Photographs - Battle of the Atlantic, Communications Equipment, Seamen on Skeena, Wrens, St. Hyacinthe

Figure 1.  Equipment in the far end of Skeena’s wireless office.  A medium frequency transmitter sits at left with its coils above.  An HRO receiver is at right.

Figure 2.  CM-11 transmitter-receiver.

Figure 3.  Marconi MSL-5 receiver used in Skeena for receiving messages broadcast from shore stations on 105 or 107 Kc/s.

Figure 4.  FR-12 transmitter-receiver, used largely on the convoy wave of 2410 Kc/s for radio-telephone communication between escorts.

Figure 5.  FMB, similar to the FM-12 direction finding receiver used, for example, to take bearings of shore-station beacons or to take bearings of the transmissions of aircraft to home them to the convoy.

Figure 6.  PV500 transmitter used for transmitting messages ship-to-shore on such frequencies as:  4740, 6300, 8290 and 12685 using morse.  

Figure 7.  Royal Navy submarine off the coast of Nova Scotia

Figure 8.  Riley leaning on iced-up A gun aboard Skeena, December 1942.

Figure 9.  Leading Telegraphist Fred Ross, Skeena.  The photo was taken using sunlight shining through the port hole.

Figure 10.  Telegraphist Tom Clegg, Skeena.

Figure 11.  Coders Bruce Witherspoon and Ritchie Seath, Skeena 1943.  Ritchie lost his life when Skeena went on the rocks at Iceland in October 1944.

Figure 12.  Telegraphist George Godsall, Skeena 1943.

Figure 13.  Telegraphists Allan Riley and Frank Hibbs, Skeena, Oct 1942.

Figure 14.  Wrens on a signal platform at St. Hyacinthe:  Marion Roberts, Vancouver BC, uses a signal projector, while Elizabeth Wickham, Westmount QC, makes a signal with semaphore flags, and Marion Smith, Ottawa ON, writes down a message.

Figure 15.  St. Hyacinthe W/T students operate a portable radiotelephone set.  L to R:  Bruce Stevenson, Kimberley BC, J.R. Walker, Toronto ON, and Charles Cannon, Windsor ON.

Figure 16.  Wireless Telegraphy students copying plain language morse of SBX (Standard Buzzer Exercise) at St. Hyacinthe.

Figure 17.  Ratings at St. Hyacinthe are restoring books to the shelves in the Confidential Book office.

Figure 18.  Wrens wireless telegraphy class copying morse on typewriters, obviously a much better method than pushing a pencil.

Figure 19.  Visual signaling classes on the parade square at St. Hyacinthe.  The Wrens and ratings are working in pairs:  one reading the flashing light or semaphore signals while the other writes them down.

Figure 20.  The ship’s company doubling to “divisions” at St. Hyacinthe.  Wrens can be seen streaming from behind the building at the top.

Figure 21.  Wren “Jackie” Lapointe, of Montreal, operating a High Frequency Direction Finding set at HMCS Caverdale near Monction NB.  Wren Lapointe appears to be concentrating on the cursor and adjusting a control to bring in a better signal.  The microphone at right is connected to “ops”.

A Sparker’s Poem - Appendix I

A nondescript nonentity, a limb of the oppressed,

I wear no badges on my arm, no medals on my chest,

But though my past is colourless, my future dim and bleak,

I cherish a distinction which is probably unique.

Of all the mass of traffic through the tortured ether hurried,

By all the busy tels of all the navies of the world,

No morse of mine impinged upon a fellow sparker’s ear;

I never sent a signal in the whole of my career.

I used to wonder meekly when control would let me in,

To add my little quota to the universal din.

Then realized by destiny, surrendered to my fate—

Eternally to sit and serve by being told to wait.

But once and only once I found my baser self constrained,

To break the wireless silence I so rigidly maintained.

My weary watch was over, my relief was overdue,

I gently, briefly, pressed the key to see what it would do.

