Communication During War - communication with families and friends

For people serving in the army, airforce or navy during war time, keeping in touch with family members was important. For the soldiers it was good for morale to be reminded that they were remembered by family and friends at home. During the Second World War they looked forward to receiving letters and sometimes cards and even, occasionally, a parcel from Australia.

Among my father's papers I have found four surviving letters that he sent home to his mother from the Middle East to Sydney. In one letter my father commented about his health - he had recently been in hospital with lung problems and hoped to shortly return to active duty. Dad often mentioned letters he had received (or not received) and how he was about to reply to each person who had contacted him. He had also received some birthday cards.In the letters to his mother he would comment about information she had provided in previous letters and always ask him to pass on his regards to his brother, Rex, and any family or friends she met. Although they were far from home the soldiers the soldiers still had contact with home.

During the 1940s, the letters to and from Australia were written as aerograms - a thin lightweight piece of paper which was folded into four sections before sealing the gummed edges. Postage was included in the price of each aerogram. Military histories record how the soldiers looked forward to days when mail was delivered and hoped there was something for them.

In the letters the soldiers were not allowed to mention where they were stationed or anything about field operations. Before being posted, letters were read and signed and dated by a senior officer. Any information considered confidential by the army was blacked out before the letter was posted. 

Parcels from home were also sometimes received by soldiers. As they would be travelling by ship, the parcels could only contain items that would last the voyage. It was during World War I that Anzac biscuits became famous as a special treat that could be transported from Australia or New Zealand to overseas troops. Well packaged fruit cake was another item sometimes sent. 

Obviously any goods from home had to be something practical to the soldiers.

During the First World War many patriotic or comfort funds were established in Australia to send supplies or raise money to support those serving overseas. 

Soldiers receiving Christmas packages (1st WW)

Items in packages included hand knitted socks, Australian newspapers, writing paper, cigarettes, cakes and chocolates were packed and sent. The comfort fund groups included Australian War Contingent Association (in London) and the Australian Comforts Fund in various states of Australia.

Chocolate for soldiers Christmas 1915

 The package below was delivered to soldiers in 1915. It consisted of a circular tin of 'Full Strength "Capstan" Navy Cut' tobacco; a packet of ten 'Medium Strength "Capstan" Navy Cut' cigarettes; a packet of French-Egyptian 'Encore' cigarettes; a box of Swedish made 'The Ship' safety matches and a red cardboard box with two cigars.

This arrangement continued during World War II. The Australian Comforts Fund and Australian Red Cross ensured that soldiers overseas received parcels.

In Australia during the twentieth century many women were engaged in knitting projects providing soldiers with warm grey socks. The program was called Knitting for Victory. The socks had to meet required standards before being able to be dispatched overseas. 

Socks ready to be shipped overseas 1917 (SL NSW)

In a letter written in March 1941 Dad wrote about the socks and fruit cake he had received from his mother plus socks from the comforts fund. 

Communication During War - military communication during World War I

The website, Anzac Portal, provides an informative summary of developments in technology, including communication, during the First World War. There were many developments in communication between 1914 and 1918.

Communication between the soldiers in the trenches and headquarters was essential. At the beginning of the war messages were relayed by runners - soldiers carrying messages from one place to another -  cyclists, or the use of animals such as pigeons or dogs as well as other animals. Pigeons carried messages strapped to a leg back to their base.

Other early methods of communication sometimes used were heliographs where sunlight was used to flash messages via moveable mirrors,  signalling flags, signalling lamps and whistles for transmitting Morse code. A problem when using these methods was that the enemy could also often see or hear the signals. Therefore more secretive methods needed to be used.

Early forms of telephones could be used in the trenches but they were connected by cables which could be easily cut or destroyed by explosions.

Some armies used portable Morse code machines to communicate between headquarters and those in the trenches. 

A new development during the war was the Fuller phone which included both Morse code and speech which was coded to protect the message from the enemy.

Fuller phone - Imperial War Museum

Aircraft could also be used to drop messages in canisters to trenches if necessary. Aeroplane pilots could use a hand-free microphone to keep in contact with headquarters and pass on observations from the air.

Wireless was also used to send messages between ships at sea duty or during battle.

New technical developments provided the possibility of collection of intelligence from intercepted telecommunications such as wireless signals from German Zeppelins. This provided both the location and anticipated targets of Zeppelin attacks.

Early in the war observation balloons which flew or were tethered at a great height behind the front lines carried observers trained to spot enemy troop movements and collect intelligence. Dirigibles (airships) which were more manoeuvrable and tougher than traditional hot air balloons were developed and could be seen above the trenches on the Western Front.

