RSS/SCU Newsletter no.25 Feb 2007
We have been fortunate in being given permission to hold our 2007 reunion in the music room at the Mansion, Bletchley Park without charge.
The Museum's finances are at last getting into better shape under the new management partly because the Mansion is being used to provide income from lettings. However Simon Greenish, the new director, is aware of the work we did during the war and has shown his appreciation in granting us this facility.
We aim to start at 1100 hours, on Sunday the 29th of April, to allow time for those who have considerable distances to travel. It should be possible to gain admission shortly after 1000 hours but please allow me time to get sorted out before seeking my attention if you arrive early. My 'secretary' should be able to cope with any queries and keep the register. All interested visitors are welcome but please enter your name and brief details on the lists held by her. If you wish to be put on my mailing list enter your email address, or one from which you can obtain messages.
Our programme could possibly follow these lines:
Introduction and notices with a brief comment from me on "What constitutes a code-breaker".
1. Mike Coleman (G1YVR) will speak on Direction Finding from the 1930s to the present day. Knowing where radio transmitters are located is valuable in identifying stations not abiding by international agreement. In wartime knowing the location of enemy transmitters is of tremendous importance, from studying networks and their significance in the prosecution of the war to tracking and attacking vessels at sea, and in detaining or keeping a watch on enemy agents. Mike has made a study of this subject and we can look forward to revelations of an often-neglected subject.
2. Geoffrey Pidgeon is also going to deal with a little-known subject entitled Ascension. This was the codename for air-to-ground communications, which, although commonplace today, were nothing like so straightforward in WWII. Geoffrey was personally involved and will reveal the names of a surprising number of aircraft used by MI6 (sect. 8). He has recently been fortunate in locating wartime colleagues who can fill in gaps, necessary when dealing with matters long ago and kept secret for so long, coupled with the 'need to know'.
3. Bob Painter will make use of a very detailed report, made by Les Luscombe at the time in the 1940s, which was passed on to us by his son. Few such reports have come to light and are most valuable. Les, Bob and others were sent in 1946 to Palestine to help in sorting out the problems arising from the Jewish settlements in Palestine; problems that have never been solved but at that time involved the Stern Gang. It was a dangerous mission for which our RSS members were ill- prepared.
Talks and discussions will as usual continue into the afternoon so please re-assemble after not more than a one-hour break for lunch. Facilities for dining are on site. Last year the afternoon session was most popular and particularly enjoyed by descendents of SCU members so try not miss it and those who were in WWII please search your memories and come prepared to enrich the meeting.
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Sadly Noel White became a silent key, since last year's reunion, at the age of 95. You may remember him, sitting on the front row. He wrote several letters to me describing his experiences: the one that stands out was his journey to the Rock of Gibraltar where we had an intercept station.
As a Voluntary Interceptor working from home, he used, as I did, an Eddystone home-built receiver. He was in a reserved occupation and it was difficult to explain why he was not fire-watching or in the Home Guard. The VI group meetings were held in a Wellingborough club room to discuss the frequencies and stations to be monitored. After serving about 2 years as a VI he was enlisted at Arkley in October 1942 and following intercept and other work was posted to Gibraltar in October 1943, his wife sadly having just lost her first baby at birth. During the preparation period he was sent to Hanslope for weapon-training in rifle, bren- and tommy-gun firing with grenade practice, which made them deaf for a few days. The party left Barnet by train for Greenock. On the journey one of his group spotted his wife at the door of his house who of course was unaware of his posting. After waiting a few days for the convoy to assemble they embarked on the HMT Letitia. Conditions on board were very crowded and he slept in a hammock complete with lifejacket. Churchill had apparently decided that troopships should carry 25% more troops than previously. They sailed north for a time and then west, presumably round the north coast of Scotland, before heading south. There were frequent attacks by U-boats but the escorting destroyers would close in on a small area and drop depth charges. These produced hammer blows on the side of his ship so no doubt the submariners did not appreciate them. The convoy included an aircraft-carrier and Noel reports in one part of his narrative that slow biplanes took off to locate the subs and he was told that three were destroyed. One morning, as they were nearing Gibraltar, he looked up to see a long range four-engined German Condor that had managed to get over into the centre of the convoy to release a group of bombs. The aircraft-carrier was on his right with a large cargo ship on the left and another beyond that. The bombs fell between these two without hitting anything. Noel then says that Spitfires took off from the carrier (Seafires perhaps) and he had reports that the Condor was shot down, but the troops were ordered below when the attack started. It may be that the carrier used biplanes and Seafires for different purposes. After passing through the Straits of Gibraltar he was thankful to see the vertical sides of the rock looming through the mist.
