Operator, Wireless and Line

[Silicon]

I have done some online research and I am getting better idea of how the various items of equipment would have been used.

An Undulator takes a telegraph signal and makes ink marks on a narrow paper tape to represent the dot and dash pulses of a telegraph or morse signal. It is Read Only.
This could be useful to see if a pulse was a dot or a dash if there was some corruption of the audible signal.

A Telegraph Printer punches 2 rows of holes in a paper tape to represent the dot and dash pulses of a telegraph or morse signal. It is can be read by an experienced operator. More importantly, it can then be fed into other machines which can then retransmit it to other destinations. It could be sent on landlines as a telegraph signal to other telegraph printers or to teleprinters.

If it was sent to a teleprinter it could be printed out on a 5 channel punched paper tape which uses the ITA2 coding.

It should also be possible to feed the telegraph signal into a teleprinter machine which could then print it out onto paper sheets in alphanumeric form which can then be decoded by cypher experts.

The Telegraph Printer might have been called a 'Wheatstone' because Charles Wheatstone was one of the original inventors of the electrical telegraph, the automatic transmitter and the 'Wheatstone Perforator' which used paper tapes.

[greenstar]

If anyone has any ideas where I could go with this query, I would appreciate it. I did contact the IWM when I first posted this account, but although it was acknowledged and forwarded I never heard back. I did go to Bletchley, but they seem only to know about the Y network. I can identify her if it helps.
I think firstly, I would like to know more about the network. She was in the ATS and an 'OWL', Operator Wireless and Line, with the Royal Corps of Signals.
I have revised her account and include it here - I have highlighted some of the discrepancies, and am working with her as I get chance.
The IWM website says:

While we do try to answer enquiries about the museum and items in its collections if the information cannot be found online, regrettably, we do not have the resources to give individual responses to the thousands of requests for other information we receive each year. We are sorry that we cannot help with enquiries about general history, family history and objects or media not held by the museum.

[Station X]

Have you obtained a copy of your mother's service record? Details here:-

https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military...cords/overview

It will contain details of her postings. Googling the locations may yield additional information.

I know your mother is not interested in reunions etc, but if you were able to contact other OWLs they might have additional information. Letters to local newspapers, SAGA magazine etc. might be a good starting point. Perhaps even the "Woman's Hour" programme on BBC Radio 4. They love this sort of stuff.

Searching the catalogue of The National Archives online shows up a few documents including:-

Training in morse operating for operators, wireless and line.

Morse standards required by operators, wireless and line.

Factors affecting supply and training of operators, wireless and line, Royal Signals

IWM have couple of documents about men's service as OWLs. Search their catalogue for "Operator (Wireless and Line)"

[Pellseinydd]

Originally Posted by greenstar

This is all making things a little clearer. But there are some discrepancies. My mum has specifically said that punched tape was fed into a machine that produced an undulator type trace - she has confirmed that the trace in the Bletchley photo was similar. This was one of the tasks that was rotated a week at a time. But as I understand it the undulator was usually recording reception, and the punched tape used for transmission. Has she remembered incorrectly, or was this a different process? She has repeated it twice.
The other area of interest are the offices she worked from under Whitehall. She says, underground, near Churchill although she didn't see him. In the Wikipaedia description of the Cabinet War Rooms there is no mention of a radio installation, but there are telephone and broadcasting links noted. There must have been several rooms and a lot of operators for years of the war. Has this information been lost/restricted/omitted? Or was she somewhere else?
She is very keen to know more - but unlikely to go there (and probably wouldn't want to, as she found it oppressive down there).

Another question, what network was this? The list of 'Y' stations in Wikipaedia does not include those she describes, for example, in Wales, Scarborough, Shrewsbury, Harrietsham etc. So far as I can see, this is a completely neglected area in the record.

