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Kiwi Soldier Web
Annie and the Generals.
This is a story from the 2NZEF Divisional Signals.
Annie and the Generals
A Story of Signals Intelligence and Electronic Counter-measures in
Italy with 2 NZ Divisional Signals
by JOHN SHIRLEY, ZL2AM
Part I-The Electronic Warfare Scene
Electronic warfare, signals intelligence, and counter measures, especially electronic
counter-measures are subjects which grip military planners in
this hi-tech age where anything is possible if backed by the Treasury and the community. Electronic
warfare fascinates many radio amateurs because, compared with
the general public, they have a better understanding of the possibilities of electronic systems and
their vulnerability. The planning of the systems and the counter-measures is for the cynical thrice
burned mind of the old timer. The creation of the modules is for the
restrained genius of the new hand.
Electronic warfare is as old as electronics. It is a field of secrets each
closely held until discovered. The sophistication is such that discovery is
considered inevitable once a system is in general use. Discovery itself is a
secret. However, there have been classic exceptions. In the special area of
SIGINT, Lord Freyberg, a demi-god of warfare at the divisional level, was
unaware of ULTRA and ENIGMA. He thought that the British had a master
spy at the centre of decision making in Germany. On their side, the Germans
assumed throughout the war that their encoding could not be cracked.
That was nearly fifty years ago.
Today, as we tune the HF bands and our S meters are pinned by the Soviet
Woodpecker, we must wonder if it is what it is assumed to be. How long
will it last? How vulnerable is it to spoofing or jamming? Did it really feel
any pain when, with after-burner glowing, you fired back and by program or
otherwise it shifted frequency? One thing is certain, the Woodpecker
counter-measures of the West are closely kept secrets and if unused, will
remain so although many HF fans would like to hear this Soviet system
get an electromagnetic burst or two. Of course, the assumption is made that
the Woodpecker is simply a callous over the horizon radar and not a creation
of Soviet sun worshippers out to maintain the ozone balance for the
pleasure of Bondi-style sunbathers on the Black Sea coasts or the ionosphere
for radio sport across their vast land mass. The mind boggles with speculation
about its possibilities, its weakness and the rush of lower profile copies by
other nations.
Still on an amateur level, amateurs always seem to be there. We have the
computer hackers and the virus injectors. We read about these experts and
their methods, but little about such hapnings on the highest professional
level? Will our civilization, already on thin ice, be brought down by this form
of attack. Perhaps the enemy will be selective like Robin Hood and be helpful
with the choice or records to be destroyed, if indeed he does find a way.
In recent years, there has been the much reported success of the Berlin
tunnel by means of which the ring telephone circuit around East Berlin was
tapped by UK and US operators. This was the subject of a CBS film after its
discovery by the East Germans. By a coincidence, the UK side of this exciting
operation was, in an oblique cloak and dagger way, under nominal command
of two New Zealanders, myself during the construction and later by Dr Ian Shaw
of Auckland. John Wyke, the tremendous Englishman who directed
the UK work was placed in our unit by Whitehall. John Wyke was one of the
few MIl people whose efforts were admired by Peter Wright of Spy-catcher.
Unfortunately, George Blake a lifetime spy and worse a double
agent, attended some of the early meetings in London and it is assumed
by many that he gave the tunnel away even before digging started. Blake
escaped from Wormwood Scrubs with the help of anti-nuclear activists and is
now resident in Moscow.
As it happened in the end, the tunnel was discovered by East German linemen
pushing a handcart and carrying a spike. They made a lucky probe right
over the tunnel. The game was up. But the intercept operators, forwarned by
their lookout, had fled the coop with their paraphernalia following a well-
planned drill. The electric light was left on and a notice "you are now entering
the American Zone" greeted the arrivals from the East.
The furore expected to follow the inevitable discovery never occurred.
Commander Crabbe who was looking, out of personal curiosity, it was said,
for Soviet sonar secrets in the same time frame as the tunnel discovery,
disappeared in his scuba gear in the vicinity of a cruiser of the USSR at
anchor in Portsmouth. This naval incident and associated speculation of all
sorts was uncannily convenient for us. It distracted diplomats and the press.