One of the first tasks was to erect a high mast for the receiving aerials. The accommodation in newly erected Nissen huts was basic, comprising nothing much more than three 'biscuit' mattresses each. Churchill was visiting at this time and they were conducted through a tunnel to the other side of the rock to see a demonstration of a mass attack with rockets.
The SCU4 mess room almost seemed to be fixed to the side of the rock ─ very high up ─ with the Nissen huts for sleeping nearby. Aircraft taking off and landing appeared almost to brush the windows with their wings. The radio receiving room was much higher and also fixed to the side of the near vertical rock. They had good views for many miles so convoys could be spotted at great distances and also the Spanish and North African coasts were visible.
Interestingly Noel describes some work at Arkley which must have taken place after his return to the UK as he includes mention of the V1, flying bomb, which landed on the Arkley golf course. This occurred on 2nd July 1944 one morning when I was occupied in one of the huts doing General Search. Lt Col.Morton Evans came down from his office to see if we were alright as he was covered in white powder from his damaged ceiling. He told me later that he was very concerned about the loss of a dozen eggs which he had acquired from an undisclosed source. As you know eggs were strictly rationed and mostly we had to make do with dried egg that came in tins. Both Noel and I obtained pieces of that bomb. But what caught my attention in Noel's narrative was that he was working with a civilian (ex-wren) in a room next to Major Trevor Roper. They were enciphering and de-ciphering messages dealing mainly with the running of the RSS, communication with Gibraltar, SCU4 and American mobile units following the Normandy invasion and sent using one-time pad, the most secure cipher known. Urgent messages he had to take directly to HTR. Sometimes we were working in the same building but I was unaware of this and if I did meet Noel I don't remember now. Such was the division of departments and the secrecy between them. We must have shared the same billet and mess at times but of course work was never discussed.
Keith Taylor (G0XKT) kindly lent me a copy of "Romney Marsh at War" by Edward Carpenter. This contains remarkable detail of the battering that the area received, especially from 1939 to 1941, and includes the names of casualties, both German and the Allies, making it a very absorbing read.
The usual historical references to spies state that two landed in southern England, with transmitters, and were executed. Edward Carpenter gives a closely detailed account of four spies landing in September 1940 with instructions to report on troop movements, fortifications, gun types and airfield locations. This seems to be rather late in the day for operation Sealion which Hitler's generals had planned in June and by September was virtually abandoned. José Waldberg (German/French, born in Mainz) and Carl Meir (Dutch, born in Koblenz) landed near Dungeness by dinghy from a fishing vessel one mile offshore. Waldberg joined the espionage service in 1938 and trained as a spy in Wiesbaden. Charles Van der Kieboom (Dutch/Japanese and born in Japan) and Sjoerd Pons (Dutch and born in Amsterdam) landed between Hythe and Dymchurch and both were arrested within an hour of landing.
Meir was caught the next morning by showing that he was not familiar with pub opening times and available drinks. He walked down Ness Road in Lydd to the Rising Sun: do any of our lads who were stationed nearby know of it? Waldberg, Meir and Kieboom were tried and executed but Pons was spared. It is unlikely that he was 'turned' and I have no knowledge of the reason for his survival.
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Lord Dacre (Hugh Trevor Roper) gave me the following information:
The Abwehr was not very competent, we have to admit. It was not only incompetent, which was very useful because incompetence can be exploited, it was also undermined by disaffection. Many of the Abwehr officers were opponents of the Nazi regime and they were not very enthusiastic in their work. And indeed in 1944 two successive heads of the Abwehr, Admiral Canaris, who had been head of it since 1934, and his successor General Hansen, were arrested and afterwards executed. And in the summer of 1944 the Abwehr was taken over bodily by the SS. When the RSS was taken over by MI6 we can say that it was professionalized and made more efficient. The same cannot be said of the Abwehr when it was taken over by the SS. It just continued as before. It had not a great deal of time left, it is true.
