Photo by Charmain Z. Brackett The Signal Corps Museum has some unique spoils of war in its exhibit cases.

“Part of the Signal Corps’ mission is to capture enemy equipment,” said Robert Anzuoni, Signal Corps Museum director.

Adolf Hitler’s telephone from the library at his retreat in Berchtesgaden, Germany is one of those unique items.

The phone is a simple rotary dialed desk phone with a brass plate attached stating it was captured by the 101st Airborne Division on June 18, 1945. Above it is a photograph of Hitler on the telephone and a post card of the library which shows a telephone on the desk.

Next to the Hitler phone is a Japanese one. The two are quite a contrast. The handset of the Japanese phone has an intricately carved chrysanthemum on it; it has no numbers so a switchboard operator would have had to connect calls. Above the Japanese phone is a photograph of Prime Minister Hidieki Tojo.

“I imagined the two of them talking on the phones,” said Anzuoni.

Other equipment belonged to the Luftwaffe; it bears the insignia of the eagle carrying the swastika.

Anzuoni said it’s amazing to have a piece with the insignia in tact.

In addition to the Japanese and German equipment, the Signal Corps Museum has the full spectrum of radios and communications’ equipment used by Americans during World War II as well.

There are stationary radios and communication systems as well as handhelds and radios which could be mounted on vehicles and tanks.

One piece of technology used during World War II that many decades later found its way into the business sector was the fax machine.

“The principles were in place over 100 years before. The technology was there, but there was no demonstrated need for it,” said Anzuoni.

The facsimile machine on display in the museum was used as a guide for the one used in the film Flags of Our Fathers. Museum officials sent photographs and a technical manual so it could be built for the film.

Anzuoni said the early fax machines were useful for faxing color maps to give positions on the battlefield.