Langeleben

Gordon · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 7:41 pm Post subject: Soviet Intelligence

Report in today's Guardian that Soviet Intelligence - sorry, I meant Russian Intelligence. Old habits die hard - is as active in the UK as it was at the height of the Cold War, with a particular interest in UK energy policy. The Chinese are getting in on the action too. Interesting question: was there ever such a thing as Chinese Morse?

Gordon

paul croxson · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:19 am Post subject:

Aha Gordon.
Chinese morse. Mike Stubbings who was with me at Langeleben 55/6 was a regular. He also transferred to the Paras. For some reason or other he learned to 'take' Chinese morse which resulted in him spending some time on an American warship earning vast amounts of money. I think that there were more characters something like the Japanese katakana.
I have tried to get him to write about his experiences but have failed lamentably.
Your bringing up this subject reminds me of my time 1958 1962 when I was working closely with the Trade Delegation of the USSR who were at 32 Highgate West Hill and that was reckoned to be the the commercial spy centre in the UK. I useed to take them to factories all over the UK and had to report my journeys to the Foreign Office 3 days in advance. Motorways were non-existent apart from 58 miles of M1 between the Watford Gap and the Blue Boar and as we went from one Police Authority to another we were 'handed over' . In my time I was followed for hundreds of miles by the Police. One place we went to regularly was a Vickers factory in Newcastle where they made some very heavy presses for us. They also made tanks and whole areas were curtained off. It was quite exciting a time and I made some good friends amongst the Russians over the years. I then went to Rumania where I worked for 6 months but after a leave was not allowed to return. Definitely 'persona non grata' although I was completely innocent of everything except having carnal knowledge of the British Minister's Nanny. Extraordinary but he was found later to have been a spy for the USSR.
I was right about you reading the Guardian then!

Gordon · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:41 pm Post subject:

Fascinating Paul. With so many laptops getting left on trains, is it worth trying to keep any secrets?

Gordon

paul croxson · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 2:58 pm Post subject:

Gordon, you are absolutely right.
When I visited an M.I set up here I was told that the major pre-occupation was lost lap tops.
"Secrets" are a waste of time but they make a lot of people very important and very happy. You would be amazed at the number of members who wouldn't write about Langeleben in case they gave away secrets but the truth is that we knew damn all anyway. We talked about the "3rd Shock" as if we knew exactly in Magdeburg they were sitting and "2 Guards" as if we used to pop round for a quick beer but in reality 'cogs' did not get much smaller than we were. More illusions demolished but that's life. It did not take too big an intellectual leap to work out what we were doing in Langeleben and if that was too difficult then the DF stations made it quite simple with their funny aerials.

David Thomas · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject:

Hi Guys, Sorry to butt in on an I Corps discussion, but I thought my two pen’th might be welcome. I mentioned to Paul recently the book GCHQ by Nigel West, in it he mentions most of the intercept sites in UK, Germany and the middle east, but singularly fails any mention of Langeleben. I emailed him to ask why not, and he replied that back then (early ‘80’s) there were a number of things he was not allowed to mention. I also mentioned that he had the wrong year for Brian Patchett going AWOL, but he chose not to reply to that. All the best. Dave T.
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Dave Thomas 2 Sqn 13 SR, '63-'66


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