Showing posts with label Voluntary Interceptor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Voluntary Interceptor. Show all posts
Tuesday, 15 September 2015
BANTOCK HOUSE MUSEUM 1940s WORLD WAR WEEKEND 2015
Bantock House Museum and Park travelled back in time with a weekend of wartime nostalgia on the 5th and 6th of September!
There were plenty of 1940s #re-enactors and visitors wearing themed costumes at this lovely Edwardian house and parkland and everyone got into the spirit of the time and joined in with the dancing!
In the tractor shed, Home Front re-enactors are seen here (pictured below) visiting a #Ystation display (wireless station) showing the work of radio interception during #WWII.
With lots of #vintage shopping for the enthusiasts, a scale model aeroplane and 1930s Hornby train exhibition, #1940s picnic and land girls display, this was an entertaining weekend at this scenic venue!
Monday, 13 April 2015
THE RADIO SPIES AND THE WAR OF THE WIRELESS - WWII
Hidden away in lowly lit rooms, wearing headphones and with heads bowed, the radio spies silently worked. At the same time, the people of the Home Front unaware of this clandestine activity were also tuning in to their wireless sets. Motivated by inspiring and patriotic speeches from their wartime leaders they were busy with war work and defending the Home Front.
The radio interceptors were chosen for their agile minds, ability to work at speed, and also for the stamina required to work exhaustingly long shifts. At home and abroad the radio spies listened to the German transmissions, writing down morse code.
These coded transmissions, sent by the Germans, encrypted by Enigma machines, and received by the listening stations were sent to Bletchley Park. Once decoded they gave valuable information about bombing targets and invasion plans. Some Y stations, or Wireless Intercept stations, using direction finding, identified the position of German U boats. Voluntary Interceptors were also used. Radio hams, often with their own receivers, were secretly working from their own homes, and no one knew, not even their families! The work of the Y stations and Voluntary Interceptors was kept top secret.
In France, British planes dropped secret agents and spy suitcase radios to assist the work of the French Resistance. Messages or instructions were relayed to the Resistance via news broadcasts.
In 1980, the truth about the work of Bletchley Park was revealed, although the contribution made by the radio interceptors is still to be fully acknowledged. Churchill's network or web of radio spies helped to shorten the war and save thousands of lives.
Source
Manpower - Ministry of Information - published 1944 Alabaster Passmore and Sons, Ltd.
The Secret Life of Bletchley Park Sinclair McKay
The Secret Listeners Sinclair McKay
The radio interceptors were chosen for their agile minds, ability to work at speed, and also for the stamina required to work exhaustingly long shifts. At home and abroad the radio spies listened to the German transmissions, writing down morse code.
These coded transmissions, sent by the Germans, encrypted by Enigma machines, and received by the listening stations were sent to Bletchley Park. Once decoded they gave valuable information about bombing targets and invasion plans. Some Y stations, or Wireless Intercept stations, using direction finding, identified the position of German U boats. Voluntary Interceptors were also used. Radio hams, often with their own receivers, were secretly working from their own homes, and no one knew, not even their families! The work of the Y stations and Voluntary Interceptors was kept top secret.
In France, British planes dropped secret agents and spy suitcase radios to assist the work of the French Resistance. Messages or instructions were relayed to the Resistance via news broadcasts.
In 1980, the truth about the work of Bletchley Park was revealed, although the contribution made by the radio interceptors is still to be fully acknowledged. Churchill's network or web of radio spies helped to shorten the war and save thousands of lives.
Source
Manpower - Ministry of Information - published 1944 Alabaster Passmore and Sons, Ltd.
The Secret Life of Bletchley Park Sinclair McKay
The Secret Listeners Sinclair McKay
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Churchill, Bletchley Park, the Radio Spies and "The Imitation Game"
Churchill's experiences during World War One had prepared him for the national web of secrecy and espionage needed to help defeat Hitler in World War Two. This included Bletchley Park and it's famous code breakers. Also, the radio interceptors or radio spies who were based at listening stations throughout Britain, listening and writing down enemy morse code transmissions which were sent to Bletchley Park for decoding. Further support came from the Voluntary Interceptors, who were recruited early in the war, radio hams with the expertise and often their own radio equipment needed to listen in to enemy transmissions. They also worked in secret, often from their own homes, the other occupants of the house unaware of their activities.