Our SIGINT saga ended quietly in spite of grim predictions by senior people
in Berlin. The tunnel and its contents became a tourist exhibit for East Germans.
The list of such spectacular examples goes on indefinitely. The spooky US
Battle of the Tonkin Gulf was fought on cathode ray tubes. Nothing was
visible to the human eyes. The air attacks on the outskirts of Hanoi were
aided by countless anti-missile black boxes doing their stuff in real action
for the first time and on a cut and try basis. Then there was the UK Battle
for the Falklands, the first electronics war which we could study in colour
from the safety of our armchairs providing considerable food for thought.
Perhaps as I did, you put yourself in the position of the ECM operator
below deck in HMS Sheffield with nothing happening when suddenly the
processed data of a computer radio showed a fast incoming unidentified
something. Sheffield was the target to be hit in seconds. The counter-measures
were limited and to some extent
subject to direction from the command ship. The Exocet, long obsolescent,
also had some elementary features, one of which was its height seek arrangement.
Height was fixed by a barometer and thus invulnerable to electronic
attack. But once the danger posed by the missile was recognized, the fixed
height characteristic facilitated an instant ad hoc British counter-measure,
albeit an expensive one. Helicopters could lure the missile away laterally from
its intended target without risk so long as they were above the operational
height of the missile.
In this special counter-measure field, what a flurry of activity followed the
Falklands War! What price Plessey's shares, the sale of Chaff and the cost
of ammunition for the greedy superhigh speed Gatling guns first used air-to-ground
in South Vietnam.
It is under the protective cover of fiction that writers can currently have
a field day with high tech radio action and counter-measures. Those who
have not already done so should read The Hunt for Red October which
came my way from Tom Clarkson ZL2AZ and originated with Dick
Baldwin WIRU of ARRL. Another novel in this category was left with me
by Bill Orr W6SAI. It is called The Flight of the Old Dog. The Old Dog
had on board every electronic and mechanical measure and counter-measure
that imaginative writing could produce, all with a hint of feasibility.
We have to assume that the submarine Red October and the aircraft Old Dog were fantasies. On
the other hand, the Stealth aircraft, a current typical product of Californian
aerospace is real and surely a development which we will hear much more
about along with others under wraps.
But this is a story of Annie and the Generals. Annie would never have
been introduced to the New Zealand Infantry in Italy if it had not been for
the fortuitous assembly and co-operation of Lord Freyberg, Sir Geoffrey Cox, then Divisional Intelligence
Officer, Reg Foubister commanding 2 NZ Div Sigs, Tom Campbell commanding 4 NZ Armd Bde,
Peter Glasson ZLIBPY the Brigade Signals Technical Maintenance Officer and
his expert sergeants working with other teams of
signals technicians at Divisional Headquarters.
Everyone of these people, not to mention the Maori involved in the bedroom scene,
would tell this story differently, However, I was the lucky
one to see the affair through from the start to its finish in London and it is
my privilege to make the record. It changed the course of my life as well
as the lives of many others. Although mentioned in the War History of 2 NZ
Divisional Signals by Alan Borman and in the Race for Trieste by Sir
Geoffrey Cox, the full story has not been told before.
Part II-The beginnings of the Annie Affair
The many people involved with Annie would each describe the
affair differently. They would begin somewhere else, take a
different view of the action and end at a different point. My own
beginning in the story is still clear in my mind. It was sheer chance.