As balloons became a target from opposition forces they were heavily defended by anti-aircraft guns on the ground and patrolling fighter aircraft.

The use of aircraft gradually increased during the war and they were used for observation as well as for aerial warfare.

Communication During War - military communication during World War II

During the Second World War military forces had signals units whose role was to operate wireless radios, lay and repair heavy telephone cables, and transmit messages using visual signals like flags (semaphore) and signal lamps

As the war developed in north west Europe, signals units laid hundreds of miles of telephone and telegraph cables. They also made use of civilian networks wherever possible. Communications to the United Kingdom were made via a cable laid under the Channel connected to signal stations at Bayeaux and Cherbourg in France.

 Many developments were made for radio communication during the Second World War.

Wireless set no. 108 developed for Australian Army 1941

In 1942 the Wireless Set no. 10 - a mobile radio station containing eight duplex telephone channels over a radio (microwave) line of sight link was developed (below).

During the North African signal units had to lay and retrieve telephone cables and establish wireless links at great speed. Valuable lessons learned in the desert helped in the mobile warfare after the Normandy landing in June 1944.

Wireless radio set

When we were in London in 2015 near our hotel there was a memorial to the SOE (Special Operations Executive). The plaque on the memorial read - The SOE 'was secretly formed for the purpose of recruiting agents, men and women of many nationalities who would volunteer to continue the fight for freedom by performing acts of sabotage in countries occupied by the enemy during the Second World War.' Those chosen for such missions were taken to France, for example, in a small plane and left in an isolated location to be collected by partisans with whom they would be working. Communication with headquarters in London was made sending coded messages via radio at a specified time.

SOE mobile radio

Many books, including historical fiction have been written based on the experiences of women in the SOE. 

Morse code and other systems of coding continued to be used during the Second World War.  Florence Violet McKenzie (Mrs Mac) funded and established the volunteer Women’s Emergency Signals Corps in Sydney in 1939 to train women in wireless telegraphy, signals and international codes. 

Mrs Mac

An important role during the war was to decipher enemy messages sent in code. In England Bletchley Park was the primary location used for code breaking. Teams of staff worked day and night to intercept messages, decode them and then pass the message on to military personnel. The biggest challenge occurred when the Germans sent their messages using an Enigma machine using codes that kept changing each day. Eventually Alan Turing and his team managed to break the codes.

Decoding machine - Turing Bombe

There were also code breakers in Australia working for the Central Bureau. The headquarters were in Melbourne but much of the work was carried out in a garage in Brisbane by a group of women. The Garage Girls used 12 British-made TypeX coding machines to both decode and encrypt highly classified material.

A number of non-fiction and novels have been written about the important work of the  codebreakers in Australia and at Bletchley Park.

Another area where scientists played an important part in assisting the military was in the study of radar. During the Second World War the Telecommunications Research Establishment occupied a school in Malvern, England. Many important advances in developing radar systems to assist the military effort were made.

Radar to monitor aircraft

Communication During War - news about the war

On Sunday 3 September 1939 at 9:15 pm, Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced on radio that Australia was at war with Germany. 

Radio was an important means of communication allowing people in Australia to keep up to date with news about the war.

A radio made in Australia 1940-1946 (Powerhouse Museum)

Members of the public also relied on newspapers for information about the war.War correspondents were allowed to send information about the way back to Australia provided that the information was not classified.

In Melbourne there were three daily morning newspapers - The Argus, The Age and The Sun News Pictorial. In the evening The Herald provided updates on the news. These newspapers were published six days a week. As well as stories about the war a casualty list was published in the newspapers.

Country newspapers also published news about the war, especially when it concerned members of the local community. 

War photographers also took photographs of people and events during the war. A well known Australian  war photographer was Damien Parer. He was the first Australian official photographer during the Second World War. Damien Parer initially worked as a war photographer in the Middle East before covering the war in the pacific. He was killed by Japanese machine gun fire in 1944.

Charles Bean was a well known war correspondent during World War I. He later wrote the Official History of Australia in the War 1914-1918 (12 volumes).

Magazines such as The Australian Women's Weekly also often included articles and pictures about the war.

Telegrams were the quickest way for the military to communicate with families. When a telegram boy or a postman approached a house with a telegram there was immediate fear that it might contain bad news informing them that a close family member was a casualty of war - that the family member had died, was injured or was a prisoner of war. Neighbours in the street would anxiously watch hoping that the postman did not stop at their door.

Gwyn William George Court

Gwyn William George Court was born on 17 December 1917 in Penarth, Wales. His parents were John Court and Jane Goddard. In 1939 Gwyn was studying science and engineering at Cardiff University.

