P.W.E. - MILTON BRYAN

Trained by the G.P.O. in London, three girls operated the telephone switchboard with Delmer having two telephones on his desk. Of these, the green model served as a ‘scrambler’. On March 17th. Colonel Chambers, of Security, went to the M.B. site with reference to the measures for defence and guarding and even included in the Milton Bryan building was a caretaker's flat. Enclosed by a high chain link fence, surmounted by barbed wire, the premises were guarded by a squad of uniformed special constables. They constantly patrolled the centre with Alsatian dogs who were accommodated in nearby kennels. A water tank stood on top of the guards accommodation, which included beds for those members off duty. Rifles and tommy guns were kept in secure storage with firearm practice being exercised regularly on a range in the grounds.
On February 13th., 1943, discussions began to start recording G3 at Milton Bryan. As another of the 16 stations started in that year, heralded by a ‘shrieking’ pipe melody, recorded on a Hammond organ, by a musician friend among the radio engineers on 22, March, 1943, after three weeks of dry runs and rehearsals, ’Atlantiksender’, (G9), transmitted it's maiden broadcast. The impression that this was not the first broadcast was the intention of the script and by the third programme the enemy jammers were on. Delmer now suggested that the ultra powerful ‘Aspidistra’, equipped with 8 transmission lines, should be used to transmit Atlantiksender on medium wave.

With all haste, preparations to have the facility in operation began although such urgency had once seemed rather lacking. Both Delmer and Crossman expressed their increasing impatience with

Inside the Station. Several studios were accommodated within the main building and some of the sound proofing tiles still remain
Leeper who, by August, 1942, still lacked any decision regarding the use of the transmitter. The following month Churchill then asked when transmissions might begin, '-- repeat every three days the day it is expected to be ready to function--’ and in reply the date of October 15th. was given by Lockhart. That month the first full power tests were carried out but the omission of an earth pin caused the sensational excitement of a live arc! Tests from receptive areas next began and by the end of the month the 3 masted installation lay awaiting use. Linked to the facility by a direct line, Milton Bryan eventually acquired the exclusive use and in opposition to Bracken, Robert Bruce Lockhart succeeded in obtaining S.I.S, engineers for the operation, instead of B.B.C. personnel. Apart from the news, Atlantiksender played predominantly American jazz with ‘a German flavour’ and from Stockholm many of the popular German records of the day were especially flown to Britain by fast R.A.F. Mosquito aircraft, for
De Havilland Mosquito. Records and newspapers, smuggled into neutral Sweden from Occupied Europe, were flown to Britain by fast R.A.F. Mosquito aircraft. They were then despatched to Milton Bryan
use at Milton Bryan. The beginnings of the Atlantiksender operation had been made with the assistance of the team from ‘The Rookery’, Aspley Guise but soon extra houses in the village had to be requisitioned for the new staff now arriving. In fact German nationals occupied seven of the immediate premises! Contributing to the station, some even broadcasting, were both German refugees and POWs, selected after a careful screening. With ten different announcers and six comperes to introduce the music, the personnel also included at least ten petty officers from the U boat branch of the Kriegsmarine, who knew the latest U boat jargon and details of the U boat bases. For the British representatives there were also new staff. Clifton Child, a young education officer from Manchester, became chief intelligence expert and C.F. Stevens, an
Captured U Boat personnel provided invaluable information for Milton Bryan
Oxford Ancient History don also joined. His had been the idea for the B.B.C, to transmit the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth, as the morse letter ‘V’ for Victory. Together with Max Braun and a team of graduate girl researchers, Child and Steven’s headed a first rate intelligence group.

Much of the Atlantiksender material found an eventual way into the Swedish and Swiss press, thence to the free world newspapers and as an instance of proof, a report occurred regarding the breach of the Mohne dam, by the R.A.F, on May 16\17th. Farmers in the district of the Ruhr were alleged to be slaughtering their cattle illegally, for sale on the black market, since the authorities could not distinguish between those killed in the floods or otherwise. Atlantik had fabricated this story on June 2nd! This seems all the more ironic since the grandson of an Aspley Guise rector had been a pilot on that raid. Also the secret broadcasters insinuated that the dams had been destroyed by foreign workers, with the R.A.F. solely sent in to confuse the enemy defence.
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