Description
Object description
British officer served as radio designer with Royal Corps of Signals attached to Inter-Services Research Bureau and Special Operations Executive at Station X, The Frythe, Welwyn Garden City and Station XI, Old Gorhambury House, St Albans, GB, 1941-1945; served with Eighth Army Signals in Vienna, Austria, 1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Finsbury Park, London, GB, 1917-1939: childhood enthusiasm for wireless; employment in wireless business in London; reaction to call-up to Royal Corps of Signals. Aspects of period as officer with Royal Corps of Signals at Catterick Camp, GB, 1940-1941: friendship with Dirk Bogarde; being accused of deserting Royal Air Force; background to compulsory transfer as radio designer to War Office. Recollections of period as officer with Royal Corps of Signals Inter-Services Research Bureau and Special Operations Executive at Station X, The Frythe, Welwyn Garden City, GB, 1941-1944: interview at No 55 Broadway in London with Squadron Leader Frank 'Uncle' Pyle; move to Station X at The Frythe, 7/1941; postal box number in Whitehall for communication with wife; initial impressions of Station X; first task of building compact transmitter/receiver into briefcase; quality of technical backup; initial reports on problems faced; request to make radio into transmitter; his design for L Set; character of radio communication department; uses of the S Phone a small portable radio carried on chest; increase in pressure of work from 9/1941.
REEL 2 Continues: work of supply liaison officers in commandeering supplies; adaptation of No 18 Wireless Set to receiver/transmitter Type 3 Mk I (B1) Radio Set; design and characteristics of Type 3, Mk II (B2) Radio Set; oversized radio sets; first Type 3 Mk II (B2) Radio Set designs and production; use of Type 3 Mk II (B2) Radio Set in operations in Mediterranean; preparation of Type 3 Mk II (B2) Radio Set for quantity production; design of No 38 Wireless Set for landings in Europe, 1942; characteristics of Type 3 Mk 1 (B1) Radio Set; re-engineering of Type 3 Mk II (B2) Radio Set to produce Type 3 Mk III (B3) Radio Set; projects running in parallel with radio set production, 1942; visit by Brigadier Arthur Nicholls, Chief Signals Officer, Special Operations Executive.
REEL 3 Continues: helping Professor A H Wilson, 4/1943; design of MCR I Reciever; designing production test gear for MCR I Reciever; origins of Jedburgh teams; problem of adaption of sets to tropical conditions; request to design Type 3 Mk III (B3) Radio Set, late 1943; preoccupation with Type 3 Mk III, Radio Set design; authorities' post-war concern that Type 3 Mk III, Radio Set would fall into hands of insurgent groups.
REEL 4 Continues: destruction of Type 3 Mk III Radio Sets after end of war; story of use of Type 3 Mk III Radio Set on Kon Tiki expedition, 1947; use of Type 3 Mk III Radio Set in Far East; problem of global rather than specific demands leading to delays in production; personnel, technical projects and security at Station X; problems of patenting. Aspects of period as officer with Royal Corps of Signals attached to Special Operations Executive at Station XI, Old Gorhambury House, St Albans, GB, 1944-1945: move to Sration XI, 1944; development of wide band amplifier facilitating agents with larger number of channels.
REEL 5 Continues: problems of patenting and attribution of inventions after Second World War; attribution of sets to Dominion provenance; design of jacket sized sets too late for war in Europe; cancellation of supply arrangements after VE Day, 8/5/1945; transfer to Station XII, Aston Hall, Stevenage after VE Day; destruction of equipment down mine shaft; preservation of records; survival of wireless sets and knowledge after war. Recollections of period as officer with Eighth Army Signals in Vienna, Austria, 1946: returning to Royal Signals Corps in Italy, 1/1946; handling of troops awaiting demobilisation in Vienna; arranging communications for British Headquarters in Vienna; Soviet interference with British signals traffic; humorous aspects of relations with Soviet forces in occupied Vienna.
REEL 6 Continues: Soviet procurement of British copper signal wire; clamping down on black market activities in British cipher office in Vienna; black market activities among United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation (UNRRA) and Control Commission for Austria personnel; responsibility for attempting to re-impose discipline in Eighth Army Signals; cultural activities in unit; attitude of Viennese to British and Soviet presence; Soviet Army officers' treatment of troops; stealing of tyres for black marketeering.
