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The Secret Listeners
Behind the celebrated code - breaking at Bletchley Park lies another secret...The men and women of the 'Y' (for Wireless') Service were sent out across the world to run listening stations from Gibraltar to Cairo, intercepting the German military's encrypted messages for decoding back at the now - famous Bletchley Park mansion. Such wartime postings were life - changing adventures - travel out by flying boat or Indian railways, snakes in filing cabinets and heat so intense the perspiration ran into your shoes - but many of the secret listeners found lifelong romance in their far - flung corner of the world. Now, drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving veterans, Sinclair McKay tells their remarkable story at last.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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About the author
Sinclair McKay
51 books174 followersSinclair McKay writes regularly for the Daily Telegraph and The Secret Listeners and has written books about James Bond and Hammer horror for Aurum. His next book, about the wartime “Y” Service during World War II, is due to be published by Aurum in 2012. He lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
April 15, 2022
I recently listened to Virginia Nicholson’s excellent Millions Like Us: Women’s Lives in the Second World War. Among the women from all walks of life quoted in that book, there were a couple who worked in Britain’s “Y” service. (The “Y” is for wireless, oddly. It was also sometimes called the listening service.) I decided to make my next audiobook this one, with its singular focus on that service.
Unlike the boffins shut up in claustrophobic huts at Bletchley Park, working on decryption, members of the Y service worked all over Europe, Africa and the Far East. One radio enthusiast sat in his parlor every night after his regular job, listening to German Morse radio traffic and transcribing it to send on to the intelligence services. Others who knew German listened to audio radio traffic among the Luftwaffe pilots and their controllers. Sometimes thee ones with excellent German even spoofed the pilots and controllers, sending them away from their intended destinations with false coordinates and fake weather reports.
Outside England, a listener might be sent to Greece, Crete, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Tangiers, Cairo, Palestine, Ceylon, Spain, Malaysia. Sometimes living conditions were primitive, other times like being at a resort. One Y service member recalls his castaway years posted to a tiny island in the Cocos Island, halfway between Australia and Sri Lanka, with the only visitors being a supply ship that might come by every three weeks or so. A posting to Lisbon, in neutral Portugal, meant being discombobulated by brightly lit streets, and plentiful food and luxuries. But you couldn’t get lulled into a false sense of security, since Lisbon was crawling with agents from both the Allied and Axis powers.
One aspect of the Y service was how it transformed lives. Many of its members were very young, and going away from home (often a rural village or small town) for the first time. They saw the world and met people from different ethnic groups and walks of life. Women were able to exercise the kind of freedom and responsibility that were unknown to them before the war. At the same time, they all paid for their eye-opening experiences in long hours, high stress, and sometimes great danger. All without being able to tell anyone about their work and sometimes being taken for cowards, slackers, or even German spies.
This is a great companion book to the many already available on Bletchley and the S.O.E.
Unlike the boffins shut up in claustrophobic huts at Bletchley Park, working on decryption, members of the Y service worked all over Europe, Africa and the Far East. One radio enthusiast sat in his parlor every night after his regular job, listening to German Morse radio traffic and transcribing it to send on to the intelligence services. Others who knew German listened to audio radio traffic among the Luftwaffe pilots and their controllers. Sometimes thee ones with excellent German even spoofed the pilots and controllers, sending them away from their intended destinations with false coordinates and fake weather reports.
Outside England, a listener might be sent to Greece, Crete, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Tangiers, Cairo, Palestine, Ceylon, Spain, Malaysia. Sometimes living conditions were primitive, other times like being at a resort. One Y service member recalls his castaway years posted to a tiny island in the Cocos Island, halfway between Australia and Sri Lanka, with the only visitors being a supply ship that might come by every three weeks or so. A posting to Lisbon, in neutral Portugal, meant being discombobulated by brightly lit streets, and plentiful food and luxuries. But you couldn’t get lulled into a false sense of security, since Lisbon was crawling with agents from both the Allied and Axis powers.
