Sir Arthur Bonsall, 93, of Cheltenham, was in the German Air Section at BP

Arthur Bonsall

Sir Arthur Bonsall, 93, of Cheltenham, was in the German Air Section 
code-breaking team at Bletchley Park. He became GCHQ director in the 
1970s.

"There were two wide stations - the interception stations - which 
belonged to the Royal Air Force : one at Cheadle in Staffordshire and one 
at Kingsdown in Kent. The one at Cheadle was intercepting the 
communications of German bombers. They were able to give forewarning of 
attack to Fighter Command because they could hear the Germans getting 
ready to take off - they tuned up their receivers, and so on, to make 
sure they would be in good contact with each other during the battles. It 
meant that Cheadle could warn Fighter Command even before radar had a 
chance - because at that point, of course, the aircraft wasn't even in 
the air. That was quite valuable."

"Also, Cheadle could identify the German airfields from which the bombers 
took off, which meant the RAF was able to undertake what they called 
intruder operations, mingling with the German bombers on their way back 
and attacking them when they were landing at their base. Our job was to 
support Cheadle and Kingsdown by breaking codes and that sort of thing, 
which they would encounter in their work."

"Kingsdown was working on the radio telephony the German fighters used -
that was the messages spoken by pilots and their controllers. They 
revealed a lot of information because they also gave us warning of German 
fighter units getting ready to take off."

"Because the pilots and their controllers revealed the height at which 
their fighters were flying, it meant Kingsdown could tell Fighter Command 
the course of the German fighters. That was very important because, in 
those days, British radar couldn't identify flying height."


from :
------
The Independent
Sunday, 12 September 2010

Battle of Britain : 'Take off, shoot, land, sleep, take off again ...'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kate Youde hears the stories of fighter pilots, Waaf plotters, a stretcher 
bearer, code breaker and telephone operator who took part on 15 September 
1940, the day the tide turned

- Geoffrey Wellum features in 'First Light' on Tuesday at 9pm on BBC 2


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/battle-of-britain-take-off-shoot-land-sleep-take-off-again-2077140.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/v-for-victory-the-day-the-battle-of-britain-was-won-2077139.html