Mow Cop
Alan Woodcock
Mow Cop's War Effort
Mow Cop mystery solved | More on Mow Cop's war effort | Mow Cop's Beam
Benders | The Mow Cop spy |
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Mow Cop mystery solved
At last the Mow Cop mystery has been solved!. At least, I have had
confirmed much of what we had already gleaned.
If you remember, I wrote about a small hush-hush R.A.F. unit set up on
the top of Mow Cop after the start of the Second World War, which I re
membered from my youth, but which few other people seemed to know
about.
It consisted of two or three huts and radio aerials, by means of which, I
was told at the time, the airmen stationed there could detect how many
German bombers had passed over during the night.
Although several kind readers eventually wrote to tell me of their
memories of it, including a member of the family who owned the field
which was requisitioned from them by the Ministry of Defence, only one,
ex-Squadron Leader Bernard Sandall, D.F.C., and bar, could tell me of what
he believed to have been its purpose - he had a book which told of such
R.A.F. stations, which interfered with radio beams which the German
bombers used to find their target, and thus misled them into dropping their
bombs on the wrong place.
But no-one could I find with first-hand knowledge.Then another kind
reader telephoned me to say that someone known to both of us was actually
stationed there, only a few miles from his home, so the answer was right on
my doorstep.
The man with the answers is Mr. Jim Hickman, known to me for years,
and well-known in both Biddulph and Congleton as teacher and golfer
respectively, who lived at Harriseahead when war was declared and he was
called up for service in the R.A.F.
He was put on a radar course, and posted to 86 Wing, R.A.F., stationed at
the radar H.Q., at Radlett, Herts., to await posting. What his reaction was
when he was given a chitty ordering him to "report to R.A.F. Mow Cop,
Staffordshire", in two days' time, I cannot imagine - one of sheer delight,
I
would guess.
He got a train to Stoke, arriving there fairly late at night, then got a bus
to
Tunstall for the next stage of the journey to his Harriseahead home, and
there his posting luck continued. A passing police car stopped and asked
him where he was going, and when he told the policeman Harriseahead, the
latter explained that the boundary of his territory was Packmoor, and he
could give him a lift there if it would help.
However, when Packmoor was reached, the policeman kindly broke the
rules, and took him all the way to Harriseahead.His surprised father
exclaimed on seeing him: "What are you doing here?. Have you got home
leave?".
"It's a long home leave", Jim replied; "I've been posted to Mow Cop".For
the next two years of his service, he was able to live at home while
involved
in his extremely interesting work at that little camp at Mow Cop, which he
could almost see from his front door. Its purpose was much as Bernard had
described it.
The Germans used radio beams, in the forms of dots and dashes, which
merged into a continuous note when an aircraft was on its target, and could
release its bombs. When the bombers passed over Mow Cop on their way to
Manchester and particularly Liverpool, the Mow Cop station interfered
with those dots and dashes, so that they gave the bomber crews the wrong
signal. "In effect, we bent the beams", Jim explained.
The result was that the bomber unknowingly released its deadly cargo
away from its target, hopefully over open countryside, where no-one would
be hurt and no damage inflicted, at least, not on our war effort.Jim says
one of their biggest successes they had was when bombers were so wildly
misled by the Mow Cop signals that they continued to Ireland and dropped
their bombs there!.
So there you have it - how Mow Cop helped to win the war. And one
wonders, too, how many innocent British lives were saved when the bombs
intended for them dropped harmlessly elsewhere, as a result of the efforts
of
that little unit. Eventually, Jim left Mow Cop, being posted to a bomber
station at Bassingbourne, where he was involved in setting up an exhibition
to standardise radar among our European allies, and, indeed, which resulted
in such standardisation.
After the war, he trained as a teacher, and taught first at Kidsgrove
Secondary School and then at Biddulph High School, to give 36 years'
service to the profession.He lived in Kidsgrove, where for some time he
gave golf lessons under the auspices of the local education authority, but
now, in his retirement, he lives in Alsager.
