Amateur Radio & Wireless Intercept (Y) Services History
1899 -1939
The first use of Wireless communications was in the Boer War 1899 - 1902 and the possibilities of wireless interception were realised by the military leaders of the time. Although it was not until the outbreak of the first world war 1914-1918 that the wireless technology had advanced enough for the military to use it as a really successful tool.
During the early months of the first world war some of the British wireless sections began picking up signals that were originating from the enemy. They realised from the amount of traffic being intercepted that the Germans were making considerable use of wireless transmissions for their communications. It was also discovered that as before when telegraph line transmissions were intercepted they had been coded.
Intelligence officers were assigned to study the contents of these intercepted messages and it was realised that it would be an advantage to locate the enemy wireless stations transmitting these messages. Two Marconi technicians were assigned to this task and conducted experiments on the Wiltshire Downs near to Devizes.
They used modified loop aerials to locate the position of a transmitter, this was achieved by taking bearings at more than two different locations. By using these loop aerials the location of the transmitter could be pinpointed with some considerable accuracy. When the direction-finding results were compared with the content of the messages, the transmitters could be matched with known enemy formations. This enabled intelligence officers to follow the movements of the formations and the positions of their headquarters even when the messages could not be deciphered.
This process was later to become known as traffic analysis, the War Office realised the importance of this new area of intelligence work and created a new department with the director of military intelligence in charge. The team studied the resulting intercepts and developed the science of Traffic analysis, this involved the interception of station call signs, operating frequencies, the study of signals in clear and ciphered text, D/F fixes, radio finger printing and the recognition of individual radio operators by the particular style they used to send Morse code.
The Navy was having more success than the Army in the use of wireless communications during this period and consequently became heavily involved in intercept work. In the summer of 1914 the Admiralty received reports that the General Post Office had picked up German signals from their station at Lowestoft.
So the Naval intelligence department quickly authorised an intercept station to be set up at Hunstanton to monitor this signal traffic. The coast guard hut there was used to house the equipment and three Radio Amateurs were assigned to man it. Here began a secret tradition as these were the first of the Voluntary Interceptors or VIs, whose work was later to prove so vital in the second world war.
1939 -1941
After the outbreak of War in September 1939 MI 8 was formed and was given the responsibility for Signals Intelligence (SigInt), which included the Y Services. The Y Services consisted of several different departments the RAF, Army, Navy, Metropolitan Police, Post Office and the Foreign Office. Each service was used to listen to the coded signals of their opposites numbers within the enemy's armed forces.
Also in 1939 the government issued the new defence regulations, which altered the Licencing conditions of the Radio Amateurs in Great Britain. The regulations restricted the use of Amateur Radio Transmitters except with the direct permission of the government. This was done to combat the threat of enemy agents operating transmitters from within the British Isles.
The Voluntary Interceptors -RSS
In order to monitor and police this threat MI5 created a new organisation called the Radio Security Service (RSS) which operated as part of the Y Service. This new department was given the cover designation of MI8c and was headed by Major Worlledge who's brief was to intercept, locate and close down any illicit wireless stations operated by enemy agents or by other persons not licensed to do so under the new Defence Regulations of 1939.
Early in 1940 from the temporary HQ set up in Wormwood Scrubs prison with virtually no staff, no receiving stations and no skilled radio operators Major Worlledge tasked Lord Sandhurst with finding him the skilled wireless operators that he needed. Lord Sandhurst approached the Radio Society of Great Britain for assistance, founded in 1913 the R.S.G.B. looks after and furthers the interests of Britain's Radio Amateurs.
On the R.S.G.B's recommendations a secret army of voluntary operators were slowly recruited from the RAF's Civilian Wireless Reserve and the country's radio amateurs. These people became known as the Voluntary Interceptors or VIs and by using equipment set up in their homes they were initially tasked with listening out for traffic flowing between the Abwehr (German Intelligence) base stations and their agents in the field known as "foxes".
The VIs had to sort out the weaker signals transmitted by the foxes from the other radio traffic which had much stronger signals, this was easy for the VIs being radio amateurs they were used to seeking out weak signals and soon became skilled in this task. Eventually enough VIs were recruited to cover a 24hr service and those who could send in more than 48 logs a month would be excused from other duties such as fire-watching and Air Raid Patrol work.
