# The Secret Listeners



## King Ratt

I've just read Sinclair McKay's most interesting book "The Secret Listeners". This tells the story of the Y service and the people who monitored the enemy wartime comms and passed the intercepts to Bletchley Park.
Well worth a read and now available as a paperback.


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## twogrumpy

King Ratt said:


> I've just read Sinclair McKay's most interesting book "The Secret Listeners". This tells the story of the Y service and the people who monitored the enemy wartime comms and passed the intercepts to Bletchley Park.
> Well worth a read and now available as a paperback.


Agreed, a great read, amazing how young some of them were to be sent out around the world the way they were, some of the dumps as well.

There is also "The Searchers, Radio Interception in Two World Wars"
by Kenneth Macksey, ISBN 0-304-36545-9.
Not quite as good as the the one mentioned above, but still an interesting read.

2G


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## Searcher2004

King Ratt said:


> I've just read Sinclair McKay's most interesting book "The Secret Listeners". This tells the story of the Y service and the people who monitored the enemy wartime comms and passed the intercepts to Bletchley Park.
> Well worth a read and now available as a paperback.


Hi,

The TV programme of the same name is available to view on-line, it's an old school do***entary made before reality TV took hold. I'm at sea and don't have access to the URL for the film, plus the 'Tinternet connection is slow on this heading! I think it's on the East Anglian Film Archive (it was filmed by BBC-East). Have look at:-

http://www.eafa.org.uk/

Cheers

Roger Basford


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## King Ratt

For Searcher 2004. Thanks for that URL. I will watch it at leisure tonight.
It may be of interest that my late father, a totally blind man, used to monitor certain frequencies during WW2. He was at home, possessed a beautiful Hallicrafters Sky Champion and could read CW at 25 wpm. He occasionally was asked if he would listen to a particular frequency at a given time. He would copy the traffic on an ancient Remington and it was then delivered to the local Catalina base. That Sky Champion was still working into the early sixties. It was probably instrumental in giving me my first interests in radio comms.

73 de KR


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## Searcher2004

King Ratt said:


> For Searcher 2004. Thanks for that URL. I will watch it at leisure tonight.
> It may be of interest that my late father, a totally blind man, used to monitor certain frequencies during WW2. He was at home, possessed a beautiful Hallicrafters Sky Champion and could read CW at 25 wpm. He occasionally was asked if he would listen to a particular frequency at a given time. He would copy the traffic on an ancient Remington and it was then delivered to the local Catalina base. That Sky Champion was still working into the early sixties. It was probably instrumental in giving me my first interests in radio comms.
> 
> 73 de KR


HI KR,

I wonder if your dad was a ham or shortwave listener who was co-opted into the Radio Security Service? The film I mentioned above is about those people who did just what you describe but passed their product to the RSS at a PO Box number. A lot of the RSS operators were eventually put into uniform and then manned Y stations. 

There's a shed load of stuff about the RSS on the net, including some info on Operation Flypaper which involved pre-war UK hams doing an official coat-trailing operation with German ham stations who had apparently stayed on-air despite the wartime restrictions (in UK all TX gear was confiscated from hams). 

73

Roger


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## Tony Selman

That's an excellent lead King Ratt. I am most interested in Bletchley and have numerous books but there is much less available about the Y service which also interests me. Available for a reasonable price on Amazon but will see if I can find it elsewhere as am a bit off Amazon at the moment.


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## Tony Selman

Just bought it on play.com for £11.99 which is cheaper than Amazon.


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## Moulder

King Ratt said:


> I've just read Sinclair McKay's most interesting book "The Secret Listeners". This tells the story of the Y service and the people who monitored the enemy wartime comms and passed the intercepts to Bletchley Park.
> Well worth a read and now available as a paperback.


Hi KR,

Where did you get your paperback copy? Have had a look on Amazon and they say not available till July.

Steve.
(Thumb)


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## King Ratt

For Moulder. My copy is the hardback edition which my dear wife bought me for a Christmas present. Looks as if Tony Selman may have a source.

For Searcher2004. My OM was a very dedicated SWL. He could not get an amateur licence for some reason I know not. However he was what was known as a second operator to an amateur by name of Jack Henney who had the c/s GM2MP. Come wartime GM2MP was away and of course his TX equipment was not allowed for use as it was for all amateur stations. My OM being blind remained at home but could use his Sky Champion rx. He also would listen to the broadcasts from Vatican??? or Swiss Red Cross ??? to find out if any missing local men were named. He had some limited success in this.
Jack Henney, GM2MP had a relative of that name who worked at Portpatrick radio for some time. The c/s GM2MP is now re allocated to another amateur.


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## Searcher2004

King Ratt said:


> For Searcher2004. My OM was a very dedicated SWL. He could not get an amateur licence for some reason I know not. However he was what was known as a second operator to an amateur by name of Jack Henney who had the c/s GM2MP. Come wartime GM2MP was away and of course his TX equipment was not allowed for use as it was for all amateur stations. My OM being blind remained at home but could use his Sky Champion rx. He also would listen to the broadcasts from Vatican??? or Swiss Red Cross ??? to find out if any missing local men were named. He had some limited success in this.
> Jack Henney, GM2MP had a relative of that name who worked at Portpatrick radio for some time. The c/s GM2MP is now re allocated to another amateur.


OK, very interesting; I didn't know that there were POW lists broadcast by the Red Cross or Vatican, my dad was a POW and I have been looking into a little of the background of his experiences, which is how I found this site whilst looking for his troopship out to the Far East.

Intrigued by your dad taking traffic for the local Catalina base, maybe they wanted to know if crews who had gone missing had turned up as POWs, although you'd have thought the RAF would have had something as good as a Sky Champion to hand given the ranges Catalinas covered? Was it Sullom Voe by any chance?

73

Roger


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## King Ratt

I was told that whatever traffic my OM had copied was picked up by someone from the base. It was RAF Air Sea Rescue Unit 55 based at Gibbhill, Kirkcudbright. For whom the traffic was intended goodness knows. Only very recently was the derelict control tower demolished. The location post war was a timber and logging sawmill. The slipway is still in use for launching and recovering small boats. Both slipway and control tower visible at
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/saw011722

KR


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## chadburn

Would the Transmission Frequency of the emergency "wind up" dinghy radio be the reason.


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## Searcher2004

chadburn said:


> Would the Transmission Frequency of the emergency "wind up" dinghy radio be the reason.


Quite likely, I think a lot of stations kept watch on the distress channel, 500kHz or 500 kilocycles as it was then.


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## twogrumpy

Searcher2004 said:


> Hi,
> 
> The TV programme of the same name is available to view on-line, it's an old school do***entary made before reality TV took hold. I'm at sea and don't have access to the URL for the film, plus the 'Tinternet connection is slow on this heading! I think it's on the East Anglian Film Archive (it was filmed by BBC-East). Have look at:-
> 
> http://www.eafa.org.uk/
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Roger Basford



Thanks for the link, what an interesting do***entary, as you say "old school".

2G


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## Searcher2004

twogrumpy said:


> Thanks for the link, what an interesting do***entary, as you say "old school".
> 
> 2G


Glad you enjoyed it! (Thumb)

Roger


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## chadburn

Excellent site Searcher(Thumb), some very good American Army Air Force unofficial film featured.


