Category: Article

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was Reichsfuhrer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo (Secret State Police). Serving as Reichsführer and, later, as Commander of the Replacement (Home) Army and General Plenipotentiary for the entire Reich’s administration (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung), Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and one of the persons most directly responsible for…

The ‘Testery’ and the contribution made by the Intelligence Corps The battle to ‘break’ Enigma was not the only one being fought in 1942. Much of the high level traffic believed to be from Hitler and the High Command was being sent by teleprinter. The teleprinter signals being transmitted by the Germans, and enciphered using Lorenz, were first heard in 1940 by a group of police wireless operators on the South Coast who were listening out for possible German spy transmissions from inside the UK. Originally traffic interception was concentrated at the Foreign Office Y Station operated by the Metropolitan…

by Paul Croxson Going round the Museum it is easy to miss the model of ‘Smoky Joes’. The story of how it came into being is well-worth reciting; a story that Joyce is always happy to tell. Unless you served with No. 12 Sqn Royal Signals or the name Brannenburg means something to you, it is sometimes easy to forget the role played by Austria in both World Wars. Following defeat of Nazi Germany, at the end of world War II in 1945, Austria was occupied by the then Allied armies and the country divided into the Russian, French, American…