One aspect of the Y service was how it transformed lives. Many of its members were very young, and going away from home (often a rural village or small town) for the first time. They saw the world and met people from different ethnic groups and walks of life. Women were able to exercise the kind of freedom and responsibility that were unknown to them before the war. At the same time, they all paid for their eye-opening experiences in long hours, high stress, and sometimes great danger. All without being able to tell anyone about their work and sometimes being taken for cowards, slackers, or even German spies.
This is a great companion book to the many already available on Bletchley and the S.O.E.
February 14, 2014
This was both utterly fascinating and, at the same time, rather boring. The subject matter itself was extremely interesting, and clearly necessary information, as I thought I was getting a book about the Bletchley Park codebreakers rather than the Y Service (interceptors) who collected the information to be fed to Bletchley. I'm perfectly happy with anecdotal histories to a degree, as was absolutely the case with How the Girl Guides Won the War, but that was beautifully read, so I could float along on the occasional superfluous account of camp or the like. Here, I felt I had learned two things quite quickly: 1) the radio interceptors had to do an incredibly stressful and exhausting job of listening to often-faint signals and transcribing the Morse at speed for hours on end, often throughout the night; and 2) the need for secrecy had an even worse impact on them than on the Bletchley Park crew, as it also resulted in their never being told that what they were doing was utterly vital to the military. We were told these two things over and over, through the linking text between the experiences of many individuals, as well as in their stories, and it got somewhat tedious after a while. (Standard disclaimer that it might have been easier to read than to listen to as audio.)
I'm not aware of another book on the Y Service, and despite my quibbles, am delighted to have learned something about it and the (young! So very young!) radio interceptors who made such a vital contribution to the war so anonymously. (Also was pleased to see the material covered in How the Girl Guides Won the War mentioned, as more than one girl was said to have learned Morse Code, among many other necessary skills, in the Guides.)
I'm not aware of another book on the Y Service, and despite my quibbles, am delighted to have learned something about it and the (young! So very young!) radio interceptors who made such a vital contribution to the war so anonymously. (Also was pleased to see the material covered in How the Girl Guides Won the War mentioned, as more than one girl was said to have learned Morse Code, among many other necessary skills, in the Guides.)
August 5, 2014
The history of Bletchley Park and the code breaking successes of World War 2 are well known now. But very little has been told of the story of those that collected the intercepts from listening stations around the world.
Using a raft of personal anecdotes and memories from people who worked for Y Service, McKay brings together all of these into a potted history of this unheard of service. From the teenage volunteers listening in their front rooms to the uniformed staff listening at the front line, all of these fed the data and transcripts into the machine that Bletchley became. As they were spread all over the world, some had really nice placements in Pacific islands others were in less savoury places, having to destroy equipment prior to retreating quickly as the front line changed.
A fascinating history and collection of stories from a very secretive organisation that was really only formally acknowledged in 2009.
Using a raft of personal anecdotes and memories from people who worked for Y Service, McKay brings together all of these into a potted history of this unheard of service. From the teenage volunteers listening in their front rooms to the uniformed staff listening at the front line, all of these fed the data and transcripts into the machine that Bletchley became. As they were spread all over the world, some had really nice placements in Pacific islands others were in less savoury places, having to destroy equipment prior to retreating quickly as the front line changed.
A fascinating history and collection of stories from a very secretive organisation that was really only formally acknowledged in 2009.
December 1, 2017
During WWII, the Y-Service provided the pipeline of German (and Japanese) encrypts that were transformed by Bletchley Park's boffins into decrypts describing the enemy's movements and strategies. The actionable information from these won the U-boat war in the Atlantic, defeated Rommel in North Africa and revealed the "ground truth" of German activity during the D-Day invasion. "The Secret Listeners" covers the day to day stories of members of the Y-Service in their listening posts world-wide. It is told from a human perspective, from beaches, mountains, deserts and claustrophobic shelters. Unlike books on Bletchley you may have read, this is not a technical story.
Perhaps, due to the sense of imminent threat and the duress of daily life on the home front, the British' single-minded adherence to the "Official Secrets Act" resulted in the loss of much of Bletchley Park's history. However, some of Bletchley's key players, in the 1970s, finally decided enough was enough and began publishing fairly thorough accounts. The material from the Y-Service is, unfortunately, more scarce. Books like McKay's are harder to find.
