Appreciation

Once more our thanks are due to Bletchley Park for granting us the facilities for the RSS/SCU reunion on 27^th April. Especially appreciated was the parking facility close to room Red One and the help given by the staff in every way. For those who are disabled, or attending the reunion only, and do not fancy the walk from the Railway Station car park, you can drive into the park and make your way round the block to the submarine. This year visitors and members were impressed with the changes that have taken place since our last meeting; Jean and I intend to return later this year as we missed all this. Apologies were received from those who could not attend, chiefly for health reasons, and we hope that they may be able to come next year.

Thanks are due to David White (G3ZPA) who unobtrusively manages behind the scenes, particularly for his work as a volunteer at the Park where he often meets wartime members with information helpful in the massive dossier he keeps. He also has an extensive knowledge of historic radio equipment and an impressive collection of the same. BP almost certainly holds the most comprehensive record of all WWII interception matters, both in written form and technical apparatus.

Hellschreiber

The Park was pleased to receive a donation from Ian Alexander (G4AKD) of the best- preserved example of the Hellschreiber, that he acquired from Stan Cook (G5XB) who was the acknowledged world expert on this interesting machine. We interceptors used to hear and curse these high-speed data transmissions that would make reception of our ‘wanted’ signals difficult at times. It was not a coding machine but a semi-picture-type way of sending text (possibly previously enciphered with Enigma) that could be copied, on another suitable Hellschreiber, under conditions when a Morse signal would not get through.

Whisper who dares

The meeting was attended by sixty-plus people, about half of whom were ex-service members. Following a brief introduction, for visitors, of the purpose of the SCUs I attempted to explain something which mystifies those too young to remember. How and why were we able to keep the secret for so many years? It is firstly necessary to understand what conditions were like in the 1940s. Europe had been overrun by the German forces in unheard-of rapid advances, so that Britain was in an extremely desperate situation. In spite of the famous rallying speeches by Winston Churchill, neither he nor anyone else could see how we could possibly survive, alone as we were. Europe was occupied from Brest to Warsaw, in Norway and in the Atlantic by U boats sinking our merchants ships at a rate which was starving us of food and other supplies. Our army was defeated, our air force and navy grossly under strength and we had seen many cities such as Warsaw and Rotterdam subjected to terror bombing and almost total obliteration. With the whole might of the German air force being directed against us we expected gas and bombing attacks of unprecedented ferocity. Blackout was total and frightening; all direction signs and place names were removed and invasion was expected at any time. Posters warning of careless talk were everywhere and not only did we not talk but if anyone became inquisitive, however innocently, they would be in serious trouble. If all this and more can be understood it may help to explain why the message of "don’t talk and don’t enquire" was so ingrained into us that it lasted for such a long time.

The remarkable career of Dave Williams (G3CCO)

I had suspected for a while that Dave Williams had a story to tell and this he demonstrated in half an hour packed with experiences we could only imagine. Whilst at school in 1942 he discovered that two of his tutors were employed at Bletchley Park. Assuming that it would be a sound idea to join them he applied and waited for a reply. In true service style, he was duly contacted and sent to SCU1, Little Horwood, instead. There he was tested for his Morse speed, previously learned at school, and then posted to Whaddon Hall at the Main Line transmitting station. The purpose was to communicate with embassies in neutral countries by sending radio messages using the safe One Time Pad method of coding. In the spring of 1943 he was sent to Madrid and, landing at Lisbon, was treated to a 5-course meal; this was quite a shock after the previous cuisine in Britain. In Madrid he was required to send messages back to Whaddon. After a few months he was given the task of checking enemy shipping and damaged U-boats coming in for shelter. In Autumn 1943 he installed MK 5 spy sets in the British consulates and safe houses so that reports on shipping movements could come to him; these he then passed to Whaddon for the benefit of the Admiralty in London. Interestingly this information, transmitted to the Admiralty by Short Wave radio, was then used to issue orders, by Very Low Frequency radio signals, which could be received by our submarines even when submerged. There were in particular three German cargo ships carrying iron ore between Bilbao and Bordeaux whose sailing times were of interest. As a result two of the German cargo ships were sunk. Suddenly he was told to cease operating and was sent to a hotel a few miles away for a week. No explanation was provided, but the mystery was solved 30 years later when he met a German in Bangladesh. The German expressed an interest in a nice short wave receiver that Dave happened to be using and it transpired that the German had worked as an intercept operator in Brest during the war. Dave asked if the German had ever heard him operating from Madrid and the reply was "Yes, but where were you on July 14th?" On being told that he was instructed to stop operating the German replied " You were very lucky: I was sent with two others to kill you". There are good reasons for believing this account and it may well have been that it was as a result of an RSS intercept that we knew of this threat to Dave. The relationship between SCU1 and 3 is closer than we thought! After further adventures in France Dave returned to England to take part in the abortive Ascension project at Tempsford which involved testing air-to-ground communication from 20,000 feet.

