Richard Aldrich - GCHQ

The Uncensored Story of Britain’s Most Secret Intelligence Agency

HarperPress

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by HarperPress in 2010

Copyright © Richard J. Aldrich 2010

Richard J. Aldrich asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007312665

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 9780007357123

Version: 2016-08-23

For Libby (for the dark night-time)

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright

Sigint and Comsec Locations in the UK

Note on Terminology

Abbreviations

Introduction

THE 1940s BLETCHLEY PARK AND BEYOND

1 Schooldays

2 Friends and Allies

3 Every War Must Have an End

4 The KGB and the Venona Project

5 UKUSA – Creating the Global Sigint Alliance

THE 1950s FIGHTING THE ELECTRONIC WAR

6 ‘Elint’ and the Soviet Nuclear Target

7 The Voyages of HMS Turpin

8 Sigint in the Sun – GCHQ’s Overseas Empire

9 Blake, Bugs and the Berlin Tunnel

10 Embassy Wars

THE 1960s SPACE, SPY SHIPS AND SCANDALS

11 Harold Macmillan – Shootdowns, Cyphers and Spending

12 Harold Wilson – Security Scandals and Spy Revelations

13 Intelligence for Doomsday

14 Staying Ahead – Sigint Ships and Spy Planes

THE 1970s TURBULENCE AND TERROR

15 Trouble with Henry

16 Disaster at Kizildere

17 Turmoil on Cyprus

18 Unmasking GCHQ: The ABC Trial

THE 1980s INTO THE THATCHER ERA

19 Geoffrey Prime–The GCHQ Mole

20 A Surprise Attack – The Falklands War

21 Thatcher and the GCHQ Trade Union Ban

22 NSA and the Zircon Project

AFTER 1989 GCHQ GOES GLOBAL

23 From Cold War to Hot Peace – The Gulf War and Bosnia

24 The New Age of Ubiquitous Computing

25 The 9/11 Attacks and the Iraq War

26 From Bletchley Park to a Brave New World?

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3 – GCHO Organisation in 1946

Appendix 4 – GCHO Organisation in 1970

Appendix 5 – GCHO Organisation in 1998

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

By the same author

About the Publisher

1 Adastral Park, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, BT Research Laboratories, 1975–

2 Beaumanor/Garats Hay, Leic., post–war Army sigint base & Special Projects Agency, 1945–94

3 Bletchley Park; this remained a sigint training site after the war until 1985

4 Boddington, Glos, (RAF) military communications unit working with GCHQ

5 Bower, Bowermadden near Wick, listening station, closed 1975

6 Brawdy, Haverfordwest, Wales, 14 Signals Regiment (electronic warfare)

7 Brora, Sutherland, listening station, closed 1984

8 Capenhurst Tower, Cheshire, intercepting telephone traffic to Ireland, 1990–98

9 Cheadle, Staffs, (RAF) listening station, closed 1996

10 Cheltenham (Oakley and Benhall); GCHQ moved to the twin sites between 1952 and 1954

11 Chicksands, Beds, NSA/USAF until 1994, then UK Defence Intelligence & Security Centre

12 Cricklade, Wilts, GCHQ experimental radio station

13 Culmhead, Somerset, GCHQ Central Training School, replacing Bletchley, 1985–94

14 Digby, Lincs, main centre for RAF ground sigint and now UK joint services sigint centre

15 Edzell, Brechin, US Navy/NSA site, 1960–96

16 HMS Flowerdown, near Winchester, listening station, closed 1977

17 Gilnahirk, Belfast, listening station, closed 1978

18 Hanslope Park, near Milton Keynes, Diplomatic Wireless Service and DTMS

19 Hawklaw, (Cupar) Fife, listening station, closed 1988

20 Hereford, 264 Signal Squadron supporting 22 SAS

21 Irton Moor, Scarborough, listening station, now GCHQ Scarborough

22 Island Hill, Comber, Northern Ireland, closed 1977

23 Ivy Farm, Knockholt Pound, Kent, listening station

24 Kirknewton, near Edinburgh, US listening station, closed 1966

25 Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, US Army listening station, taken over by NSA 1963

26 HMS Mercury, near Petersfield, naval signals centre, 1941–93

27 Morwenstow, now GCHQ Bude, focused on satellite communications, 1969–

28 Oakhanger, (RAF) control centre for Skynet since 1967

29 Royal Radar Establishment, Malvern, from 1953, later Defence Research Agency

30 Waddington, Lincs, (RAF) Nimrod R1s of 51 Squadron since 1995

31 Watton, Norfolk, (RAF) Central Signals Establishment, 192 Squadron 1945–63

32 Whaddon Manor, Bucks, outstation of Bletchley Park, closed 1946

33 Wyton, Cambridgeshire, (RAF) Comets and Nimrod R1s of 51 Squadron, 1963–95

34 London

Chester Road, Borehamwood, (GCHQ/SIS) factory making radio microphones in the 1950s

Chesterfield Street W1, London office for GCHQ in the late 1940s

Dollis Hill, North London, Post Office Research Station, 1921–75

Eastcote, Harrow; GCHQ moved here in 1946 and some comsec staff remained after 1952

Empress State Building, Earl’s Court, listening station, 1962–94

London Processing Group, St Dunstan’s Hill, City of London, moved to Cheltenham 1975

Northwood Hills, small post–war GCHQ site; Permanent Joint HQ since 1996

Palmer St W1, LCSA headquarters until 1969; also GCHQ’s London office

On 1 November 1919, Britain created the Government Code and Cypher School, or ‘GC&CS’, the nation’s first integrated code-making and code-breaking unit. The term GC&CS remained in widespread use until the end of the Second World War.

By contrast, Government Communications Headquarters, or ‘GCHQ’, is a term of uncertain origin. Originally developed as a cover name for Bletchley Park in late 1939, it competed for usage with several other designations, including ‘BP’, ‘Station X’ and indeed ‘GC&CS’. However, the Government Code and Cypher School remained the formal title of the whole organisation in wartime. During 1946, GC&CS re-designated itself the ‘London Signals Intelligence Centre’ when the staff of Bletchley Park decamped to a new site at Eastcote near Uxbridge, although GCHQ remained in widespread use as a cover name. On 1 November 1948, as Britain’s code-breakers began to investigate a further move away from London to Cheltenham, the term GCHQ was formally adopted and has remained in use ever since.

‘Code-breaker’ is also a troublesome phrase. Codes are usually considered to be words substituted for others, often chosen somewhat at random. Typically, the military operations that constituted D-Day in 1944 were code-named ‘Overlord’. By contrast, systems of communication where letters and numbers are substituted in an organised pattern, either by machine or by hand, are referred to as cyphers. Yet the term code-breaker is so frequently applied to the people who worked at Bletchley Park and at GCHQ that this book follows common usage.