Royal Signals Museum - Postal Covers - Clandestine Wireless

Special Operations 1944 - Clandestine Wireless

Special operations in the period 1940-45, carried out in Europe and all theatres where resistance to German and Japanese occupation forces took place, depended on specialist communications with lightweight, portable equipment, capable of long distance communications using the short wave band.

The principal users were the Special Operations Executive (SOE), who from 1942 onwards designed and produced their own equipment, the PoW escape route organisation, and the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS),The envelope illustration depicts the late Major L.R.D. 'Willmott MM BEM R SIGNALS operating a suitcase set typical of the SOE designs used in Europe. Len Willmott was parachuted into Brittany in 1944 as a wireless operator with a team whose purpose was to link up with the French Resistance. For his work on this operation he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Gold Star. Messages were transmitted in code by Morse telegraph and had to be short to avoid detection by enemy direction finding (DF). A German DF unit was said to need 20 to 30 minutes to locate a transmission, so the rule normally was to restrict transmissions to a maximum of 5 minutes.

The early model of the suitcase set was designed by Major J.I. Brown R SIGNALS and this set, the B Mk II, with a number of other examples of clandestine radios, is displayed at the Royal Signals Museum, Blandford. Base stations in the UK operated with 250 watt transmitters. Wireless telegraph operators, supplied ,among others, by Royal Signals, served on detachment with SOE and were later joined by members of the Women's Transport Service (FANY), who were also trained as cypher clerks and coders. The modern-day FANY is sponsored by the Signal Officer-in-Chief (Army).

Major Willmott's distinguished career continued with the Special Air Service (SAS) both during the war and later when the Regiment was reformed in Malaysia in 1951. The SAS, whose badge is illustrated on the envelope, has earned a reputation as a highly professional special force capable of a variety of unconventional roles, Their operations rely heavily on reliable communications, often involving novel techniques and the latest technology.

The envelope commemorates the liberation of Paris in August 1944. The date stamp marks the 50th Anniversary of the entry into Paris by General Phillipe Leclerc at the head of the French 2nd Armoured Division on 25th August 1994.