大象传媒

I was born in 1923. I left school in 1939 and in 1944, I was employed as a draughtsman with Hobourn Aero Components in Coventry. The Company was producing components for Hurricane and Spitfire aircraft. As an employee of Hobourn Aero Components, I was in a 'reserved' occupation and, therefore, not liable for military service.

I enrolled in the Kettering Home Guard, Intelligence Section, and attended evening classes to improve my German language skills. I was very keen to be enlisted in the Armed Services and after much persistence, my employers finally released me.

I applied to join the Intelligence Corps and attended an interview at Trafalgar House. Some of the questioning I underwent at the interview concerned whether I was interested in solving crossword puzzles, which I was. My call-up was arranged by the Intelligence Corps on the 23 February 1944 and I was enlisted in the General Service Corps at the Royal West Kent Barracks in Maidstone. I spent six weeks undergoing basic infantry training and then I was posted to the Intelligence Corps Depot in June 1944 in the Wentworth Wood House, Rotherham for training and assessment to decide which branch of the Intelligence Corps I was best suited.

Following the training for specialist intelligence operations in wireless Morse code and motorcycle driving, I was transferred to MI8, the Section dealing with decoding activities. I was sent for a further ten weeks to a house in Fitzjohns Avenue, Hampstea. The emphasis of the training was the breaking of Japanese military codes and the analysis of the amount of wireless traffic being transmitted by the Japanese, thus indicating military activites about to take place and their origin.

In June 1944, I embarked on the Queen of Bermuda from Gourock, Scotland and disembarked four weeks later at Bombay, India. After a five-day train journey from Bombay to Abbotabad, North West Frontier, I was involved in the wireless intercepting of Japanese transmissions. My detachment was posted to the New Delhi Centre, where combined activities of decoding and wireless interception analysis were carried out.

After the conflict with Japan in August 1945, I requested to be transferred to the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME). During my attachment to the Intelligence Corps Depot and whilst waiting my transfer to REME, I was admitted to hospital with appendicitis. After the operation, I was sent for recuperation to the Island of Menora in Karachi. It was at the time when India was seeking independence from Grat Britain and whilst I was in Menora, the Indian Navy mutinied. The recuperating soldiers were issued with 'arms' and were placed in strategic defensive postions until the mutiny was subdued by the Black Watch and the arrival of HMS Belfast in Karachi.

I was promoted to Sergeant and on transfer to REME, I was placed in charge of the Drawing Office, workshop Engineering Offices in Kankinara, Calcutta, India. I was later transferred to employment in charge of the technical section of the Indian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (IEME) Branch of the Headuarters based in Ranchi, India, until I re-embared atBombay on the troopship, Empire Pride, to be demobilised in November 1947.

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