The author, through interviews of remaining Y-service members, references to their (few) accounts, and occasional dives into what official archives remain, manages to give us insight into an essential but almost forgotten group of intelligent, dedicated and for the most part very young contributors to the war effort. The Y-Service was made up of mostly women -- WAAFs and Wrens. Many of these were stationed in locations such as HMS Flowerdown (near Winchester in Hampshire), a good posting offering access to dances and the occasional advantages of the company of American soldiers -- especially their food. However, despite prejudices against women on the front, many of these operators found themselves in harm's way in Spain, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Pacific islands and other hazardous locations -- in many cases involved in the adventures of their lives.
A few were high-born. Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, after her husband was posted to the Middle East, set off to find him. Spending all her money in the process and depending on the help of friends, she finds herself employment in the SOE and the Y-service, eventually ending up in Cairo -- Rommel's primary target in North Africa. Barbara Skelton, in the Y-Service also posted to Cairo, catches the eye of King Farouk while dining at a restaurant. One morning in the course of a multi-evening party sponsored by the King, she finds a jewel box under her pillow containing copies of her own earrings in gold and emeralds. She is advised by the Embassy's First Secretary to discontinue seeing Farouk or leave Egypt. There are also fascinating accounts of a few men: a highly technically savvy teenager who listens and transcribes Morse from his parent's home, at the request of the British Government and in spite of his neighbor's suspicions (that get him arrested as a spy); and Nineteen year old Peter Budd whose post in the exotic Cocos islands (complete with encounters with sharks, poisonous centipedes and occasional Japanese bomb runs) literally transforms his life.
On the downside, possibly due to the fragmentation of source information, many of these stories are short and somewhat choppy. I found myself wanting a greater number of end to end accounts of just one or two people's experiences. Additionally, Y-service operators got no feedback. They were never told the meaning or the actions taken as a result of the messages they transcribed. This led to a great deal of frustration for them -- and that lack of detail can also be frustrating for us. Notable exceptions are the few accounts of the Y-services direction-finding efforts. These are much more satisfying and give us some insight into how locating (and then sinking) ships in the Mediterranean broke the back of Rommel's supply pipeline.
Despite these drawbacks (possibly unavoidable), McKay's is an important work, and helps fill in a number of nodes and links in the complex history involving the Bletchley, the Y-Service, the SOE and the couriers connecting them. For those of you trying to create an overall mind-map of one of the most complex achievements in history, I think this is an important read.
Perhaps, due to the sense of imminent threat and the duress of daily life on the home front, the British' single-minded adherence to the "Official Secrets Act" resulted in the loss of much of Bletchley Park's history. However, some of Bletchley's key players, in the 1970s, finally decided enough was enough and began publishing fairly thorough accounts. The material from the Y-Service is, unfortunately, more scarce. Books like McKay's are harder to find.
The author, through interviews of remaining Y-service members, references to their (few) accounts, and occasional dives into what official archives remain, manages to give us insight into an essential but almost forgotten group of intelligent, dedicated and for the most part very young contributors to the war effort. The Y-Service was made up of mostly women -- WAAFs and Wrens. Many of these were stationed in locations such as HMS Flowerdown (near Winchester in Hampshire), a good posting offering access to dances and the occasional advantages of the company of American soldiers -- especially their food. However, despite prejudices against women on the front, many of these operators found themselves in harm's way in Spain, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Pacific islands and other hazardous locations -- in many cases involved in the adventures of their lives.
A few were high-born. Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, after her husband was posted to the Middle East, set off to find him. Spending all her money in the process and depending on the help of friends, she finds herself employment in the SOE and the Y-service, eventually ending up in Cairo -- Rommel's primary target in North Africa. Barbara Skelton, in the Y-Service also posted to Cairo, catches the eye of King Farouk while dining at a restaurant. One morning in the course of a multi-evening party sponsored by the King, she finds a jewel box under her pillow containing copies of her own earrings in gold and emeralds. She is advised by the Embassy's First Secretary to discontinue seeing Farouk or leave Egypt. There are also fascinating accounts of a few men: a highly technically savvy teenager who listens and transcribes Morse from his parent's home, at the request of the British Government and in spite of his neighbor's suspicions (that get him arrested as a spy); and Nineteen year old Peter Budd whose post in the exotic Cocos islands (complete with encounters with sharks, poisonous centipedes and occasional Japanese bomb runs) literally transforms his life.