I wonder if he set up something of a record in spending some of his war
service so close to home?. He would have had to have lived next door to
have been much nearer!.
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Mow Cop's Beam Benders
Having written several times about the wartime hush-hush R.A.F. station
at Mow Cop, I mentioned that a Newcastle-under-Lyme reader had told me
of a book which has just been published on the "beam bending" activities
of such units, and I have now obtained a copy of it. It is called, ap
propriately, "Beam Benders", and tells of the secret work of 80 Wing Royal
Air Force, which involved the manipulation of radio technology to confuse
Luftwaffe bombers attacking Britain.
Radio beams were sent out which affected the navigation systems of the
incoming bombers, tricking them, for example, into believing that a War
wickshire field was the centre of Birmingham, so that their bombs would
drop harmlessly there. At the same time, ground personnel set off elaborate
pyrotechnics to compound the deception, and convince the Luftwaffe that it
had hit the right target!.
The book is by Laurie Brettingham, and it begins by revealing that in
November, 1939, an anonymous well-wisher left information at the British
Embassy in Oslo concerning German scientific activities likely to be used in
the war. Two months earlier, Dr. (later Professor) R. V. Jones (who
subsequently wrote a book, "Most secret war") had been attached to Air
Intelligence to investigate new German air warfare techniques.
After examining the "Oslo Report", he considered that it indicated that a
beam could be used to attack targets in the U.K.He urgently sought more
information, and help came from the R.A.F's "Y" Service, which monitored
Luftwaffe radio signals; the famous code breakers at Bletchley; enemy air
crew who were interrogated after being shot down over Britain; and the
examination of crashed enemy aircraft.In March, 1940, a document taken
from the wireless operator of a crashed Heinkel He111 showed an entry
"Radio beacon Knickebein from 0600 on 315º".
Dr. Jones deduced that "Knickebein" was a beam along which an aircraft
could fly to a pre-determined target. In June, he was shown an "Enigma"
signal which read: "Kleve Knickebein is directed at position 53º 24´ North
1° West", confirming his view on "Knickebein", with the interpretation that
a beam was running from Kleve, in West Germany. Dr. Jones urged all
those helping him in his task to be alert for further clues, and a German
prisoner of war was overhead telling a comrade that the equipment was ac
tually in his aircraft, and would never be found by the British.
When a search was made, the only item capable of receiving the beam was
the blind landing receiver, which the Royal Aircraft Establishment at
Farnborough told him was much more sensitive than would be needed just
for blind landings. "So that was it", Jones subsequently wrote in his book.
"I
now knew the receiver, and the frequencies to which it would be tuned, and,
therefore, on which the Knickebein must operate".
He was satisfied that there were two beams - a "director" beam along
which the pilot flew, and a side or "cross" beam, which intersected it, and
indicated the target area. Then, in addition to locating the transmitter at
Kleve, a second was found at Bredstedt, in Schleswig-Holstein. It seemed
certain that the enemy had a navigational aid which enabled its aircraft to
find their targets in the U.K. with ease at night, as well as in poor
visibility
in daylight, Now the problem was to find the means of combating IT
Dr. Jones put the facts to Winston Churchill, who ordered an intensifi
cation of interest in the beams, and the implementation of counter meas
ures.Special units were set up, as were "Watcher" stations along the East
and South Coasts.
With the new beacons identified, how were they to be nullified?. Using
information received from his former student, Dr. Jones, Professor Linde
mann (later Lord Cherwell), explained to Winston Churchill - a friend for
20 years, and to whom he was scientific adviser - two options: to jam the
beams, so that the signals could not be received by the enemy aircraft; or
to
mask the enemy's transmitting beacons by picking up and repeating German
signals.
