GCHQ by Nigel West

Author:Nigel West
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: POLITICAL SCIENCE / Intelligence & Spionage
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2020-02-19T00:00:00+00:00

5

War

Cryptographers were for a long time regarded as mere crossword puzzle solvers and not as the experienced intelligence officers which years of training and experience had made them.

WILLIAM F. CLARKE in ‘War and Rumours of War’, History of Room 40

The swift success of the blitzkrieg left Germany occupying Belgium, Denmark, Holland and much of France, and throughout the ‘invasion summer’ of 1940 the War Cabinet prepared the country for the coming Nazi offensive, Britain was never more isolated, both in terms of geography, politics and communications.

At the outbreak of war, the Cable & Wireless Company had operated 155,000 of the 350,000 miles of cable spanning the globe. It also ran approximately 130 permanent radio circuits. These were the practical means by which Britain kept in touch with the Empire and the rest of the world. Since 1928, Cable & Wireless had appeared to enjoy an independent existence, with the British Government owning much of the capital and nominating the Chairman, Sir Edward Wilshaw, and one other director. In reality, Cable & Wireless was another clandestine method of acquiring raw intelligence for GCHQ. The Official Secrets Act of 1920 had required all cable operators to supply copies of their traffic to the British Government, and all this material had been delivered to Room 47 of the Foreign Office for GC&CS’s scrutiny. Most were returned for onward transmission, but a quantity of those believed to be of interest were duplicated and circulated to MI5, SIS or any other indoctrinated party. This elaborate arrangement had been the brainchild of Henry Maine, a colourful Etonian and graduate of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, who had served in the King’s Private Secretary’s office at Buckingham Palace for four years before joining the Grenadiers in 1916. The following year he had transferred to MI1(b), and from there had progressed into GC&CS.

Maine’s principal occupation at GC&CS was liaison with Cable & Wireless, for as well as supplying the telegrams sent to and from Britain, the company routinely copied foreign traffic passing through its relay stations at Bermuda, Malta and Hong Kong and shipped carbon flimsies back by diplomatic bag to London, where they were examined by teams of ‘slip readers’. Denniston later boasted:

Between us and the companies there has never been any question as to why we wanted the traffic and what we did with it … I have no doubt that the managers and the senior officials must have guessed the true answer but I have never heard of any indiscretions through all these years with so many people involved.1

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