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(More customer reviews)This is not a James Bond story, nor does it have an exciting fast moving plot; rather it is a detailed history about MI6 communications during WWII written by a man who was part of it. It offers a considerable collection of photos, descriptions and accounts of who, what, when and where MI6 communications operated in England and sites all over the world.
Much has been said about Bletchley Park (BP) and its important work breaking the Enigma codes, but this book tells a great deal of "the rest of the story." To do the work at BP that was so critical, thousands of people were collecting the needed raw communications intelligence and it is the story of these men and women that is told here.
Radio Amateurs (Ham Operators) in particular should find the information about British "VI" (Volunteer Interceptors) very interesting since at least 1500 civilian Radio Amateurs made up this intercept service during the war. In fact, it seems that a great number of the officers, operators and technicians involved in the MI6 communications and Royal Signals were experienced Ham Operators!
If you keep in mind that this is a collected history and not a novel, and you enjoy reading about wartime communications operations, then this will be a most interesting book for your library.
I enjoyed it as I learned about how MI6 conducted it communications during the war.
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Possibly the most important UK wireless traffic in World War II was handled by a unit formed in 1938 by Brigadier Richard Gambier-Parry head of MI6 Section VIII - the communications division of SIS.This book tells of its formation and includes diary entries by one of the 'founding fathers' recording the secret meetings that took place, and the assembly of its talented staff.It reports the earlier days of the original SIS wireless 'Station X' based in Barnes in south west London, and the building of its second station in a bungalow in Surrey with the strange name of 'Funny Neuk' - which turned out to be owned by Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair - 'C' - Chief of Secret Intelligence Services.The units wireless station at Bletchley Park is described and its replacement by the stations at nearby Whaddon Hall which then became the wartime headquarters of Section VIII.It documents the work of our agents in embassies abroad, and of those in German occupied territories; the story of Churchill's personal wireless operator, and there is the description by a German soldier of the Afrika Corps of his operating an Enigma machine at Rommel's headquarters in the desert.The curious story of 'Black Propaganda' is told and the units handling of the military ULTRA traffic out to commanders in the field.Personal tales by those who were part of this most secret of units abound in the book and it is an important record of people and events that-it is no exaggeration to say-helped to win the war.Whilst essential, the technical side of the tale has not been allowed to dominate the book which is profusely illustrated.
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