The Secret Listeners: How the Y Service Intercepted the German Codes for Bletchley ParkBehind the celebrated code-breaking at Bletchley Park lies another secret… The men and women of the ‘Y’ (for Wireless’) Service were sent out across the world to run listening stations from Gibraltar to Cairo, intercepting the German military’s encrypted messages for decoding back at the now-famous Bletchley Park mansion. Such wartime postings were life-changing adventures – travel out by flying boat or Indian railways, snakes in filing cabinets and heat so intense the perspiration ran into your shoes - but many of the secret listeners found lifelong romance in their far-flung corner of the world. Now, drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving veterans, Sinclair McKay tells their remarkable story at last. |
Contents
The Human Computors | |
The Listeners at Large | |
The Blitz and the Ghost Voices | |
Heat Sand and Ashes | |
A World Wide Web of Intelligence | |
Feuds Farce and Panic | |
Not So Quiet on the Domestic Front | |
LifeLong Friendships Were Forged | |
By the Sleepy Lagoon | |
Foreboding and Frustration | |
Witnesses to Different Worlds | |
DDay and After | |
The End and the Beginning | |
The Legacy of the Listeners | |
Wilder Shores and Secret Missions | |
This is No Holiday Camp | |
Storms in the Desert | |
Rommel and the Art of Dirty Tricks | |
Notes | |
Acknowledgements | |
an extract from The Secret History of Bletchley Park Introduction an extract from The Lost World of Bletchely Park Copyright | |
Other editions - View all
The Secret Listeners: How the Y Service Intercepted German Codes for ... Sinclair McKay No preview available - 2012 |
The Secret Listeners: How the Y Service Intercepted German Codes for ... Sinclair McKay No preview available - 2012 |
The Secret Listeners: How the Y Service Intercepted the German Codes for ... Sinclair McKay No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
Abwehr Aileen Clayton Allied Army arrived Beaumanor Betty Betty White Bletchley Park bomb Britain British Cairo Captain Chicksands Chris Barnes cipher civilian codebreakers codes colleagues Colombo Command Countess of Ranfurly cryptographers dances decrypts desert direction finding duties enemy Enigma Everett Fautley Gambier-Parry Geoffrey Pidgeon Gerken German girls Heliopolis HMS Flowerdown Hugh Skillen huts intelligence island Italian Japanese Jean Valentine knew later Listened in Secret listening station living London Luftwaffe Malta Marjorie memo messages military Morse naval Nazi never officers organisation personnel Peter Budd Radio Security Service RAF Chicksands recalled recruits ref 9 Rommel says Mr Budd sent Service operatives ship signals Sinclair Special Special Liaison Units staff teleprinter told took transmission Trevor-Roper troops U-boats veteran Victor Newman Voluntary Interceptors WAAF watch weeks Whaddon Hall wireless interception wireless operators Wrens wrote Y Service young women