Wilson Radio Station 4 is one of dozens of radio listening stations under RAF Fighter Command.

Britain had been working on radio interception and communications intelligence gathering before the war, but due to the complexity and variety of radio encryption technology in various countries, Britain has not been able to make much progress in this field.

The British government had no choice but to settle for the next best thing, starting with the collection of basic radio signals, followed by the selection of specialized intelligence services, and finally by professional decipherers. This process is simple to say, but in fact it is very boring and cumbersome, consuming manpower and material resources, and the overall workload is unimaginable. No single department has the ability to do this kind of work alone, picking out the information it wants from a sea of radio signals, and the initial identification alone can drive managers crazy.

So the work was distributed to the Air Force and the Navy, which had their own first-class radio communication systems, had enough manpower and material resources to complete the initial collection work, and each had a large number of very skilled radio operators who could complete the initial screening work from the beginning. For example, military frequencies are identified from a bunch of civilian frequencies and some of these simple plain-code communications are deciphered. Eventually, undecipherable coded communications will be recorded and centralized for professional intelligence services to handle.

The RAF's listening stations are also tasked with listening to enemy air radio communications, and can be used to determine the enemy's air force's communication code rules from some clues. It provides important military information, such as the number of the flying team, the place where they are stationed, the type of aircraft, and the names and ranks of some pilots, although it is not very helpful in air combat. But intelligence is intelligence after all, and there will always be a time when it will be useful.

Wilson 4 was one of the seven RAF radio stations deployed in Kent, and was very unremarkable, with a total strength of only ten people, eight radio listeners and a chief and deputy station chief. During work, four monitors are on the computer to monitor, and they work in shifts every four hours, and the personnel who have changed the guard cannot be idle. The code that you have recorded is sorted out and identified, and then taken away by the truck that transports the daily supply every afternoon and handed it over to the higher authorities. If it is found that very important information has been intercepted. This has not happened once so far, and the listening station must immediately report to higher command via wired telephone, and a written record must be sent to command by hand.

At eight o'clock in the morning, Air Force Lieutenant Jacob, the head of the listening station, walked into the radio listening room with coffee. The weather was fine in the morning, but the lieutenant's mind was cloudy, and he had nightmares all night last night, and he was going to call his brother who was serving in the fortress of Dover later, and maybe find a time to meet.

Generally from midnight to sunrise, radio communication in the air will gradually decrease, and pilots are also human beings who need normal sleep. Therefore, from 12 p.m. to 8 a.m., only two monitors were on duty. If someone wishes, they can work two shifts in a row in exchange for eight hours off during the day the next day.

"Clark. Why are you on duty alone? Jacob found that only one radio receiver was sitting in front of it, and the other three were empty.

"Yes, Lieutenant, Gaspar had a fever last night, and I let him go back to rest." First Class Sailor Clark wore headphones and wrote on a telegram manuscript as he replied to the chief's inquiry.

"Why are there so many?" Lieutenant Jacob stood behind Clark with his coffee. He flipped through the thick stack of radio records on the workbench.

"Lieutenant, I think something is wrong. Since two o'clock this morning, I have been listening to a large number of radio communications of unknown origin, some of which are very strong, as if they were coming from nearby. The communication was so dense that it took up six frequencies in a row, and it seemed to be a new type of cipher, which I had never encountered before. Clarke, a sailor, stopped his pen and handed the lieutenant a telegram he had just recorded.

"The six-digit garbled code, with letters and numbers out of order, is the style of the Germans, who first used a similar communication code in the Navy, and my friend in the Naval Intelligence Department mentioned this. You said it started at two o'clock this morning? A sudden burst in communication frequency? The last time we had this was before the Battle of Dunkirk, when you hadn't moved to this listening post yet, and it looked like the Germans were going on a big operation. Did you measure the direction of signal transmission? Has the voice communication been intercepted? Why wasn't it reported to me right away? Lieutenant Jacob frowned and looked at the communication records in his hand, most of them were such garbled communications, and some four-digit passwords that seemed to be in another format, and if there was no password table, it would only be confusing.

"Forget it, you're not familiar with this work, and I won't wake up the chief officer because of this." Jacob placed the stack of records on the workbench.

"Thank you, sir, I've done a sideways signal, but strangely enough, most of the signal is coming from the north, but also from the northeast, I think it could be Norway and Belgium, some of the signals are very strong, and the Germans must have activated their latest high-power radios. I also intercepted some voice communications, some of which were not well signaled, and I recorded one of them, which was quite interesting. I don't speak German very well, and the Germans keep shouting and shouting about tanks, as if they were on the march, constantly urging to speed up. Clark said, pointing to the wire tape recorder next to him.