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## charles henry

Worked in Bletchley (Trainin school) in the early fifties. Miserable hole, nearest pub 5 miles to Fenny Stratford, nothing in Bletchley except one fish and chip shop and the railway shunt yard.
Also on the grounds was a female teachers training college but for a young man's viewpoint they were a waste of time.
Ah memories
Chas


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## Searcher2004

charles henry said:


> Worked in Bletchley (Trainin school) in the early fifties. Miserable hole, nearest pub 5 miles to Fenny Stratford, nothing in Bletchley except one fish and chip shop and the railway shunt yard.
> Also on the grounds was a female teachers training college but for a young man's viewpoint they were a waste of time.
> Ah memories
> Chas


It wasn't much better when I was there in the mid-60s, with the DWS. They used the old Hut 3 as a hostel for embassy radio ops and techs who were in transit or didn't have their own accommodation. I can't recall a pub in Bletchley apart from one near a railway bridge and Milton Keynes at that time was a small village on the other side of the old A5. The DWS hostel had a warden, a Mrs Dimmock who kept cats and boiled fish for them, horrible stink! I'm sure she reported to head office if we got p****d-up or anyone brought a lady back to the hostel. 

Unhappy days!


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## hawkey01

Ah! Mrs Dimmock. Luckily I did not spend too much time in the hostel. Moved and shared a flat, then a house in Bletchley. What an exciting place!.
There were some good spots around but it was a long time ago - also mid 60's.
Thursday night dances in the club. We had trainee Teachers and GPO and also what I think might have been an early GCHQ school. Lots of military guys I know were trained as spec-ops there.

Hawkey01


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## Searcher2004

hawkey01 said:


> Ah! Mrs Dimmock. Luckily I did not spend too much time in the hostel. Moved and shared a flat, then a house in Bletchley. What an exciting place!.
> There were some good spots around but it was a long time ago - also mid 60's.
> Thursday night dances in the club. We had trainee Teachers and GPO and also what I think might have been an early GCHQ school. Lots of military guys I know were trained as spec-ops there.
> 
> Hawkey01


Glad Mrs D. (@) wasn't just a figment of my aging memory! Later, after the 1970s revelations about BP, I often wondered if she was some left-over WREN from the code-breaking teams. Like you, I found a place to share, in my case with another DWS guy and two blokes from the CAA place in BP. I was at Creslow CTS as a transmitter tech. The social club in Hut 4 was where I learned to drink properly, there being little else to do of a evening, it's stood me in good stead. 

Yes, GCHQ had a place there and a few years after leaving the DWS I had an interview at the GCHQ building that included a 20wpm Morse test in Spanish, of all things. The money on offer was poor and I had a better offer from Decca Navigator so went to them.


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## hawkey01

Yes there were certainly a wide spectrum of jobs associated with radio at Bletchley Park. I was at Hanslope Park. One of my drinking buddies was a member of a very clandestine department of the Government. He often vanished for periods. He was a resident of the hostel.

Hawkey01


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## Searcher2004

hawkey01 said:


> Yes there were certainly a wide spectrum of jobs associated with radio at Bletchley Park. I was at Hanslope Park. One of my drinking buddies was a member of a very clandestine department of the the Government. He often vanished for periods. He was a resident of the hostel.
> 
> Hawkey01


Was your pal with DTMS, I think aka The Ferrets? I know one of two of them were in Hut 3. We handled CW circuits for Hanslope and also RTT I think, but it was gradually going over to Piccolo when I left and all the shiny WWII RCA transmitters were getting replaced by Plessey sets. There's a DWS museum in BP nowadays, run by an ex-Creslow man, David White. 

73


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## Tony Selman

Just got my copy of The Secret Listeners. Starting it in bed tonight.


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## Ron Stringer

Tony Selman said:


> Just got my copy of The Secret Listeners. Starting it in bed tonight.


Yeah, yeah. But when are you going to read the book?


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## Derek Roger

Very interesting stuff . keep it coming chaps .
King Rat that is a very interesting story you have related . Well done to the blind man who helped save a nation .


Derek


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## Tony Selman

I knew when I wrote that the chances of a comment/s coming back were just about nil. Ron, as an ex R/O you should know that reading is the best thing you can do in bed. [=P]


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## djmorton

Ron Stringer said:


> Yeah, yeah. But when are you going to read the book?


Tut tut Ron !


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## Norm

My father was a secret listener. He had a Halicrafter set, and was given the frequencies and times he had to listen on. Most of the traffic was from the Abwer, and transmitted in 5 letter word code. The transcripts he made were posted off to POBox 25 Bletchley. I have contaced an old Bletchley Park man and this was his answer: "Dear Norman,

Almost certainly your father was a Voluntary Interceptor in the Radio
Security Service.
Unfortunately I have been unable to obtain a list of the 1500 or more
who were and it is unlikely that such a list exists. Mainly VIs were
radio amateurs and the Observer Corps uniform was to stop people asking
questions. At least a thousand VIs were enlisted as full time
operators in Royal Signals uniform (for the same reason) and served here
and abroad.
I graduated from a VI to work at the HQ in Arkley near Barnet, north
London. My work was scrutinising logs sheets and various other work
sorting out the stuff we wanted which was the German Abwehr, similar to
our MI6 or Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Later this included
Italian and Japanese material.
Much of the messages concerned German spies and convincing the Germans
of our deception plans.

There is too much for me to write now so I attach a couple of my papers
for you. In the Newsletter you will see report on a lecture I gave and
this includes a short account of some German Agents.
There are various books on this subject and please let me know if you
need further help.

We knew nothing of what the content of messages was until after 1979.

Yours sincerely

Bob


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## Searcher2004

Norm said:


> My father was a secret listener. He had a Halicrafter set, and was given the frequencies and times he had to listen on. Most of the traffic was from the Abwer, and transmitted in 5 letter word code. The transcripts he made were posted off to POBox 25 Bletchley. I have contaced an old Bletchley Park man and this was his answer:
> 
> Bob
> 
> 
> 
> That'll be Bob King, I guess? I believe the surviving VIs hold a meeting at BP, although "youngsters" with an interest are sometimes invited too. The guy sending CW at the start of the film I mentioned was a local VI in Great Yarmouth and I used to hear him on local ham nets in the 80s. A fascinating piece of radio history and a classic bit of British muddling-through and making the best of what we had, in some respects.
> 
> Just to digress a little, has anyone come across references to a British Army WWII formation called "5 Wireless Group"? I have scoured the Net and have followed most most of the Google hits without finding much beyond the basic facts about the group. If anyone has any info I'd be grateful for a heads-up, probably best via a private message as it's a little off-topic. I've already been on WW2Talk and drawn a blank there.
> 
> Searcher2004
Click to expand...


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## hawkey01

Searcher2004,

no the fellow I referred to was in a department that some years before would have be associated with parachutes and suitcases.
DTMS - Ferrets - were they not the fellows who had a per chant for bugs. Knew a few but names long gone.

Malcolm,

yes that certainly was the man concerned. Vanished one time and then appeared in Aden or somewhere equally exciting. To make it worse it was his round.

