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Y service

{{distinguish|Yankee Station}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

{{short description|British signals intelligence collection sites during WW1 and WW2}}

{{EngvarB|date=April 2016}}

The "Y" service was a network of British signals intelligence collection sites, the Y-stations. The service was established during the First World War and used again during the Second World War.{{Cite web|url=https://antiqueradios.com/chrs/journal/intelligence.html|title=Radio Intelligence Developments|website=antiqueradios.com}} The sites were operated by a range of agencies including the Army, Navy and RAF, and the Foreign Office (MI6 and MI5). The General Post Office and the Marconi Company provided some receiving stations, ashore and afloat. There were more than 600 receiving sets in use at Y-stations during the Second World War.{{sfn|Kenyon|2019|p=24}}

Role

File:1943 Arkley View Front.jpg

The "Y" name derived from Wireless Interception (WI).{{cite book |last=McKay |first=Sinclair |title=The Secret Listeners |date=2012 |publisher=Aurum Press Ltd |isbn=978-1-78131-079-3 |location=London, UK}} The stations tended to be one of two types, for intercepting the signals and for identifying where they were coming from. Sometimes both functions were operated at the same site, with the direction finding (D/F) hut being a few hundred metres from the main interception building to minimise interference. The sites collected radio traffic which was then either analysed locally or, if encrypted, passed for processing initially to the Admiralty Room 40 in London and then during World War II to the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire.{{cite web|url=https://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1440534|title=Teleprinter Building, Bletchley Park|publisher=Pastscape|access-date=13 October 2018}}

In the Second World War a large house called "Arkley View" on the outskirts of Barnet (now part of the London Borough of Barnet) acted as a data collection centre, where traffic was collated and passed to Bletchley Park; it also housed a Y station.{{cite book |last = Pidgeon |first = Geoffrey |title = The Secret Wireless War: The Story of MI6 Communications 1939–1945 |publisher = UPSO |url=http://www.upso.co.uk |year = 2003 |isbn = 1-84375-252-2 | oclc = 56715513 |chapter=15. Box 25: The RSS and Hanslope |pages=103–118}} Much of the traffic intercepted by the Y stations was recorded by hand and sent to Bletchley by motorcycle couriers, and later by teleprinter over Post Office landlines.Nicholls, J., (2000) England Needs You: The Story of Beaumanor Y Station World War II Cheam, published by Joan Nicholls Many amateur radio operators supported the work of the Y stations, being enrolled as "Voluntary Interceptors".{{cite journal |journal=Popular Communications |date=December 2013 |volume=32 |issue=4 |title=The Secret Listeners of 'Box 25, Barnet' |author=R.B. Sturtevant, AD7IL |pages=22–26 |issn=0733-3315 |publisher=CQ Communications, Inc}}

The term was also used for similar stations attached to the India outpost of the Intelligence Corps, the Wireless Experimental Centre (WEC) outside Delhi.Aldrich, Richard James (2000), Intelligence and the War Against Japan: Britain, America and the Politics of Secret Service, Cambridge University Press

Direction-finding Y stations

Specially constructed Y stations undertook high-frequency direction finding (D/F) of wireless transmissions. This became particularly important in the Battle of the Atlantic where locating U-boats was vital. Admiral Dönitz told his commanders that they could not be located if they limited their wireless transmissions to under 30 seconds, but skilled D/F operators were able to locate the origin of their signals in as few as six seconds.{{cite web|url=https://gifttonature.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Listening-to-the-enemy-1.pdf|title=Listening to the enemy|publisher=Ventnor and District Local History Society|access-date=12 February 2024}}

The design of land-based D/F stations preferred by the Allies during the Second World War was the U-Adcock system, where a small operators' hut was surrounded by four {{cvt|10|ft|m|adj=mid|-high}} vertical aerial poles, usually placed at the points of the compass. Aerial feeders ran underground, surfaced in the centre of the hut and were connected to a direction finding goniometer and a wireless receiver, that allowed the bearing of the signal source to be measured. In the UK some operators were located in an underground metal tank. These stations were usually in remote places, often in the middle of farmers' fields. Traces of Second World War D/F stations can be seen as circles in the fields surrounding the village of Goonhavern in Cornwall.[http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=hendra%20croft&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl The operators huts can still be seen in the centre of the circles].

Y station sites in Britain

File:National HRO shortwave communications receiver.png communication receiver was extensively used by the RSS and Y service]]

