War and by the 1870s most major armies had telegraph sections that could lay cables and relay messages. In the Franco Prussian War the French were already deploying portable telegraph sets that could be strapped to a soldier’s back. The British Army in the 1880s developed a horse drawn limber system that could lay telegraph cable at the gallop. Almost all armies were still using such equipment in 1918 (although many of the cable laying vehicles were motorised).

From: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=2058111175640698081