Sounds very much like she was working at the then War Office 'ComCen' (Communication Centre) on what was part of the 'DTN' - Defence Teleprinter Network http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/bpt/vdocs/dtn.html .
For much of the 1960's I was the Technical Officer looking after 'QCS' - the DTN Station under the Army's 'HQ Western Command' in Chester - the next level down from the War Office. The actual 'Comcen' room was full of Creed teleprinters. reperforators and tape readers - little changed since it was put in just before WW2. It was a major hub on the network with more teleprinters than the entire GPO Chester Telephone Area! There were direct links (both teleprinter and telephone) to the 'War Office' in London and other Command HQ's and military installations including in the case of Western Command, the 'District HQ's at Shrewsbury (West Midlands District) , Brecon (Wales District) and Preston (North West District) as well as other links to various military/defence installations/networks. At that time (the 1960's) the Comcen was operated by girls from the Womens Royal Army Corps and some Royal Signals soldiers.. We also had an HF radio link to the Whitehall -their callsign was 'Mike Uniform Alpha' and ours was 'Mike Uniform Delta'
Ian - (sometime an officer wearing the R.Signals cap badge a long time ago! )

[HamishBoxer]

Could I ask while trying to keep on topic was a morse key ever sold in recent years that belonged to your mother or family?

I own one that is supoosed to have history but where it came from the person refused to tell me much.

[greenstar]

Hi, thanks for all your very useful replies, this will keep me occupied! Chasing her record is a good idea - I suspect her chronology is a little scrambled. She is very clear but the memory is stretched at this distance.

Hamish, no. I am afraid she never had a morse key of her own. To be honest, it's more my interest than her's. She must have been very proficient at that time but lost all interest by the time I arrived, apart from a liking for morse, which she can usually pick out.

[HamishBoxer]

Thank you for that reply I was very curious about a key I obtained a while ago that was all. While still trying hard to keep on topic (or close).

[carnivalpete]

I've been reading these reports with great interest and I have enormous confidence in the scope of Google, our favourite search engine to find more background. I find it's often just a matter of finding the best search terms to use. If you haven't already tried this one, please try pasting the following phrase into the search box:

''OWL operator wire and line ww2''

This will bring up a few results but the most interesting one by far is the one from the Scarborough Amateur Radio Club which is an extensive write up of someone's personal experiences as an OWL. Try this link.

http://ve3we.org/archives/178

Regards, Pete

[Silicon]

In 1938 the Post office set up the Defence Teleprinter Network for use by the military services such as the Air Ministry and the Admiralty.

I used 10,000 teleprinters at 562 terminal stations. There were over 350 teleprinters at Bletchley Park.

I assume the 'Y' stations would have been part of this.

If you want more information on the network it would be reasonable to assume that the Royal Corp of Signals and the Telecommunications Heritage Group would be a good starting point.

[greenstar]

I don't think my mum's work was with the 'Y' network, as she received/transmitted to our own, not enemy, operators. As far as I know she didn't operate a teleprinter as such. From her account she sent and received coded morse in most of her postings. I need to check with her if she did so under Whitehall. Her stations may well have been part of the DTN. I wonder if it was called that at the time, and she will recognise the term. I will catch up with the information you have all kindly given and see if it comes together.

[carnivalpete]

Might be worth a look at the web site of the ''Wireless Set No 19 Group''
with

www.RoyalSignals.org.uk

Despite the apparent single interest title this site in fact has several hundred downloadable communication equipment docs of all sorts right back to WW1 and the knowledgable guys on there might be able to help with some of your questions.

[majoconz]

My "Record of Naval Training and Active Service" shows that I was stationed at GSOS Scarborough (it might be CSOS - it's got a great big piece of Sellotape across it) from 11th to the 26th September 1970 - way up on the hills about 20miles from the town itself in typical government huts just like the GCHQ ones at Bletchley Park. I was there for an exercise in HF DFing a supposed fleet as they sailed around the north coast of Scotland. There were other huts up there with many aerials but in our hut we were doing the plots of the received signals - the info just came off a teleprinter with the callsign of the receiving station and a bearing - I had a chart of the coast with the receiving stations circled by a compass rose and had to stretch out a bit of coloured string along the bearing until I had sufficient info to deduce the position of the signal source. My results were compared to a computer programmed plot - I actually got a pat on the back for being more accurate than the computer!
Bloomin' cold up there in the middle of the night but we stayed in an almost vacant hotel in town - excellent food!