I was having my lunch at the Napier Boys' High School. Lunch
was a fourpenny pie from the tuck shop and the mess hall was the
outside wall of the physics lab. The wall faced north and was
warmed on this wintry day by the Hawkes Bay sun. There was snow
on the highest hills to the north-west in the direction of Taupo and
west to Taihape. I overheard the conversation of two older boys
alongside me. I was fascinated. They were talking about wireless,
crystal sets, aerials, earths and catswhiskers. That night on the
farm, I convinced my loving parents that they must buy me a crystal set from the Auckland Farmers Catalogue. Needless to
say, as it was assembled, it cost an arm and a leg. I reckoned I would receive 2ZH Napier at the eight miles range to Bayview. The
station was owned by Charlie Hansen and operated by Ron Oakes ZLIML who was also an announcer. They had less than
SOW input. I doubted their rated output because I never did hear them, although my gear was the best in Bayview: electron wire
aerial, Brandes headphones and a coil wound on a waxed cylinder
with a slider tuner. The crystal was bright, mysterious and protected by glass. The electron wire turned out to be WWI surplus
signals field cable D MkI, quite a museum piece today. I wonder if they have any in the collection of Signals memorablia at Waiouru.
After four weeks of searching the surface of the galena crystal for a good
spot, miracle of miracles, I heard the clear voice, not of Ron Oakes, but Clive
Drummond. It was 2Y A! I never could hold the signal for more than a minute
or so, but the blood rushed to my head and my father must also have lost his
cool. He bought, again through the Farmers catalogue, a tube set, a regenerative detector and two audio stages
designed by Jack Orbell ZLlAX in Auckland. Not only did this set pick up
virtually every broadcast station in the US but it also squeezed in 600m and
the quenched gap spark transmissions of The Union Company's coasters just
organized by Tom Clarkson. Huckleberry Finn never had it so good! But
there was more to come. One day I improperly connected a Beverage
antenna to the innards of the set and found I could hear every telephone
conversation north of Napier! It should be explained that this feat, extraordinary
as it was then for a school boy,was not comparable with the achievements
of the young telephone hackers of today. There were only ten subscribers north of Napier,
there were all on the one line and it was earth working.
Nevertheless, the memory of this experience was to return vividly in Italy
when the sophisticated enemy intercept situation there became apparent.
SIGINT was never our official job in the 2 NZ Division. In the Western
Annies, electronics intelligence is not a responsibility of Signals at the
Divisional level or forward. This tactical SIGINT is looked after from Corps and
higher even although the units may be parked in very advanced positions. It
is nor surprising therefore that there were only three of four occasions when
by chance New Zealanders as such in Africa or Europe became closely associated
or in command of SIGINT units.
One such occasion was the advent of Annie. The first possibly was the office
of Robin Bell, intelligence officer on Crete, taking Ultra intercepts repeated
from Cairo. Another was at Sidi Resegh Ubya in November 1941 when Corps headquarters
moved precipitately into Tobruk. They were forced to leave behind in our care a collection of
non-desert worthy caravans and their rather unsoldierly crews. This was their tactical
radio intercept unit. The men were possibly foreign nationals recruited in
Soho, risking their lives if captured and that fate was a high probability. It was
on November 28 that they intercepted a message from Africa Korps to 15 and
21 Panzer Divisions saying "The New Zealand Division is at Point X. Destroy
it." This radio unit was left by Corps in the care of the NZ Divisional Intelligence
Officer not Divisional Signals and he got it safely into T obruk only
hours before we were attacked from all sides and left in some disarray. A
Mark m tank of 15 Panzer Division put 14 holes in my Ford pickup immediately
prior to my own departure.
A New Zealand involvement with SIGINT occurred at Casale in Italy to
the right of Cassino--more of this later. It was a Signals matter rather than
SIGINT. The incident triggered serious thought. It was the first time the danger
of earth currents had been discussed other than as a routine disciplinary
matter. For example, a close eye was always kept on our relatively secure
Fullerphones and their operating voltages. The Fullerphone was a telegraph
instrument using a steady DC signal which created a minimum change in
the local electrical field.
In the desert, long lines and high resistance contributed to weak Fuller-phone
signals. It became usual in the dead of night when the signal master
was asleep or taking the air, for signalmen to beef up the volts above the
level allowed in the "book" thus clearing the traffic quickly. They could then
settle back with a cup of tea and the New Zealand Times, until dawn
brought the change of watch. The custom continued in Italy, although the
teleprinter was already rapidly replacing the morse key even in tactical
situations well forward.
