Comms Indiscipline In The Royal Navy

 

In 1993 Captain Barrie Kent RN (Retd) published Signal! A History of Signalling in the Royal Navy. It is one of my favourite books, a serious history interlaced with anecdotes varying from the poignant to the slightly scurrilous. Captain Kent was Head of RN 'Y' during the 1950s, but his book has much more to offer than cryptology in the RN. This is the first of two extracts from the book: they show how seriously the RN took comms discipline. The first is a story from 1931 about Lord Louis Mountbatten when he was Fleet Wireless Officer in the Mediterranean Sea and comes from Arthur McCulloch, a Telegraphist in 1931, but who retired eventually as a Lieutenant Commander.  

'Our transmissions were taped resulting in caustic signals to those not up to his high standard. One 'habit' Mountbatten deplored was the sending of cryptic private messages during the night watches: for example in Coventry we might receive 'INT KYE' from the operator in Bulldog, which meant 'request permission to close down for five minutes to make the cocoa?' If things were quiet the reply would be 'AF'. This procedure would be followed in turn by each ship on the destroyer frequency until all had made their kye. '

Drafted to the Royal Sovereign, McCulloch became a watchkeeper on Fleet Wave, a frequency believed to be monitored by Lord Louis.

At a conference for off-watch telegraphists in the Corradino canteen, Lord Louis said that since he had started monitoring, the efficiency of the fleet's communications had improved dramatically, but the making of private messages was to stop, "The sending of one single 'toot' on the key will constitute a private message and the culprit will be severely dealt with.'

That afternoon things were fairly quiet when McCulloch was handed a message to send to Curacao. Switching on the transmitter, he sent the signal, then reached behind his morse key to break the heavy duty switch; in the process he accidentally caught his elbow on the key, blasting out a loud 'toot' for all to hear!

'That was bad enough but the operator in Curacao forgot the forenoon's instructions and sent back a cheery 'toot toot'. With hardly a pause, out came a signal from the C-in-C

'Report name and rating of operator of the watch'.

'On the Saturday I felt I had better have a final run ashore, all sorts of dire punishments having been forecast by my messmates. While enjoying a few pints one of my pals saw a poster for the Flagship's Farewell Ball that evening; we decided to join in! The dance hall was packed with officers and men from every ship in the fleet, together with their ladies, and a great time was being had by all. Our chance to join in came with the announcement: "Take your partners for the Paul Jones."

'My third partner was obviously an officer's wife, she was a superb dancer and I said so. Just then Lord Louis danced by and gave her a big smile which she acknowledged with a discreet wave. "I see you know my Chief,” I said. "I ought to, "she replied, "I'm married to him!" "If you are one of his telegraphists" she went on, "you'll know he is furious with two of you for making 'toots' or something, In fact we've heard so much of these men that we've christened them 'Toots No. I, and 'Toots No. 2"'. I paused for a moment and then said "I'm afraid' I'm Toots No. I ", She stopped in the middle of the floor and held me at arm’s length, "I don't believe it -I'm actually dancing with 'Toots' himself! You must come and meet everyone."

'Having escorted her to her seat, I set off towards the bar. "McCulloch", Lord Louis' voice boomed behind me, "So, you're the culprit are you? What have you to say for yourself?" The ladies of his party caught up with us and Lord Louis introduced me. "Now, what have you to say for yourself?" I explained what had happened: "Bad luck really Sir, particularly coming on top of your lecture." Lady Edwina spoke up: "I'm sure he is telling the truth Dickie, don't be too hard on him," "Fortunately for you, young man, I'm familiar with the layout of the wireless gear and I can see how it could have happened. Perhaps I should give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll write to your Captain before he sees you, but remember to be more careful in future." I thanked him and shot off to tell my pals what had happened.

'In due course I found myself in front of the Captain. "Ah! I've had a letter about you. I see you had an interview with the FWO ashore and he recommends that I give you another chance. Case dismissed. Don't do it again!" Sad to say my oppo in Curacao was not so fortunate; his Commander had been at Jutland and blamed all telegraphists for allowing the German fleet to escape, so he got a month’s stoppage of leave.'

There is more to this story than meets the eye: the memory of Jutland; Lord Mountbatten's determination that RN signalling would be as good as it could be (I have written about this before (Sigint Historian: Ten avoidable problems which made the Royal Navy's encryption exploitable in 1939)); the sophistication of the RN monitoring process; and the way comms operators can undermine security without even realising that they are doing so.