In 1935 the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) was established to develop a radar based defence system for the RAF. Over the years the organisation had had a number of names and locations. Gwyn joined TRE at Swanage in Dorset in January 1941. When it became obvious that TRE was located too close to the coast, the organisation was once again on the move to Malvern in May 1942. TRE was then located at Malvern College.

On 6 September 1941 Gwyn married Beryl Audrey Grace Gale in Cardiff. In Swanage they lived in a furnished room in a nearby house until TRE transferred to Malvern College in Malvern in May. Initially Gwyn was billeted at a house in Malvern but in August 1942 he was able to rent a furnished house in West Malvern where his wife joined him.

View of part of Malvern College in 2011

In 2011 we visited Malvern College where the (TRE) had relocated in May 1942. Gwyn Court was one of 2,000 staff who worked at TRE.

We had a photograph of some of the staff lined up in front of a college building and, as it was school holidays, we were given permission to explore the school grounds and locate where the photo had been taken. Gwyn is second from the right in the top row.

The work of TRE was to create and improve radar systems to assist Allied pilots when flying planes and provide early warning systems when the German bombardment of England began. This included systems for radio navigation and for jamming enemy radio navigation. Radar could also locate enemy aircraft at night. It was recognised that the understanding and use of radar was essential to gaining victory in the war. 

From 1941-1944 Gwyn worked in the Radio Counter-Measure Division of TRE where staff were involved with the interpretation and analysis of enemy signals, development of VHF receivers, aerials and recording equipment for ground and airborne use. 

H2S ground scanner

A major part of their work was H2S (previously called Blind Navigation) which was the first airborne ground scanning radar system developed. The radar helped identify targets on the ground during night-time and all weather bombing. It became the first ground mapping radar system used in combat. 

A magnetron

The development of cavity magnetrons reduced the radar wave length to 10 centimetres and eventually to 1.5 centimetres. The targeting radar was designed to fit in an aerodynamic blister on the undercarriage of a bomber. The antenna rotated to scan the terrain and eventually produced a map of the land below the bomber.

A Spitfire

H2S ground scanners greatly assisted plane crews during bombing raids.

H2S and other developments in radar were essential to pilots during the Second World War. The protection of the British coastline was also enhanced with improvements to radar warning systems alerting cities and towns of the approach of enemy aircraft.

At the end of the European War, Gwyn joined the Ground Radar Division at TRE who were concerned with the development of radar aids for civil aviation.

On 14 February 1945 Gwyn William George Court was among twenty-three people who were listed in the UK London Gazettes World War Military Notices as Flight Lieutenant (honorary), an award from the RAF for their contribution to engineering research during the war.

After the war Gwyn Court continued to work at TRE's new offices in Malvern until 1950. He and his family then moved to Wellington, New Zealand, where Gwyn worked initially for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research then as as Superintending Engineer for Radar, Civil Aviation Administration.  

In 1960 the family moved to Melbourne, Australia,  where Gwyn initially worked at Pye Pty Ltd and later as Chief Radar Engineer at the Department of Civil Aviation.

H2S - Wikipedia

H2S Radar - Military Wiki 

 The Story of Pye - Pye Museum

Telecommunications Research Establishment

The Telecommunications Research Establishment, better known as TRE, was established in 1935 to develop a radar based defence system for the RAF. It was originally located at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk before moving to Dundee and then relocating to Swanage in Dorset in 1940. There had been various names for the unit but it was at Swanage that the research organisation became known as TRE. As it became obvious that TRE was located too close to the coast, the organisation was once again on the move in May 1942 to Malvern.

TRE relocated to Malvern College, a boys boarding school. The students were moved to another school for the rest of the war. The major centre for TRE research was the school buildings plus huts constructed in the grounds.

Malvern Radar and Technology History Society

The poster above shows the temporary buildings added to the grounds at Malvern College. Local builders built the accommodation that included laboratories, a restaurant, a Motor Transport Section and an Engineering Unit.

 

In 2011 we visited the school in Malvern as Robin's father had been one of the engineers stationed there. We had a photograph of some of the staff lined up in front of the main school building and, as it was school holidays, we were given permission to explore the school grounds and locate where the photo had been taken. Gwyn Court is second from the right in the top row.

 

Another property, Pale Manor, located near the school, was used for research by members of the Air Defence Research and Development Establishment.

With so many additional people arriving in Malvern, accommodation was required. Many of the TRE staff boarded in rooms in local houses or rented accommodation. St Ann's Orchard, another large building located near the school, accommodated some of the staff.

Historic England

Hotels in Malvern were also used to house the TRE staff including the County Hotel in Abbey Road.

