There's currently a raging debate over at the Pocklington History Forum on this subject. Unfortunately the Forum isn't available at present, but you can see a couple of the cached pages here. FLYING MAN WEEKEND - Page 1 - Pocklington History Forum FLYING MAN WEEKEND - Page 2 - Pocklington History Forum
Old thread, but adding anyway for reference. Winston Churchill Engagement Diary : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Winston Churchill Appointment Diaries, Sept 1939 - June 1945
I think there was one scambler telephone and it was from the white house to the Cabinet war rooms. IRRC the technology took up Selfridges basement. It wasn't a mobile or a car phone.
Thanks for posting this dbf, unfortunately after checking other claims he made in his book George Harsh turned out to be a fantasist, to put it mildly.
The technology was based on developments of the WW1 Fullerphone system which used a thing called a buzz chopper. What took up the room was not the scrambler itself but all the switches and secure wiring that ensured that it could be easily connected to other centres without what we today would call hacking. My father spent most of the first part of the war installing such communications centres including one under Stormont Castle (which is how he came to meet my Irish mum) after which he was classified as not to be captured, presumably because he knew the location of such centres. Although post war he transferred from comms to power transmission he got called in to consult on occasion, particularly when Regional Seats of Government were being established during the threat of nuclear war. But yes not mobile - particularly because the phones at either end had to be tuned in to each other in advance.
Looking further for any evidence that WSC visited RAF Pocklington,I cannot find any recorded event where he visited RAF Pocklington in a history of the station or referenced in "Reap the Whirlwind," a comprehensive account of the history of RCAF No 6 Group. Incidentally communication facilities must have existed for WSC/FDR at Chequers to cover the periods when WSC stayed there.Harris was based as C in C Bomber Command nearby at the High Wycombe HQ.He often spent a number of evenings until late 1943 with WSC at Chequers when the PM was in residence. WSC used Harris's visits for Harris to personally brief him about Bomber Command's latest accomplishments. Preparations were in progress for the invasion of Europe and WSC's focus of attention was centred on this. Apparently Harris lived on the job at High Wycombe and was so devoted to the task of leading B.C that he never took leave.