At the end of the war, the new head of the Abwehr, Himmler’s man, was Walter Schellenburg, who was the hero of the Venlo incident. He had organized the kidnapping of the British officers at Venlo and he was now head of the whole business. And when he was surrendered at the end of the war, an officer of mine, Sir Stuart Hampshire, interrogated him, and Schellenburg was so staggered when he realized that we seemed to know absolutely everything, all the officers, all the stations, all the operations of the Abwehr, that he simply collapsed and gave in at once. So we can say I think that in its limited world the operation of penetration of the German intelligence service was successful, whereas the Germans never penetrated the British intelligence service. Schellenburg incidentally had a very romantic view of the British Secret Service. It was very useful to us that the Germans in general had a very romantic view of it. They thought it was a marvellously efficient organization. It wasn’t actually. Like every institution it had its defects, but I think it was better than the German Abwehr. Moreover, it got better as the war went on, whereas the Abwehr got worse.
[ Note: The Venlo incident took place on the Dutch-German frontier in November 1939 and exposed, some think, the poor performance of MI6 pre-war. The SIS (MI6) had a transmitter operating in The Hague. In fact a senior SIS officer, Major Stevens, had made contact with a group of high-ranking but disaffected German officers who were supposed to be planning a coup d’état in Berlin. It was agreed that he would meet the Germans at the frontier and pass information to them. The meeting was duly arranged and Stevens took another officer, Captain Best, and Lt. Klop, a Dutch Liason Officer, with him. He was also carrying a Mark XV wireless transmitter, this being the first of its type made by the SIS at Whaddon Manor. In addition he was to supply the Germans with a code to enable the Germans to communicate with the SIS from Hauptman Schämmel’s billet in Düsseldorf. However the SIS had been duped, as Schämmel was in fact Walter Schellenberg, a Sicherheitsdienst officer and the whole thing was an elaborate charade designed to trap and kidnap the officers so that the transmitter and information about the SIS fell into German hands. Lt. Klop was shot by the SD men who appeared and the two British officers were imprisoned for the duration of the war. It is believed that this was the shake-up that led to a re-organizing of the SIS into a more effective organization than it had been for a long time. So perhaps the Germans did us a good turn with the Venlo incident. Incredibly the SIS continued communicating with Schämmel, for about two weeks, until he got fed up and sent this message:
Negotiations for any length of time with conceited and silly people are tedious. You will understand, therefore, that we are giving them up. You are hereby bidden a hearty farewell by your affectionate German opposition. Signed: The Gestapo.
Nevertheless unfortunately for us and the many British agents who lost their lives, the Germans captured most of the SOE agents sent to Holland, amongst others, and as we ignored the warning codes sent by our wireless operators, acting under duress, we continued to pass information to them and therefore straight into German hands. Many of our agents were thus rounded up, tortured and killed. Some people never learn].
To learn more about this disgraceful affair read “Between Silk and Cyanide” by Leo Marks.
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Incidentally may I remind you that I have compiled a book list of various related works that I have in my collection, with comments on how useful or interesting you may find them. I cannot guarantee that they are all still available but there are sources for out of print books. I actually managed to get a photocopy of “War, Wireless and Wangles” a WW1 account by Major Gill.
ENIGMA Robert Harris1995 (Hutchinson)
A first class novel accurately based on the activities of BP.
ALAN TURING Andrew Hodges l983 (Unwin)
Excellent for the serious student of Alan Turing. 580 detailed pages, which may be heavy going for older eyes. £7 in pbk.
CODEBREAKERS Edited by Hinsley & Stripp 1993 (OUP) 310pp
Fascinating contributions from those who worked at BP. Well worth reading at £8 pbk.
THE CODEBREAKERS David Kahn 1974 (Purnell)
The standard work on code-making and -breaking for the serious student. 460pp.
THE HUT SIX STORY Gordon Welchman 1997 (Baldwin)
How Welchman won the war but nevertheless a first rate insight into many aspects of the work at BP. Technical in places but a very good £8 worth.
