大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by a volunteer from Broadstairs on behalf of Bob Biggs and has been added to the site with his permission. He fully understands the terms and conditions

I feel that it now time that I should tell my story and the small part I played in the Ultra secret at Station X.

The strange Selection Interview
My story is from the 4th of December 1941 , I was called up for service and reported
to the barracks in Aldershot where I underwent intensive and rigorous military
training followed by an army course in clerical duties and a specially prepared staff course. After all that training I was then transferred to a holding company waiting to be posted to an active unit. In the beginning of May 1942 my name appeared on daily orders which were issued at tea time for the following days duties; it read
under the heading, 'Postings', report to company office at 10.00 hours in best battle
dress for interview. This was very unusual because it had been unheard of for a
soldier to attend for interview before posting. The following morning I reported as
instructed and on entering the office I noticed a staff major with a red band round his hat and red epaulettes and sitting next to him was a captain with a green band
round his hat and green flashes on his shoulders. It was a very impressive sight.
Standing round were the staff from the company office. The major asked for a chair
to be provided for me to sit on and there was a gasp from the attending staff as it
was unheard of for a soldier to sit whilst being interviewed. It was an occasion I will
never forget and I can remember it word for word to this day. I will give it to you
verbatim:-

Major. I see from your record that you are a young man who has been delayed in being called up ; is that so?

Biggs . Yes, sir.

Major. Can you please tell me what was the important job that merited eferment?

Biggs I was dealing with relief supplies, mainly from America and Canada for
shipment to this country for distribution by the British Red Cross and the Womens Voluntary Services and SAFFA forces charity .

Major So you knew all about convoys, ship's names and if any goods did not arrive and losses that had been incurred. Is that so?

Biggs Yes sir; I have signed the official secrets act for the duration of the war and the information I was given was classified and therefore I cannot go into details.

Major Quite so. Now do you play any board games like chess or draughts?

Biggs Yes, I can play chess but not very good and I can play draughts very well in different forms of the game.

Major Do you do crossword puzzles?

Biggs Yes sir, I can do crossword puzzles but I am not very good at the cryptic ones but feel I am good at questions and answers, word substitutions and anagrams.

Major Now do you play any card games of any kind?

Biggs Yes, I am very fond of Lexicon.[for those of you who do not know what Lexicon is it is a card game similar to Scrabble where you made up words in a very similar way]

Major Good. Now do you collect anything such as matchbox tops, cigarette cards or stamps?

Biggs Yes sir, I have a very good selection of stamps.

Major And how many do you think you have in that collection?

Biggs About 5,000 give or take 100.

Major Now if I were to produce a stamp now would you be able to recognise it as one you had got in your collection or a new one to be added?

Biggs Yes, I think I could do that within reason.

Major How would you come to that decision?

Biggs I would judge it from the size, shape, colour or pattern, the value and
the country of origin.

Major Very good, now I have one more question for you. If you were put at a
seat with a bundle of papers that presented a problem and you were asked to look through those papers unsupervised and to try to sort out that problem how would you feel about it?

Biggs I think I would need perseverance and patience; I would stick at it until
I found a possible answer otherwise I would make suggestions as to what I thought might happen.

Major Very good, that is all, you are now dismissed

And as I left the office the duty officer followed me out and said," I don't know what that was all about but good luck to you whatever may come of it"

I went on to become aa codebreaker at Bletchley Park working on decoding German and Italian codes as they were chased up from North Africa through Italy, and also on the far east desk

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