4 November – Listening to the Enemy by Mike Griffiths
The presentation
Many know that during WWII radio amateurs were drafted into the military specifically for their radio skills. But what was their experience like as they started to work for MI6 and the mysterious Radio Security Service (RSS)? This presentation looks at the experience of Scouser Harry Griffiths, G2DFH and his move to the St Erth receiving station in Cornwall.
Today if you take the road out of St Erth and travel up the hill towards St Erth Praze, you could easily miss a dilapidated single storey concrete building in a field close to the road. This is the guard/generator hut of the very secret and important MI6 Radio Listening Station. Together with its sister sites across the country, it had a profound effect on the outcome of WWII.
Listening to the Enemy will provide an insight into the fascinating story of this Bletchley Park outstation and Harry Griffith, G2DFH who was a radio operator at the station throughout WWII and recorded much of his work in his ‘Code Book’. This is simply full of details about German and Italian radio nets, German brevity codes, double agent call signs and more.
The presentation goes on to provide the background about the part the station played in hunting for the Bismarck, Agent Zig Zag the Double Cross system and how it was linked to Bletchley Park and its famous code breaking activities. Mike will also talk about the work of the site post-war to its eventual closure in 1964 when its work was transferred to GCHQ Bude.
About Mike
Born in 1948, in West Cornwall, Mike Griffiths spent his first 9 years living in St Erth, Cornwall. In 1957, his father Harry was posted to RAF Mountbatten, Plymouth, as a Civilian Radio Operator and the family moved to Saltash. At 15, Mike began an apprenticeship as a Shipwright in H M Dockyard, Devonport and rose through the ranks, to become an Assistant Project Manager on Nuclear Submarine Refits.
In 1990, he opted for voluntary redundancy and trained as a Technology Teacher at the College of St Mark & St John, Plymouth. He joined Eggbuckland Community College in this capacity in 1993, taking early retirement in 2005 and leaving as Head of Engineering. He continues his association with the world of teaching, as an Examiner for Pearsons Education. He gives frequent presentations about his father’s WW2 service with MI6 and has written a book on this subject. He is married to Pearl and has two children and five grandchildren.
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