Neville - Hawkey01


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## Norm

Some Information I received from Bob.:-

Stuart Owen would have started as a voluntary interceptor and then moved to full time work at Barnet, probably in 1942.
He worked with Captain Peter Graham where he helped to look after the intercepts from one of the German networks.
Initially he was in the same room as I was but as the unit expanded we moved into separate huts in the grounds behind Arkley View, long since demolished to make way for a housing estate. We were employed by MI6 under the Foreign Office although dressed in the uniform of the Royal Signals for security reasons. The messages we handled were passed on to Bletchley Park for decoding but we were not allowed to know anything about their content and knew nothing about Enigma until more than 30 years later.

The RSS intercepts were very successful and no enemy agents operated in this country without our knowledge and very few in other countries either.



BOX 25

The Radio Security Service From 1939 TO 1946 (Part I)


On the outbreak of war with Germany in 1939 it was assumed that there would be enemy agents sending information by “wireless” to Germany, using the Morse code or possibly transmitting beams to guide bombers to their targets. To detect such weak and widespread signals would require listening stations all over Britain.

Lord Sandhurst of MI5 was asked to deal with the problem and he approached the Radio Society of Great Britain that had thousands of radio enthusiasts as members, all of whom were talented in reading Morse code especially from distant and weak transmissions. Although their transmitters were impounded on the outbreak of war their receivers were not. These radio amateurs, known as Voluntary Interceptors (VIs), were organized into groups and issued with an identity card, DR12, which carried a photograph and considerable authority. It was intended to enable the VIs to enter premises from which suspected unauthorized signals were being transmitted. Most considered that it would be wise to seek the company of a policeman.

A nearby transmitter might radiate clicks from the Morse keys and with a strong ground wave would be readily recognizable. Jack Millar (GM4MM) related, 35 years later, how, living near the Clyde, he was asked to listen for such signals. But search as he might he didn't find any; there were none to find. What few enemy agents were sent here had already been identified and were 'met on arrival'. In some cases they were 'turned' (agreed to act for us) or, if their presence could not be kept secret, they were tried and usually executed. In some cases their transmitters were operated by us and much useful work was done under what was known as the double cross, or XX, system. The success of this system was demonstrated when after 4 years work Hitler awarded one of our operators the Iron Cross. 

However Jack, and others, discovered something which turned out to be far more important. Strange weak signals, similar to distant foreign amateurs but using the wrong type of call sign, were detected. Instead of a call sign identifying the country, they heard 3 letter calls, such as XTG or AVN, and messages sent in groups of 5 letters in code (or cipher).

In order to organize the search for and reception of unidentified signals a unit called the Radio Security Service (RSS) was formed with its head quarters under Colonel Worlledge set in Wormwood Scrubs Prison after the prisoners had been moved elsewhere. The amateurs wrote their results on message pads which were posted to the 'Scrubs'. The signals were not German military in origin although direction finding indicated that they were coming from Europe. The Government Code and Cipher School (GC & CS) appeared uninterested so Lt. Hugh Trevor Roper (later Lord Dacre) and Major E.W.B. Gill set about 'cracking' what turned out to be a not too complicated hand cipher message. [Major Gill served as a wireless intelligence officer in WW1 and his disregard for convention was shown when he used the Great Pyramid in Egypt as an aerial support for his intercept work.] On instructions from their commanding officer they made available the translation to a department outside the Secret Service. It transpired that the amateurs had discovered the networks of the German secret services, the Abwehr, the Sicherheitsdienst and the Gestapo. When the GC&CS, by now at Bletchley Park, discovered what had happened it was horrified. Narrowly escaping court-marshal and the bombs now falling on London, Trevor Roper, Gill and the RSS HQ were moved, in October 1940, to Arkley View, a large house about 2 miles north of Barnet. Post Office operators, who had been working there for a while, were absorbed into the RSS.

Throughout the early war years more amateurs were recruited on a regional basis with a Captain in the Royal Corps of Signals (later to become the Royal Signals) in charge of each region. Each VI was given a number such as V/HN/358 for identification. HN stood for 'Home North', Home being London. These VIs were recruited with great care but by different means. Some amateurs holding pre-war licences, who also belonged to the Radio Society of Great Britain, received a letter from Lord Sandhurst. Then followed a security check by the police and an interview with the Regional Officer (R.O.). If found satisfactory and able to devote time to the task the VI was enrolled after signing the Official Secrets Act, being given his number, some blank log sheets, postage stamps, envelopes addressed to Box 25, Barnet, Herts and a frequency band to search for signals using a certain type of procedure. He may also have been given particular call signs to listen for and required to take down any messages which appeared in coded groups of 5 letters. As an indication of the precautions felt necessary by the authorities, VIs placed their completed logs inside a stamped addressed envelope which was then inserted into another stamped addressed envelope to Box 25. There appears to be no record left of how many VIs were enrolled but calculations indicate that it exceeded 1500. The need for secrecy was impressed so strongly upon them that even 34 years later when in 1979 the BBC broadcast 'The Secret Listeners' on television they had not discussed their work with anyone, not even with each other. They did not know until then the nature of the enemy traffic (messages) and many felt embarrassed that the 'taboo' subject should be made public. 

Most VIs were organized into groups with a leader working under the Regional Officer. The group leader would arrange rotas and organize the covering of certain regularly wanted transmissions. Some VIs never met another VI and followed the directions sent to them by post. In some cases, the VI was even unaware of Box 25 as his logs were sent to the R.O.s office, which referred to the place dealing with the intercepts only as London.

The VI worked mainly in the evenings because of daytime employment, but some who were unable to work could fill in daytime listening. Various 'covers' were employed, principally the Royal Observer Corps and in at least one area Special Constables, as reported by Stan Martin (G2IZ) who made a valuable contribution as a VI for many years. R.O.C. uniforms were issued in some cases to people who could probably not distinguish between a Stuka and a Blenheim. As one directive from headquarters said, "Good relations must be preserved with the R.O.C.; that is as far as possible no relations at all". 

Other amateurs had only home built receivers or the popular Eddystone "All World Two" which was also available in kit form. This was a simple two valve receiver which required a degree of skill in use and one really needed both hands to operate it, one to tune and one to adjust the reaction control. With some home built receivers it was unwise for the operator to take his hand away from the dial as this usually meant the loss of the signal (due to hand capacity effect). Nevertheless some VIs, including me, took many messages using this type of receiver. 


WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE A VI 

The VI couldn't of course explain why he was unable to take part in the usual spare time activities, such as fire watching or the Home Guard, because he didn't have any time to spare. Sometimes a small room in the house was used as the listening post or a shed in the garden suitably blacked out of course. Many listened for long hours well into the night and prodigious numbers of messages written on the RSS log sheets began to arrive at Box 25 (Arkley View), peaking at several hundred per day. He did not know what he was listening to, although it was suspected that they were German in spite of the absence of any language except the usual radio amateur abbreviations based on English. The VI got to know the regular transmissions very well but felt no animosity towards the operators, but just hoped that they would remain audible and have traffic (messages). For instance QTC2 (meaning, I have two messages for you) would immediately command the interceptor’s attention, and probably increase his pulse rate as he prepared to copy down messages, perhaps lengthy, of' 5 letter code. The intended recipient could ask for repeats of missed groups but of course the VI couldn't do that. Sometimes a particular transmitter would not be heard at the expected time. Was he having a night off, or ill, was the signal just too faint to hear, or had he moved to another time and/or frequency? An instruction to change time or frequency may have been contained in an earlier coded message, which of course the VI could not understand. Sometimes 'Box 25' told the VI where to look for the missing link. This could be because the people at Bletchley Park had decoded the information or quite likely that he had been noticed by another VI during his routine searching of 'an allotted band’ and the log scrutineers at Arkley had realised what had happened. This and all intercepts were made more difficult where the wanted stations used different call signs every day to an agreed pattern. Often the clandestine signal was identified because the VI recognised the operator's style of' Morse code sending. Listening far into the night, especially when there were thunderstorms or other static interference, or perhaps weak signals partially swamped by more powerful ones, became very tiring. But the VIs were extremely tenacious and only gave up when conditions were absolutely hopeless. Les Proctor (GM8SQ) recalls how he was listening to a short transmission which soon closed down, but he was suspicious and stayed listening on the same frequency for two hours. Suddenly the station which he had been listening to came up with no call sign or warning and sent a long message. Les received a commendation from Box 25 so he assumed that it proved to be something important. Colonel Maltby (the controller of RSS), in a BBC broadcast, praised the VIs, saving "I don't think anything but death or great unconsciousness would make them miss a schedule. There was one radio amateur who was permanently on his back, a complete cripple. He had his receiver rigged up over his bed and was thus able to provide valuable help in intercepting these secret messages. Radio Amateurs were ideally suited to this work with their unique experience in the reception of weak signals and their professional approach and devotion to duty”.

Sometimes the VI would spend an hour or so copying several messages from a station only to have the logs returned stamped 'OK covered thanks' or 'Unwanted Hun'. This may have been because it was adequately covered by 'special watch' operators or because it was a non-Abwehr station. Other stamps used on the logs were: SUSPECT, MORE PLEASE, and WATCH PLEASE. 

The flavour of the VIs feelings may be obtained from the following verse written by an unknown VI: (maybe Norman Spooner G2NS?)

VI Fever.

I must go back to the set again, to the superhet and the phones
And switch off the broadcast music, the announcer's measured tones
And search again on the short waves, with loud calls blending
For the dim sounds of the Morse code that a far foe's sending
I must go back to the set again, for the time has come to seek
In the QRM and the QRN for my allocated squeak
And all I ask is a steady note, through the ether speeding
At a fair strength, in a quiet spot, at a nice speed for reading. 


The frequencies most used were between 3 MHz and 12 MHz and although some fell outside this range the concentration was from 4 MHz to 9 MHz. Much of this band was occupied by broadcast stations and Morse used by the services and press. However with some 5 to 6 million cycles of band in which a Morse signal needed only a 1 thousand cycle space at most to be read separately from its neighbour, theoretically 3000 stations (discounting the space occupied by broadcasting) could be operating simultaneously. This is an over-simplification but it does indicate the value of having more than a thousand interceptors spread over Britain when a signal audible in Glasgow might well be inaudible in Dover owing to the features of propagation well understood by radio amateurs.

**********

In the BBC broadcast of The Secret Listeners, Hugh Trevor Roper described the usefulness of intelligence gathered by the RSS.

H.TR. "The material that we got was of great practical value. A lot of it of course was enciphered on the Enigma machine which the Germans thought was totally undecipherable. They were therefore, pretty open in what they said in these messages and through them obtained a very complete knowledge both of the structure and the daily working of the whole German Secret Service. This knowledge was valuable in itself and could be applied in many ways. For instance it enabled us to capture every spy who arrived in England as soon as he landed. It was of great value in deception. This consisted of feeding false information into the German General Staff through the German Secret Service. In order to know exactly what diet to give them and how to season it, in what doses and through which channels to give it, one needed to understand intimately the animal that one was feeding. This was I think one of the most important functions which this material played. An instance was the famous operation Mincemeat when a corpse was floated ashore at Málaga with secret do***ents which deceived the Germans effectively into thinking that we were going to land in Greece and not in Sicily in 1943. That would not have been possible if it hadn't been for this material which first showed us where we could land the corpse so that the Spaniards would pick it up and hand the papers over to the Germans. Even after that we were able to follow, through this material, the transmission of the do***ents and the extent to which they were believed through the whole general staff machinery. That was one operation which simply couldn't have been done without the added sensitivity which was given to us by a continuous knowledge of the operation of the German Secret Service."

Of course the VIs knew nothing of all this and did not discover what they had been listening to until 1979 when the B.B.C. broadcast a television programme in which Rene Cutforth gave details which had been a closely guarded secret. For some 34 years several thousand people had not discussed the subject even amongst themselves.

SCU No 3.
As the German networks expanded so arose the need for more interceptors and scrutineers of the log sheets arriving at Arkley View. Several hundred Radio Amateurs and others were recruited to serve full time, enlisted into the Royal Signals, at various stations in Britain and abroad. They were grouped into Special Communications Units and S.C.U 3 had its headquarters at Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire with the analysis HQ at Barnet. Here they identified the networks and sorted the messages for Bletchley Park to work on.

Intercept Stations
Hanslope and Forfar were two large intercept stations where about 50 operators at a time worked in 3 shifts for 24 hrs a day every day monitoring the same type of signals which they had searched for as VIs There is a photograph (held at the IWM and BP) of Wilf Limb (G2DTD) operating the first intercept position set up at Hanslope in Aug/Sep 1941 in rather spartan conditions. More detailed information is available on request in Part II. 


CONCLUSION
So what was the value of the radio amateurs' contribution? There is no doubt that the work of the RSS was of assistance to Hut 6 at BP in breaking the Enigma ciphers and also in revealing the innermost dealings of the German Secret Service. Signals Intelligence was a vast undertaking, employing at least 50,000 people and the RSS was a part of this. In addition to being of general assistance it, in particular, played a vital part in deception. Many others factors assisted BP such as the recovery of Enigma details from equipment, often retrieved from various submarines, and the selfless work of the Polish cryptographers, not forgetting the sometimes lax procedure of the Enigma users. Without the skill of interceptors, service and amateur, listening for long periods to weak morse signals, often combined with ear splitting noise, BP would have been unable to develop its tremendous decryption expertise. The official history of British Intelligence in WW2, by Hinsley and Simkin, states that 268,000 messages from the RSS were decrypted at BP. Some messages, especially those from the Abwehr, were enciphered on the Enigma machine which was very different from the military version and only one of the former is believed to survive. Other messages were in a hand cipher which was necessary for agents outside direct Axis controlled territory.

Quoting again from Hinsley and Simkin: “There were very few illicit or German Secret Service transmissions which escaped the notice of the RSS and even changes in procedure, employed by the Germans for security, were identified, in some cases, before the enemy had become familiar with them. In all its activities the RSS achieved a high and continuing degree of efficiency”.
And from Noel Currer-Briggs in “Code Breakers” (Currer-Briggs served with Colonel John Tiltman, code breaking at BP)
“……..not enough credit has been given to the men who sat hour after hour snatching from a background of constant static thousands of messages. When frequencies and call signs changed the interceptors saved the day by their skill in recognising the style of the enemy operators. Without this our task as cryptanalysts would have been immeasurably harder. These men deserve all the more praise because they had little idea of what happened to the traffic they intercepted or the intelligence produced”.

