RSS/SCU Newsletter no.19 MAY 2004
More than 50 people attended the 8th Reunion at the Park on 18th April with Bletchley Park, Arkley, Hanslope, Whaddon, Forfar, Little Horwood, Gawcott, and Pottsgrove all represented.
Once more our thanks go to the staff at Bletchley Park for providing facilities for us to hold our annual reunions at the Park.
Unfortunately the weather was the worst we have experienced, and the German Army, with apparently no authority, stopped us from parking close to the education room. Neither of these prevented us from having a first-class meeting including 18 members who were present last year and 5 who have attended all 8 reunions. John (G7SF) navigated his way by GPS from Widnes, with a total journey of 329 miles in the day.
The changes, which are taking place at the Park were described briefly but we await more details with a little trepidation and hope that nothing of importance and relevance will be lost. The book and film "The Secret Wireless War" are well established and ensure that, due to the magnificent work and expense by Geoffrey and contributions from many 'who were there', the history of the Special Communications Units will not be lost for future generations.
I was able to try out my new computer-driven projector, this gave me experience which will be valuable for future presentations. Owing to the time factor I could only offer some of the salient developments in the history of telegraphy from static experiments to high speed Morse code by current electricity. Later this presentation, but extended to an hour, has been of interest to local radio clubs. If there is a demand I will try to write up this story but it may be difficult to include all the pictures.
My favourite failure is the experiment using ten metal plates on which the recipient rested his fingers. The signals were provided using static electricity and the message was read by noting the pattern of shocks received. The arrest of Doctor Crippen, when the boat on which he had crossed the Atlantic arrived in NewYork, was due to the recent application of wireless in 1910. An equally significant event took place 65 years earlier when John Tawell was picked up off the train in Paddington, having thought he would escape following the murder of his mistress in Slough. He reckoned without the needle telegraph which had been operating for some years (before Morse gave his public demonstration in 1837) along British railways. This event also brought rapid communication to public notice and accelerated its use. Very many people were involved in telegraphic development and Cooke and Wheatstone played a most important part. Incidently Professor Christie invented the 'Wheatstone Bridge' and Wheatstone invented the 'Playfair Cipher'. But it is not possible to give any one person credit for inventing the telegraph. Practical 'static electricity' telegraphs were in use early in 1800 if not before.
Among the demonstrations was Morse's original letter code which none present could read. This is hardly surprising as it was not designed to be. The receiver made marks on a paper strip and an individual letter might have spaces or dashes of different lengths. For example the letter B was two dots a space and then two more dots, and the letter L was a dash longer than 4 dots (very confusing). The two-tone single-needle telegraph aroused memories as it was in use on the railways until 1970 and the tinkling sound could often be heard when passing a signal box. The signalmen learned to read the code from listening to the different tones produced as the needle hit the stops instead of having to watch the movement of the needle. It may have been as early as 1846 that operators in the USA first listened to the clicks of the paper readers instead of reading off the printout, but later the sounder came into its own and this instrument was part of the demonstration David has an undulator on display in Hut 1. This machine is capable of receiving Morse code at 200 words per minute.
From time to time new evidence comes to light and Les Luscombe's son-in-law (now a widower) sent me some very detailed reports made by Les during operations in the 40s. These still just readable typed accounts, written on the flimsy foolscap paper of the period, give a very illuminating account of every transport detail and brush with authority during his visit to Belfast in order to set up Station 4. Further valuable information is contained in the detailed report of his part in the operation in Palestine to track down the Stern gang. [These papers are now deposited at Bletchley Park in David's care]
Bob Painter was a member of this party and Bob gave an account of his involvement and his name appears in Leslie's papers. Bob went on to explain how being unarmed and not trained in combat he was accompanied by members of the SAS. He used the level of signal strength in the final stages of locating the wanted transmitter. A future Newsletter may contain a full account of Bob's experiences.
David White showed us for the first time the cunning disguise of Bob Hornby's transmitter inside the speaker case of a car radio. An 807 PA with a 6L6 crystal oscillator were positioned around the speaker and the car radio receiver adapted for short wave CW (Morse) reception. Bob was testing the detection methods for the home security forces and they could not find the origin of the 'illicit' signals. When the source was revealed this led to the banning of car radios for the duration (of the war)..
John Tully Jackson used the projector to show the Wm Amos presentation for the Haddington History Society. Mr Amos was a WWI naval operator of distinction who ran a wireless shop in Haddington whilst also making a significant contribution in WWII as a Voluntary Interceptor (VI), which earned him the BEM. Several VIs did get awards but we have been unable to discover the citations.
After a break for lunch, John Foster, a dedicated ex-RSS operator, explained how he cannot give up the habit and listens regularly to the Box 25 skeds on 80 metres. He assured us that his shakes were not entirely due to a visit from Mr Parkinson but because he had just been to the 'Gents' and found a burly German in army uniform sitting on the loo, which frightened him more than any war-time experience. Apart, that is, from the sound of an intensive bombing raid whilst he was serving at Forfar. The alarming sound of bangs and whistles turned out to be eminating from the boiler. Apparently the boiler attendant had gone to visit his girl friend and had forgotten that he had left the settings on high.
Keith Taylor produced some detailed maps showing the wartime location of the aerial masts at Forfar. These masts were made from pine tree trunks lashed together to give a height of 100 feet. Dud Charman's wide band amplifiers, employing the 807 transmitting valves, were installed here as at other intercept stations. Forfar sent as many intercept logs to Arkley as did Hanslope. It was one of my tasks to sift through these looking for suspect transmissions which the operators found in between their assigned intercepts of identified stations. How interesting it is that I was now meeting the operators who had been only (usually unreadable) names at the top of the off-white log sheets with red column markings. All intercepts were written down in pencil as were all our card indexes and records at Arkley. Ball pens had not been invented and a fountain pen might give out at the crucial moment. Some VIs did copy out their logs in ink and one even typed his work but this was discouraged. We preferred to see the original copy, mistakes and all. When I carried out experiments in 1960 I found that pencil work was more durable than any other ink I tried and I still have a book with all the enemy secret intelligence services that I had written out in pencil in 1942. The entries are as clear as when they were written. Being ambidextrous gave me a slight advantage over other scrutineers as I could wield the rubber stamps and write comments in red or blue on the sheets with my right hand, entering up 'suspect' details on a pad on my left without having to pick up different pencils each time. I admired the tenacity of the chaps who wrote out page after page of sometimes very long messages from one station after another. Of course we had no idea of what information the messages contained.
Bob (Noz) King g3ase @ onetel . com 01480 463129