[kenneth]

Hello Tony, In reply to your PM. Yes, I was an OWL (Operator Wireless and Line) and also an OKL (Operator Keyboard and Line) in the Royal Signals - both trades long since abolished. In 1946/7 I was stationed with the War Office Signal Regiment (WOSR) in London. We worked in an underground complex close to Whitehall which was accessed (by us) by walking on the right-hand side of Whitehall towards Trafalgar Square and turning right a short distance past the Cenotaph. There was then a rather rough path/drive of a hundred yards or so to the complex entrance and along the left-hand side of this path/drive was a major building site which may previously have been a bomb-site. Steps led down from the entrance (cannot recall any lift) towards the area where we worked. Our job was operating the War Office (army only) communications facilities to the army commands both within the UK and overseas. Like your mother, we also had a posh address - we were billeted in Eaton Place (the location of 'Upstairs Downstairs' I believe) and the guardroom was in Eaton Square. I should add that although the address was impressive the the internal conditions would not pass muster today. In 1948 I was on my way to North Africa. Don't know if this will ring any bells with your Mum. If you want a bit of detail about the technical side of our work just say so. Ken.

[greenstar]

Hi Kenneth, many thanks for this. It is interesting that the facility continued in use after 1945, I need to do a little research now, but am interested if you can shed any light on the tasks my mother performed there, which she doesn't remember completely - she often never knew more than the immediate job - and also the network that was supported. Was this the Defence Teleprinter Network?
Do you know if the rooms you used were used through WWII? And were they distinct from the cabinet Office War Rooms now open to the public? It sounds as if they were quite separate.
Her account is attached to post 22. Many thanks to everyone for their information, I will digest.
I have messaged the RS 19 set group - it does seem very good.
Tony

[kenneth]

Tony, I don't think I can be of much help to you with your quest for information but I'll try. What we commonly referred to as 'The Pit' was also known as 'The Citadel'. There were no ATS working in our area - in fact I cannot recall seeing a female in that area during my time there. However the description of your Mum's work bears a strong resemblance to what we were doing. We operated manual morse, high-speed morse and RTTY (automatic radio teleprinter). As far as I know, manual morse, with which I was never concerned and was located in a separate smaller room, maintained links to the home (UK) commands. The larger room housed the auto-morse, RTTY and usual signal office facilities. Although being familiar with auto-morse systems i was never called upon to use them. RTTY was by far the major part of the work. Our (War Office) telegraphic address was Troopers London and the callsign was JAJA. RTTY links existed to overseas commands including Delhi (JGJG), Columbo, Accra (JKJK). Nairobi, Padua, Trieste, Singapore, Fayid (JCJC) etc. RTTY tapes were punched on Creed and German (name forgotten) perforators (the tape would have a continuous row of small feed-holes and columns of up to 5 larger holes, two above and 3 below the feed holes - hole equalled mark and no-hole equalled space - to convey characters in the 5-unit Murray Code, now called International Telegraphic Code No2). These tapes would be passed through an auto-head (sometimes called Wheatstone) by an operator standing in front of his equipment alongside another operator tending to the incoming teleprinter traffic of the same link. Running along the other side of the receiving teleprinters was a compressed-air tube conveyer system (memory lapse) to whisk the incoming traffic to the In-desk. Shifts were worked as operations continued 24/7 and duties rotated between punching, sending and receiving. Once you got the hang of it the work was not demanding but one was always busy with the bottoms of the out-trays rarely being reached except perhaps late on a Sunday. This, combined with the poor air conditions made for tiring night-shifts which at one time were 6pm-8am. We were therefore at the communications network terminal. Our receiving site was mainly in Oxfordshire where I believe they used AR88's in diversity. Our transmitting site was at Droitwich.

Of possible interest - Morse punched tapes are narrower than RTTY ones and have a central row of feed holes. A dot is indicated by two larger holes, one above the other, either side of the feed-holes. A dash is indicated also by two holes one either side of the feed-holes but with the lower hole to the right of the upper hole.