I often sit and wonder where that blameless dot has gone,

If still through endless time and space it hurries bravely on,

Disowned by its creator and dismissed its parent ship—

Unauthorized, attenuated, lonely little pip.

But though beyond our universe, its travels may extend,

It still will bear my fingerprints on reaching journey’s end

And beings in some unknown  world may trace it back to me,

As surely as the Flagship did in 1943.

Anon.

Seasickness (Poem) - Appendix H

A rise…a fall…a long suspense,

A word just spoken…in the air.

A reel…a swerve…a time intense,

As eyes rest in uneaten fare.

A sigh… a gulp…a quick upheave,

A dash to parley with…a wave.

Too late!  The deck does now receive

What I had fondly hoped to save.

O God!  O Christ!  How I blaspheme!

Your sea, your waves, your windy sky!

O man of earth!  How I do scream

“Oh let me be.  Oh, let me die.”

Of steel…of men…of gun and shell

Seasick I care for no such strength.

Give me the earth, a cool green dell.

I’ll give you all the ocean’s length.

What man…can stand…the bile so vile

Thick slimy coming for inside?

It pains…it strains…Oh, rasping file,

In regions of the unseen side?

I fling my soul to tide and wind,

God, do your worst with it…or give

Ease to my tummy full of wind;

Or let me die where fishes live.

Able Seaman Richard B. Wright

The last CW message transmitted in the Canadian Navy - Appendix G

NAWS

C13L001

R 312300Z AUG 93

FM MSAX MILL COVE

TO ALL SUBSCRIBERS C13L

BT

UNCLAS

1. SEPTEMBER 1, 1993, HAVING BEEN DESIGNATED AS THE DATE IN WHICH REGULAR CW SERVICE CEASES IN THE CANADIAN NAVY. THIS IS THE FINAL OCCASION WHEN SPARKERS WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUT THIS DYING ART TO USE

2. FOR THOSE WHO CAN RECALL QUOTE BENS BEST BREAD UNQUOTE WILL ALWAYS BE RHYTHM ON THE TIPS OF THE FINGERS

3. AS WE ENTER INTO THIS NEW ERA THE MEMBERS OF THE OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT AT MILL COVE WISH TO SAY ONE LAST TIME R R C U L OM QRU QRU AR

BT

6 MHZ TOR 2310Z W.O.

A description of the German Enigma machine - Appendix F

A description of the German Enigma machine will show the complexity of the cipher.  The heart can be said to be three small rotors or wheels, hamburger-patty size, augmented by a few more rotors which could be interchanged with the first three.

            The basic three rotors fit on an axle or shaft between two stationary rotors, one of the stationary rotors being an entry point with the other being a reflector.  Each of the three rotatable rotors consisted of 26 plunger or spring-loaded contacts on one side of the rotor while on the other side were 26 flat contacts, all insulated from one another.  Inside the rotor the contacts were randomly connected to one another by insulated wires.  Movable rings were located on the rims of the rotors, providing a further encrypting arrangement.

            An important part of the machine was a small switch- or plug-board containing 26 jacks lettered A to Z.  Five to thirteen cords could be plugged into the board in a scheduled and changing arrangement, thus giving different electrical paths.

            A single letter, to be encrypted, started out by having a key pressed on the keyboard from where an electrical pulse proceeded through the plug-board, from there it flowed through the entry rotor, thence on a tortuous route through the three rotatable rotors to the reflector and a return tortuous route through the rotatable rotors and the entry rotor to an electric bulb with an inscribed but different letter that that typed.  It is to be noted that each time a key was pressed the right-hand rotor would advance a step.  When the rotor completed a full revolution the middle rotor rotated a step until eventually it completed its revolution and the third rotor would begin to rotate.

