A book has just been published by two Navy men
from Brierley, Leslie Howson and John Nixon, entitled ‘Intercepted at
Sea: The Human Cost of Insecure Communications During Two World Wars,’
(Woodfield Publishing Ltd, Woodfield House, Babsham Lane Bognor Regis,
West Sussex PO21 5EL.
Http://www.woodfieldpublishing.com. Price £16.
Enquiries:
E-mail john.nixon15@btinternet.com or basmithba@aol.com
The principal author, Leslie Howson (who lived
at 6 Co-op Cottages), sadly died in 1986 after spending five years
following his early retirement to work on the book, which is based on his
experiences and knowledge as a Petty Officer Telegraphist in the Royal
Navy. Leslie had joined the Navy in
1937 and served throughout World War II, seeing service in northern
waters, the Mediterranean, the landings in Sicily, and the D-Day landings
before finally leaving the Royal Navy for medical reasons in 1948.
After becoming aware of his
terminal illness and the fact that he would not be alive long enough to
complete it, he bequeathed his manuscript (700 hand-written pages) and
joint copyright to John Nixon who was still serving in the Royal Navy as
an Instructor Officer, teaching radio telecommunications and therefore
with knowledge of the subject material. The manuscript also came with a
small library of books and research material and letters. 54 year-old
John Nixon, who retired from the Royal Navy in 1992 and is now a Research
Fellow in Health Economics at the University of York, said “Leslie was a
friend of my parents and lived in the same street in Brierley. We had
both joined the Royal Navy at the age of 15, entering the famous (now
closed down) boys training establishment, HMS Ganges, at Shotley Gate,
Ipswich. I joined in 1968, 31 years after Leslie. The task of completing
the book has been immensely satisfying but an enormous undertaking that
has taken me 20 years to finish and publish, whilst still working more or
less full time.
The subject matter and message of the book, as
summarised on the publisher’s website, is that the ‘history of naval
warfare is littered with incidents in which ships were sunk, with great
loss of life, due to the enemy having intercepted badly coded or otherwise
insecure signals. Whilst many people are aware of the strategic advantage
gained by the Allies during World War Two by the cracking of the ‘Enigma’
code used by the German U-Boat fleet, few are aware that Allied naval
codes were similarly cracked by the Germans, leading to significant losses
of ships and personnel.
In this expansive study of the subject, Leslie
Howson, a former naval telegrapher during World War II, examines the sorry
history of careless and unguarded messages sent between Royal Navy and
allied ships during two world wars, and the tragic consequences for
thousands of seamen who lost their lives due to intelligence all too
easily gathered by the enemy. These lapses of security could have been
avoided, he argues, but for the stubborn refusal of the Admiralty to
address the problem, and he supplies plenty of detailed evidence to
support his claims in a highly informative narrative that encompasses the
social, economic and political contexts of its subject matter. Those with
an interest in maritime history will find much thought-provoking material
in this forthright and sometimes controversial book, which pulls no
punches in its criticism of ‘the powers-that-be’. ISBN 1-84683-020-6;
page size 205 x 290 mm; 196 pages; monochrome photographs.’
John’s biggest task was to get the manuscript
into a word processor package so that it could be checked, verified and
formatted. In this work he was assisted by several members of his family
and friends, including his sister Barbara and wife Yumi (photo). He then
wrote a preface and introduction (from Leslie Howson’s notes), linking
paragraphs and worked out coherent headings for the 25 chapters that make
up this extremely detailed piece of work, The final chapter includes an
apology by Leslie Howson for the ‘avoidable deaths of 40,000 Merchant
seamen during World War II,’ for which he felt a sense of guilt as a
member of the Royal Navy whose role, among others, was to protect the
British Merchant Fleet. The book is dedicated to those who lost their
lives in such harrowing circumstances.
The completion of this book is perhaps
testimony to the bond that is shared with ex-HMS Ganges boys. Even though
HMS Ganges was closed down in 1976, it has the largest membership of any
of the Royal Navy’s Associations with annual re-unions and its own gazette
and web site. John Nixon concluded, “having made a promise to Leslie to
complete his book I could not give up until it had been completed. It has
taken me much longer and was more demanding to complete that I first
thought, but both Leslie and I can now rest knowing that in the end our
mission has been completed.”
