Operators were selected from various signals training units such as Catterick Camp etc., and posted to Number 4 Wireless Group, Egham, Surrey, for specialized training. We were billeted in various houses around the area and HQ was at Bishopsgate House. When qualified up to A111 standard, we were formed into sections for service abroad (P-permanent, M-mobile). 20M section was formed in early March 1944 and took part in various fund raising exhibitions such as 'Spitfire Week,' War Weapons Week etc. In early June 1944 we were posted to 5 HQ Signals, whose HQ was in Putney. We were just in time for the V1attacks on London and spent some weeks digging out people from Buzz Bombed houses. In early August 1944 we were moved to Southampton where we boarded a 'Liberty' ship and were taken to Omaha Beach where our trucks and equipment were craned over the side on to a 'Rhino' landing barge and we went down a rope ladder on to the barge. This was at St. Laurent sur Mer. We set up station at Jullouville, the temporary HQ was then at Granville. We operated from Jullouville until Paris was liberated, then we moved up to Versailles and were located in the Petites Ecuries, of the Palace of Versailles. During this period, we really did not know the nature of the traffic we were handling. Only after the war did we find out that we were handling the 'Enigma' code traffic with Bletchley Park. Around Christmas time 1944 during the 'Battle of the Bulge' in the Ardennes the traffic and activity was very intense - a truck full of 'OU's (most immediate classification) as we described it. In Jan 1944, I was reassigned, as an experienced operator, to a 'rookie' section, 30M. We were sent to 21 Army Group in Brussels where we operated for some weeks. After various moves throughout France, Germany, and Luxembourg, we were posted to an American Camp at Weimar. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was the 2nd Armoured Division. We spent a few weeks waiting for the Russians to let us into Berlin, as we were destined to handle the Press reports to U.K. from Berlin and to cover the Big Three Conference in Potsdam. We finally got into Berlin on 1 July 1945, after an altercation with the Russian guides who were supposed to take us into the city. At the meeting point there was a barrier across the road where a number of Russian officers seemed to be arguing and falling out amongst themselves. I, personally, saw one Russian club another with the butt of his revolver. Then we got the order 'Get moving' and the American tanks knocked down the barrier and we went into Berlin without the guides. On arrival all was flat so we moved into Zehlendorf in the outskirts, turned some Germans out of houses still standing and moved in. We handled all the press reports from the war correspondents, Reuters, Assoc. Press, etc. and later all the coverage of the Big Three Conference. The Desert Rats, 7th Armoured Div arrived in Berlin a week or so later, having been given the honour of being the first British troops into Berlin. I suppose they were the first 'official' unit to enter. After our job in Berlin was done, 30M was broken up and I was posted to 10M in Bad Oeyenhausen. 5 HQ Signals got a special commendation from General Eisenhower.

Theater of Operation Details: Royal Signal Corp