Editing Tactical communications (section)

== The wireless revolution ==
Although visual communication flew at the speed of light, it relied on a direct line of sight between the sender and the receiver. Telegraphs helped theater commanders to move large armies about, but one certainly could not count on using immobile telegraph lines on a changing battlefield. 

At the end of the 19th century the disparate units across any field were instantaneously joined to their commanders by the invention and mass production of the [[radio]]. At first the radio could only broadcast tones, so messages were sent via [[Morse code]]. The first field radios used by the United States Army saw action in the Spanish–American War (1898) and the [[Philippine–American War|Philippine Insurrection]] (1899–1902).<ref>Raines, 136.</ref> At the same time as radios were deployed the [[field telephone]] was developed and made commercially viable. This caused a new signal occupation specialty to be developed: lineman.<ref>Raines, 82–3.</ref>

During the [[Interwar period]] the German army invented [[Blitzkrieg]] in which air, armor, and infantry forces acted swiftly and precisely, with constant radio communication. They triumphed until their enemies equipped themselves to communicate and coordinate similarly.