On the downside, possibly due to the fragmentation of source information, many of these stories are short and somewhat choppy. I found myself wanting a greater number of end to end accounts of just one or two people's experiences. Additionally, Y-service operators got no feedback. They were never told the meaning or the actions taken as a result of the messages they transcribed. This led to a great deal of frustration for them -- and that lack of detail can also be frustrating for us. Notable exceptions are the few accounts of the Y-services direction-finding efforts. These are much more satisfying and give us some insight into how locating (and then sinking) ships in the Mediterranean broke the back of Rommel's supply pipeline.
Despite these drawbacks (possibly unavoidable), McKay's is an important work, and helps fill in a number of nodes and links in the complex history involving the Bletchley, the Y-Service, the SOE and the couriers connecting them. For those of you trying to create an overall mind-map of one of the most complex achievements in history, I think this is an important read.
March 10, 2013
McKay gives us a breezy and intimate account of the very young (often teenage) British employees of the Y Service (wireless intercept) during WW2. The book, like McKay's earlier book on Bletchley Park, might be considered hagiographic in some ways, but it is not a government-approved account, nor a volume to promote the continuation of the British Empire in the postwar period. Nor is it a detailed historical or technical look at the expansion of the Y Service.
Instead, McKay set out to allow the far-flung operators in the "floor stations" of Y service to gain as much recognition as the GCCS mathematicians and computer pioneers who worked at Bletchley Park. In the process, we learn interesting details, such as the shifting Y staff in places such as Singapore and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and the fact that the British government went to great lengths to prevent the world from knowing there was a SIGINT station on the Cocos Islands.
In general, though, the history of WW2 listening-post expansion and contraction plays a secondary role to the personal stories of the listeners. For some quasi-celebrities like Barbara Skelton, these stories can be very interesting. But for many, the stories rely too heavily on time-off and TDY activity. Does a book on WW2-era intelligence need to have anecdotes about dating possibilities and the quality of food, for example?
Nevertheless, this is an intriguing, quick read about a group of people rarely chronicled, from WW2 up until the present time. But because most signals intelligence has become automated over the last 20 or 30 years, these kind of stories will be disappearing over time, whether they are classified or not.
Instead, McKay set out to allow the far-flung operators in the "floor stations" of Y service to gain as much recognition as the GCCS mathematicians and computer pioneers who worked at Bletchley Park. In the process, we learn interesting details, such as the shifting Y staff in places such as Singapore and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and the fact that the British government went to great lengths to prevent the world from knowing there was a SIGINT station on the Cocos Islands.
In general, though, the history of WW2 listening-post expansion and contraction plays a secondary role to the personal stories of the listeners. For some quasi-celebrities like Barbara Skelton, these stories can be very interesting. But for many, the stories rely too heavily on time-off and TDY activity. Does a book on WW2-era intelligence need to have anecdotes about dating possibilities and the quality of food, for example?
Nevertheless, this is an intriguing, quick read about a group of people rarely chronicled, from WW2 up until the present time. But because most signals intelligence has become automated over the last 20 or 30 years, these kind of stories will be disappearing over time, whether they are classified or not.
November 30, 2014
A good story badly told. A lot of interesting and little-known history of britain's ww2 listening stations. However, the writing is extremely repetitive.
July 30, 2021
This is described as follows:-
"How the Y Service intercepted the German codes for Bletchley Park Through dozens of interviews and accounts from surviving veterans, discover the story and secrets of the Y Service. This beautiful hardback book chronicles the history and achievements of the unsung hero's and the Y-Service's vital contribution to the war effort."
Since the first book about Bletchley Park, The Ultra Secret by Captain Frederick Wintherbottom was published in 1975 there has been much written about the work and site and films and TV programmes made, in particular featuring the work of Alan Turin. However what has been completely overlooked is the work carried out by men and women. throughout the UK and at listening stations throughout the world.
