Website status:
Update 4th January, 2007 - Added link to Newhaven Fort Amateur Radio Group (NFARG)
Update 22nd November, 2006 - Cyril Fairchild G3YY notes added, date of the 2007 reunion published, notes from 2006 reunion added, link to info about the original
documentry in 1979 that exposed the VIs work found
The one thing Bletchley Park could not decode were the signals that it did not receive
Welcome. On these pages you will find text and and information on the World War II British Radio Security Service and its Voluntary Interceptors (VIs). These are the people, mostly volunteers, that provided the raw signal information to Bletchley Park (BP) in order that it could do the decoding work for which it is famous. The 'Radio Security Service' - RSS - and 'Special Communications Unit' - SCU.
For information on Bletchley Park, codes and computers used to decipher the signals the VIs supplied visit Tony Sale's excellent 'WWII Codes and Ciphers' website
A nice overview of the RSS and VI written by Kevin Coleman G6SSX can be found here
The original documentry made by the BBC in 1979 called 'The Secret Listeners' is well worth seeing. This was where the VIs actually learned what the intercepts were about and was a catalyst in revealing the whole Bletchley Park story. Information on the programme is here It was conceived and researched by Paul Wright G3SEM along with Hugo Lawley G6ZG
In addition to this
site...
On Sunday 25th
April 2004 the station and exhibition was officially opened by former
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Leach GCB DL. More information on the
Newhaven Fort project will appear on this site in due course.
The exhibition and radio room at Newhaven Fort is maintained and manned by the Newhaven Fort Amateur Radio Group
Worthing and District Amateur Radio club, of which Cyril G3YY was a member, were also involved in the initial set up of the facility.
Read about Cyril here and also see this
story from the Brighton Argus newspaper 09/10/2002.
Another
interesting exhibition of vintage wireless and so on can be found at
Amberley
Museum, Amberley, West Sussex.
David White's (G3ZPA) outstanding
effort in Hut One at Bletchley
Park is well worth a visit. Radio net People's War
It makes a great analogy that "The radio signal was the Internet of the war."
Read the full entry here
Guy Liddell Reading list
How the information provided by RSS was used
A copy can be obtained from Amazon
The endnotes in the above book indicate that much use was made of the National Archive at Kew
and we are still getting documentary evidence from that source about the RSS. We are indebted to Pat Hawker,
John Gallehawk, John Alexander and Mike Coleman for the painstaking research done there on our behalf.
Secret Wireless War book It was launched at Bletchley Park on
17th September, 2003 and is the most complete record of the radio
work of the SIS yet produced, or likely to be. Also included is the
account of the Black Propaganda scheme. Many people contributed
articles and they are all from those who were there.
The emphasis is on SCU1 and Whaddon
but is also wide ranging in covering some of the other SCUs.
Intercepting was not a glamorous job and therefore there is less
material to write about. Experiences in the Middle East were perhaps
more exciting, especially as the war came to a close, but much of
that information has been lost as those with personal experiences are
no longer with us.
You can find out more about Geoffrey
and his lavishly illustrated book, by looking at the publisher's
website
Video Enigma theft story Please contact the webmaster
of this site first if you want to use the contents of these
documents.
The current documents available are: The
RSS from 1939 to 1945 in HTML format. Adobe
PDF version available. Text
of a talk about the Lorentz Cipher written by Tony Sale in May
1998.
Sideways
into S.I.S. An account by Lord Dacre of Glanton of entry into the
SIS
Operation Flypaper
Description of some Amateur's antics during the latter part of the conflict
To see a typical HRO set used by the
Voluntary Interceptors to receive signals, click here.
Venue is the Music Room within the Mansion at Bletchley Park. Parking is on the right after passing through the main gate. Disabled badge holders may use the park almost in front of the Mansion near the tennis court. Remember to wear a name badge when
you attend a reunion!
A project has been completed (although will
continually be amended) at Newhaven
Fort that sets up a demonstration of
World War II and beyond radio equipment, including an amateur radio
station GB2NFM. This exhibition was inspired by the legacy of Cyril
Fairchild, G3YY, a VI who accumulated a terrific collection of radio
and electric material throughout his life.
Also to follow at this
site:
Improvements to the layout of these pages (very simple
at the moment but it's quick! Ideas gratefully received.)
More
documents, information, some colour, graphics and further links - if
you have any info, pictures or other contributions they would be
gratefully received.
