NOTE: THESE PICTURES ARE NOT THUMBNAILS.  THEY CAN NOT BE INCREASED IN SIZE.

ALMA MATER:  HMS MERCURY. Leydene Nr Petersfield. Hampshire.     Here is a map of the establishment

The 1953 Review programme showed the Visual Signalling badge like this

Mercury was the god of travellers. He had a winged hat and sandals, so he could fly. He carried a staff with two snakes winding round it.

He was also the god of thieves! When he was only a few days old, he stole the cows of Apollo.  Mercury made special shoes for the cows and made them walk backwards, so no-one could follow their tracks. Eventually Apollo noticed that Mercury was playing a new musical instrument called a lyre, strung with cow-gut! Apollo was furious with Mercury, but thought the lyre was wonderful. So they agreed that Mercury could keep the cows and Apollo would get the lyre.

Mercury was also the god of science and business. I think that he's the god of the Internet as well!

Addition of crowns and stars to branch badges.

THIS IS OUR BADGE, DATING FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR, AND IS THE BADGE WE RALLY TO.  WHILST ALWAYS SUBSERVIENT TO THE FAMOUS FLAG HOIST OF LORD NELSON AT TRAFALGAR, IT IS NEVERTHELESS VERY FAMOUS AND VERY IMPORTANT.  THE FLAGS SHOWN COMPRISE THE ACTUAL SIGNAL WHICH WAS HOISTED TO DEPLOY THE GRAND FLEET INTO ACTION AT JUTLAND AT 1817 ON THE 31st MAY 1916.  THE TRANSLATION  OF THE MOTTO IS "WISDOM BY SIGNS"
HISTORICALLY, THE OUTCOME OF THIS BATTLE IS STILL [2003] ARGUED ABOUT, UNLIKE TRAFALGAR, BUT THE SYMBOLISM OF THE BADGE IS NOT IN DOUBT.

Letters indicating specialization within  branches [but not qualifications]

Visual Signalling - NONE.

By substituting the crossed guns in these pictures with CROSS FLAGS, you can see what the badges looked like.  The text associated with these pictures read:-

C.P.O., P.O., and confirmed Leading Ratings qualified as Gunnery, T and AS, Radar Plot, Wireless, Signalling Instructors and Staff Physical and Recreational Training Instructors wear a crown and two stars.

 Quote from the Shotley Magazine of Easter 1954
" The Admiralty have recently stressed the importance of good spelling and writing in the Communications Branch. The reasons are obvious. A message, although read 100% correct, is worthless if the addressee cannot read it; and so often a further handicap may be that he has to attempt this task under poor lighting conditions - for example in an Operations Room or on the bridge at night. Valuable time may be lost whilst the message is returned to the receiving operator for elucidation.  Another danger of bad writing is the snowball effect on a message that has to be relayed.  Telegraphists must never think that the typewriter has or will take the place of the pencil - in fact the occasions when they have to use a pencil are normally the most important." AND From the Editorial of the same Magazine " .....yet an insidious growth has been breaking to the surface with unprecedented insistence.  We refer to the habit of reading what are known as "comics" henceforward to be termed more appropriately, "horrors." The national press and the BBC have given much anxious consideration to this subject in recent months, and there is little new to add to their deliberations and conclusions.................The "horror" is not merely an ill substitute for reading; it is the enemy of reading. The sole benefit to be derived from the "horror" is an acquaintanceship with fifth-rate and unscrupulous minds. The inevitable harm can best be described as a petrefaction rather than as a putrefaction, of the human brain."

Over on the sparkers side, I have published a feature piece about John Eilbeck, one of many  sparkers  highly respected, but, one of few who has bothered to tell his story in print!  I am quite willing to publish an article on one high profile Bunting in this section.  Please get in touch with me if their is a suitable candidate. 

Cyptography!: Not One-time-pad?: Not Sea Scout?: Not Type X {CCM}?: Not KL7?: Real Time Systems?  -  No, none of these.  It's  ENIGMA.

But which one? The German railways had one; the German Army had theirs; so did the Air Force and the Navy, too.

Admiral Donitz decreed that the submarine fleet was so special that it would have its own enigma, and it would rank above all other enigma machines.

I have an army/air force machine here in my office  which was  manufactured in 1943! IT IS A SOFT WARE PROGRAMME. 

Now!  If you thought our off-line crypto was labourious, try the following
Have a go at decyphering  the following message, and transmit the decoded version  to me by email.  BEFORE you start, YOU WILL find it useful to PRINT the next little section.  For those not in the know, use your mouse to highlight the section from the beginning of the CODE GROUPS - CJITV etc until the end of the text bit commencing with CLICK HERE TO INSTALL........Once highlighted, go to FILE and choose PRINT.  When your printer dialogue box appears choose SELECTION and PRINT. If it will not give you "selection" , either copy the information longhand or much better still do the following. Make sure that you can see from the groups to the bottom of the necessary instructional text without having to alter the cursor[s].  Then, go to the top of your keyboard and there you will find a key marked "PRINT SCREEN". Click on this once, and that will send your screen picture to your CLIPBOARD.  If necessary, minimise this window and open your word processing programme {Word etc} and click on PASTE. Then you will have a page copy.

CJITV PWMVV HEHPA ZHFRV FKYTF DUQBQ ZYWYM USFBA 

Machine settings are:-

WALZENENLAGE - Relector B Left III Mid V Right I
RINGSTELLUNG - S V Z
STECKERVERBINDUNGEN - AT CR EF GJ IL KM ZY OV QB SP 
SETTINGS 02 11 05 Group 5

Version - Enigma 3S/A17119S/jla/43

CLICK HERE =  enigma/enigma3s.exe  = TO INSTALL THE MACHINE  .After clicking  on this URL choose the OPEN option.  Ignore the message which says that it cant open a file, click OK and it  will open up the machine for interactive use.  Then   apply the   settings just like you used to do on a KL7 machine for example.  Remember to have your sound source {speakers} turned on.  To begin, choose SETTINGS and then INNER SETTINGS {on the top menu bar}  then apply the WALZENENLAGE and OK, and the  SETTINGS  to RINGSTELLUNG and OK, then SETTING to STECKERVERBINDUNGEN and OK.  Then alter the  3 sets of two digit figures on the top of the machine {by clicking  the panel to which they are attached or by choosing VIEW and then OPEN COVER} to the SETTINGS shown above, namely 02 11 05 by clicking on the white vertical bars.  Then go to OPTIONS and check that Group 5 is ticked.  Commence typing in my five-letter code and the resultant plain language {P/L} will appear in the Message Out box.  To code something up for me,  apply YOUR OWN SETTINGS FIRST, go to OPTIONS and clear both the IN and OUT boxes then select ENCIPHER TEXT before you type in your message.  The resultant five letter groups will appear in the Message In box.  To send the settings that I need to add-in to my software machine,  you will have to type them into the email yourself.  Also, because I cannot give you the total package over the internet {you have use of the machine only} you cannot use the Command Save which you will find  under File. Annoying I know, but the coded groups must also be typed in by hand.  You can use the Print command, also in the File column.  To use this command click on the Message In box when you have finished coding, until it turns blue in colour! Enigma  is easy and fun to use.

In the 1977 Review programme, again, just this one badge was shown, but now named TACTICAL.  By this time, the name Visual Signalling, Signalmen and Buntings were relegated to folklore, and ALL communicators became RADIO OPERATORS.  Signalmen became Radio Operators [Tactical], RO[T] for short: radio operators proper [?] became RO[General]; electronic warfare personnel assumed the title RO[Warfare] and submariner communicators were known as RO[S/M]. or Rosum, for short.