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The Germans were using the Enigma machine for highest level communication and it was realised if this could be decoded we would be on to a good thing. There was a shortage of skilled radio operators. The Radio Security Service was set up and I was enlisted as a voluntary Interceptor. I worked at this for two years, after a normal days work. Then I was called up in July 1942. I was a signalman at various places in the UK. The main purpose of the Radio Security Service was interception of signals and it was the feedstock for Bletchley Park, and also the detection of enemy agents, which is the work I did. We would go out in cars to locations where transmissions were expected. The final stage was carried out by a ‘snifter’, with a portable receiver. My pal J.D. Cosadinos was one of these.

I went to Normandy, Rouens, Amiens and finished up in Brussels. When the war ended we went to Germany where I was injured in a motorbike accident.

Once when I was on intercept duty I intercepted a transmission (code name LOPO), that turned out to be from a German War Ship, - that earned me a Commendation.
These are the two events that stand out in my mind. I was at a training scheme on top of the Mendips. A farm labourer was working in a furrow,when we noticed a runaway tractor headed towards the officers and soldiers, so I yelled ‘get out of the way quick!’ and they just made it. I was aware that Sgt. Major Coles was running along and he managed to stop the tractor, which had a spliced harrow attached and could have caused serious injury or death. I remember the farm labourer being really scared. He offered us two shillings and six pence, but we didn’t accept of course!

The other event was in connection with an agent, a ‘trev’. I went out with another telegraphist, Cpl. Fred Evans. We came to a bit of wooded ground near Rouens and found a good place to take a bearing from. I could hear rustling sounds, which I didn’t think too much of at first. When we had finished we discovered a gang of French Resistance had been making the sounds. I spoke good French so could understand them. At this time it was suspected there were still a few German stragglers – the French had spotted a suspect car and once they were satisfied we were not the enemy they asked for our help, but it was our car! They seemed awfully disappointed they hadn’t caught spies. That was probably as near as I got to being killed during the war.

A scene of corruption: Jardin des Inglais – the SS had taken British prisoners there to shoot. These things stick most in my mind.

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