Comms Conditions 1 - The Heather Light 1940s
Name: Bernard Mallion
Service: 1943 - 1945
Rate: Signalman
Branch: Communications
Bernard Mallion joined the Navy in 1943 as a signalman in the Communications Branch. After training he joined the Revenge Class Battleship, HMS Ramillies in 1944. He served on Ramillies during the Normandy campaign in June 1944.
Bernard explains how he sent messages using a Heather Light.
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Extract Text (Duration00.54)
And any signals that were passed at night of course were done by the heather light, which was a lamp like a little torch that fixed to the top of binoculars or on a telescope, battery operated and it had three levels of screening for the light. Light blue, middle blue and a dark violet, and one of those screens had to be in position before you sent a signal or acknowledged a signal. Very, very difficult to see in the dark, you know a ship half a mile away, but at night time of course you couldn't use ordinary signal lighting equipment, it would have been seen miles away.
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