Several VIs were awarded the MBE or OBE for their services and all received a certificate with the wording:
“In the years when Civilisation was menaced with destruction (name) who served (dates) gave generously of his time, powers and technical skill in essential service to his Country” Signed on behalf of HM Government.


Box 25 
The Radio Security Service From 1939 to 1946 (Part II)

Discrimination.
With so many listeners it was possible for the people at Arkley to match up the links as all wanted stations were recorded in call books under time, and again under frequency. I spent many hours, with several others at Arkley, recording and matching up calls to arrive at the various networks. This task was interchanged with others, to be described, in the interests of variety. This was part of the work carried out in the General Search section under Capt Tant (Auntie). Many well known amateurs served in this department including Eric Chambers (G2FYT) and Cecil Bradbury (Brad), (BRS 1066). Here again the frequency spectrum was divided into 4 or 5 sections and a group of analysts, under a leader, studied the logs from VIs and full time interceptors, getting familiar with the occupants of their section of the band. The rubber stamps were applied with red ink. Unidentified but suspect signals were sent to “call books” for entering under time followed by frequency, call sign and any procedure used. Thus it was possible to find links with other stations operating at the same time. If the network was recognised the information was sent to the relevant 'Group' in the next 'hut'. Another useful aid in identifying stations which changed call signs regularly was by noting the peculiar and untuneful notes which some of the primitive transmitters produced. Cyril Fairchild (G3YY), one of the first amateurs to work at Arkley alongside Lord Sandhurst, collected 196 different descriptions reported by interceptors, such as croaking frog, like a fly in a bottle, clucking hen, Epsom salt note, painful and pathetic note etc.


Direction Finding.
Major Keen (an authority on D.F. from Marconi Ltd) designed and ran an efficient direction finding service. The centre at Arkley controlled the most valuable work of the direction finding (D.F.) stations distributed over Britain to obtain bearings on specific transmitters. Gerry Openshaw (G2BTO) was one of the D.F.operators who sat in a metal room, sometimes underground, with the four vertical direction finding aerials, about 30' high, above him at the corners of a square. The following procedure was ingenious and extremely efficient. Suppose an intercept operator, in say Thurso, heard a suspect signal and Arkley required its location. The operator in Thurso would send, in Morse over a landline, the frequency and the signal itself to which he was listening to a room in Arkley. An operator in Arkley sent this information by land line again to all the D.F. stations. So for example a D.F. operator in Cornwall would hear all this in one ear of his phones. He could then immediately match this with the same signal tuned on his receiver and within seconds get a bearing which he would transmit back to Arkley. Here it would be plotted on a large map table and a position for the suspect transmitter found within seconds. The network and type of cipher in use could then be determined. 

Collation.
Some ex-VIs moved to Arkley to work in the Collation department. Harold Brock (G3FD) relates how by careful examination of the operators' Morse style, the use of initials and other clues, they were able to produce a wall chart indicating the movement of these operators which was of considerable value in understanding the entire structure, development and intentions of the German Secret Services. It is interesting to note that many German radio Amateurs and members of the Deutscher Amateur Sende und Empfangs Verein or DASV were employed in the service, much as British amateurs were recruited into the RSS organisation. However, licensed amateurs, although very well qualified by their hobby, were rarely employed as field agents by either country.

Acknowledgements:

Hugh Trevor Roper (Lord Dacre) Stuart Owen (GW3QN) Archie Brown (G2WQ) Kenneth Morton Evans (G5KJ) Gordon Parkes (G3NL) Ken Ottery (G3ECS)
Gerald Openshaw (G2BTO) Jack Miller (G4MM) Wilf Limb (G2DTD)
Paul Wright (BBC East) (G3SEM) Louis Varney (G5RV) John Gilfiian (GM3BQN)
Pat Hawker (G3VA) Cyril Fairchild (G3YY)

This account has been carefully prepared to achieve accuracy, relying in most cases upon first hand accounts and original do***ents. I worked first as a VI and later spent several years in the Arkley Huts working alongside many radio amateurs. If I have omitted to mention any who have helped with providing the above information I apologise.
Bob (Noz) King ([email protected]).



NOTES
Abwehr: literally defence. This would be a euphemism for War Department. The networks RSS monitored were likely to be military intelligence.
Sicherheitsdienst: Security Service under Himmler. The intelligence service of the Nazi Party closely associated with the Gestapo and later merged with it.

For more detailed information (especially on the work at Arkley and the outstations) see part II 
from (Bob King [email protected])


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## Searcher2004

Excellent stuff, Norm! I particularly liked the skit on "Sea Fever". Have a look too at "Operation Flypaper", that involved several hams who were VIs.


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## Bill Greig

Well done Norm, a great post.
Bill


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## Tony Selman

Agreed, that is a great post Norm.


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## G4UMW

The man who got me interested in radio, the late Les Jackson (G3OZ) was a VI. Proudly displayed in his shack was the certificate of thanks he received in recognition of his work during the war.


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## King Ratt

A great posting, Norm. VMT.


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## Norm

If you liked my last post, you'll like this on too:-

RSS/SCU Newsletter no.28 June 2008

This Newsletter, as a follow-up to our 2008 reunion, has been
unavoidably delayed owing to an unforeseen medical intervention.
However to use a cliché: ‘Better late than never’.

We had another successful gathering of 60 people, but the actual numbers of veterans was sadly down slightly. I hope this letter is some compensation for those unable to get to Bletchley Park. The weather was kind to match the welcome of the staff at the Park who as usual had everything prepared for us and helped in any way they could.

Our first item was an illustrated talk about WWII double agents. I had started preparing this many months ago with the first impression that the talk would last a full 10 minutes. Of course as I got into it I found that it could easily expand into several hours, if I could only remember the material, and that contrary to expectations various pictures are in fact available. Photographs are ever a problem for our work because picture taking and diaries etc were strictly forbidden. Not only that, but film was not easy to obtain and cameras had to be concealed. The usual photos saved are of friends and colleagues, not normally recognized by any who are not in the group as we worked in such isolation from other departments. Nigel West has done much to trace participants in the Double Cross system where of course memory is relied upon. Fortunately records taken at the time have been published, and sifting through these, various books and ‘After the Battle’ magazines I hope that my account is reasonably accurate. 

Of the more than 100 potential spies who arrived here by various means 39 were used as double agents, serving various lengths of time before being interned if of no further use. There was continuous conflict between MI5, which had an eye on using spies as agents, and the judiciary who wanted them all tried and suitably disposed of. Churchill enquired as to why they were not all shot on arrival. MI5 did succeed in often being allowed (or not asking) to offer a life in return for acting on our behalf.