Whereas I was aware of sites in the UK, the extent of listening stations across the world, including at the remote Cocos Islands in the Pacific and Karachi etc was a revelation. Again through first hand accounts one learns how men and women, some of them still teenagers, were recruited, trained, travelled and then operated either at home or abroad, or both in some cases. The working conditions weren't always easy such as having to listen to radio signals in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm. It was also dangerous work and if caught eg. in Europe they knew they would have been subject to the worse extremes of torture but they still carried on until after the end of the war.
Many were glad to return to 'normal' life at the end of the war but what comes over in the book is the extent to which it changed some of them by widening their outlook and giving them a taste of a more cosmopolitan life. This is definitely a good read and the work of those involved needs to be more widely known as I've certainly been pleased to make the acquaintance of the likes of Aileen Clayton, Peter Budd, Jean Valentine and Victor Newman.
"How the Y Service intercepted the German codes for Bletchley Park Through dozens of interviews and accounts from surviving veterans, discover the story and secrets of the Y Service. This beautiful hardback book chronicles the history and achievements of the unsung hero's and the Y-Service's vital contribution to the war effort."
Since the first book about Bletchley Park, The Ultra Secret by Captain Frederick Wintherbottom was published in 1975 there has been much written about the work and site and films and TV programmes made, in particular featuring the work of Alan Turin. However what has been completely overlooked is the work carried out by men and women. throughout the UK and at listening stations throughout the world.
Whereas I was aware of sites in the UK, the extent of listening stations across the world, including at the remote Cocos Islands in the Pacific and Karachi etc was a revelation. Again through first hand accounts one learns how men and women, some of them still teenagers, were recruited, trained, travelled and then operated either at home or abroad, or both in some cases. The working conditions weren't always easy such as having to listen to radio signals in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm. It was also dangerous work and if caught eg. in Europe they knew they would have been subject to the worse extremes of torture but they still carried on until after the end of the war.
Many were glad to return to 'normal' life at the end of the war but what comes over in the book is the extent to which it changed some of them by widening their outlook and giving them a taste of a more cosmopolitan life. This is definitely a good read and the work of those involved needs to be more widely known as I've certainly been pleased to make the acquaintance of the likes of Aileen Clayton, Peter Budd, Jean Valentine and Victor Newman.
June 3, 2019
There are now plenty of histories of Bletchley Park and its coding breaking endeavours. However, Bletchley was reliant on thousands of radio listeners who would tune in to enemy broadcasts, copy down the stream of Morse code, and send on for decryption. While many listeners were located in the UK, many were scattered across the globe and sometimes worked locally to break into signals traffic. McKay tells the stories of Y Service and the men and women who served as listeners, spending long hours scanning the dial and transcribing messages without any knowledge of what they were listening to or whether their work was making any difference. He very much focuses on individual experiences drawing on personal testimony and biographies.
The topic is a fascinating one, and important complement to the work on war-time code-breaking. The problem is that McKay’s telling is thin in substance, and his narrative sketchy and repetitive. He clearly wanted to tell the story through a biographical lens, rather than providing a more detailed historical or technical overview of the formation and workings of Y Service. The latter could have provided rich context, but is largely absent. Worse though is the string of anecdotes that are used to tell the story. They are light, disjointed, fragmentary, and quite poorly organized, delivered through a breezy-style of narrative. The result was I didn’t really get to know any one character or a detailed idea of their work and life as part of Y Service, or the intricacies as to how Y serviced operated. Overall, a somewhat disappointing read that lacked depth and insight.
The topic is a fascinating one, and important complement to the work on war-time code-breaking. The problem is that McKay’s telling is thin in substance, and his narrative sketchy and repetitive. He clearly wanted to tell the story through a biographical lens, rather than providing a more detailed historical or technical overview of the formation and workings of Y Service. The latter could have provided rich context, but is largely absent. Worse though is the string of anecdotes that are used to tell the story. They are light, disjointed, fragmentary, and quite poorly organized, delivered through a breezy-style of narrative. The result was I didn’t really get to know any one character or a detailed idea of their work and life as part of Y Service, or the intricacies as to how Y serviced operated. Overall, a somewhat disappointing read that lacked depth and insight.
