RSS/SCU Newsletter no.18 Feb 2004
Memories of days long past.
Hanslope intercepting station, among others, has received considerable attention and some photographs have survived.
But I have been aware that Forfar, which rivalled Hanslope in size and importance, has been rather neglected.
The piles of logs that I received from Forfar, at Arkley, equalled in bulk those from Hanslope.
The reason the logs came to me was that operators would often pick up stray signals (in between their traffic taking) which were unidentified so far as they knew. I had to identify these; and if I couldn’t, send them to the Call Books where they were entered under time of transmission, in the hope that they would tie up with another signal and thus establish a new service. Services were opening up and closing down continuously.
However in my search for records of Forfar (perhaps more accurately Brechin) several people have provided information, but we seem to very short of photographs of the site, buildings and antennas. Was the light not good enough for photography?
An extremely detailed account of the Middle East has come to light from the son-in-law (Ray Webb) of Les Luscombe (G8NY). Les joined up 2 weeks after me in January 1942 and after a brief introduction to our work at Arkley went first to Hanslope and later to set up Station 4 in Gilnahirk, Belfast. His account written at the time goes on to describe his work in Sarafand where he was at the pointed end of the business, which Tom Howie mentions below. Les was recognised for his work, under fire, with a Mention-in-Despatches and commendations from General W.P.Oliver. His papers, still readable, and photographs will be deposited at Bletchley Park.
To encourage memories of Forfar during our reunion in April an account from Tom is related below:
Tom was stationed at Forfar following a brief period of training at Arkley and in 1946 he went on to adventures in Egypt. The following is his detailed account of the operating conditions at Forfar. Perhaps someone can add to this by describing the living and recreational conditions.
'My training started at Arkley, Barnet and when this was completed I was asked where I would like to be posted and I chose Forfar as this was the nearest to my home in Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire. This Station was situated on Montreathmont Moor and was not really that near to Forfar, in fact the nearest small town was Brechin and the next was Montrose both being nearer than Forfar. Another popular town to visit was Arbroath, so Forfar was not a favourite watering hole for the Station staff. We lived in huts with a Corporal or N.C.O. in charge and in my case it was Harry Wood. The actual set rooms were some way from the huts and it was a long walk up a narrow road when going on duty. We knew this as the Burma Road and it could seem very long after a night shift. The shifts were of eight hours' duration, 8am to 4pm, 4pm to midnight and midnight to 8 am. After an ear-bashing with the phones on, a rest was welcome.
The aerial layout was huge and spread over a large part of the moor, naturally, because rhombics took up more space than the dipoles, but rhombics were preferred for directivity. The intercepting frequency cover was quite varied and I was involved in listening to German Secret Intelligence groups that were numbered individually, but I was not aware of where these stations were situated in Germany. We were given a frequency, call signs and times of activity and when it was necessary to find the location of the station we contacted the Concentrator using our individual phones. The Concentrator position was separate from the set room in a room overlooking us so that the operators could see the Concentrator operator speaking to them and could give signals if required. The Concentrator operator was given the frequency and details of the station calling, sending traffic or just being quiet, and he informed the Direction Finding stations which returned a fix to the Concentrator. The operator on the Concentrator then told the intercept operator who indicated in his log whether the D.F. was successful or not, but not the actual bearing. Instead a reference number was given. (I noticed that a small triangle was drawn to indicate that a bearing had been taken. Ed.)
The Forfar station was very large with many banks of receivers, a bank being two HRO receivers, one being used to intercept the control and the other to listen for the station he was working. Although I do not know the total numbers employed there, it would have been in the hundreds.
As the war in Europe came to a close the Station was gradually run down and finally closed around about June 1946 or a bit earlier; I cannot remember exactly as there was a request for volunteers to go to Sidi Bishr for six months and with some of my colleagues I volunteered and after a short transit period at Barnet proceeded to Egypt. Although the journey was fairly uneventful at the beginning, a change took place after the train journey from Port Said to Cairo. A few watches and wallets disappeared while in transit as the locals were hanging all over the train and they were experts at relieving the unwary of their valuables. We arrived at base camp Cairo; there were about fifteen of us in Royal Corps of Signals uniforms, some of which did not fit too well, including mine, and also a few of us requiring a haircut as we ambled along the square. The regular soldiers in this camp marched smartly everywhere and were immaculately dressed in clean uniforms and well blancoed belts etc. One can imagine what they thought of us; I believe a Sergeant major type shouted at us but it was difficult to understand what he said. Eventually the Colonel called us together and standing on what appeared to be a soap box told us that he had never come across such an untidy lot in his life, and he was going to split us up. He started saying where each of as would be sent, my destination was Afghanistan and others were destined for all sorts of uninviting places. The outcome of this was that our officer Captain Honeymoon had words with the Colonel and we were then told to go to our tents and that he never wanted to see us again. We thankfully disappeared and were on our way to Sidi Bishr just outside Alexandria the next day.
