From Roger Bunney, Romsey, Hants:

I was interested to read Anne Grant's article 'Ryde teacher eavesdropped on Hitler's men' (CP, 01-01-21).

There is on Rew Down above Ventnor the remains of a World War 2 'Y station'.

This was established early in the war to monitor German radio communications mainly from marine craft operating in the English Channel and the installations on the French coast.

Read Anne Grant's article here.

All data received was forwarded on to Portsmouth and then to Bletchley.

A naval installation staffed by Wrens, the monitoring station was established in a large house (later a hotel) known as The Heights in Whitwell Road.

A 30 foot high wooden lattice mast was used for a directional aerial that could be easily rotated, allowing a second coastal Y station further along the coast to obtain cross bearings on a specific radio source of interest.

The aerial was manned by a single wren operator.

The mast and its attendant octagonal brick structure was about 80 yards north east of The Heights building high on the slopes of Rew Down. The station closed down in 1944.

All that remains is the brick structure that was identified by the IW Industrial Archaeology Society and subsequently listed at Grade 2 by English Heritage.

The Heights building was demolished late 1980s and the Foxhills development was built on the site.

The octagonal brick structure can be found on Google Earth by locating the eastern end of the rear Foxhills bungalows and the structure will be seen about 40 degrees higher.

You can explore the Y station mast remains either by foot access from Whitwell Road or from the V54 Bridle Path. This is the only remaining Y station structure in the UK.

Ventnor and District Local History Group provided considerable information on the operation 'Listening to the Enemy: Ventnor's Y Station' in the South Wight Chronicle issues September 29th 2016 and October 6th 2016

It isn't generally known but in the war, engineers monitoring transmissions from France received unusual sounding signals and eventually an EMI engineer studying the waveforms found these were TV transmissions.

The Germans were broadcasting programming from the Eifel Tower, Paris mainly for injured German military. A TV studio was constructed in central Paris and entertainment programmes were made but of more importance were the newsreels that went out uncensored.

This would often include valuable information for the British forces and a receiving installation near Beachy Head was constructed where all transmissions were viewed and content useful for the war effort saved.

As the allies approached Paris, German high command instructed that the TV transmitter and studios should be demolished but the head of the broadcasting service didn't follow that instruction allowing French TV to re-open after the war.