"What? Did you really receive a voice communication? of the German Army? You can't get a signal from the German Army, we're across a strait, and their voice call system can't travel that far, maybe it's the night bomber units of the Germans. ”

Lieutenant Jacob walked over to the tightrope tape recorder, put on his headphones, flipped the play switch, and the headphones immediately began to sound staccato German calls. "Speed up, speed up, don't delay...... All keep up...... Hurry up, hurry up! The tank keeps moving! …… What exactly is a row in...... We have ...... Red Zone ...... Report...... It's empty...... There are no enemies...... Major Achba...... Get out of the way of the guys in front of you. Get out of the way......"

Lieutenant Jacob's brow furrowed when he heard this, it was indeed the voice communication of the German Army, and it was the first time he had heard the voice of the German Army on the radio. He has always dealt with the Luftwaffe, mostly voice calls between aircraft, and has also intercepted radio signals from the German Army, but they all use code codes and passwords, and have never intercepted voice calls.

"It's weird, I've never had this kind of thing before, I'm going to make a call. Ask a few other stations if they have intercepted similar signals, and your business is doing well. Just a few minor flaws, you should have reported them to me sooner. Lieutenant Jacob took a sip of his coffee, walked over to the wall-mounted telephone, and quickly shook the handle before removing the receiver.

"Operator...... Operator...... "There was no sweet answer from the Air Force Communications Center operator in the microphone as usual. There was only silence. Lieutenant Jacob shook the handle vigorously a few more times, but still didn't hear any movement.

"The phone line is broken, what the hell. Everything is in the spot, and hopefully the guys at the communications department will fix it soon. Lieutenant Jacob angrily hung up the microphone back on the phone, he had wanted to call his brother later, but now it seemed that the plan was going to be delayed.

However, this is also a common thing, because the Luftwaffe's heavy fighter units, for some reason, are so enthusiastic about ultra-low-altitude raids, and they often launch sneak attacks in the early hours of the morning and dusk. Recently, the technology of those crazy people has become more and more advanced, and it has developed to the point of dying at ultra-low altitudes, often using sturdy wings to hang up telephone lines and cables. Messerschmitt flew in droves clinging to the treetops, strafing the barns and cattle pens and tearing off the thatched roofs of the barns.

"It's so unbelievable why those guys haven't come to take over, I think I'll have to be disciplined again." Lieutenant Jacob put the papers back in the pile of records that Clark had in hand, and he now felt an inexplicable irritability. I always feel that something is wrong, that something is going to happen. And it should be a bad thing.

Lieutenant Jacob paced back and forth in the listening room twice, then walked over to the tape recorder and listened carefully with his headphones on.

"Sir, I found the Germans' voice communication again, this time the voice is very clear, their speed is too fast, I can't understand it, you come and listen." Clark shouted excitedly. Jacob quickly took off the recording headphones, rushed to the radio, took the headphones from Clarke's hand and put them on his head.

"Hurry up, record it." Jacob shook his finger at Clark quickly, and the sailor hurriedly ran to the wire recorder to replace it with a new recording wire and pull the recording switch.

"It's really the Germans, the two forces are talking, maybe superiority and superiority...... Captain Einshag...... What a mouthful name...... They seem to be lost and have been asking about a place called Vaste Klewerva, well, never heard of it, which sounds like a Belgian village. What do they seem to have discovered? Ordered the infantry to come forward and search. I don't know which poor guy is going to be unlucky, these savage Germans. To whom does he seem to be reporting, gray-green roof? The four telecommunications towers, well, look like they should be a radio communication station......" Lieutenant Jacob pressed the headset with one hand and the other on the recording paper as he quickly recorded the call.

"Lieutenant......," Clark called from the side.

"Wait a minute." Jacob held out his palm to Clark to prevent his men from interfering with his work.

"The infantry of the Germans rushed over without any sign of resistance...... They captured some prisoners, and the Germans sounded quite proud. Ay? Who are the Germans fighting against? Is it a drill? Jacob felt that there must be something strange in it, and he carefully recorded every word he heard, hoping to detect a clue from it.

"Lieutenant!" Clark shouted again.

"What the hell is going on!" Jacob turned his face angrily to look at the unfamiliar sailor.

"Lieutenant, our roof is gray-green, and there are four radio towers erected outside." Clarke's eyes were filled with fear, and his voice trembled as he pitched his guess to the Chief.

"Wait, what do you mean...... Oh my God. Jacob was frightened by his men's speculation, and he hurriedly stood up.

