Recently the Japanese in the Arakan evolved a new technique of cutting British telephone lines. The enemy cuts them in such a way that there is no interference with the ringing of the telephone bells, and yet, when a conversation is begun, the transmission of the voices is so weak that they are likely to be unintelligible.

When the Japanese discover a British telephone line, they cut a 1/4-inch section from all but two strands of a seven-strand wire. The remaining two are left intact (see fig. 3). Insulation tape then is wrapped around the wire to suggest that an ordinary splice has been made by British linesmen.

Figure 3. Japanese Wire-cutting Technique.

Military observers report that if linesmen are able to identify their own splices, the sections cut by the enemy can be detected and repaired much more rapidly.