Re: Typex in the Navy?

At 16:03 23/10/2006, Guy Bellairs wrote:

Dear Matt,  Please see my post to Ian Walter which I
will try to forward to you.
 Bulley's ship HMS Tyrian, was a destroyer of 1700tons
and used Typex.

It sounds as if Ralph Erskine has slipped up for once!
...
[ends here]

Quite possible! But what my article said was-

'... The slow production of Typex was the main
difficulty. The Navy received some machines in 1940,
but by March 1941 the total number supplied was only
168 – out of a cumulative Typex production of
850 or so. The Navy’s machines were sent to
about 50 ships and 36 shore authorities, at home and
abroad.[13] Further machines were due at the rate of
about 10 per week. The Navy intended all ships
including some destroyers to have Typex. However, in
November 1941, it had to complain about a reduction in
the supply of machines, probably because Typex
production was running at only around 18 a week.[14]
In December 1942, the Navy still wanted to receive 500
machines by June 1943.[15] In the result, Typex, as
such, only served on board fleet flagships and, for
combined operations, landing ships headquarters, and
never entered service on other ships.[16] Instead,
Typex was only used in ships as the basis of the
British end of the British-American Combined Cipher
Machine ...'

[extract ends]

In other words, some Typexes were sent to ships, but
it was only used as Typex (and not part of the CCM) on
'board fleet flagships and, for combined operations,
landing ships headquarters'.

C.A.F.O. [Confidential Admiralty Fleet Order] 443 of 4
March 1943 on 'Cypher (Coding) Machines, Type X, Mark
II' reads-

Fitting of Type " X " machines is to be resumed in
H.M. ships down to and including the following
classes:--Destroyers and corvettes (all classes),
sloops, coastguard cutters, ocean escort trawlers and
convoy escort vessels (ex U.S.A.), minesweepers of
Halcyon," " Bangor " and " Algerine " classes (this
includes existing and future construction of these
classes).
 
2. A limited number of machines only will be available
during 1943 and priority of allocation of the machines
is to be as follows:
(a) All capital ships, aircraft carriers and cruisers
of the Home Fleet (two machines each).
(b) All vessels in the categories referred to in
paragraph I above employed, or to be employed on
trans-Atlantic escort duties (one machine each).
 
3. Machines to be fitted as above will before issue be
modified to take an "Adaptor" which will allow of
their being used in conjunction with the electrical
cypher machine installed in United States warships.
The adaptor will be supplied with, or shortly after,
the machines themselves. 
 
In the case of vessels referred to at 2 (a) the Type "
X " machines will be used both for British Type " X "
communication purposes (i.e., without the adaptor) and
for combined British-U.S. purposes (with the adaptor
fitted). The adaptor can be fitted and removed in a
few moments. 
 
In the case of  vessels referred to at 2 (b), the
machine will be used solely as a combined British-U.S.
communication system, i.e„ the adaptor will be
fitted and remain in place on the machine.

[quote ends here - it's an exact quote of CAFO
(although scanned, plus I have slightly reformatted
paras 2 & 3 to make them more readable here].

Although this refers to Typexes being also issued to
'aircraft carriers and cruisers of the Home Fleet',
Cdr Tighe, in a very extensive report on naval cipher
security that he made in late 1945 wrote-

'11. It had become apparent, late in 1941, that
requirements of these machines in shore code and
cypher offices were so large that the supply was
inadequate to complete also with a programme of
equipping seagoing ships. Moreover, use of Typex for
shore-ship and ship-shore work could be looked upon as
a relatively long term policy only, since it was
unacceptable, from the W/T security standpoint, to
introduce such a distinctive system piecemeal in HM
ships.
 
12. Excepting those machines issued to fleet
flagships, all machines held by seagoing ships were
therefore withdrawn and used to supplement the
supplies for shore code and cypher offices. No further
machines were issued to seagoing ships throughout the
war except (later) modified machines for use as CCM.
An exception was made in the case of landing ships
headquarters.'

It's obviously at least possible (although in my view
very unlikely) that Tyrian and some other destroyers
actually used Typex on its own (and not as part of the
CCM).


Ralph Erskine 

Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com