Stephen Lewins, our CIO for Northumberland has just sent us a report on the Longhorsley Special Duties Out Station in Northumberland.
The radio operators were Mr Charles Webb, a solicitor and the Reverant Father Wright (left) who was also the Air Raid Warden, a good choice for cover as this gave him access to many places in the village and round about at times when others were in doors, no questions asked.
Read the whole report here
We have now moved all the information of locations used by the Special Duties Section to its own page on the site.
The Special Duties Wireless Section (SDS) operated in the same areas as the Auxiliary Unit patrols but they were completely separate and unknown to the patrols.
See the list of their radio bunker locations here
Today we added a report by Dr. Will Ward on the Zero Radio Station on the Blorenge mountains in Abergavenny.
This remote location was also used as a Met Hut.
See the report here.
Each year the Home Guard and Bevin Boys are represented on Remembrance Sunday and march past the Cenotaph on Whitehall.
CART feels strongly that members of the British resistance should also be represented separately to the Home Guard.
Please show your support and get involved here
Today CART CIO for Devon, Nina Hannaford submitted a report on the Special Duties Branch Golding Zero Station bunker in Somerset.
Very little is known about the Special Duties Branch and even less about this location. If you can help please email cartdevon@gmail.com
See more on the location here
We have been given rare access to Hannington Hall in Wiltshire.
Hannington was used during WW2 as the HQ for the Special Duties Section.
Coleshill (CIO) County Information Officer, Bill Ashby, was joined by Paula and I and the owner of the house, Mr.Wallace, very kindly gave up 2 hours of his time to give us a tour.
You can see a range of pictures below. (Full CART members can also view interior images if you email us for access)
Very little is still known about what went on at Hannington Hall so if anyone has any information then please contact us.
Today we have added a page all about the SDS Network to the site using info kindly donated by Aux Unit News and are words of the late Arthur Gabbitas.
The Special Duties Branch was set up in 1942. Around 1000 civilians, men and women, unknown to each other and from all classes and occupations acted as coast watchers, observers or ‘Agents’. Messages would be relayed to civilian radio operators who would then transmit intelligence to the control or Zero stations.
They had been trained to identify vehicles, high-ranking officers and military units, and were to gather intelligence and leave reports in dead letter drops. The reports would be collected by runners and taken to one of over 200 secret radio transmitters.
They used radio telegraphy called TRD (transmit, receive, Dabbs) sets. They also used runners and dead letter drops. There were 43 ATS Subalterns and 69 Royal Corps of Signals personnel to back the ‘Agents’ up. They reported to Auxiliary Units Special Duties Section IO’s. Their HQ was based at Hannington Hall until it was relocated to Coleshill in 1942. These civilians were unpaid and sworn to everlasting secrecy. They had a motto – ‘Be like Dad – Keep Mum’. The SDS Auxiliers and their identities were rarely recorded on any WW2 records.