November 6, 2018
I found this book to be especially interesting because it covers so much that I never had an inkling about before. I should have, but it just never occurred to me. Common sense should have told me that the program had to have had existed. I read about Enigma and the Benchley code breakers practically ad nauseam and never once wondered how they came by all those codes they were breaking in the first place.
The book gives a fascinating insight into the critical information-gathering role women played in both the European and Far Eastern theatres of war, many of them barely out of their teens - were frequently located at various, and generally extremely isolated, locations in the UK. But many of them were also shipped off to exotic overseas locations which, occasionally, were dangerously close to the front line. It was inevitable that many of the girls had to put up with decidedly chauvinistic comments from both troops and officers who, completely ignorant of what the girls were doing, considered the battlefield no place for women. The feminist in me loves the fact that in the 1940's women in this program managed by sheer ability to overcome the "don't worry your pretty little head" or the "just hand me the bullets honey while I fire the gun" myth.
The book gives a fascinating insight into the critical information-gathering role women played in both the European and Far Eastern theatres of war, many of them barely out of their teens - were frequently located at various, and generally extremely isolated, locations in the UK. But many of them were also shipped off to exotic overseas locations which, occasionally, were dangerously close to the front line. It was inevitable that many of the girls had to put up with decidedly chauvinistic comments from both troops and officers who, completely ignorant of what the girls were doing, considered the battlefield no place for women. The feminist in me loves the fact that in the 1940's women in this program managed by sheer ability to overcome the "don't worry your pretty little head" or the "just hand me the bullets honey while I fire the gun" myth.
June 28, 2017
The subject of this book is very interesting but the writing doesn't work for me at all. I read about half of the book and skimmed through the rest of it. I was rather disappointed since I looked forward to an engaging and gripping read. After all, this is a book on military services during WWII. What I got, instead, were segmented anecdotes of individuals' experiences that soon became quite repetitive. I kept getting the feeling that the pace of the book would pickup but it never did. It was unfortunate.
August 12, 2019
Everybody hears about the brilliant code-breaking work done at Bletchley Park but you rarely hear about where the messages they had to decode came from, this book covers the origins of those messages. There were listening stations in England, Spain, North Africa, India and the Cocos Islands and many other places. A very interesting book about some very unsung personnel, both military and civilian. Somehow the brilliant generals don't look quite as brilliant when you find out that they knew what the enemy was up to, sometimes in minute detail.
January 22, 2023
The Secret Listeners by Sinclair McKay
the highly detailed story of the dedicated men and WOMEN who worked as cryptographers in the early days of WWII in England and across the Commonwealth of countries. Africa, Australia, Bombay, India, the Coral Sea etc. Their intense training to understand German, Japanese and Morse code served Bletchley Hall (where the Enigma Code was deciphered.) Sworn to secrecy they were not even to tell their family where they were and what they were doing. Many were never thanked until 10 to 40 years later. I
the highly detailed story of the dedicated men and WOMEN who worked as cryptographers in the early days of WWII in England and across the Commonwealth of countries. Africa, Australia, Bombay, India, the Coral Sea etc. Their intense training to understand German, Japanese and Morse code served Bletchley Hall (where the Enigma Code was deciphered.) Sworn to secrecy they were not even to tell their family where they were and what they were doing. Many were never thanked until 10 to 40 years later. I
October 7, 2018
Very interesting insight into the necessary part of the decoding effort, without whom Bletchley Park couldn't have worked: The global network of radio surveillance stations that received all the radio traffic of the enemy, noted it letter by letter and send it off to Bletchley Park.
The focus of this book is on North Africa and Europe, but also the other areas like India, Singapore, etc.. are not forgotten.
The focus of this book is on North Africa and Europe, but also the other areas like India, Singapore, etc.. are not forgotten.
February 11, 2023
For the first 100 pages I thought I was reading a text book and was having nightmares about the exam! I only found it interesting when the detail was concerning Egypt, where I lived for 2 years and could relate to the places named.
Was interesting to learn about the Y service, but quite confusing to jump around the listeners.
I think this is a book where less detail would have been more interesting!
Was interesting to learn about the Y service, but quite confusing to jump around the listeners.
I think this is a book where less detail would have been more interesting!
