[Milsurplus] The Secret Wireless War

[Miles B. Anderson, K2CBY]

For the past five-plus years ARRL has been advertising a book published in
the UK under the title "The Secret Wireless War" by Geoffrey Pidgeon
describing (I believe) the World War II "Y Service" radio monitors that
harvested German and Japanese radio traffic and sent it on to the
codebreakers. The price -- more than $55 plus some $11 "postage" seems a
little inflated. Has anyone on the list read it? Is it worth buying?

The only other book on the same topic that I could locate is "England Needs
You" by Joan Nicholls which seems to be presently unobtanium. Anybody have a
copy they want to sell?

Can anybody recommend any others?

On a different but related topic, I recently bought a used copy of
"Clandestine Operations: The Arms and Techniques of the Resistance,
1941-1944" by Pierre Lorain. The US version is described as "Adapted by
David Kahn" and was published by MacMillan, ISBN 0-02-575200-6. It is
probably out of print, but used copies are available at reasonable prices.
It contains excellent descriptions and line drawings of the British and
Polish/British suitcase radios, the S-Phone, the Eureka-Rebecca system as
well as extensive information on small arms supplied to the Reistance. There
are also some (too few in my opinion) schematics of the Paraset and Mk III
transceiver, etc. I found it very worthwhile because it not only describes
the equipment but also details how it was used in the field. There is also a
good (and understandable) description of the cryptography used by agents. I
recommend it highly if you are interested in this sort of thing.

Miles Anderson, K2CBY
16 Round Pond Ln
Sag Harbor, NY 11963
k2cby at optonline.net