As full length books about Tricycle (Dusko Popov) and Zigzag (Eddie Chapman) have been published, and are well worth reading, I avoided them and referred to some lesser-known agents who to my knowledge have only been described more briefly. Sir John Masterman was chairman of the XX (Twenty Committee) that oversaw the entire Double Cross exercise and with his brilliant mind, ready to accept unconventional ideas, his book is worthy of closer attention. This I was able to do by obtaining a copy of ‘The Double-Cross System’ published in 1972 but, and this is the important point, written in 1945 when the subject was still fresh in his memory. Old copies may be obtainable and quite cheaply, if not imported from the States. Little else needs to be said after reading this book but for those who are unable to do so the main emphasis on running Double Agents is to have a Case Officer who lives with the agent and thinks and acts as the agent, carefully studying his thoughts and his actions. The agent has his life but not his freedom and it is essential to maintain the complete trust and confidence of his counterpart on the enemy side. Masterman explains how once this trust was obtained it became extremely difficult to ‘blow’ an agent. Indeed to test this, on one occasion, an agent was deliberately run in order to show the Germans that he was under our control. The idea was to give them a false idea of our methods of running such an agent and thus to convince them that the other agents were genuine. The idea was sound and the gaffs committed were crass and blatant, but the object was not achieved for the simple reason that the Germans continued to think of the agent as genuine and reliable! 

We may have had assistance from Germany in this respect because Abwehr officers each had their own special agent to ‘control’ and did not wish to admit failure. There was a tendency for them to compete with each other as to how useful their own agent was, even if they had lingering suspicions. Incidentally the Germans did not have a monopoly with this error as Leo Marks explains, regarding the SOE, in his book ‘Between Silk and Cyanide’. As Hinsley wrote “During 1940 MI5 progressed from total ignorance of the Abwehr’s capabilities and intentions to the ability to influence its activities, helped with its incompetence, that so far from being a threat to us the Abwehr was a serious handicap to Germany for the rest of the war”.

Several agents were mentioned in my presentation including Jakobs who parachuted near Ramsey but being publicly exposed was tried in camera and executed in the Tower, the only one to face a firing squad there. Richter, an SS officer, who landed in Hertfordshire was also deemed not suitable as a double agent and was hanged in Wandsworth prison. The only agent to escape detection (although there was always the fear that a genuine spy was in contact with the enemy) was Ter Braak who made his way from landing north of London to Cambridge. His mission was uncertain but may have been to assassinate one of our leaders, but he ran out of money and, failing to contact his German control, shot himself in an air-raid shelter.

In my presentation I gave more time to Wulf Schmidt, a Dane/German who was given the MI5 reference name of Tate and carried a forged British identity card bearing the name Harry Williamson, the name he used for the rest of his life. After the war he worked in Watford as a press photographer but still under the protection of the Security Service. Surprisingly he was a leading breeder of canaries and a respected judge at exhibitions. Quite a change from his valuable, to us, war service communicating false and misleading information to the Abwehr. To that organization he, or rather his British radio amateur operator, sent more than 1,000 Morse code messages to his control in Hamburg. Such communications had to be carefully composed and were vetted by the XX committee under the guidance of the astute Colonel T A Robertson, the architect of the double cross system.

If one agent gave a complete story it could be suspicious, so it was more credible if several scraps came from different sources from which the Germans could compile a complete picture for themselves. Furthermore a careful record had to be made of which agent sent what information, in order to avoid conflict with earlier messages or contradictory statements. In the main, double agents had no knowledge of more than perhaps one other agent (possibly in order to receive payment from Germany). If one was exposed as false it could place the whole system in jeopardy. This became a great concern around the D-Day operation when the great build-up of trust in agents was depended upon to lead the Germans to defend the Pas de Calais region even weeks after the Normandy landings. Information we obtained after the war indicated that the reports from the XX agents played an important part in the deception. It was a great risk we took because if one of the agents had been exposed as being under our control the whole united services deception plans would have been disbelieved, which could quite possibly have led to a failed foothold in Normandy or at least a tremendous loss of life. 

Forgive me if I have been too long in describing the above but it became so absorbing when I started to investigate the subject that I knew nothing of during the war, except that certain stations reported on our interceptors’ logs were to be left severely alone. It seeped through to me that they originated from the UK and in fact one strong signal sounded as if it was near us in Barnet. Our cover name for these was ‘Iron and Steel’ and if we breathed a word about them anywhere in or outside the premises we could expect no mercy.

******************************

Some time ago I asked David White if he would talk about the undulator, as this instrument played an essential part in enabling the Colossus machine to do its job. Probably very few people have heard of an undulator and consequently don’t appreciate how important this clever little device is. David gave us his usual clear explanation and here I must express my thanks to him for making our visits to Bletchley Park much easier for me to arrange and seeing that everything is in place. His collection in Hut 1 is unique and contains a most valuable record of intercept and communications equipment.

To return to the undulator: this was invented in 1865, it being an electro-magnetic device not employing valves or transistors. In 1900 under test conditions it could read Morse code at 700 words per minute (wpm). [A good human operator can manage 25 (wpm) although there are some ‘fishermen’s’ tales about and indeed a really exceptional operator can exceed this speed. The Abwehr traffic varied from about 12 wpm to just over 20wpm. With the Morse keys in use at that time it was difficult and tiring to send very fast]. The undulator speed in actual use might be up to 300 wpm with 120 wpm being the normal in use at the wartime Park. David said that the museum there had 3 machines and he explained how an arm carrying a pen was moved from side to side on a narrow strip of paper thus representing short dots and the longer dashes. A narrow tube carried ink down to the paper from a small tank containing ordinary ink mixed with iodine plus a few extras. As the amplified signal was received an electromagnet moved the pen sideways and a pattern was traced on the paper strip, which shot out of the machine at high speed across the room into a dustbin. The girls were trained to read the squiggles at the incredible speed of 65wpm and type them out as the tape passed. Yet they were quite unable to read Morse code when sent as a sound signal. The machine David showed us was a 1930 model driven by an electric motor but some were mechanically worked either by a spring or by falling weights. These were an advantage when there were frequent power cuts that did not affect the receivers as they were situated elsewhere. Undulators had to be used because our teleprinters could not read the speed the Germans used and so the output from the undulator was typed onto a tape, punching holes into the paper strip (Murray code style) ready for feeding into Colossus for the decoding process to be attempted. The Germans did not make things easy. They used 6 tone transmissions instead of the standard teleprinter 2 tones (mark/space) and instead of the usual 850 cycle frequency shift they used 360 cycles per second. Even more difficult was that they encrypted the control characters such as ‘carriage return’ and ‘letter/figure shift’. This just wasn’t playing the game and gave us a lot of trouble. At BP filters had to be designed to remove 4 tones so that the normal 2 could be handled and measures had to be taken to overcome the other non-standard methods.

Last November a celebratory test was made from Germany sending one of these high speed encoded messages and Colossus cracked it in 3.5 hours but a clever German amateur managed it in 46 seconds using a programme he had written himself. To be fair, but for some unforeseen problems, Colossus could have achieved the task much quicker.

*****************************

David was followed by Len Digby giving his carefully prepared account of memories of his wartime experiences. In 1942 he was enlisted into the Tank Corps but found himself with the Green Howards in Yorkshire being trained as a soldier. He became more of a soldier than most of us, which was not difficult, wading through cold water, waist deep, several times a day, and with weeks of square bashing. He distinguished himself by saluting with his left hand at the passing out parade.

