- Contributed by听
- BOB HORNER
- People in story:听
- Robert Henry Horner
- Location of story:听
- In the War Office radio room in Whitehall
- Background to story:听
- Army
- Article ID:听
- A2015803
- Contributed on:听
- 10 November 2003
Dunkirk evaccuation was taking place and Iwas in the radio room that night in the capacity of engineer ,and engineers had to be able to read and send morse signals so as to completeley test the radto receivers and transmitters used. But I was approached by a senior nco who explained that I would not be required as TOP BRASS was taking over for something special .
I was not told but it was to get a message to the rearguard at Dunkirk
Top Brass arrived with an onterage of a radio engineer from Mullards and all the brains that could be got and there were two or three top rank army officers.
I was told that I was not to be there .you see I was only eighteen and not cosidered to be ther as boy soldier. but they did have a job for me . The bunker was well down in the bowls of the earth and openning a side door there was a few feet of ground on which was our generator ,the size of a bus engine.. OK said a seargent we have a job forvyou ,there were many two gallon petrol cans of petrol .your job lad is to stay out here and fedd it with fuel until every one had gone .
Looking upwards i could see the sky a bright chink of light up which ran the co ax ariel leed.
I was out ther till about 3am and then I looked in the radioroom thedr was only the duty radio operator there
HE said they have given up .I found that they were trying to chang frequency of the transmitter.
THis was a dificult job as with a tranmitter of this size one could easily burn the valves out..
The duty operator said that he was to pick up a signal with a certain code he had listend but got nothing .
I said that if they were still calling I would try to make contact. I altered the tunning slightly and the was the signal ,but said the operator I listened and said the signal is being jammed , just relax and read through it .I then made contact and handed the morse key back to him.
I have always wanted to know if I did any good that night and whoi was the rcipient at th other end.
All tfaffic was in code in those daysso nobody knew what was going on
I have been a fully licenced amateur since the war .
The duty operator was an nco but it seemed that he had spent all his army service on th northwest frontier where ther was no radio interference . he had noty heard of jamming. All the current radio ops at that time were trained to read through inteference.
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