Our New Zealand Division came close to what could have been a spectacular
involvement with SIGINT at Cassino but Corps got wind of our idea
and stopped us. The situation was interesting. We had tremendous superiority
in men, armour and firepower, but the enemy had an impregnable position.
The front lines were static and very close. The Germans must have
been having trouble with their field cable as our harassing fire was never
ending and indeed we could hear their HF tactical radios all the time. My idea
was to get very close, within a mile, using three rotating loops to fix each
position, then shoot them up as they say in the West. We had all the time in
the world to do this at no great danger to ourselves. It was not to be. Unknown
to us, one of the strange British radio teams was lurking in the olive grove
behind us. Their leader came out of hiding when he heard of our intentions.
He was getting useful information from the very radio stations we intended to
give some considerable "hurry up". His position was supported by the General
Staff. Much later, when we produced Annie, the equivalent officer came
forward again in protest. This second time though, we were out to win.
The determination to win is a characteristic of New Zealanders which I
appreciate. I enjoy too the eagerness to improvise, to seize opportunities, to
feel able to modify plans and not be bound too much by standing orders or
any orders, but to regard them more as guidelines towards the goal.
"Sempre avante", the Italians used to say of the Division-always onward. It
was this freewheeling life style activated by considerable expertise at all levels
throughout Divisional Signals which I am sure led us to think of Annie ahead
of Technical Counter Intelligence at the remote higher command. But the stage
was being set by a whole series of events not the least of which were
electromagnetic happenings at Casale a village near Cassino. These chance
events at Casale took us another step down this road.
continue the story...
Resume
John R. Shirley, OBE, FlEE,
ZL2AM
John Shirley owns Burnside Vineyard, the original family estate at
Bayview, Hawkes Bay. He obtained his ham radio licence in 1931 and his first
class commercial radio licence in 1938.
He graduated from Napier Boys' High School in 1931 and then worked as a
radio engineer in Napier and Palmerston North., He is a Fellow of the Institute
of Electrical Engineers and a Chartered Engineer. In 1938 he left
New Zealand to take a position with G. E. Schenectady but instead joined
the Marconi Company. On the outbreak of war, he was in the UK but
was able to return to New Zealand as a ship's wireless operator with AWA.
He enlisted with Royal New Zealand Signals and in 1941 joined 2NZEF in
Egypt. He served overseas with various 2 NZ DN Sigs units in North
Africa, Italy and the British Army Operations Research Group, London,
until 1947. While in London he represented New Zealand on the British
Joint Communications Board. With 2 NZ Div Sigs throughout World War II
he was signals officer with Div Cav 6 Fd Regt, 5 Inf Bde, Div Wireless Section,
2 Coy Arty Sigs, NZ Sig School Bari, 4 Armd Bde, and 2 I/C Sigs,
beginning in Egypt and ending at Trieste. In 1947 he joined Royal Signals
and was attached to the office of the Scientific Adviser to the Army
Council. During 1950-52 he set up and commanded the Operational
Research Unit Far East including Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and
Korea. He received the OBE for his success with tactical communications
in Malaya. He was transferred to Washington from 1952-53 as science
representative of the SMC, Whitehall for USA and Canada. In late 1953 he led
a team looking for new ideas in counter insurgency in Kenya. In the same year
be became Director of Operations Research NW Army Group at Herford
Germany and later at Dusseldorf on the Rhine. In 1958, having resigned from
the British Army he joined the US management consultant firm of Booz
Allen and was appointed to US Air Technical Intelligence at Wright-Patterson
airbase. In 1959 he was moved to an operations research group
headed by RCA working in Washington and New London on Polaris submarine
communications developments.
He received a letter of commendation from President Kennedy for this work
and the team which he then directed was awarded the Polaris Rag. In 1956
he was attached to the US Department of Defence Advanced Research Projects
Agency to report on small unit actions in South Vietnam initially with
the South Vietnamese forces and later with the US Army and Marines. This
counter insurgency consultant work continued with ARPA until he retired
in 1970. At the time of his retirement he was a Vice-President of Booz Allen
Applied Research, Washington.
continue the story...
Ian McNeur's Story
Bluey Houghton's story
George Watson's story
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