Out of 500 recruits at Huddersfield 16 fortunates were sent off to Little Horwood (Gees) so that the Green Howards loss was the SCU’s gain. There followed Morse practice to 16wpm, exercises setting up mobile communications and so to the night-time comfort of a flattened straw palliasse so familiar to us all. He must have been fit because on days off he would walk with others to BP five miles away for beans on toast at the railway station. A diversion came at Christmas when a few were sent to the local sorting office to help with the mail and incidentally to sort out an overbearing manager by wheeling him around in a laundry basket. They had nothing to lose.

After enjoying the other world of being with Yanks and their PX in Uxbridge he was dispatched to Southampton and then to disembark from a landing craft on Omaha beach in September too late, thankfully, to experience the carnage of a few months previously. His first task was to locate the US 9th Army HQ without the aid of GPS. This was eventually achieved and there he met an RAF sergeant who, back from the Middle East had, by coincidence, met Len’s brother out there.

Travelling on to Maastricht he became friendly with a charming Dutch family that had recently experienced the privations of occupation and were still desperately short of food, coal and clothing. That winter was extremely harsh and when his unit ordered 5 sets of underclothing 50 arrived as a nought had apparently slipped in somewhere. Len’s contribution to victory was to try to skin a rabbit for a birthday dinner and later to return fire from a drunken American soldier. During this latter episode he discovered the ‘kick’ a Le Enfield could give if not pressed hard into the shoulder.

Because enemy snipers were suspected he and his pals set up a trip wire at the rear of the billet, which operated a bottle rattling against a radiator. When this went off one night they rushed to the back door, found no one there, but heard firing from the front door. Rapidly reversing their steps they were greeted by the sight of an RAF officer holding a Tommy gun next to his badly bleeding leg. Whilst trying to open the front door he had inadvertently pulled the trigger and had to be carted off to hospital. The nearest German was possibly miles away.

On Len’s return to Gees he was trained with some Chindits before heading for Singapore but the intervention of the atom bomb resulted in a change of course for Calcutta. Labelled as being a member of a Secret Service unit he was moved on to Delhi and was in India at the time of the riots. His return to the UK was via an evil-smelling old ship to Singapore and then back home to be released to his old firm repairing London bomb damage. Later with his brother they set up a construction business, selling the factory in 1985 on retirement.

**************************

After the lunch break we had the usual informal session that included members’ accounts of enlistment, service and subsequent career.

At the outbreak of war Ray Fautley was servicing the ubiquitous 1155 RAF receiver, often seen in post-war film of the interior of bombers. A colleague persuaded him to practise his Morse speed and this had Ray very puzzled. However he fell in with it and found that he could reach 20wpm. A little later a mysterious and rather dominating gentleman arrived at his house and asked, if not demanded, to speak to Ray alone. A piece of paper was thrust in front of Ray, which he was told to sign. At that age one doesn’t question such things and after complying the fellow said, “You have just signed the Official Secrets Act and nothing we say must go outside this room”. Ray answered, “You must explain to my parents or they will be worried”. 

The parents were assured that Ray did not have a criminal record and after a period a parcel arrived for him containing a log pad, envelopes, stamps and sticky labels addressed to Box 25 Barnet , Herts. Included were instructions to listen from 7 to 7.5Mc/s for Morse signals that were to be recorded in detail on the log sheets and posted off to the address given. Ray continued intercepting in his spare time until 1947 and like the rest of us did not discover what he was recording until 1979.

Working at the age of 17 at the Mullard valve factory on test gear, Ray continued with them to 1946. Work with Redifon followed which took him to Norway and and to the Hughes Aircraft Co. in Los Angeles. Studying in his spare time he achieved qualifications and became a chartered engineer in 1955 and had 30 years experience in design and development. On retirement in 1985 he wrote articles for Practical Wireless and the prestigious Wireless World (as it used to be known). His most recent explanation of the complicated Smith Chart has been well received. Perhaps one day he will really retire. 
*****************************

Geoffrey Pidgeon is distinguished from the rest on several counts but in particular as being brought in to section VIII before military age and being introduced to SIS by his mother taking in two lodgers. At the beginning of the war he was attending school in Caterham [You can see what he looked like from the drawing in the front of “The Secret Wireless War” and on page 332]. In support of the war effort his mother accommodated Bob Chennells and Wilf Lilburn as lodgers who worked at the nearby wireless station. In about June 1940 his father had a call from Bob asking if he would like a job in wireless. As a change from ARP work and being interested in wireless my father agreed and after being vetted and accepted, in due course arrived at Whaddon Hall. Here he was put in charge of a large and important distribution centre for various wireless equipment. The family moved from Caterham to Stony Stratford. In June 1942 Geoffrey was invited to an interview at Whaddon and taken on at the age of 16 to work in the metal workshops making wireless sets. He must have been the only SCU person (of any section) to be sent on a day release to a technical college. At Wolverton College he was instructed in Maths, Physics and Mechanical Drawing.

He progressed to more responsible jobs involved in the construction of sets for our agents to use, requiring his knowledge of machine tools such as lathes and milling machines. By November, being now 17 plus, he was enlisted into SCU1 complete with the Royal Signals uniform. Thus Whaddon was now a family affair. Life widened out for him when he came under the wing of the skilled wireless engineer, Dennis Smith. The work now involved the fitting of equipment into aircraft, ships and vehicles and importantly involved travel and flying: a much more exciting time than punching holes in metal chassis. 

Adventures in the Far East followed VE day, but before leaving he had to attend a musketry course. This consisted of firing five rounds at random from a Lee Enfield rifle and this qualified for an entry in his pay book “Fired Musketry Course”.

With hostilities over Geoffrey worked in the very old established family firm of bathrooms which I gather he has not completely left. His knowledge and contribution to the development of bathrooms and their equipment is considerable.

*****************************
Reproduced below is a copy of a very unusual intercept that I received from George Busby.

[George is very interested in the SCU4 station at Gilnahirk, Belfast, and has carried out intensive research on the site from when we used it during the war and also later by GCHQ].

You may remember operation Mincemeat or “The Man Who Never Was” as it was publicized. Bearing in mind the deception, successfully carried out, by dumping a body in the sea, carrying do***ents to indicate our plans to invade Greece and not Sicily, the following appears to be very significant:

Ted Ross, a local man and former radio operator at CSOS [known to us as GCHQ] Gilnahirk has been revealing to me some of his wartime exploits. Having just completed reading the book, “The Man With No Name” Ted had a flashback to his wartime service in Gibraltar. 

He was on radio watch (night shift) and had been approached by his senior commanding officer to report any distress signals received from aircraft. In particular he was to determine the call sign of the aircraft, the position, course, speed and height if possible and report back personally with the information. As the week progressed, he was on watch when a distress signal from an aircraft came through. He managed to obtain all the information required before the Morse key was screwed down* and after a few minutes everything went quiet. As far as Ted was concerned the aircraft had now crashed into the sea. At the close of his watch he handed the information requested to his senior commanding officer and no more was ever said about the outcome. He had never been asked for anything like this before, and no one ever spoke of the event again.

