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FOREWORD
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Dedicated to the late Frank Mitchell.
His hard work in tracing and assembling an ageing band
of ex-members of the 13th Signal Regiment
triggered many of the memories recounted in this book.
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The first small history had it's origins as a souvenir
programme for the close-down festivities, nothing more,
and short contributions were invited from those
ex-inmates who could be contacted in a short period of
time, to cover the four decades of operations. In the
event, some old comrades supplied a great amount of
material, the late Sid Grimshaw, for instance, the unit
pay clerk in the 50s, sent around ten pages of foolscap,
containing much interesting detail. Others submitted
equally interesting reminiscences from their times with
the various units. Our President remembered carrying out
the Recce to find the site; a member of the probe
section dispatched to set up the first intercept
operation related his experiences. Photographs added to
the knowledge.
After a short time John Richardson realised that he had in his hands an (incomplete)
short history of the unit and so set to on the SQMS's PC
and in a remarkably short space of time for him (about a
week) produced the first draft. This was submitted to
the Unit Security Officer, and CO for approval, which
was forthcoming. Wolters' brewery paid for the printing.
Obviously, at the time he was constrained by what could
be said (or not) regarding operations. (Old habits die
hard).
Unfortunately the original material was lost after the
untimely death of our then Secretary, Frank Mitchell.
Some of the original contributors are no longer among
us, so we have had to basically start over from scratch
again. We do have the advantage nowadays of electronic
media and the Langeleben forum for research.
An appeal for memoirs was made at the 2007 Königslutter
Reunion and through the Langeleben Forum and the BVA. This
'Living History' as I have chosen to call it is the
result. Like 'Topsie' it just growed.
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