Wow...look at those masts, spars and antennae. Wireless was crude in 1914 and required huge antennae. “Portable” wireless sets for infantry required three men to operate - one man 50 ft in front carrying the front of the antenna; the radio man in the middle; and a man 50 ft in the rear carrying the rear of the antenna.
In 1914 apparatus for wireless communications was still a relatively new development, having only been invented a few years earlier.
All ninety German warships were equipped with wireless in 1909. The Germans focused more heavily than other countries on employing wireless in multiple arenas, though other combatants used wireless extensively by 1917–1918. Germans were highly invested in improving wireless to disseminate information because the British had cut submarine cables to Germany in 1914.
The German Hochseeflotte (High Seas Fleet) generally avoided use of wireless once at sea.
As early as 1914 the German station at Norddeich sent out by telegraph regular weather reports in mixed text. In these the cipher clerks had not taken the trouble to encipher the letters and numbers ordinarily used for indicating the direction and strength of the wind, etc.
The station at Brugge, on the contrary, committed the inexcusable stupidity of transmitting the same telegram after having enciphered the said figures and letters. A comparison of the two telegrams gave an exceedingly valuable clue to the code used, and permitted ... a gradual reconstruction of great parts of it.
Interesting