The item of equipment illustrated in an earlier post is indeed an undulator - I think the type number is UG8. Made of cast-metal they have a paper-tape speed control and two drawers each holding a reel of paper-tape so that the changeover to a new reel can be continuous. They are/were generally used for morse and teleprinter to provide a means of reading traffic off-line (ie perhaps slower than the transmitted speed) but I think they could be used to display any signal that could be reduced to DC levels.

Tony, you will see that their are similarities between what we and your Mum were doing but there are things that don't gell. i. we had no ATS. ii our traffic was mainly plain-text. iii we did not rotate with manual-morse duties.

About the underground complex - I've described our route into work and I know little/nothing about the rest. But I do recall several occasions when in the small hours of the morning a few of us wound our way through a complex of underground passageways to a small refreshment area and there were usually one or two strangers, mainly female, in civilian clothing also wanting a cup of tea etc. My conclusion was that we worked in a small part of an extensive underground complex that had more than one entrance.

Try Googling a. my war marjorie cooper b. veteran stories margaret davies.

Ken

[greenstar]

Many thanks Kenneth. I have passed your message to my mum, who just said it was interesting. Expect she may say more over the Christmas period. It's a delicate thing eliciting memories - I did some oral history work at one point - you don't want to supply too much information where somebody isn't sure, but of course such things can prompt memory and start a whole new account.
Majoconz, my mum was also in Scarborough briefly and was billeted in an hotel. I wonder if the huts you used were there in the 40's. Sounds like they were used continuously for similar work.

[kenneth]

Hello Tony, Have recently been reading about Section VIII of MI6 which was responsible for their communication networks. During the war (WW2) MI6 assumed responsibility for the dissemination of ULTRA intelligence, mainly derived from Bletchley's decrypts, and for this purpose special wireless links were established with the overseas theatres of war etc. All wireless traffic was sent by morse (auto or hand- speed), handled in the field by a small special unit who were then responsible for showing it, regardless of rank, only to the one or two authorised officers before incinerating the message and its cipher key. Whilst most of this traffic was sent from somewhere near Bletchley MI6 HQ was in London and I gather they had some communication facilities underground at the War Office and underground at St. Jame's Park (though both these sites may be the same). There was also mention of an ATS being posted there to a section that was responsible for punching cypher-key tapes (these would need to be in 5-unit code). Don't know if any of this will ring a bell with your mother but it certainly fits the criteria of being hush-hush and all code. Pics of i. morse tape ii 5-unit (ITA2) tape iii morse undulator tape (I think its plain text French) and a message form from the period. Ken.

[greenstar]

Kenneth, thanks for this material. I have now shown it to my mum, who found it most interesting, and confirms that the tapes were the type she used, the secrecy, and that the facility was under Whitehall, the War Office (rather than St James'). She wasn't able to say any more, as she was never told more, but referred to the 'hot stuffy atmosphere'. She tends to tell me the same things now, but occasionally adds something or repeats something I've missed. Probably my next best step is to obtain her war record, if it would detail this period.
Tony

[Jon_G4MDC]

Could be I missed it due to speed reading but I see not much mention of the cable networks as against wireless. The title Operator Wireless and Line suggests line communication was included.

I'm wondering whether much of the line communication would have used the Cable and Wireless deep sea cables which at the time were keyed with bipolar keys (Bipolar DC prevents charging up the cable capacitance).

Undulators were defintely used for reception. Long circuits included electro-mechanical regenerators.

Maybe take a look at

http://telegraphmuseum.org/explore/c...phy-telephony/

Jon

[greenstar]

My mother certainly used line instruments - I think a Fullerphone - in Kent, where I believe she was exclusively a line operator. This was a station out in the sticks near the Pilgrim's Way, Harrietsham. I'll have to ask her if this too was always coded, but she has said all her work was and not been able to tell me anything about the content - except one distress call she received by chance from a pilot ditched in the channel. Whether cable was involved I do not know. Of course although she probably uniquely had experience of many stations, she wasn't everywhere.