# Could Allied citizens call Axis citizens in WW2? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062 "2003-12-19T22:55:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/1 "2003-12-19T22:55:09Z")
Im sure there were British and American citizens with friends or family in Germany. Were phone calls allowed? If not, were all the lines cut once the war started. I realise that back in those days A Long Distance or International call was more expensive and more difficult than it is today. Also, was there any tourism in Europe during the war? The fighting wasn’t going on everywhere, so could an american go visit german occupied paris? What about before 1941? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2003, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/2 "2003-12-19T23:39:00Z")
I dont’ have access to it, so check a libray. _B.M. Gordon, Warfare and tourism. Paris in World War II, Annals of Tourism Research 25 (3) (1998) pp. 616-638._ Sorry for the less-than-informative response. I’m curious, too. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/3 "2003-12-20T03:57:53Z")
I would say it was practically impossible. What I mean is that before 1940 internatinal phone calls were probably out the reach of most people and transatlantic calls were probably reserved for the extremly wealthy so probably during the war they were impossible and nobody missed them. I think telegrams would be a much more common for of communication and it ould be much more representative of communications then to know to what extent telegrams could be sent between belligerent countries. It is interesting to note that German traffic passed through England in WWI and the English welcomed it. An excerpt from “The Code Book” in the chapter about the interception of the Zimmerman telegram. > [@](#): > > Before dawn on the first day of the First World War, the British ship Telconia approached the German coast under cover of darkness, dropped anchor, and hauled up a clutch of undersea cables. These were Germany’s transatlantic cables - its communication links to the rest of the world. By the time the sun had risen, they had been severed. This act of sabotage was aimed at destroying Germany’s most secure means of communication, thereby forcing German messages to be sent via insecure radio links or via cables owned by other countries. Zimmermann was forced to send his encrypted telegram via Sweden and, as a back-up, via the more direct American owned cable. Both routes touched England, which meant that the text of the Zimmermann telegram, as it would become known, soon fell into British hands. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/4 "2003-12-20T04:51:32Z")
> [@](#): > > [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=230418) > > The first commercial radio-telephone service between New York and London opened in February 1927…From that date until the laying of the first submarine telephone cable in 1956, radio was the only means of sending speech across the Atlantic. ---
**Author:** ![Cillasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@Cillasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cillasi)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/5 "2003-12-20T05:18:53Z")
During WWII, telephones were still a luxury. So, even though many had relatives overseas or just in different European countries, lower socio-economic groups didn’t have telephones in their homes, and even if some well-to-do could call, chances are their relatives in Europe didn’t have phones either. Telephones did not become popular in Europe until they were well on the way to becoming a necessity in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/6 "2003-12-20T05:38:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > \*\*The first commercial radio-telephone service between New York and London opened in February 1927…From that date until the laying of the first submarine telephone cable in 1956, radio was the only means of sending speech across the Atlantic. \*\* Fair enough, but what about Allied countries in Europe to Germany or other Axis conqured countries? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/7 "2003-12-20T16:03:28Z")
My guess is that it was probably the late 1950s or even 1960s when long distance became available to the general public in Europe even if at terribly expensive prices. I have seen some evidence that telegrams were still commonly used in the 1960s for things such as wishing happy birthday, weddings and many other family ocassions. Also for urgent business communications. The long distance telephone was (a) terribly expensive and (b0 really bad quality. You were bound to pay a lot of money to end up frustrated shouting into the mouthpiece “What? Repeat! What?” Just imagine paying $50/min to get the quality of Netmeeting audio. Long distance phone communication before 1950 was probably limited to very high level government officials and to the incredibly rich. Calling the continent from the UK in the 1960s involved asking the opertor for the call, waiting for minutes or hours (depending on traffic) for her to call you back, then shouting a lot and understanding little and then paying through the nose. During WWII it must have been virtually impossible to make long distance phone calls in Europe regardless of whether you were calling territory controlled by your side or by the opposite side. In other words things were just a tad worse than before the war but not much. Again, if any communication was missed it would have been the telegraph. That is what people routinely used at that time for urgent communications. I suppose one could get a telegraph message to enemy territory by routing it through third countries but it was probably complicated so it was not an everyday thing to do and the telegraph system would give priority to all official traffic so your private message might take a while to get through. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/8 "2003-12-20T18:44:46Z")
Wasn’t it even possible to communicate by mail through a neutral country? Perhaps by postcard, for the convenience of the censors? ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/9 "2003-12-20T18:49:49Z")
you would have to have a co-operative party in the neutral country who would repost the letters - and they would be subject to censorship at origin and destination ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/10 "2003-12-20T20:47:00Z")
The discussion of the status of technology in the telephone field is interesting, but misses the point. One would be very suspect back then if there was an attempt to contact someone on the other side. The idea of having reporters behind enemy lines has amazed me. During the Second World War reporters were given a short period to evacuate and after that period they most likely would have been considered spies. It would be much harder today to enforce a ban on all communication, but in the past virtually all communication was forbidden. It was the realm in which spies operated, so anyone caught trying it was a spy. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/11 "2003-12-20T21:06:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sailor \* > > * * * On MASH they showed members of the staff calling the States on several occaisions. This would have been prior to 1953, so was the situation different in that part of the world, was it radio-telephone or was it just something they made up for TV? I always thought MASH was fairly accurate. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/12 "2003-12-20T21:08:48Z")
Rats! I meant to quote the bit about the first submarine cable being laid in '56. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/13 "2003-12-21T01:59:32Z")
**zoogirl** Last time I checked MASH was not considered a documentary. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-allied-citizens-call-axis-citizens-in-ww2/220062/14 "2003-12-21T03:15:34Z")
I appreciate the points about how expensive and rare it was to make an international phone call in the 1940s. But this does not satisfactorily answer the question. A biography of Amy Johnson (the pioneering aviatrix) includes a photograph of her family and friends on the phone to her from England after she arrived in Australia. This would have been in the early 1930s. The photo is undoubtedly staged for the press; nonetheless the phone call really took place, proving that at least some international phone calls were being made prior to WWII. The question is, was it _possible_ to have a call put through from, say, London to Berlin, during the war? If so, was this service available to a private English person who was willing to pay for it? Or was it restricted to government?