The influence of the SIS was again illustrated when Dave was offered a commission before being sent to India. Instead of the normal officer-training course he was sent to meet the Lord Lieutenant of Bedford to receive his commission direct, as it were, from the King. Being transported by luxury flying boat to India he took charge of the agent training school in Calcutta. In July he was posted to Delhi and drove down to Poona in preparation for the invasion of Malaysia, which was aborted by the ending of the war. Experience in communication had taught Dave to have a reserve plan: before leaving Calcutta he had made arrangements for a private code. Whilst in Poona the SIS man informed him that by mistake all their code books had been sent to Madras, which was the other side of India. At this point Dave admitted that he had this private code arrangement with Calcutta and from that point all the official traffic was sent using his code. Dave described how he was sent to Tokyo with the occupational forces and saw the tremendous devastation caused by the bombing. After a year in Japan he made a leisurely return taking 2 to 3 months to reach the UK on Naval ships, visiting many interesting places en route. This he wangled by persuading Admiral Fraser to have a signal sent to all port officers asking them to help Dave in his passage home.

In 1948 he went up to Cambridge to obtain an engineering degree and this led to a position in the BBC. A total of 30 years with the BBC television service included achieving the post of Chief Engineer of the external services. He assisted in the development of the film recording equipment for the Coronation and was responsible for a flicker in the black level of the recording just as the crown was being placed on the Queen’s head, caused by his adjustments at that moment. Dave concluded his talk with further accounts of his distinguished career with the BBC including the design of high frequency broadcasting stations.

Priceless examples of wartime radio sets

David White exhibited a small sample of his treasured collection of sets used by secret agents and others in WWII. Some of this equipment is very rare and of particular importance in connection with the wartime work of Bletchley Park. The collection shown to us included equipment developed at Whaddon for the Special Operations Executive, their S-phone and Eureka/Rebecca 350 MHz radio-telephone and homing beacon system. A most unusual and rare item was the "pocket" MW/HF receiver developed by the London Poles. Visit Hut 1 to see the full extent of the various methods of communication during that period some of which was essential for the code breaking activities to proceed. David is usually there on Saturdays and Sundays, from 1 to 5 pm, but it is advisable to check (01908 501310) that he will be available for your visit to Hut 1 as in his absence the room is locked.

Pat Hawker (G3VA and ex-VI/SCU 1,2,3,9) followed this display with part of his collection of, to a large extent, unique slides including several relating to the RSS, VI s, SCU3 (including the Hanslope Park large intercept station) and VI group leaders at Leatherhead in 1945 with Lord Sandhurst. There were illustrations of the German Abwehr clandestine equipment as intercepted by the RSS. He then showed views of the section VIIIP(SCU1) control stations at Weald and Nash that contacted the Intelligence Radio-Agents in Western Europe and examples of the equipment produced at Whaddon. A wartime photograph showed the "Beagle" group of young Belgians who provided daily weather reports from the Brussels area for over two years, led by Albert Toussaint and including a girl recruited at the age of 15. A number of slides showed the direction finding equipment used by the FunkAbwehr in their efforts to close down the Intelligence and Resistance stations. These included the "stomach" (sniffer) receiver worn under clothing for the final closing in on the clandestine stations.

