The Woman Who Censored Churchill

by Ruth Ive

Overview

During the Second World War, the only way Winston Churchill and his American counterpart Franklin D. Roosevelt could communicate was via a top secret transatlantic telephone link. All other Atlantic telephone cables had been disconnected to prevent the Germans intercepting information. Ruth Ive, then a young stenographer working in the Ministry of Information, had the job of censoring the line, and she spent the rest of the war listening in to the conversations across the Atlantic, ready to cut the line if anything was said that might compromise security.

Ruth was sworn to secrecy about her work, and at the end of the war all documentation proving the existence of the telephone line was destroyed. It was not until 1995, when Churchill’s private files were finally declassified, that Ruth was able to research her own history.

In The Woman Who Censored Churchill, Ruth describes the details of her incredible story and reveals the private conversations of two of the war’s most important players.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780750994132
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	09/01/2021
Edition description:	Third Edition,New edition
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

RUTH IVE was censor for the transatlantic telephone link during the Second World War. After the war she worked as a journalist.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

Prologue 9

1 Life in 1938/9 13

2 The Postal Censorship 23

3 Internal Censorship Units 33

4 'The Radio Department': how it worked 41

5 The British and the VIPs 57

6 The Americans and Canadians 79

7 The Russians 87

8 The Germans 93

9 A Security Catastrophe 101

10 'Sigsaly' 107

11 A Visit to an RAF Airfield & Changes in Department Policy 117

12 Calls to Remember 127

13 End of an Era 135

Lifestyle Notes 145

Notes 149

Acknowledgements & Source Material 151

Appendix: Churchill Documents 155