WS19, Post-war production? switch from mkII to mkIII?

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Alex van de Wetering

Hopefully someone can help me with these WS19 newby questions;

Did WS19 production end in 1945, or did production continue post-war?

Is there an online source where serial numbers van be checked showing when a set was manufactured approximately?

When did the switch from mkII to mkIII occur?



WS19 prices seem to be rising all the time....I just want to be sure that I am buying a wartime Canadian set

Alex

Yes, production would have ended in 1945 as there would be no demand for new sets and more than enough in stores to supply replacements rather than wasting money. Existing contracts would probably have been cancelled fairly quickly and the companies returned to civilian production.

But... some sets would have been retained as spares, others sold as surplus, some scrapped or sold on to other countries.

Later on there were a lot of sets refurbished or completely rebuilt in army workshops and on civilian contracts. (I have an unissued control unit rebuilt by Racal!)

Canadian Production (from Wireless for the Warrior Volume 2):

Manufacture of the Mk.II probably began in the second half of 1941 with Northern Electric, then RCA Victor and Canadian Marconi producing sets. Production started at 250 sets/month and reached 1000 in Summer 1942. The Mk.III prototype was produced in October 1942, RCA and CMC switched production to that in May 1943 with N.E. following a couple of months later (presumably after using up MK.II specific stock on existing orders).

Post-WW2, some sets would be overhauled using plastic-insulated wiring, also they might be repainted to obliterate the Russian labelling if used in Europe, and the 'B' set could be disabled (or omitted entirely when the set was rebuilt by workshops).

If a Canadian set has all the original controls, no blanked-off holes, and the English/Russian lettering, you can safely assume it is wartime production (though it may never have been issued, just sat in stores until sold off as surplus).

The Canadian WS19 group may have production details, but I haven't looked there in a while.

Chris.