Illustrations of a number of SOE and Polish equipment and the SOE Poundon station were shown along with some clandestine units made secretly in Denmark and Holland, including the Danish ‘Telephone Directory’ lightweight 10watt AC/DC equipment. Pat concluded by illustrating some of the home-built receivers and modified medical-transmitters used by the Internal Radio Service of the Dutch Bureau of Intelligence (to which Pat was loaned in the final months of the war in Europe). These Dutch clandestine stations operating on about 3 MHz suffered extremely severe losses, but one brave operator stayed on the air sending Morse at up to a timed 27 five-letter groups per minute.

After Lunch

After the lunch break I gave a half hour brief description (aided with an overhead projector) of the RSS and the conditions of reception experienced by interceptors. This was similar to the talk given to the Oxford Conference and intended for an audience unfamiliar with interception work.

To conclude the reunion the intercourse between members was changed from previous years by devoting much more time to individuals introducing themselves and giving brief accounts of their involvement both during wartime and later. This led to some interesting discussions and continued for some while. It was an improvement on simply breaking up and leaving it to groups of two or three to converse. Time was also available for groups to visit Hut 1 and the original station X high up in the Mansion. There the type of small undercover operating room is restored to the state it was in, in the very early days of the war. Originally entitled Station 10; later Station X, it was set up in Hut 1 in July 1939 for diplomatic traffic and the MI6 links. Then in August of that year the rooftop station was set up for exclusive clandestine work in connection with MI6 agents in the field. (See my library paper no.2 for Trevor-Roper’s comments on MI6). This station was transferred to Whaddon Hall in February 1940 to continue its work there. However, a transmitter and receiver were retained at the BP rooftop room until the danger of invasion receded. Hut 1 continued in use for limited diplomatic interception until the end of March 1940 after which it housed the first "Bombe" for a short period until the special room was built which is now being re-equipped and open to the public. The desire not to have transmitters operating from BP is understandable.

The present Hut 1 was restored with considerable effort and expense by David to contain only a small part, but entirely representative, of his large communication collection. It represents most aspects of WWII, and later communication methods and should not be missed if you wish to see the vital contribution to all that Bletchley Park achieved.

Newhaven Fort

A visit to the Newhaven Fort Museum is well worthwhile for exhibitions relating to both World Wars. In addition one can sense the atmosphere at that time in the massive walls, ramparts, tunnels and gun emplacements. From the ramparts there are stunning views across the channel but more to the point is the radio museum largely the result of Cyril Fairchild’s (G3YY) lifetime collection. The local radio society members have put in an enormous amount of work setting this up and it will be open shortly. Information will be then available on www.newhavenfort.org or telephone Eddie Wilson (G0ECW) on 01273 300772 Also worth a visit www.grindelwald.org.uk and www.secretlisteners.org Matt will welcome contributions to this last site at matt@zamboodle.demon.co.uk

The Future

Already I am considering the format and composition of the 2004 reunion and I do need your suggestions and offers of help. There cannot be much left that hasn’t been covered but some of us have short memories (i.e. only need to possess one fictional book) and there are some stories and experiences still to be told. It is important that those who are too young to have experienced WWII should learn a part of history which is very little publicized, furthermore the summary of our meetings is of interest to that greater number who are unable to join us at Bletchley Park.

Of interest to those who may have old photographs is a service offered by Louise Openshaw for restoring them to a remarkable degree so that detail previously subdued becomes more visible.

Contact : telephone 01273 205408

 Bob (Noz) King g3ase @ onetel . com 01480 463129

Back