The enemy aircraft would not be able to distinguish between the signal
from its home beacon, and the echo from the interfering station in the U.K.,
thus confusing the direction-finding of the crew, and this method was given
the official abbreviation "Meaconing" (from "masking beacon").A scheme
was set up to cover the whole country with Meacons, but the Germans
became aware of the counter-measures, and started to change frequencies
while a raid was in progress, and to leave their beacons switched off until
their aircraft had crossed the British coast,
They later set up a new system of blind bombing by a specialist squad
ron, optimistically believed to have an accuracy of 10 to 20 yards over
London!.Existing counter-measure transmitters were unsuitable, and new
ones were set up, the first two to cover the approach route from Cherbourg
to the Midlands, followed by two others, one of them the Mow Cop
outstation, installed by November, 1940, augmented later that month by
jammers, to cover Liverpool, Manchester and London.
The book goes on to describe new systems set up by the Germans, and
new counter-measures to combat them.So successful did the Meacons
become that one trainee crew and instructor in a Dornier Do217 took a
bearing on their beacon at Paimpol, which was being "meaconed", and
believed they were flying over the Brest Peninsular, when, in fact, they
were
over Ilfracombe!.
After circling the Meacon, and satisfying himself that he was over
Paimpol, the instructor's next task was to obtain a bearing on Evreux, 124
miles east. He obtained a satisfactory reading, but was now being
"meaconed" by a Meacon near Newbury, which he circled, then set course
to run in to his base, but was astonished to find that he was over the sea.
He
turned back and made a forced descent in what he believed was France, but
was, in fact, Lydd, at Kent, where a detachment of the Home Guard took the
crew in charge!.
Mow Cop was apparently not the only local station in the network - a
section of the book devoted to the memories of those who served includes
those of Brian Simmons, whose father Len - a Londoner - was stationed at
one at Wincle, "in the hills above Macclesfield . . . billeted on
Butterlands
Farm . . . 1,500 feet above sea level, and bleak even on the summer's day
when I was taken there as a child", Brian writes.
His mother was a G.P.O. telephone operator at Macclesfield, and when
his father arrived there, there was heavy snow, and he had to walk to
Wincle. When the snow eventually melted, he found he had been walking
over the tops of hedges!.This book, of course, will be "a must" for those
involved in "beam bending" in particular, and the R.A.F. in general, but it
is
also a fascinating read for anyone without any connection at all with the
subject matter - a bit of a detective story in some respects, as the
brilliant
brains of both the German and British scientists battled it out on opposite
sides of the Channel to outwit each other in the air.And, of course, it is a
record of a small part played by this area in the war against the Luftwaffe
(although the Mow Cop station is described as being at Kidsgrove, in one
case in Staffordshire, and the other in Cheshire)!."Royal Air Force Beam
Benders, No. 80 (Signals) Wing, 1940-45", by Laurie Brettingham, is
published by Midland Counties Publications, and is available through
bookshops or by mail order, postage and packing free, the publishers at Unit
3, Maizefield, Hinckley, Leics., LE10 1YF, telephone 01455 233747, fax
01455 233737 (Access, Visa, and Switch cards accepted).
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More on Mow Cop's war effort
My recent articles about the wartime hush-hush R.A.F. establishment at
Mow Cop, which deflected German bombers from their targets, has
prompted Mr. Harry Hancock, who now lives at 41, Galleys Bank,
Whitehill, to remind me that the village contributed to the war effort in
other ways, too.
In 1940, the mills there - Coronation Mill at the top of Mow, and also the
Mount Pleasant mill - were packed with food: in tins in wooden boxes, each
weighing a hundredweight, in wooden barrels, and, in the case of such
things as flour and sugar, in big thick sack bags, each weighing 1½ cwts.All
the floors were full of food, which was delivered to Kidsgrove railway
goods yard by train, then taken by railway lorries to Mow Cop. The same
drivers were used all the time - brothers Harry and Alex Barnett, of Kent
Green..
