The Whaddon Web articles published so far have attracted quite a lot of interest. As a result of them, I have been contacted by several people with further information, some of it very interesting. One of them was Dave Price, via the Olney Facebook page; thank you Dave! He has an interesting back-story in communications himself – and has collected some real prize exhibits, some of which he has donated to Bletchley Park.
I thought I would take the opportunity to tell you about the radios Dave kindly showed me. The one I want to concentrate on here is an agent’s transmitter/receiver. (see photo).
This one was used in Belgium during the war. It can be powered by mains, battery, or hand-cranked (bicycle type) generator. One can see at a glance how bulky and heavy it is and why it would be highly dangerous for an agent to take it through a possible German spot-check. Hardly possible for a man to bluff this past a guard (some kind of a test kit?); for a woman – whose role under the Nazis was defined as ‘kinder, kuche, kirke’ (children, kitchen, church), an almost certain death sentence. But move it she (or he) must; for if she did not, (as I explain in my blogs), targeted by Nazi tracking vans, her lifetime would probably be a short and unpleasant one. Radio operators tended not to last long (on average, from memory, 6 months).
An agent’s set such as this is a a very rare and valuable thing; but its value is far more than monetary – it is solid evidence of heroism of the highest order. To get a perspective on the levels of bravery please see the Whaddon Web blogs – or, better still, read my book The Intelligence Zone.
To see communications equipment in the flesh I suggest you visit Bletchley Park which houses, apart from all its other wonders, the excellent National Radio Centre.
©Alan Biggins August 2023
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