The Biggest Aspidistra in the World!
On the 8th November 1942, a radio transmitter - then the most powerful in the World - came on the air for the first time. Its purpose was to broadcast propaganda to Europe, the majority of which was under German occupation.
The transmitter, affectionately nicknamed 'Aspidistra' after the Gracie Field's song 'The Biggest Aspidistra in the World', was operated from a site on Ashdown Forest, Sussex, close to the town of Crowborough, in England. The site had been excavated (for the transmitter was housed under ground) and built at great speed primarily by the Royal Canadian Engineers, who were stationed at one of the many army camps near Crowborough.
The idea for such a transmitting station had originated from a plan put to Churchill by Hugh Dalton (Ministry of Economic Warfare) and Anthony Eden (later to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) in May 1941. The plan was to transmit 'black' propaganda to the Germans in occupied Europe with the object of creating confusion and demoralisation. The transmissions were to be on German wavelengths and were to be 'louder in the countries to which it is directed than the enemy-controlled transmitters themselves'. Thus, the transmitter would have to be at least 500kW and would have to be tuneable over the whole of the medium wave band. This was a seriously 'high-tech' specification in those days and there was no British transmitter that could approach it!
However, Colonel Richard Gambier-Perry (head of Special Intelligence Service communications) knew of a possibly suitable transmitter in the USA. It had been built by RCA for the broadcasting station WJZ in New Jersey, but had been prohibited from operating by the Federal broadcasting authorities because it was ten times more powerful than the maximum limit laid down for commercial radio stations in the USA at that time!
A senior radio engineer from the PWE (Political Warfare Executive) complex in Bedfordshire, the complex that included Gawcott, Milton Bryan and the GCHQ at Bletchley, was sent to the USA to view the transmitter. The engineer was Harold Robin, who had worked for Gambier-Perry at Philco before the war and had been recruited by him to the PWE. He spent two months with RCA, supervising modifications to the transmitter to raise its power to 600kW! An American antenna expert, GH Brown, designed three 360ft masts for the transmitter to feed.
The transmitter and masts were shipped to the UK aboard Royal Navy vessels. Unfortunately, one carrying one of the masts was torpedoed and the masts were lost. A duplicate was made and shipped to Britain.
The original plan was that the transmitter was to be sited as part of the PWE complex in Bedfordshire. But Harold Robin insisted that it should be as close to the South Coast as possible - in Sussex. There were several possible sites, but each was rejected by argument from the Air Ministry (the masts would be a hazard), or the BBC (interference to secret research work). No one objected to the site on Ashdown Forest at King's Standing, near Crowborough. It was public land and 620 feet asl.
'Aspidistra' was to be housed underground. Around 70 acres of land were fenced and a Canadian Army road-building unit that happened to be billeted nearby excavated a large hole 50 feet deep. The site took just three weeks to excavate. The hole was covered with reinforced concrete four feet thick - it had to withstand a direct hit from a 1000lb bomb! A civilian labour force 600 strong worked 24 hours a day until the job was completed. The transmitter complex was finished in just nine months from the date of its approval by Churchill! It cost Britain £111,801, 4s and 10pence to buy the apparatus from the RCA factory in Camden, New Jersey. Another sum of £16,000 was spent to prepare the site and erect the masts. It was rumoured that the Canadian soldiers were paid in beer for their efforts!
Initially, the PWE had not really worked out the use for the transmitter! So it was agreed that 'Aspidistra' would be used to supplement the BBC's overseas broadcasts. 'Aspidistra' was ready for broadcasting in early 1942 but was not used until November 8th when it came on air to support the 'Torch' landings in North Africa with a recorded broadcast by President Roosevelt. At this stage of wireless telephony it was a considerable achievement to reach such distances and there was some disbelief among Senior Diplomats that it was possible.
Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence, had put forward a plan to try to neutralise the U-Boat menace by encouraging the known rift between crew and officers in that service. Sefton Delmer of the PWE, who had been running the propaganda broadcasting station 'Gustav Seigfried Eins' (GS1) for some time (transmitting from Potsgrove, near Milton Bryan) and had also been working with Godfrey, was enthusiastic about the idea; GS1 did not seem to be getting the desired results. New studios were built at the Milton Bryan complex, the construction being overseen by Harold Robin. The broadcasts from 'Aspidistra' were to be live - not recordings as GS1 had been. A dedicated land-line was constructed to carry the programme material from Bedfordshire to Sussex.
