Widnes Memories: John McCafferty of Widnes honoured by Derek Twigg for service with RSS at Bletchley Park

By Runcorn And Widnes Weekly News on Nov 20, 09 09:12 AM in 1900-1945

A SPY-HUNTER who worked at the legendary Bletchley Park facility during the Second World War has been honoured, writes Mark Smith.

John McCafferty, 84, of Birchfield Road, Widnes, received a Bletchley Park Veteran's badge from Halton MP Derek Twigg on Tuesday for his time served at the so-called 'Station X' - Britain's top code-breaking facility.

Mr McCafferty was recruited to the RSS - what would later become MI6 - at the age of 18, where he worked as a Morse code signals interceptor from 1943 until the end of the war.

While there he monitored the activity of the Abwehr - German military intelligence - intercepting their communications from mainland Europe. He also travelled around in mobile detector vans hunting Morse code signals from undercover Nazi agents.

Mr McCafferty told the Weekly News: "It was our job to intercept and translate Morse code.

"On one occasion, there was an operation launched where the body of a man who'd died of pneumonia was put in a British uniform and dropped into the Mediterranean with fake 'top secret' documents.

"The plans were disinformation to pave the way for the Allied invasion of Italy.

"He was found by Spanish intelligence, and when we heard a flurry of Morse code between Spain and Germany we knew they'd taken the bait."

He added: "There's always been speculation about why Eisenhower decided to press ahead with D-Day despite the bad weather.

"But we intercepted a signal saying the Germans were moving fuel to western Europe - and you only do that if you're moving a Panzer division.

"We always thought that was the reason he decided to go when he did."

Mr McCafferty also travelled around with 'mobile direction finding units' hunting agents.

He said: "There weren't many German ones left because we'd got most of them early on, but we had a lot of Irish coming in who -- shall we say - weren't very friendly to the British Government."

Mr McCafferty is unable to talk about his life after the war because he 'does not have official clearance' to do so.

He admits 'wandering into MI5' at one stage and flying with film star and wartime intelligence operative Sir Noël Coward.

Mr Twigg paid tribute to Mr McCafferty. He said: "Mr McCafferty and his colleagues provided crucial assistance to the allied war effort which also shortened the war."

The picture shows Halton MP Derek Twigg presenting a badge to Bletchley Park veteran John McCafferty on Tuesday morning.