Historic England

The local newspaper, Worcester News 19 June 2019, included a photograph of TRE staff moving into the school at Malvern. Items unloaded included 20 pianos and 400 beds.

 

American engineers and scientists, plus some military, also moved to Malvern to carry out research.

Huts in grounds of Malvern College in winter

The work at TRE was top secret and it was not until many years after the war that the locals discovered why these extra people had arrived in town and how their research had been essential to the war effort. The newcomers did not wear uniforms and as many of the local residents had family serving in military forces overseas they could be suspicious and unwelcoming to the TRE staff. However some of the locals worked in factories to create equipment that would eventually be assembled into radar apparatus.

Radar was a new development. The term RADAR - Radio Detection and Ranging - had been used since 1940. The work of TRE was to create and improve radar systems to assist Allied pilots and provide early warning systems when the German bombardment of England began.

Initially radar towers had been erected to locate enemy planes approaching the southern and eastern coastline. Part of the work at TRE was to improve this radar system. The system of 100 metre transmitter towers was improved when cavity magnetrons were added to the system. Improvements continued to be made to provide warning systems for English cities and towns when enemy planes were approaching.

Warfare History Network

In 1942 British SAS forces raided Bruneval on the French coast and captured part of a radar system installed there. The radar was directed across the channel towards the English coast. It was recognised that the understanding and use of radar was essential to gaining victory in this war. The raid was a dangerous undertaking but it proved to be a successful mission. The captured radar showed the British engineers and scientists how advanced the Germans were in radar technology as well as providing information about how to improve British radar systems.

The radar system at Bruneval - Wikepedia

The scientists and engineers in Malvern also worked to devise ways of blocking German radar systems during a raid by using a system called Windows. H2S was also an important area of radar investigation enabling aircraft to be aware of enemy planes in their vicinity as well as providing an important navigation aid when locating targets.

Like the research of the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the top secret work undertaken at TRE was  essential in helping the Allies defeat Germany during the Second World War. 

After the war many of the discoveries made by TRE staff at Malvern College led to the creation of items used widely today such as microwave ovens and systems used by police to identify speeding motorists plus developments in radio astronomy. Of course, over the years there have been many advances in radar technology but the work of scientists and engineers at TRE, plus those working in radar establishments in other countries, have led to developments that we now take for granted.

Books

Damien Lewis - SAS Shadow Raiders: the ultra-secret mission that changed the course of World War II. 2019.

Reg Batt - The Radar Army: winning the war of the airwaves.1991.

Ernest Putley - Science Comes to Malvern: TRE a story of radar 1942-1953. 2009.

Websites 

How the Introduction of Radar in World War II Changed the Course of the War - Michael Stroud

Telecommunications Research Establishment - Malvern Museum

Malvern Radar and Technology Society - website 

Telecommunications Research Establishment - Wikipedia

Malvern Radar Heroes - Qinetiq 

TRE, RSRE,DRA, DERA and RADAR - Malvern Beacon 

How Malvern College was taken over by boffins in WW2 - Worcester News 19 June 2019 

The Bruneval Raid - Malvern Radar and Technology History Society

The Forgotten Bletchley Park - Daily Mail  9 December 2019

 H2S - Wikipedia

Using Chain Home Radar - Warfare History Network 

Percy Gale

Percy Gale was born on 4 September 1904 in West Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales. His mother was Mary Ann Jenkins Gale. On 3 December 1938 Percy married Irene Hedwick Louise Wyatt and in 1939 their daughter, Mary was born. In 1939 his occupation was listed as hospital porter.

The next definite information that we have about Percy is that he died on 12 August 1943 and was buried at the Bone War Cemetery Annaba, Algeria.

The Bone War Cemetery contains 868 burials of Commonwealth soldiers from the Second World War.

Allied forces landed on the coast of Algeria in November 1942. Allied forces then continued into Tunisia where fighting in the North African campaign continued until the end of 1943 when the Axis forces surrendered. 

Allied forces occupied Bone (Annaba) from 12 November 1942. Bone was an important port for supplies and also had an airport. There was also a hospital.

The control of military bases on the Mediterranean coast in North Africa was important for the Allies to keep watch on the movements of German ships and troop movements in relation to North Africa and also in Italy.

The limited information that we have about Percy's service during the war includes that he was an Aircraftman 2nd class (AC2) in the RAF Volunteer Reserve. His service number was 1666106 and his unit was 1 Base Personnel Depot, Mediterranean Command, at Fort De L'eau (Bordj El Kaffan), another port further along the coast. Fort De L'eau also had an airport and a hospital. We have not located any information as to how Percy Gale died.