Just then, the door to the listening room was kicked open by a large German marching boot with cleats on the soles of its boots. On one side of the door, the barrel of an MP38 submachine gun was exposed, and a voice shouted in English with a thick accent: "The Ying Guo Leng inside doesn't need to move." Raise your hands, be honest and rough, if you don't stop it, the puppets will be six eggs. ”

"Don't shoot! We'll be out right away! Jacob did not hesitate at all, and he shouted loudly in German. Neither he nor Clark had guns in their arms, and there were no weapons in the listening room, so what could they do but surrender. Could it be that two people lifted the big fifty-pound radio station and rushed out to smash the Germans, didn't they hear the Germans say that they were going to throw six eggs?

Hands held high. Two British Air Force soldiers walked out of the door of the listening room, and the bright sunlight sparked Jacob's eyes, and he quickly narrowed his eyes.

When he regained his sight, Lieutenant Jacob hurriedly raised his eyes to look around. As a result, the sight in front of him almost crooked his nose in anger. His deputy station commander and the other seven subordinates, all dressed only in **, squatted in a row with their heads in their hands and facing the wall of the board room, and two German soldiers who didn't look like good people were guarding them, they were holding bayonet rifles in their hands, and their faces full of stubble showed a hideous smile.

"This bunch of incompetent trash, a bunch of idiots." At a glance, I knew that this group of bastards surrendered earlier than themselves, and they should have directly blocked the Germans in bed, and none of these rotten people gave a warning. Even if you scream, it's fine.

"Lieutenant Jacob?" A German officer stood in front of the head of the Royal Air Force radio monitoring station with his head held high, and he raised his chin and looked at the terrified British officer in front of him from under the brim of his hat that was pressed low.

"Your men have confessed. Don't try to play tricks, Mr. Stationmaster. With his hands behind his back, the German officer slowly walked to Jacob's side.

"My name is Horst, Horst. Second Lieutenant Tapat, you are now a prisoner of the Wehrmacht, and I hope you understand your current situation. The German lieutenant paced slowly. Slowly circled behind Jacob.

"What do you want to know, Second Lieutenant Tapat." Jacob felt the hairs on his back stand on end. He asked, trembling.

"Very well, I thought you would be like that idiot over there and ask first, 'God, how did you get here?' It seems that you are a smart person, and I like to communicate with smart people, because smart people always make the right choices. ”

The lieutenant slowly paced to Jacob's other side, and he stepped up and whispered into Jacob's ear. "Point out the locations of several listening stations and command posts in your vicinity, tell us everything you know, and open the safe in your office, I don't think the files are of any use to you."

Then he jerked back and turned to Jacob's front. "You can also choose to fight to the end, I also like tough guys, and I have also met some guys who think they are smart, they think they can fool us with lies, and in the end they only prove that they are really stupid. There must be a lot of people among your subordinates who know the times, and I think you will be a person who knows the times too."

"Of course, of course, you can, I will do it all, please don't hurt me, I am an officer, I ask to be treated as a prisoner of war." The German was clearly mentally ill, and Jacob felt a urge to urinate in his lower abdomen, and he was already too scared to stand.

"Good, good, Lieutenant, you really didn't let me down." Second Lieutenant Tapat happily patted Jacob on the shoulder, then turned to the German sergeant standing aside and gave an order.

"Take a few people, follow him to get the passwords and documents, and then send him and the prisoners to the battalion headquarters and hand them over to Captain Hasler of the Intelligence Service."

"Understood, platoon commander." The sergeant saluted the second lieutenant, then called out a few soldiers and escorted the RAF lieutenant to the radio station's office.

"How's that, how's that? Isn't it alike? When the prisoners were taken away, Ensign Tapat, who had a cold and gloomy face just now, suddenly made a grimace at his subordinates, and the German soldiers, who had long been about to hold back their wounds, immediately burst into laughter.

"Oh my God, platoon commander, it's exactly the same, you're such a genius." One of the sergeants laughed and said loudly.

"The lieutenant was so frightened that he couldn't get the key into the lock hole of the safe for a long time, but Sergeant Gilmer couldn't stand it and came to help him."

"I was also taken aback, platoon commander, I thought you were possessed by Captain Hasler, whether it was your expression or tone, and the way you spoke in circles around people, it was exactly like that."

Listening to the praise of his subordinates, Tapat proudly took out a cigarette and lit it. "Alright, enough of laughing, we still have business to do. Search this place carefully, take everything you can, dismantle key parts if you can't, collect all the food and weapons and ammunition you can find, we still have a big battle to fight. ”

"Yes, platoon commander." The soldiers saluted and dispersed.

"Oops, I forgot to ask where that Westkage farm is going. Wait a minute, you guys, Captain Einshag is already blowing up. Tapat patted his head in chagrin and trotted all the way to the captive escort in the distance. (To be continued)