As a cover it was decided to set up a special branch of the Royal Observer Corps into which the VIs were enlisted and issued with uniforms. After a few months the RSS had out grown its temporary headquarters and moved to Arkley View in Middlesex. Soon after this move it was realised that there were no enemy agents operating from in Great Britain and according to the traffic analysts at Arkley all of the intercepts were now being received from enemy nets operating solely on the continent.
The task of the VIs was now complete, but instead of disbanding them, they were now diverted to monitoring the traffic on the continent. In a relatively short time Lord Sandhurst had turned his army of radio amateurs into a highly professional unit dedicated to their work. The VIs had spent many hours listening on their receivers unable to tell their families what they were doing.
However, by late 1940 the growth in the number of VIs had caused difficulties for the services, who were finding it hard to recruit enough experienced operators to man their own Y stations. In late 1940 the Prime Minister asked Lord Hankey to investigate this shortfall. On his recommendations a substantial number of VIs were transferred into the military services to man their Y stations. This move was bitterly resented by Major Worlledge, but even so there had been some 1500 voluntary Interceptors working for the RSS by the end of the war.
Experimental Wireless Assistants
In late 1940
when these radio amateurs were sent to be part of the military Y Services
they were enlisted as Civilian Operators.
Special Wireless Operators
This expansion was due to the increasing enemy wireless communications traffic as the Axis forces invaded more of Europe. The Deputy Director of Military Intelligence had decided that the cure for the shortage of skilled operators problem was to train military people to fulfil this role and a decision was made to train women of the ATS, WRENS and WAAF to perform the operating tasks. For the first time these new military personnel would be women and given the title special wireless operators.
Beaumanor Army Y Station
In 1941the Fort Bridgeworks army barracks near Chatham were bombed and some of the Ladies stationed there doing Military work lost there lives, so a decision was made to move the Army Y station, the move was to RAF Chicksands in Bedfordshire, and was hailed as "the promised land" to the personnel of the newly named Special Wireless Group (SYG). There stay at Chicksands was a short and unhappy affair to be found in the Chronicles of St Upid documents forming part of the Beaumanor Staff Magazine. Shortly after this first move a second move to the "promised land" took place this time it was to be their home until the end of the war. Beaumanor Hall near Quorn in Leicestershire was the location prepared for the newly named (again) War Office Y Group (WOYG) and Beaumanor was to be the Head Quarters hence WOYG HQ. The RAF personnel stationed at Beaumanor then moved to Chicksands to combine with the other RAF staff at the base and were given the title Special Y Service and this was to be their home until the end of the war.
1942 -1946
At Beaumanor in the Second World War the intercept programme was focused on the interception of the Wehrmacht's Enigma coded wireless traffic and this work was largely conducted by the Army personnel stationed there. Not forgetting the work carried out in H Hut by the Civilian EWA's of whom many were originally Radio Amateurs.
During the war some 8000 men and women from the RAF, Army, Royal Navy, Post Office, Metropolitan Police and the Foreign Office were engaged in duties at the many Y stations located in this country and around the world. Their daily task of intercepting enemy radio communications to provide the raw material for the code breakers at Bletchley Park.
Many Y Stations were located abroad and consisted of many field and mobile units whose work must not be overlooked, as this work played just as vital role as the work carried out by the fixed stations that were located here in the United Kingdom. Many of these people were even more at risk as they operated in isolation at locations very close to the enemy lines and with very limited Armour for protection. Many of these courageous people lost their lives or were captured by the enemy.
The Y Service was the "ears" of Bletchley Park and without this vital service the Government Codes and Cipher School would not have been able to function, this fact is sometimes overlooked by the intrigue that exists in the process of the secret code breaking activities carried out by G.C&C.S. during world war two.
1945 -1970
The Y Service was not disbanded at the end of the war, but many changes took place for it to emerge reborn again. Beaumanor became a GCHQ controlled civilian operated Y Station, the technology an the people formed an evolving timeline, through to 1970 when Beaumanor received it's last message and closed, the Keys were handed over and the new owners took over.
This is as you can imagine, not the whole story but more will be added soon.