March 29, 2022
Interesting stories, with so many different personalities. I can appreciate, trying to pick out signals from all the noise, can definitely leave someone with hearing damage. I've heard that from other sources as well. We think of modern radio as this very clean and clear signal because we have all kinds of filtering and processing they didn't have.
March 31, 2018
Would have been nice if more was said about Alan Turing and his bombe machine since it did break the Enigma codes! But this book does reveal many unknown things, such as there being secret listeners and code breakers all around the world and the friendships they forged there.
January 1, 2021
As an end of war baby I had read and heard quite a lot about Bletchley Park.
But this book enlighten me to the work of the Y.
I was full of awe at the work of these young people and I take my hat off to them.
But this book enlighten me to the work of the Y.
I was full of awe at the work of these young people and I take my hat off to them.
August 2, 2021
Former Air Force dirty-bopper
As a former Air Force ditty-bopper I found the experiences very relatable. Very well written account of what it is like to have high pitched morse pumped into your brain for hours on end.
As a former Air Force ditty-bopper I found the experiences very relatable. Very well written account of what it is like to have high pitched morse pumped into your brain for hours on end.
January 20, 2022
Some really interesting stories, but it jumps back and forth so much it’s hard to focus. This format worked fine for the Bletchley Park book, as they were all in the same location, but given the geographic scope of the Y service it just causes confusion.
February 10, 2022
This book doesn’t offer a comprehensive and distant history so much as a collection of short first hand accounts. That’s a great thing to my mind because it shows how flippant some of them were about the risks they took. Discussing the food and admin of those years.
October 2, 2023
This book did a great job of following the overarching narrative of WWII while focusing on the individual efforts of the wireless interceptors. Very cool to learn about the Y Service that fed data to the codebreakers in England.
March 3, 2019
A collection of first hand accounts loosely linked by McKays narrative.
May 10, 2019
Excellent Reading
This book should be part of a reading course at all schools so they could understand what life was like during the war!
This book should be part of a reading course at all schools so they could understand what life was like during the war!
July 30, 2019
I enjoyed learning about the expansive efforts surrounding code breaking at Bletchley Park during WWII and the personal stories were interesting, but the writing never really engaged my imagination.
Read
November 3, 2022A very good history, I also was a "Y" operator
in the USAFSS.
in the USAFSS.
June 28, 2023
Interesting accounts of an often overlooked yet essential aspect of WW2.
June 3, 2014
This book gave me insight into a fascinating side of the WWII that I didn't know much about. There were lots of inspiring and funny personal stories, and I got a lot more of a feel for just how far flung some of these stations were. I enjoyed listening to it.
But, it wasn't fantastic. There wasn't much of a defined narrative, just continuing personal stories with some political details. I was also hoping for a bit more information about cryptography and the kinds of technology they were using (which isn't to say there isn't any of that information).
I enjoyed it, but it's the first non-fiction book I've read for a while that I'm walking away from not feeling like I've really learned much.
But, it wasn't fantastic. There wasn't much of a defined narrative, just continuing personal stories with some political details. I was also hoping for a bit more information about cryptography and the kinds of technology they were using (which isn't to say there isn't any of that information).
I enjoyed it, but it's the first non-fiction book I've read for a while that I'm walking away from not feeling like I've really learned much.
May 1, 2021
Fascinating accounts from the men and women who were part of the Y service both at home and overseas during WWII.
February 19, 2017
Really quite excellent. I would have liked a little more explanation of the science behind it all for a perfect score, but overall I was both fascinated and impressed. I hesitate to call real people "characters", but McKay's decision to focus on a number of personalities was a good one - it really rounded out the professional narrative to read about the lives of the men and women involved in the Y Service, and how they reacted to and connected with the events going on around them. It made the whole book highly accessible.
November 23, 2014
Much attention has been paid to Bletchley Park and the outstanding accomplishments that were made there in cracking the Enigma. But all those coded messages the BP folks worked on had to come from somewhere, and that is where the Y service came in, listening for and collecting messages. I found this history of the men and many women of the Y service to be fascinating. It's amazing to read about all the many places they were stationed in, and the gamut of different jobs they performed. Well worth the read for anyone interested in WWII, Bletchley Park, or the intelligence field as a whole.
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