ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue 35

July 2006
Articles, newsreports and Items of interest :enigma2000-owner@yahoogroups.com

The Czechoslovak military radio stations at Woldingham, Surrey and Hockliffe, Beds

by Neil Rees of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile Research Society http://www.czechsinexile.org

Before we go to our media reviews etc we present an interesting article from the pen of Mr Neil Rees.

Introduction

During the Second World War the Czechoslovak military intelligence services ran independent radio stations from England. At the time they were secret, and today there is practically nothing left of them, and there are very few people left who know anything about them. People can be forgiven for not knowing that they were ever there, but they played an important role in supplying intelligence information to the Allies, and in maintaining contact with the Czechoslovak resistance. Each station was called in Czech vojenská radiová ústředna (military radio centre) known by its initial letters as the VRÚ.

Political background

The background to these stations goes back to 1938 when the British Prime Minister came back from a conference at Munich, with an agreement from Adolf Hitler, that in return for being given the Sudetenland borderlands of Czechoslovakia, he said he had made his last territorial claim in Europe, and he would respect the independence of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak President, Dr Edvard Beneš, was not invited to the conference and resigned after being forced to acquiesce to the loss of territory. Six months later Hitler disregarded his promises, he supported a fascist regime in Slovakia, and invaded the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia.

West Dulwich

On the eve of invasion, in March 1939, the Czechoslovak intelligence services were whisked from Prague and settled in Rosendale Road, West Dulwich, where they set up the first military radio station in England, which initially established contact with the home resistance.

Czechoslovak military intelligence staff group:

Left to right: Col Frantisek Moravec, Captain Jaroslav Tauer, Major Harold Gibson, Captain Alois Caslavka, President Benes, Prokop Drtina, Jaromir Smutny

[Photograph courtesy of the family of Jaroslav Bublik]

London blitz

Although Britain did not enter the Second World War until 1939, for the Czechoslovaks the war had already begun, and President Beneš set up a government in exile in London. As the Third Reich spread across the map of continental Europe, Hitler’s bombs rained on London with the Blitz of 1940. As even London became an unsafe location for the Czechoslovak exiles, they sought safe sites in the surrounding counties.

Exiled to Bucks and Beds

President Beneš of Czechoslovakia moved to the sanctuary of The Abbey, at Aston Abbotts, Buckinghamshire; his Chancery moved to the Old Manor House in Wingrave, Buckinghamshire; and some of his military intelligence staff moved to Addington House, Addington near Winslow, Buckinghamshire. These were their residences although all of them maintained their offices in London, where the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile was based.

Funny Neuk

In May 1940 the Czechoslovak military radio station moved from West Dulwich to a bungalow called “Funny Neuk” in Dukes Hill, Woldingham, near Redhill in Surrey. Whilst there it handled the radio communications for Czechoslovak clandestine SOE missions, including the operation to assassinate the hated German governor Reinhard Heydrich.

Hockliffe

In September 1942 the radio station transferred to College Farm, Hockliffe, Bedfordshire, which was then a cattle farm. The station was built by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who were based locally at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire. The equipment was supplied by the Special Communications Unit (SCU) at Whaddon Hall, Whaddon, Buckinghamshire. It was located in the north Bucks and Beds area which was dotted with secret facilities such as Bletchley Park.

Hockliffe Radio Station

Left to right: Vaclav Retich, Captain Vaclav Knotek, Jan Stursa.

In the background is the Nissen hut that housed the transmission equipment and teleprinters.

[Photograph courtesy of the family of Jaroslav Bublik]

The military radio station

The station used 12 aerials for transmitting, 12 aerials for receiving and had 2 miles of barbed wire to keep out the farm animals. The transmissions kept in contact with the Czech resistance, wireless operators on SOE parachute missions, and with Czechoslovak Embassies in unoccupied countries such as Sweden and Switzerland. The site was just off the main cable routes from Fenny Stratford to London and information was sent by G.P.O. teleprinters connecting the site with locations in London: the 64 Baker Street, headquarters of the Special Operations Executive (SOE); the Broadway headquarters of the Secret Intelligent Services (SIS); the and the 11 Porchester Gate, Bayswater headquarters of the Czechoslovak military intelligence services. The teleprinters were maintained once a week by a G.P.O. telecommunications engineer.

Personnel

The radio station was manned entirely by Czechoslovaks who lived in 3 Nissen huts on site. The men were mainly recruited from the Signals Unit of the Free Czechoslovak Army, based in the Leamington Spa area of Warwickshire. Sometimes other men were appointed who had injuries that made them unfit for active service. The station was under the control of the Czechoslovak military intelligence services under their head Colonel František Moravec, who lived at Addington House in Bucks. There were also rare visits from representatives of the British secret services. Most of the men had the job of radio operator (radiotelegrafist in Czech), but there was also a commander, a technician Antonín Šimandl, a cook and a man-servant who kept the huts cleaned.

Training centres

Some of the men had received radio operations training in the Signals Unit of the Czechoslovak Army, and others received it locally at Special Training Schools (STSs) run by the SOE. Chicheley Hall (STS 46), Chicheley near Newport Pagnell trained Czechoslovaks from 1942 to 1943 and Thame Park (STS 52), Thame, Oxon trained people in wireless operations. Howbury Hall (STS 40), Bedford trained parachutists for ground to aircraft wireless contact.

The station operated in full capacity until 1945, when most of the men flew home to Czechoslovakia in Dakota planes, landing at Plze× (Pilsen), which was part of Czechoslovakia liberated by the US Army. They left behind a commander, 2 men and a cook, who ran the station until 1946, when they went home on a repatriation train leaving one man in charge. The station ceased shortly afterwards.

Radio operations training

Czechoslovak soldiers of the Signals Unit on training. Training was done at Furz Hill in Warwickshire, at STS 46 Chicheley Hall in Bucks and at STS 52 Thame Park in Oxon.

[Photograph courtesy of the family of Jaroslav Bublik]

Personal stories

The information for this chapter is based upon first-hand information with people who were there, or where they are deceased, with their immediate families. They generously gave me information from their memories.

Neil Rees,
17th May 2006