It is only now (Jan 2008) that he is beginning to realise the links with “The Man With No Name” having read the book. Ted kept a diary and the timing of this event fits in with the body being washed ashore. He already knew that the Germans were listening to everything the allies could hear in Gibraltar and if he was hearing an aircraft distress signal loud and clear, then so were the Germans. The distress transmission was clearly false, but did this come from the submarine which was about to put the body in the sea, or was there a ship or aircraft in the area tasked with the false transmission?

Ted joined the RAF as a Radio Operator, but he was also involved in SOE work in Yugoslavia during the war. 

**************************

Wouldn’t it be something to locate the operator who sent this message, no doubt completely mystified at the time by his peculiar instructions! 

* [ It was usual for the key to be screwed down in order to give a continuous note so that bearings could be taken for rescue attempts].

I hope this letter and the attachments reach you in good condition and if otherwise, let me know. To those who are going to pass this on to our members without Internet facilities, please accept a grateful thanks. Memories of those dramatic times means so much to them; thank you.

Footnote from a footnote on page 59 of Masterman’s The Double-Cross System.
“TRICYCLE, in order to prove his bona fides, told us that he had been given the name and address of GIRAFFE! But of course the final confirmation of the belief that we controlled the whole came gradually from a study of secret sources”.

The ‘Secret Sources’ mentioned are the Radio Security Service intercepts. R.V.Jones, in his book ‘Most Secret War’ also uses this term because when these books were written the existence of the RSS by name was still secret.

Masterman makes many more references to ‘Secret Sources’ in his book whereby we obtained information as to the value the Germans placed on the reports from agents and other sources and the success of the aims of the Double Cross system. It was through the RSS intercepts that we were reasonably certain that no agents (spies) were operating without our knowledge.

Right up to the end of the war the Twenty Committee were on tender hooks, fearing that the XX system would fail and the Germans would become aware of the deception. This was particularly so during 1943 and leading up to the Normandy invasion when it became increasingly difficult to maintain the elaborate network that we had set up. Masterman expresses the view that had D-Day been delayed much longer the XX system might have collapsed before the main aim of ‘The grand deception’ was achieved. 

Best Wishes from

Bob and Jean


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## NoR

Searcher2004 said:


> Hi,The TV programme of the same name is available to view on-line, it's an old school do***entary made before reality TV took hold. I'm at sea and don't have access to the URL for the film, plus the 'Tinternet connection is slow on this heading! I think it's on the East Anglian Film Archive (it was filmed by BBC-East). Have look at:-http://www.eafa.org.uk/
> 
> Cheers Roger Basford


Roger, Thanks for the link. I watched the film it was fascinating, just shows that when left alone to get on with it the Brits are pretty ingenious. Great commentator (don't know who he was) wonderfully un PC at one point he's sitting in an armchair smoking a *** and speaking to camera very fluently. Shouldn't think autocues were invented then.


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## Searcher2004

NoR said:


> Roger, Thanks for the link. I watched the film it was fascinating, just shows that when left alone to get on with it the Brits are pretty ingenious. Great commentator (don't know who he was) wonderfully un PC at one point he's sitting in an armchair smoking a *** and speaking to camera very fluently. Shouldn't think autocues were invented then.


Hi NoR,

The commentator is Rene Cutforth (I think I've spelled that correctly). Glad you enjoyed it! There's other "radio" stuff on that eafa site, a history of the Pye company and I think a Pye film on PMR radio.

73


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## twogrumpy

Talking DWS and GCHQ does anyone have information on what Dingli Wireless on Malta was up to in the 60's and 70's.
I know that the people there were connected to a "place" in Scarborough.
When we were on Malta my mum always refered to it as Cable & Wireless with a wink, clearly in those days we were not supposed to speak about it.
Info. on the www seems a little lacking, possibly for the obvious reasons.

2G


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## sandhopper

An old Y station site can be found at Beaumanor Hall in Old Woodhouse Leicestershire. There used to be a Royal Signals base next door until about 1998. Beaumanor is now a Leicestershire County Council centre and the old signals barracks is now the Defence Sixth Form College Welbeck. The old officer's mess is now private flats.


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## chadburn

twogrumpy said:


> Talking DWS and GCHQ does anyone have information on what Dingli Wireless on Malta was up to in the 60's and 70's.
> I know that the people there were connected to a "place" in Scarborough.
> When we were on Malta my mum always refered to it as Cable & Wireless with a wink, clearly in those days we were not supposed to speak about it.
> Info. on the www seems a little lacking, possibly for the obvious reasons.
> 
> 2G


They were both doing the subject matter, the "place" in Scarborough is still working except there was a change of employer when it went into civilian hand's. Cyprus is now the main "place" in the Middle Sea.


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## holland25

I have mentioned this trivial matter before but I never got an answer. In about 1965 I attended an interview for GCHQ at Bletchley, the other candidates and I were left alone in one of the huts. The clock on the wall had a piece of tape, on the glass, over the makers name,we all commented upon it but didnt dare ask the interviewers,anybody any idea as to what was going on there? I didn't take up the job offer.


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## trotterdotpom

chadburn said:


> They were both doing the subject matter, the "place" in Scarborough is still working except there was a change of employer when it went into civilian hand's. Cyprus is now the main "place" in the Middle Sea.


Is the "place in Scarborough" actually in the town or are you referring to Fylingdales?

John T


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## Searcher2004

trotterdotpom said:


> Is the "place in Scarborough" actually in the town or are you referring to Fylingdales?
> 
> John T


"Irton Moor" according to this 2004 article:-

http://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/local/secret-base-opens-for-ray-1-1488551


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## trotterdotpom

Searcher2004 said:


> "Irton Moor" according to this 2004 article:-
> 
> http://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/local/secret-base-opens-for-ray-1-1488551


Thanks for that Searcher. I spent lots of time in the area as a kid, especially Forge Valley, Hackness, etc, where we had relatives and must have seen it but it didn't register for some reason. You live and learn.

Fancy them having a museum there but not allowing the public in. What's the point of that?

John T


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## twogrumpy

trotterdotpom said:


> Is the "place in Scarborough" actually in the town or are you referring to Fylingdales?
> 
> John T


Chum of mine was up there some years back doing something for MOD(N), he said the place was run down, anyway, they had some spare time and having a mosey around they found this large underground setup so I assume it is the same place we are talking about.

Of course in the 60-70's there were still some strange places left over from the war and used into the coldwar many of which are defunct now. Being from Portsmouth, I can still remember the tall aerial masts on Horsea Island and the picture of a bi-plane stuck in the side of one.

Just had a look at the article from the Scarborough paper, must be a number of strange places in the area.

2G


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## chadburn

It was a very important installation when it was R.N. Scarborough, like most installation's of it's time, underground in the hillside overlooking the South Bay, I was hoping that my Draft before Discharge would be there as it is just behind Oliver's Mount!! not far to go on race day's. John, I did drop the hint on the Jimmy Saville forum as to the activity that was going on behind where he was buried and as he was buried at an angle of 45 deg there was a possibility with all the background activity he could rise again, that was before his re-location. It's still in use by GCHQ and still looking to the East. Cold War over? Not really it's just on the back burner.


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