The Station was quite small, surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by South Africans. As the locals were not too happy with the British or their King Farouk at this time we had to rush to the fences with our rifles when the alarm sounded. This alarm often went off in the morning after a night shift and we had to stand to. Since the war was over the intercepts covered at this station mainly consisted of listening to the transmissions from the ships taking the Jews to Israel from Europe, usually via Cyprus. These people were turned back as the Mandate agreed on a limited number being allowed into what was then Palestine. So apart from the Egyptians being not too happy with our presence, the Jewish residents in Palestine were not happy either and gangs like the Stern gang and others attacked the British soldiers .
The shifts we worked at Sidi Bishr were A.M.N.O., which stood for Afternoons, Mornings the next day, Nights and Rest day. Some of us, including me, ended up in the Military hospital with dysentery, but the swimming and the weather were really very nice.
After our agreed six months had expired the Sidi Bishr station closed and special equipment was transferred to Cyprus by road to Haifa and then by sea. My last duty was escorting the equipment to a military camp in Haifa. My troubles should have been over, but not quite. A tough looking Sergeant saw me and came over and said, "Go over to that hill and get these prisoners to roll up the barbed wire". Well I had no idea of how that should be done and fortunately I was able to produce my pass indicating that I was on special duties. … thank goodness. So back to Sidi Bishr and then home in January 1947. I wonder if anyone remembers being in that batch with me that had that run in with the colonel.
No doubt I have missed a lot but I was only 19 when I went to Egypt and am now 77.
How time flies, and many of our colleagues have passed on…..the price I paid is permanent tinnitus from the Morse code invading my eardrums.'
Tom Howie SCU4 2603307 Later at GCHQ.
[Tinnitus is not uncommon among ex-operators and I have suffered from this, but fortunately mine has reduced. The only relief, as Tom pointed out in his letter to me, is to concentrate on other things and learn to live with it. In some cases ‘masking’ by introducing a similar sound externally is fairly effective and in my case (because my tinnitus was a rushing sound) I produced a similar sound from the noise a transistor generates greatly amplified. I discovered masking whilst invigilating an examination and realised that the tinnitus had disappeared. The reason was a fan running which produced just the right noise. I then found that the inter-station noise on VHF was as good and slept with a detuned FM receiver on all night. (This was before the days of inter-station noise suppression). G3ASE]
Ken Reid has also written to me with some memories of RSS days.
He reminds us that after D-Day the Germans changed their call signs, scheduled transmission times and frequencies, and that they were all recovered in a matter of days by recognition of the operators 'fist'.
'On night duty we were required to search over one degree of the tuning dial for half an hour. One night I was doing just that while scanning a magazine, not Playboy, when the duty Sergeant, usually referred to as Widow Twanky (he appearing to be as old as Methuselah) whipped it away and told me to concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing.
A night or so later it was my turn to make tea. In the small 'kitchen' there was an army of various condiments with which I 'laced' the Sergeant's mug and then served them round. After a while he said, 'Reid'. I thought 'this is it', and then he said, 'That was a superb cup of tea!' I came to the conclusion that there are times when you just can't win.
After VE day I was switched to monitoring the Russians who used bug keys and sent very fast Morse.
When they gave a QSY they were not to be found on the given frequency. By pure chance, during one such transmission, I found the other end of the link. Having made a note of the two frequencies, over a few days, I came up with a formula that gave the actual frequency every time. This got passed to Arkley and, though I subsequently assumed that it was due to this, I was posted from St Erth to research at Oaklands where I spent the rest of my time until demob'.
Ken is unfortunately now afflicted with Myasthenia gravis, which is related to Parkinson's disease in the neuro-muscular group, and has affected others from the SCU days. However he still retains his interest and keeps as active as possible. In my hospital visits to seriously ill patients (now running into the hundreds) I stress the importance of making the best of what we have and having a hobby or interest which keeps the mind active as well as such muscles that still work.
I hope as many as are able will join us on the 18th April at Bletchley Park.
Bob (Noz) King g3ase @ onetel . com 01480 463129