Harpenden Y station

The Rothamsted Manor House , a manor house in Harpenden, housed the Harpenden listening station.

Harpenden Y station is a former military base of the British Army . It is located in the town of Harpenden about 40 km north of London in the English county of Hertfordshire . During the Second World War , there was an important radio listening point for the British secret service ( Y service ) .

history

The Special Wireless Group (1 SWG) , one of the British radio eavesdropping groups, was stationed in the Rothamsted Manor House (picture) , whose task it was to intercept and record enemy, in particular German, radio traffic. For example, with the German Enigma machine encrypted and in Morse code transmitted ciphertexts were collected in Harpenden, and recorded by Dispatch rider ( despatch rider ) over about 30 km long distance after Bletchley down. There, the British Codebreakers succeeded in deciphering and evaluating the intelligence service . The German radio messages often contained important war information, which the British grouped under the code name Ultra and used for their own planning.

Web links

• The Y Service 1939-1945 (English). Retrieved April 21, 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Y Service 1939-1945 (English). Retrieved April 21, 2017.

Coordinates: 51 ° 48 ′ 21 ″  N , 0 ° 22 ′ 9 ″  W.