News, Links & Info
For any
licensed Radio Amateur reading (and remember the old Class B
licensees can go on HF now) or short wave listener, please dig out
your rig and join the 'Secret Listeners Net', however briefly, on ±
3720 Mhz at 0900-to-whatever local time Mondays and Fridays, SSB or
CW. There is nearly always news or something of interest being
discussed. Calls to look for are G3VA, G3ZPA, G2BTO, G5HF, 2E0DFW and G3ASE.
The BBC's archive of people's memories from World War II includes an interesting article dedicated to the memory of
Capt Joe Banham, Y Service. Y service is the name given to Wireless Intercept.
Exerpts from The Guy Liddell Diaries that are of interest
to the RSS have been added. Guy Liddell was the director of counterespionage 1939-1942 and kept a secret account
or diary during the entire WWII conflict.
Read the information here
A recommended reading list can be found here. This contains
quite a good selection of titles about VIs, Bletchley Park and Enigma.
A book called "Codename Tricycle" by Russell Miller is a recommended read says Bob King.
This is an amazing account of the Yugoslav double agent Dusko Popov and shows the vital importance
of the UK being able to read the Abwehr (the German military intelligence organisation) communications.
It put the UK in the position of knowing what subterfuge the Germans accepted and could have put the whole
distraction operation of Fortitude in jeopardy on the run up to D-Day. The book also shows among many
things how the Pearl Harbour disaster may have been avoided.
At
last there is a permanent record of the work of the Special
Communication Units during WW2 due to the fantastic work (and
considerable personal expense) of Geoffrey Pidgeon.
A video also
entitled "The Secret Wireless War" is now available to
purchase from Grindelwald
which is very good and features interviews with VIs and features Bob King who writes the RSS newsletter.
Christine
Large's book entitled 'Hijacking Enigma' was published by Wiley at
£16.99 on 28th August, 2003 This details the story of the
kidnapping of the Enigma machine from Bletchley Park in 2000. Copies
can be obtained from Wiley
Document
links
A shorter version of this was
published by the RSGB
in their November 1996 RadCom journal.
Pictures
File is 100k
Annual Reunions
2007 Reunion
Sunday April 29th 2007
Previous reunions
Present at 2005 were Len Digby, Wilf Elmore, Ray Fautley, Brenda Foster, John Foster, Frank Gay, T Greenslade, Pat Hawker, Harry Heap John Hofer, Sylvia Jewell, Noz King, Phil Luck, Bill Lush, Ruth Luxford, J McCafferty, Wilf Neal, Bob Painter, G Pidgeon, M Richardson, Martin Shaw, Leon Smith, Keith Taylor, Don Wallis, Julian Webster, David White, Dave Williams
Two pictures of the group at the 2005 reunion are here and here
For info on further reunions please see the newletters on this site or
contact Bob King - g3ase @ waitrose . com [remove spaces - these are to stop spam]
Telephone: UK +44 (0) 1480 463129
A 'review' of a reunion on 27th April, 2003 can be found here. This is written by Debra and David from Grindlewell Productions who produced the video "The Secret Wireless War" in which some people at the reunion 'starred'.
A full list of the VIs present at the reunions that have taken place since 1997 can be seen here
RSS Newsletters are compiled & published by Bob King.
March 2007 newsletter - LATEST
May 2006 newsletter about the 2006 reunion
The UK Google search engine lists around 221,00 entires for Bletchley park - click here to see them. 180,000 entries were listed in November 2006. Back in February 2005 this was 42,500, up from 18,600 recorded in September 2004.
For Radio Security Service there are now about 1,780 entries. Click here to view them. 420 links were returned from Google in November 2006, 244 entries were listed in February 2005, 151 in September 2004.
Voluntary Interceptors have about 1,780 pages albeit 57 of which Google treat as unique. Link to the search page. In November 2006 this was 1,880. Previously this was 96 web pages (including the duplicates) in February 2005 and was as low as 34 entries in September 2004.
Whether the increasing numbers of results from Google means more is being written about the RSS and the VIs, or Google's robots that index the World Wide Web are more efficient (or maybe less efficient as some entries are just indexes back to this website!) is unknown for sure. Certainly the publicity about Bletchley Park and 'cracking Enigma' in general, whether through books, film, television or lectures has been increasing. It is interesting to keep a watch on these statistics though.
Webmaster for this site: Matt Wilson - rss@zamboodle.demon.co.uk
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