"The Imitation Game," a new film starring Benedict Cumberbatch is a bio-pic of the work of the mathematician Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, decoding the information from the radio interceptors and working with colleagues to develop the "Bombe" an early computer to assist with and speed up the process of code-breaking. The success of Bletchley Park saved over three million lives and helped to shorten the war. The work and accuracy of the Y Service or listening station was also vital. For example, a listening station at the Old Rectory, Whitchurch, Shropshire intercepted foreign diplomatic transmissions from the Japanese Embassy in Berlin to Japan, giving detailed information about German defences in northern France in 1943. helping with the success of D-Day. The importance of safeguarding "Ultra" the intelligence received from Bletchley Park and of keeping Germany unaware of our ability to break the Enigma code is well known, but Churchill's vast network of secrecy also extended to the homefront with the British people's contribution, well aware that "careless talk costs lives."
"The Imitation Game," a new film starring Benedict Cumberbatch is a bio-pic of the work of the mathematician Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, decoding the information from the radio interceptors and working with colleagues to develop the "Bombe" an early computer to assist with and speed up the process of code-breaking. The success of Bletchley Park saved over three million lives and helped to shorten the war. The work and accuracy of the Y Service or listening station was also vital. For example, a listening station at the Old Rectory, Whitchurch, Shropshire intercepted foreign diplomatic transmissions from the Japanese Embassy in Berlin to Japan, giving detailed information about German defences in northern France in 1943. helping with the success of D-Day. The importance of safeguarding "Ultra" the intelligence received from Bletchley Park and of keeping Germany unaware of our ability to break the Enigma code is well known, but Churchill's vast network of secrecy also extended to the homefront with the British people's contribution, well aware that "careless talk costs lives."
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Welcome to 1940′s Picture Post!
The Picture Post will be publishing your WW2 stories, reporting events and bringing you photo's, interviews in fact anything and everything connected with the 1940's!
Your Stories from Bantock House War Weekend
John Harris was a young boy during World War 2. He lived in Walsall with his grandparents, parents and brother. Whilst he and his brother were busy working in the garden (their job was to keep the Anderson shelter covered with soil and grass) they noticed a man at the back of the garden tying ariel wire to a tree. Because the need for security had been drummed into them he told his mother about this who then told the local ARP warden Mr. Reeve, who was also the local chemist and had a shop at the top of the road. “I thought he was probably a spy,” said John, ”it turned out that he was a listener, a voluntary interceptor, who was visited by an army despatch rider.
Thought this was a very interesting story because we are only just beginning to find out more about the UK’s network of voluntary interceptors, who listened into german transmissions and sent the information to Bletchley Park, often using despatch riders.
Bantock House War Weekend also featured an exhibition about Geoff Hanley who was a radio technician in World War One and a Voluntary Interceptor from 1940 -1944. Harry Platt, who told me that Geoff had his own transmitter and mast, was also a member of this group of amateur radio hams. Harry said,”everyone made their own wirelesses called ’breadboards’.
Another visitor to Bantock House Museum was veteran Geoffrey Ensor, who served on HMS Jason, and was a Leutenant in the RNV Reserve. Geoffrey was at the Normandy landings, serving on the landing crafts and transferring troops onto the Normandy beaches.
Thanks to everyone who took time to talk to me at what was a very busy and successful event, and apologies to the re-enactors Karen and co and The Scallywags for not yet posting photos. A temporary gliche I hope!
TV, DVD and FILM
War Weekend
It’s World War Weekend at Bantock House Museum, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September and entrance is free. The theme is communication and includes a profile of radio spy Geoff Hanley who was a voluntary interceptor, and the role of Bantock house as an army communications centre during the Second World War. There are also displays and re-enactments and an exhibition featuring the work of war correspondent Ernie Pyle, and some moving letters written by soldiers during the First World War.
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