From: Larew, Karl [KLarew@towson.edu]
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2003 1:56 PM
To: Robert.Cameron@knox.army.mil
Subject: Phisterer

Glad we met. The person who is writing a book on the Regular Army Infantry in the Western Theater of the Civil War is Major Mark W. Johnson, 1487 Miller Lane, SW, Atlanta, GA 30310-5135; his email is mark.johnson@USAREC.army.mil. At least these were his address as of summer 2001. In any case, you can reach him through his collaborator, Tom Crew (a professional researcher) at 1021 Pino St., Long Beach, MS 39560, telephone 228-868-3512; email crew@goldinc.com. Maybe their book is out--it was supposed to be out in 2002, but I haven't heard from either of them. Mention my name and my sister's name (Kasha Larew). I'm sure Tom or Mark will be happy to share info with you on Stones River.

I'm also glad to have met you because I am working on the influence of FM radio on US armored tactics/operations in 1940-41, and AM radio in tank forces, too.. So far my research has been mostly in Signal Corps stuff although I've consulted standard stuff like Macksey, Guderian, etc., on tanks. My next step will be unit histories of armored divisions and field artillery (since FA also used FM). Infantry had FM walkie-talkies, of course. But mostly I'm interested in armored force use of radio, especially FM. It is said that FM was wonderful, but I want to know in more detail how wonderful, what edge it gave US tanks over German tanks, which seem to have had only AM radios, although they pioneered (following British, but Brits didn't keep up the pace in late l930s) in radio for armor. Going to FM was a gamble, and in retrospect a good one, but also in retrospect I wonder if FM was wonderful enough (given what was known at the time) to gamble on it. For that matter, was FM so much better than the German AM to justify the gamble even in retrospect. I'd appreciate your views and suggestions for further research (off the top of your head, that is--I'm not asking for collaboration, only brief advice! Regards, Karl Larew, Professor, History Dept., Towson Univ., Towson, MD 21252.