The name for the new station was to be 'Deutsche Kurzwellensender Atlantik' Atlantiksender, for short!
Atlantiksender purported to be a genuine German forces radio station and was a short-wave station. Initially, it was broadcast from Potsgrove, between 8.00pm to 11.00pm daily. This was because 'Aspidistra' site was still in use by the BBC and negotiations for its transfer to Delmer had not been completed. News items were genuine and very up-to-date - thanks to the interrogation of prisoners of war. Gossip was particularly useful for subversive purposes! Also the acquisition of a captured 'Hell-schreiber' was pivotal to the success of Atlantiksender, with German communications being 'tapped'.
Soon another station, linked to Atlantiksender, was planned and the real purpose for 'Aspidistra' began to be fulfilled. . Atlantiksender was to be directed to the German Army and the Luftwaffe and was to be on the medium waveband. Its name was to be Soldatensender Calais - later Soldatensender West, after the Normandy landings. The battle with the BBC for Aspidistra was won finally in October 1943 and Soldatensender Calais was on the air from Crowborough using 'Aspidistra's' full 600kW, allowing it to drown out any other existing station! Harold Robin had also installed a further two 100kW short-wave transmitters (now used for Atlantiksender) and four 7.5kW transmitters. He even had a mobile 500W unit operating as a relay from the top of the cliffs at Dover - just to confuse the enemy direction finders if they tried to get a fix on 'Aspidistra'!
The importance of the broadcasts from 'Aspidistra' lies with the fact that the German population actually believed they were real German radio stations. The broadcasts included anti-allied propaganda and comments against the Royal Family. 'Bigband' music and Jazz were broadcast in the knowledge that German public were not able to listen freely to this type of decadent music. This was to get them 'hooked' on the station, which became very popular.
'Aspidistra' was able to reach deep into Germany and various tests were made to verify this. When a number of messages were sent asking people in various towns to donate warm clothing for soldiers fighting in cold areas, numerous people actually turned up with clothing, much to the surprise of the local commanders!
As an example of other 'tricks' that Delmer and 'Aspidistra' could get up to, consider what might happen if a bombing raid on Hamburg were planned. Some hours before the raid 'Aspidistra' would be moved in frequency to that the main Hamburg radio station - 908kHz (only 'Aspidistra' was this agile!). It would be tuned up on this frequency but would not radiate, as the rf drive would not be applied. The programme from Hamburg would be monitored at Milton Bryan. At the same time the same programme would be transmitted on another frequency from, say, Frankfurt and would also be monitored at Milton Bryan.
As it became obvious that the RAF was heading for Hamburg, the Hamburg station would go off the air, so as not to be used for navigation by the incoming bombers. Within about eight milliseconds of Hamburg dropping carrier 'Aspidistra''s drive would come up and she would be on the air relaying the programme received at Milton Bryan from Frankfurt. All the interruption in programme that the locals in Hamburg would hear would be a slight 'click'! The 'Hamburg' programme was now under Delmer's control and all sorts of bogus information could be provided to cause panic and distress to the inhabitants under attack.
By the end of the war, 'Aspidistra' had been used on ten operations of this type during attacks on cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt and Leipzig. According to captured reports, these hoax transmissions were very successful.
The last transmission of Soldatensender West from Milton Bryan via 'Aspidistra' was made at 5.59pm on Friday 30th April 1945. However, the station still remained in the hands of the Foreign Office (the Diplomatic Wireless Service) providing the External Services of the BBC. 'Aspidistra' remained in continuous service for forty years until it was finally decommissioned on September 28th 1982. Harold Robin performed the final shut-down. Work was started to dismantle the equipment in May 1984; the aerials being demolished by simply cutting the guy-wires and letting them fall down!
The site was never bombed or attacked during the war. However, it was in what was known as 'Doodlebug Alley', a direct line between the V1 launch sites and London. There are various accounts of missiles flying over the site, including one where Harold Robin was at the top of one of the high masts when a V1 passed below him and between the masts! This was a cause of great excitement at the time, but was kept a secret until long after the war had finished. One V1 did land near the east fence of the site, having hit the hillside. It remained there until 1985, when scrap dealers were allowed to enter and remove the metal.
In 1986, following extensive modifications, the 'bunker' was commissioned by
the Home Office as one of the seventeen Nuclear Bunkers in England and Wales
to be used as seats of regional government in the event of a nuclear attack.
But that is another story……