大象传媒

My four years were up in March 1945 so I said goodbye to No.14 H.M.W/T Unit and some
very well establish friends and all the memories that went with it. I had to go down to a
hotel at Sorrento used as a transit camp to await the troopship from Naples and sailed for
the U.K. at the end of March.
Leighton Buzzard
It was 28 day's leave now and after that I was posted to Leighton Buzzard (Air Ministry
th CSC) again, the place I left 4 years earlier. I arrived on Monday 6 May, in a snowstorm
th and started as Watch Superintendent on the evening watch on 8 May which was, of
course, V.E. Day. Lunchtime was spent in the pub in the High Street, the same place I
spent the evening before I left in March 1941. One very noticeable concession we were
allowed on watch that evening was the playing of music, hitherto unheard of on a CSC
watch.
My stay at Leighton Buzzard didn't last. I was sent on detachment to a specialist radio
school at Cardington, Bedfordshire teaching radio mechanics the techniques of SingleSide Band transmission as used in H.F. communications circuits. That went on for a year
and quite a nice little number with no great stress or even excitement. Also, the war was
over.
In April 1946 and I had to go back to Leighton Buzzard, but by this time all the C.S.C. staff
were billeted at R.A.F. Church Green which was very near Bletchley Park. I was just
settling down nicely, when in Oct 1946 I was posted overseas again.
Ceylon - Colombo
This time there was no secret destination - it was the Far East. After getting as far as
Singapore and two weeks at a transit camp it was back on a troopship and I finished up at
another Signal Centre - Gangodewella, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) five miles inland from the
capital Colombo. This was peacetime overseas service and "miles" away from the
"Active" job a few years earlier. We even had to wear a proper uniform on duty, nothing
like the Western Desert! The one big plus sign was being able to get into the old colonial
town of Colombo when off duty.
By the time I got to Colombo a lot of the high speed W/T Morse circuits had converted to
Radio Teleprinter operation (RTP). It meant a whole new procedure system had to be
learnt; a means of routing a message from originating station to it's final destination by
typing the instructions on to the original punched tape. It was slower than automatic
Morse was because the limiting speed of a teleprinter was 66.6 W.P.M. but the saving was
in not having to type the message out from the receiving Morse tape. It was a good
system.
At Colombo.S.C. the transmitters were a few miles from the receiving station (which was
at the main campsite) and they were connected by landlines for keying the transmitted
signals. The native population took a liking to the cable between the two stations and
would steal lengths of it and turn it into profit. This would mean a shut down of the W/T
link until it could be repaired. The situation was resolved by the introduction of a
microwave radio link between the receiving and transmitting station. A special party came
out from U.K. (the radio branch of R.A.E. Farnborough). I believe this was one of the first
uses of microwave technology and very successful.
My stay at Colombo was at the time India and Ceylon gained independent status within
the Commonwealth and later when Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, resulting in a lot
of tension amongst the local population. Colombo was out of bounds and extra guards
were posted on the camp and at one time nobody was allowed out.
But gunboat diplomacy was still a means of restoring order in those days. A Royal Navy
cruiser came into Colombo harbour, disembarked the Royal Marine band and all available
hands and marched through the town to the naval barracks. It all seemed to be safe after
that. H.M.S.Anderson was a Y station near Columbo and we sent all the traffic to Bletchley
Park. Another problem we had was a repeat of the sun spot trouble. Because we couldn't
send any traffic by W/T, all the accumulated messages were taken down to the Cable and
Wireless Station in Colombo and they would be sent on to U.K. by the submarine cable
link.
Back to 'Blighty'
It was now time for me to think of the boat home to 'Blighty' once more. On my return to
the U.K., in September, 1952 aboard the Monarch of Bermuda, I had one month's
disembarkation leave before being posted to yet another Signals Centre at a place called
Rudloe Manor, near Bath. The signal centre was 100ft underground being part of the
celebrated Box Tunnels. An extension of the railway tunnels, it housed part of the Bristol
Aircraft Factory during the war. The RAF also had an Ops Room down there and the Army
an ammunition depot - quite a place! Apart from it's location there isn't a great deal to say
about South West S.C. It was busy at times, usually when the government of the day had
to involve the Services in supplying labour because of an industrial dispute of national
importance.
Marriage caught up with me at this stage and when there was a baby on the scene we
decided to rent accommodation in nearby Box, so that I could 'Live Out'. Eventually I was
posted to Compton Bassett, Wiltshire. I was appointed to the Trade Test Board, which
involved setting examination papers, overseeing exams and trade tests. At this time I was
promoted to the rank of Flight Sergeant.
The trade of Wireless Operator ceased and Telegraphist 2 took its place. Existing W/Ops
had to remuster to the new trade and come to Compton Bassett for retraining and trade
testing. Some of them I had met before and it was a strange situation in that I would be
having breakfast in the Mess with them and then subjecting them to the ordeal of a trade
test on which their future depended. The Boy Entrant telegraphists were trained at
Compton Bassett, but it was decided to move their part of the training school to RAF
Cosford in Shropshire and I was to go with them as the Trade Standards Officer for the telegraphist's trades.
Having been a Boy Entrant at Cranwell, I knew how anxious and fearful they were in
having to face a trade board with their whole future at stake. The Royal Air Force was now
their life, the life that had provided me with a good foundation for things to come.

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