  • Beachy Head, Sussex
  • Beaumanor Hall, near Loughborough, Leicestershire (operated by the Army){{sfn|Kenyon|2019|p=24}}
  • Beeston Hill, Beeston Regis, Norfolk
  • Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire (operated by the Army){{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8444147&CATLN=6&Highlight=%2CBISHOPS%2CWALTHAM&accessmethod=0&Summary=True |title=The National Archives – Piece details HW 50/82 |access-date=2008-05-10}}
  • Brora, Sutherland{{cite web|url=http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/276040/contribution/brora+radio+intercept+y+station+operations+building/FNL6094608358/?&z=8|title=Brora Intercept Y Station Operations Building|publisher=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland|access-date=13 December 2014}}
  • RAF Canterbury, Kent
  • RAF Cheadle, Cheadle, Staffordshire
  • RAF Chicksands, Bedfordshire (operated by the RAF)
  • RAF Clophill, Bedfordshire
  • Cromer, Norfolk
  • Forest Moor, near Harrogate (operated by the Army)
  • G.P.O. Transatlantic Radiophone Station Kemback, near Cupar, Fife
  • Denmark Hill, Camberwell (operated by the Metropolitan Police and General Post Office (GPO) for the Foreign Office)
  • Met Office Dunstable, Bedfordshire
  • Felixstowe, Suffolk
  • Gilnahirk, Belfast{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/11/a8533811.shtml |title=Gilnahirk Y Station|access-date=2015-07-22 }}
  • Gorleston, Norfolk
  • Hall Place, Kent
  • Harpenden, Hertfordshire (Army, No. 1 Special Wireless Group)
  • Hawklaw, Fife{{cite web|url=http://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/details/907213|title=Hawklaw Intercept Y Listening Station |publisher=Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland|access-date=13 December 2014}}
  • HMS Flowerdown, Winchester, Hampshire
  • HMS Forest Moor, Harrogate, Yorkshire{{cite news|title=HMS Forest Moor is Decommissioned|url=http://www.navynews.co.uk/articles/2003/0311/0003111701.asp|access-date=12 May 2014|newspaper=Navy News|date=17 November 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611051621/http://www.navynews.co.uk/articles/2003/0311/0003111701.asp|archive-date=11 June 2011}}
  • Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
  • RAF Kingsdown, Hollywood Manor, West Kingsdown, Kent
  • RAF Monks Risborough, Monks Risborough, Buckinghamshire
  • Knockholt, Kent (run by the Foreign Office for non-Morse radiotelegraphy signals)
  • Markyate, Hertfordshire (operated by the Army)
  • Newbold Revel, RAF 'Y' Service Secret Intelligence and German Telephony Communications Base, Warwickshire.{{cite book|title=The King's Most Loyal Enemy Aliens: Germans Who Fought for Britain in the Second World War: Sidney Goldburg|first=Helen |last=Fry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O8I7AwAAQBAJ&q=Newbold+Revel+Section+Y&pg=PT114|publisher=History Press|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7509-4700-8 |access-date=2015-07-22 }}
  • North Walsham, Norfolk
  • Sandridge, Hertfordshire (operated by the Foreign Office)
  • Saxmundham, Suffolk
  • Scarborough, Yorkshire (operated by the Royal Navy)
  • Shenley Brook End Milton Keynes (operated by the Army)
  • South Walsham, Norfolk
  • Southwold, Suffolk
  • Stockland Bristol, near Bridgwater, Somerset
  • Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland
  • HMS Ventnor, Rew Down, Isle of Wight
  • RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire
  • Whitchurch, Shropshire in The Old Rectory, Claypit Street (operated by the Foreign Office){{cite web|url=http://search.shropshirehistory.org.uk/collections/getrecord/CCS_MSA7242/|title=The Old Rectory, Claypit Street, Whitchurch|publisher=Exploring Shropshire's History|access-date=24 September 2018}}
  • Wick (operated by the RAF)
  • Wincombe, Donhead St Mary, Wiltshire (operated by the GPO for the Foreign Office){{cite report|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/b09758b1-9f74-4775-997b-5ad2f67ff0fb |via=The National Archives|title=Government Wireless Station, Higher Wincombe Farm, Donhead St. Mary|id=F14/428/25 |year=1950}} Held at Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre{{cite report|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5317602|publisher=Government Code and Cypher School: Directorate: Second World War Policy Papers|via=The National Archives| title=Report on E operations at BP|id=HW 14/85|first=William F.|last=Friedman |date=11–20 August 1943}}
  • Withernsea, East Yorkshire from a pub, the St. Leonards, now known as Captain Williams{{cite web|url=https://bletchleypark.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/record_attachments/2425.pdf|title=Pat Davies, née Owtram |page=3|publisher=Bletchley Park Trust|access-date=19 July 2023}}
  • Woodcock Hill, Sandridge, St Albans{{cite web|url=https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/19042350.tribute-d-day-veteran-len-davidge-died-winchester/|title=Tribute to D-Day veteran Len Davidge who died in Winchester|date=28 January 2021|newspaper=Hampshire Chronicle|access-date=15 January 2023}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

{{refbegin}}

  • {{citation |last= Kenyon |first= David |author-link= David Kenyon |title= Bletchley Park and D-Day: The Untold Story of How the Battle for Normandy Was Won |date= 10 May 2019 |publisher= Yale University Press |isbn= 978-0-300-24357-4 }}
  • {{citation |last= McKay |first= Sinclair |title= Secret Listeners: How the Y Service Intercepted German Codes for Bletchley Park |date= 2012 |publisher= Aurum |isbn= 978-1-84513-763-2 }}
  • {{cite book |title=The Searchers: Radio Intercept in Two World Wars |last=Macksey |first=Kenneth |year=2003 |publisher=Cassell |location=London |isbn=0-304-36545-9}}

{{refend}}

External links

  • [https://garatshay.org.uk/ 'Y' Services (Garats Hay) branch of the Royal British Legion]
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720090831/http://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/index/education/community_activities/community_residential_services/beaumanorpark/beaumanor_park_y_station.htm Beaumanor Park], Leicestershire
  • [https://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/peoples_war/beds_secret_war.shtml#code Chicksands in WW2], BBC 3CR
  • [http://www.awm.gov.au/events/conference/2003/west.asp Bomber Command 'Y' Service] – 2003 conference, Australian War Memorial

Category:Cryptography organizations

Category:Bletchley Park

Category:Military history of Norfolk

Category:Signals intelligence of World War I

Category:Signals intelligence of World War II