I have been conducting research into my wife's great grandfather, c). Richard joined the army in 1942 and after initial training with the General Service Corps, was transferred to the Royal Signals. After trade training, where he qualified as an Operator Keyboard and Line, he was posted in 1943 to 4 Wireless Grp, 13 W/T Sect Type P, in Egham. In May 1944 he was posted to 5 HQ Sigs annotated as being located in the field and deployed to NWE in September 1944. Still part of 5 HQ Sigs, he was posted to 28 W/T Sect Type M in 1945 and finished his time in Berlin Area/HQ Sigs as part of 28 High-Speed W/T. There is also a tale of him acting as a driver to Glenn Miller and a photo of him sat at the kitchen table in Mablethorpe!? There are many questions and mysteries around this individual, such as he claimed to have been present at Belsen at its liberation. He also settled in the sleepy coastal town of Mablethorpe, Lincs, which we could not understand his connection as he was a bricklayer from Leicester (granted not a million miles away). I have been conducting some research into his units and it appears that 5 HQ Sigs were the G6 element for HQ SHAEF. Further to this, I took a gamble to research Op FORTITUDE SOUTH Units. In June 44 British II Corps were mobilised to join FUSAG and were based in Louth, Skegness, and Horncastle, all three locations within close proximity to Mablethorpe. My hypothesis is that to assist with the deception he was detached to the area to provide communication traffic for the Corps and Divisional moves and met my wife's great grandmother whilst deployed. My questions are as follows: 1. Was 5 HQ Sigs indeed the G6 element of HQ SHAEF? 2. What were Type P and M sections and what did they do? 3. Would comms detachments from HQ SHAEF have supported Op FORTITUDE, if so, are there any contemporary documents (OpOs etc) that may detail this? 4. Were any elements from SHAEF deployed to Belsen? 5. Could 5 Sigs be identical 5 Special Wireless Group?
In answer to your queries: 1. Was 5 HQ Sigs indeed the G6 element of HQ SHAEF? You have another thread on this. My reply: No. 5 Headquarters Signals was the British element in support of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force; it included an ATS company. The US element in support of the HQ was 3118th Signal Service Battalion. Both units were an integral part of SHAEF and moved with it (indeed facilitated those moves in advance of the staff). There's plenty online about the various headquarters locations, all of which were supported by these units. 2. What were Type P and M sections and what did they do? No. 4 Wireless Group was responsible for the training of high speed Morse operators. The P sections were 'Permanent' sections, i.e. base stations, and the 'M' sections were mobile sections. The 'M' sections were known as 'Golden Arrow'. They were used to transmit the highest priority traffic from the highest level headquarters. There's a good section on Golden Arrow in Cliff Lord's book of Unit Histories. 3. Would comms detachments from HQ SHAEF have supported Op FORTITUDE, if so, are there any contemporary documents (OpOs etc) that may detail this? No - given his unit as you described above nothing to do with it. 4. Were any elements from SHAEF deployed to Belsen? Royal Signals - 'Deployed' - no. Visited? maybe. 5. Could 5 Sigs be identical 5 Special Wireless Group? No - very different units.
The Belsen reference matches what my father told me - that he was at/near Bergen Belsen when it was liberated; he was posted to 5 HQ Sigs at the time.
My father was also in 5HQ Sigs and told me he was near Bergen Belsen when it was liberated. Does your family have any photos from that period?