BRITISH INTELLIGENCE IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR Vol. 4. Hinsley and Simkins (HMSO)
Much use is made of the Public Record Office (now National Archives). 384 pages packed with reliable information on wireless activities including the RSS and agents. This appears to be the only published account of the RSS which includes an almost complete account of agents sent here. £16
STATION X Michael Smith l999 (Channel 4 Books) 181pp
In spite of the disputed title this book gives a readable summary of BP's work, much of which has been reported elsewhere.
THE CODE BOOK Simon Singh 1999 (Fourth Estate also on TV) 400 pp
Dealing with history right up to date; if you don't understand the subject after reading this book you never will. I have never read any subject better explained.
GCHQ Nigel West 1986 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
Readable but contains some errors. A few of the myths here have been perpetuated. It was written before more recent information came to light. Was £13.
BETWEEN SILK AND CYANIDE Leo Marks 1998 (Harper Collins)
I would confidently expect you to have difficulty in closing this book before reaching the last of its 606 pages. Both extremely witty and tragic, it is the most captivating history of SOE and its codes.
COLOSSUS 1943-1946 Tony Sale 1998 (Baldwin)
16 pages that should not be missed. Try the BP bookshop.
SEIZING THE ENIGMA David Kahn 1996 (Arrow Books)
The 330 pages are easier to read than "The Codebreakers" and are a very good description of the Enigma machine and its history.
BATTLE OF WITS Stephen Budianski 2000 (Viking-Penguin) 436pp
After 40 pages of naval matters in the Pacific a first class history of Room 40 follows. Making extensive use of the Public Record Office, it is an excellent account of subsequent developments with much previously unpublished material and photographs. However the subtitle "The Complete Story of Code Breaking in WWII" is somewhat pretentious.
ENIGMA AND ITS ACHILLES HEEL Hugh Skillen 1992 (Hugh Skillen)
An extremely detailed description of the Enigma machine and all its ramifications. Some chapters are disjointed. The pictures are poor1y reproduced and the German instructions for the machine are printed in the appendix in Gothic script, which few English readers will understand; but it is a very worthwhile study.
THE ULTRA SECRET F.W.Winterbotham. 1974 (Orion Books Ltd) 191pp pbk £8
Although written so early on, it contains much valuable information but there is no mention of the RSS, which was still secret at this time. Mention only is made that Abwehr ciphers were broken. Well worth reading from the military viewpoint.
ENIGMA (The Battle for the Code) Hugh Sebag-Montefiore 2000 pbk £8. 366 pp (+100 on technical matters)
An excellent detailed account of seizures of Enigma material without which little progress would have been possible at BP. How much was not achieved is given as well as the successes. Gripping accounts of the Atlantic battles for Enigma. Readable, well written, book which includes cipher-breaking explanations and chronology in the appendices and more.
ACTION THIS DAY Edited by Michael Smith & Ralph Erskine (Bantam Press) 457 pp £32
Contributions from 18 authors make this a fascinating if expensive read. Contains previously unpublished inside information about individuals at BP.
ULTRA GOES TO WAR 1978 Ronald Lewin (Hutchinson &Co) 376pp
Chiefly a military history with the Ultra parts explained better in later books. The RSS and the Abwehr are not mentioned, as the RSS was not made public until 1979.
THE SECRET WIRELESS WAR Geoffrey Pidgeon. 2005 This is the work for a complete account of Gambier Parry’s domain so far as is known and is written by those who were there and only those. Highly recommended. For more on SIS and MI5, including agents, see British Intelligence in WW2, above.
THE SECRET WIRELESS WAR Grindelwald Productions DVD. Excellent. Describes the work of the
RSS, Whaddon and the Black Propaganda.
Choice for easy reading: 1. Between Silk and Cyanide 2.The Code Book 3. Enigma (the novel). 4. Enigma (Hugh Sebag-Montefiore) For SCU information British Intelligence WWII. Others: The Hut Six Story, Station X and Battle of Wits. But I would reject none of the above as a waste of time. The two Secret Wireless War titles are ‘must see’.
Best Wishes to you all.
Bob and Jean King. g3ase <AT> waitrose.com Tel:01480 463129