Alfred Jones, who was landlord at the Oddfellows Arms in those day,
controlled all the goods coming in and going out, and was also responsible
for employing the men at the mills. They were told not to disclose what was
being stored there.There were only about six men altogether, and they
included Tommy Dale and Len Malpass of Mow Cop, Mr. Wright, of
Mount Pleasant, and George Whitehurst, who was landlord of the
Millstone Inn.
Mr. Hancock himself also did his bit, helping in the winter months when
his father, Mr. C. H. Hancock could not find indoor work in what were
some very bad winters in those war years. Indeed, as if they hadn't got
enough to put up with already, with food rationing and fathers, sons and
daughters away in the armed forces, the people on Mow Cop had hard times
in those dreadful winters, with the food shortage which already existed not
helped by being cut off by snow.
They pulled coal on a zinc sheet "sledges" from Tower Hill footrail, and
walked to fetch bread from Barlow's shop at Rookery, or from Kidsgrove,
in pillow slips.I remember exactly that happening, and can confirm just
how bad the winters were, for in those days, I earned a bit of extra pocket
money - one of those new-fangled octagonal threepenny pieces, to be
precise - which involved walking over Whitehill to Mow Cop to collect
money each week.At Whitehill on one occasion, the snow drifts at
Whitehill were so high that it was possible to look into the bedroom
windows of the houses there, and in Mow Cop Road at Mow Cop, the walls
at the side of the road had disappeared under the snow, and it was
impossible to tell whether one was walking on the road or on the adjacent
field!.
Bricklayers, joiners and labourers were all laid off for 14 weeks that
winter while building the ammunition factory at Swynnerton, but everyone
pulled together and got through all the difficulties and the war.Mr. Han
cock recalls that Mr. Charles Lowry, headmaster of Woodcock's Well
School, was A.R.P. chief warden for his area, Mr. Arthur Leeson, proprie
tor of the cattle and garage business, had the A.R.P. responsibility in
Mount
Pleasant, Mr. John Hollinshead, the bus proprietor at Kent Green was
Home Guard instructor, and Mr. Bill Ogden, snr., was responsible for
ration books, not least those which were lost, and was also the contact for
members of the armed forces who needed help from the British Legion,
taking many of them to Manchester tribunals, and winning lots of
cases.While the war was still on, these war workers formed a football team
from men and lads among the A.R.P. members at Sands Road A.R.P. station
based at Church Lane mill, playing on a field at Tower Hill, then on
Saturday afternoon, they were taken to Lawton Hall in Army trucks to play
against soldiers and R.A.F. personnel who were based there, and had a great
football field. Some were professional footballers, and Mr. Hancock says
that they never said why they were there. He thought they were perhaps
convalescing from some wartime injury or illness.
But to get back to the subject which started all this - the hush-hush R.A.F.
operation from a site almost opposite the Mow Cop Inn - Mr. Hancock also
recalls a hut with no windows and just one door, and with concrete blocks
built round it, situated right at the top of Mow, behind the Old Man o'
Mow, on land which he believes was owned by his father at the time,Every
day, seven days a week, he says, aircraft would drop silver paper strips,
always at about noon. They were, of course, subsequently widely used to
confuse radar and similar systems.About 20 servicemen were based in the
old stone cottages near to Mow Cop Inn, he says, and were on guard for a
long time at both huts.
a.. . . . more . . .
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Steve B
Steve Barnett (no relation to the drivers as far as I know)
Brian Rogers
"Alan Woodcock" <al...@desksol.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:av43du$ile$1...@newsg3.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Hi this might be slightly OT but I just found this
>
Excellent Alan, a little Google search also found this;
http://www.mowcop.com/htm/tunnel.htm
Brian
Alan Woodcock
Hickman this past year just before he died
he told my friend John all about it and confirmed word for word was going
on.
The tunnel that is mentioned at http://www.mowcop.com/htm/tunnel.htm
was a railway track going to a coal mine
Al