The original 1907 Point Grey station was set up on 1 1/2 acres of land
that is now occupied by the University of British Columbia, Museum of Anthropology.
Station Point Grey was a secret section of Fort Point Grey, which itself
was part of the wartime Defence of the Port of Vancouver. The Fort was
the southern point of the defence line across the entrance of the Port
of Vancouver. Fort Point Grey was located adjacent to where the University
of British Columbia (UBC) Museum of Anthropology now exists. In fact,
the museum's centrepiece, namely the Bill Reid exhibit, sits atop
of what was once the foundation of one of the Fort Point Grey's gun emplacements.
All the wartime buildings have long since been demolished, however, much
of the concrete gun emplacements are still visible at the site and down
the embankment to English Bay.
The Point Grey Monitoring Station had been in operation since 1908.
Overlooking the Straits of Juan de Fuca, the site had been used to monitor
radio traffic across BC and maritime radio traffic off the West Coast of
Canada. In 1937 the Point Grey Monitoring Station was transferred to the
newly created Department of Transport. In 1939 Point Grey Monitoring Station
began radio interception work for the war effort.
From 1940 onwards, Station Point Grey intercept operators were using
state of the art superheterodyne receivers, and manual transcription of
the intercepts. Intercept stations at the naval base at Esquimalt near
Victoria, BC, on Lulu Island and at Masset north of the Queen Charlotte
Islands would also cover the region for the Examination Unit in Ottawa.
This was the home of Canada`s wartime cryptonanalysts, as well as Naval
and Army intercept clearing centres.
During the Second World War, the two storey building housed
upwards of two dozen radio intercept operators. Part of the function of
the soldiers at Fort Point Grey was to protect and secure Station Point
Grey. After the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the US Fleet in Pearl Harbour
in December 1941, the security of Station Point Grey was elevated to a
state of great importance. By 1943, Station Point Grey had an extensive
antenna array farm. A number of different radio networks were monitored
by the radio intercept operators at the station, however no intercepts
were more important than the diplomatic traffic to and from the war
time Imperial Japanese Government in Tokyo. The most important messages
being intercepted were those between the Japanese Ambassador in Berlin,
General Hiroshi Oshima and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo. After
decryption, these messages helped the Allies with their war effort.
For the special intercepts, the operators would use wax cylinder
recorders and record the Katakana code transmissions to and from Tokyo.
A high-speed teletype system also connected Station Point Grey with the
Examination Unit in Ottawa. From there, raw intercepts were sent on their
way to Arlington Hall in the US and to Bletchley Park in the UK.
Station Point Grey also intercepted the messages regarding the technology
exchange going on between Germany and Japan. They were sending blueprints
and equipment for their Me-163 rocket planes, the Me-262 jet planes, the
V-1 buzz bombs and advanced radar. This was passed as special
intelligence directly to the Royal Navy and the United States Navy.
The RN and USN then tried to search and sink these ships that were transporting
special shipments.
After the Japanese Imperial Navy (IJN) attacked Pearl Harbour in December
1941 and the Imperial Japanese Government declared war on the Canada and
her allies, the Parliament of Canada made the decision to secure both Fort
Point Grey and Station Point Grey by requiring all students of Japanese
heritage, irrespective of nationality, to leave their studies at the University
of British Columbia for the duration of the conflict with
Japan.
Radio researcher Tom Brent indicates the following
"Existing records indicate the original (1907) Point Grey radio
station buildings were being occupied by militia units involved in the
construction of the gun emplacements and fortifications in late August
1939 and one would presume the new location for the receiving station a
short distance away on Wesbrook Crescent was in service at that time. While
the Lulu Island location is correctly identified as a part of Richmond,
the Wesbrook Crescent site as well as the original site 1 kilometer West,
are in an area of Vancouver known as Point Grey. Both Point Grey locations
were on land now occupied by the University of British Columbia".
Tom provides further details about his research on the Point Grey
Station.
"First, it must be noted that the Point Grey station (VAI),
in addition to its marine radio function, was a signals intelligence intercept
station only. That is, it had no direction finding function so there was
no issue with multiple antenna systems interfering with direction finding
accuracy. The only direction finding station operated by the Department
of Transport on the B.C. coast was at Pachena Point light station on the
west (Pacific) side of Vancouver Island and to my knowledge it was never
used for SIGINT purposes.
With regard to transmitters interfering with the signals intercept work,
this was not an issue. In the early 1930's, VAI's transmitters were moved
from Point Grey to a new site on Williams Road in the Steveston area of
Lulu Island (now known as Richmond). Just before the outbreak of World
War II, the transmitters were moved again to another location on Lulu Island
where more land was available for antenna systems. Early in 1945, with
the war winding down in the Atlantic, a decision was made to increase the
number of intercept positions at Point Grey. However, the existing building
had no more room and the former transmitter building on Williams Road was
pressed into service and set up as a receiver site.
Point Grey was the primary Department of Transport marine radio station
on the Pacific coast, all the others were smaller in terms of equipment
and personnel. While all stations had the capability to work on marine
frequencies below 3 MHz, Point Grey was the only station to use higher
frequencies in the 8 and 12 MHz bands.
For quite a while I have thought that the marine radio stations must
have carried on with "business as usual" during the war. After all, marine
commerce was still happening on the B.C. coast and weather reports and
navigational bulletins and warnings were still necessary. Therefore I was
not surprised when the two ladies who worked at VAI confirmed it by stating
they served as marine radio operators as well as carrying out intercept
work. One of the operators (Elizabeth King) did indicate that intercept
work could be incredibly boring. She said she spent many hours knitting
while waiting for a Japanese station to come on the air".
