Edward Allen
Home Town: Beaupry, Manitoba Conflict: World War II Branch: Army
Wireless operator Mac Keays relays the news of the end of hostilities to Universal Carrier driver Private Hugh McKerlain and infantrymen of "D" Company, The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, De Glindhorst, Netherlands, 5 May 1945. Credit: Michael M. Dean/Library and Archives Canada/PA-134450 Restrictions on use: Nil Copyright: Expired
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But we could locate—what we could with this is we could identify the station that was sending it and by identifying the stations that were sending this traffic back and forth. We could, from this information--the Intelligence people could identify the units of where they were. Of [those] that were handling this traffic they could identify this traffic and also help to locate their positions in France.
Story Synopsis
Edward Allen enlisted in November 1941 and served with the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals where he was assigned to the No. 2 Special Wireless Unit Type B unit. While in England, he listened primarily to coastal defence traffic. Once he arrived in France, he and his unit moved around in support of the Canadian divisions.
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I was born in Beaupry, Manitoba on the 8th of June 1924. Sorry correct that. 28th of June 1924. My father was a station agent and we lived in the house attached to the railroad station. I was born in that house, so I say I was born in a CPR railway station. Shortly after that, we moved to Kerryville, Saskatchewan where my father was still a station agent. And when we were there, he taught me the Morse code and I enlisted in the Signal Corps [Royal Canadian Corps of Signals] on the 8th of November 1941 at Regina, Saskatchewan. I was seventeen years of age at the time, and I lied a little bit to be accepted.
I went to Canadian Basic Training Centre No. 32 in Peterborough, Ontario for basic training and after completion of that basic training, I was posted to Vimy Barracks in Kingston, Ontario, the Royal Canadian School of Signals, where I took training as a radio operator. When I completed that training, I was assigned to 2 Special Wireless Section, Type B. And we proceeded along with the rest of my friends who were on the same course. And from there, we went to Halifax, Nova Scotia and proceeded overseas.
On arrival in England, we were sent to the southern part of England. I think, Sussex, or sorry, one of the two. I can’t recall exactly. And we joined No. 1 Special Section, which had preceded us overseas. And we worked with them on training on intercept procedures and direction finding. This kind of thing. While we were there, we were then posted – the operators were posted to the British Royal Signals School at Trowbridge in Wiltshire where we took additional training on intercept work from the enemy.
From Trowbridge, we were sent back down to the south coast of England. At that time, we did some direction finding from German stations on the French [coast], in France. Also, we copied a lot of their harbour defence Morse code. And this we turned over. We had a staff of Intelligence Corps people with us and we would turn over the material that we had copied to them for further analysis.
A lot of it was Enigma [family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages, code broken by British intelligence, intelligence that resulted from this breakthrough was codenamed Ultra], which was a German code, and also some three-letter codes and we couldn’t ascertain what the messages meant. But we could locate—what we could with this is we could identify the station that was sending it and by identifying the stations that were sending this traffic back and forth. We could, from this information--the Intelligence people could identify the units of where they were. Of [those] that were handling this traffic they could identify this traffic and also help to locate their positions in France.
Interview with Signalman Edward Allen FCWM Oral History Project
CWM 20020121-002
George Metcalf Archival Collection
© Canadian War Museum
I went to Canadian Basic Training Centre No. 32 in Peterborough, Ontario for basic training and after completion of that basic training, I was posted to Vimy Barracks in Kingston, Ontario, the Royal Canadian School of Signals, where I took training as a radio operator. When I completed that training, I was assigned to 2 Special Wireless Section, Type B. And we proceeded along with the rest of my friends who were on the same course. And from there, we went to Halifax, Nova Scotia and proceeded overseas.
On arrival in England, we were sent to the southern part of England. I think, Sussex, or sorry, one of the two. I can’t recall exactly. And we joined No. 1 Special Section, which had preceded us overseas. And we worked with them on training on intercept procedures and direction finding. This kind of thing. While we were there, we were then posted – the operators were posted to the British Royal Signals School at Trowbridge in Wiltshire where we took additional training on intercept work from the enemy.
From Trowbridge, we were sent back down to the south coast of England. At that time, we did some direction finding from German stations on the French [coast], in France. Also, we copied a lot of their harbour defence Morse code. And this we turned over. We had a staff of Intelligence Corps people with us and we would turn over the material that we had copied to them for further analysis.
A lot of it was Enigma [family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages, code broken by British intelligence, intelligence that resulted from this breakthrough was codenamed Ultra], which was a German code, and also some three-letter codes and we couldn’t ascertain what the messages meant. But we could locate—what we could with this is we could identify the station that was sending it and by identifying the stations that were sending this traffic back and forth. We could, from this information--the Intelligence people could identify the units of where they were. Of [those] that were handling this traffic they could identify this traffic and also help to locate their positions in France.
Interview with Signalman Edward Allen FCWM Oral History Project
CWM 20020121-002
George Metcalf Archival Collection
© Canadian War Museum