            Before encryption of a message it was necessary to set the keys.  First, the rings were arranged on the rotatable rotors.  The rotors were placed in the machine in a particular order for a set period of time.  Then the rotors were rotated to the basic daily setting whereby three assigned letters from an indicator list, example AJR, appeared in the apertures.  Next, three letters were picked at random, example TCA, and typed on the machine.  This would result in three encrypted letters, example LPN.  The rotors would now be rotated so that LPN appeared in the apertures.  From this position the message would be encrypted and processed into four letter groups.  The key indicator, TCA, is encrypted by using a separate table and changed into other letters that would appear as the first two groups of the message and repeated as the ending two groups.

            At the outbreak of war the Royal Air Force and Army were using a machine modelled on the Enigma that they called the Type X.  Unlike the Enigma it remained a secure system throughout the war.  It eventually came into use in the Canadian navy.  Coder Bill Sloan, of Etobicoke ON, remembers a Type X installed in the Code and Cypher Room in the Administration Building at Naval HQ in St. John’s Nfld.  Chief Petty Officer Dirks was the only operator and the only one allowed in the room.  The machine printed 5-letter groups onto tape.

Communications Arrangement - Appendix E

(MEMO:  Com. 2)                                SECRET

DATE: 11^th April, 1945                         CONVOY ON 296                 RADIO DISTINGUISHING GROUP:  LOVE JIG

SHIP	FLEET NO.	PT NO.	SCREEN POS’N	R/T CALLSIGNS			W/T CALLSIGNS
			DAY     NIGHT	NORMAL	ALTERNATIVE	ALTERNATIVE	APRIL
SENIOR OFFICER				Nutty	Partridge	Contralto
KIKANEE	1	419	ABLE           ABLE	Kiper	Lacey	Entity	LSY
RIVIERE DU LOUP	2	357	PETER        ROGER	Misguide	Coal Vase	Winter Brook	LJN
ST. THOMAS	3	488	MIKE            NAN	Pardon	Sleevefish	Book-seller	TXV
SEA CLIFF	4	344	CHARLIE     HOW	Finguard	Recast	Saddle Back	RUI
STELLARTON	5	457	FOX             DOG	Bostock	Hawk Moth	Sawkins	PRA
TRILLIUM	6	172	SUGAR        SUGAR	Spinney	Glanfield	Obelinsk	BAR

GUARDS			AUTHENTICY WORDS
(1)    KOKANEE – main guard on Port wave in Coastal Waters.  SEA CLIFF is to take calls missed by KOKANEE. (2)     SEA CLIFF to guard 15th Group Recco on HF/DF set as requisite. (3)     BN - SEACLIFF to guard from 30 deg West to 37 deg West (4)     L – ST THOMAS guard from 23 deg West to 30 deg West. (5)     500 kc/s – KOKANEE throughout. (6)     AZORES Port Wave as requisite RIVIERE DU LOUP		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12	CAMP TOPIC PURCHASE OPEN INVITE PANTOMINE POISON RAGGED INCLUDE LOVE STATE FORTUNE

1.      A/C homing will be carried out by H.M.C.S.  ST. THOMAS.  Senior Officer will take over upon R/T communication being established.  H.M.C.S.  “ST. THOMAS” is to confirm receipt of the signal ordering homing by V/S or TBS to Senior Officer.

2.      TBS/TBY routing tests at 0900, 1800 and 2400 daily, Senior Officer controlling.  TBY watch may be ordered at other times by the use of the code word “VODKA”.  Constant TBS watch is kept by the S.O.  (E).

3.      G.C.O. Art. 22  H.M.C.S.  STELLARTON.  (Merchant Ships not concerned).

4.      In order to avoid confusion between “Finguard” and “Misguide”, RIVIERE DU LOUP will use the call sign “TICKET”  from 10 West until Westomp, unless otherwise ordered.

Reference G.C.O. Art. 3, S.O.  (E) will be responsible for the ship or ships astern.  However, where support groups are stationed astern as part of the close or outer screen, the wing ships of our Group are to pass to adjacent ship of support force.