[citation needed] Harold Charles Kenworthy (1892–1987), the head of Government Communications Wireless Station (GCWS) at Knockholt in Kent, reported that in July 1943 it became necessary to consider the expansion of the Foreign Office Y Service to monitor Japanese and German Morse signals.
Initially, staff occupied ex-RAF huts and continued to do so until the main building was completed in the early part of 1944, when a special section was taken over and better gear installed, together with a four-channel V/F to Knockholt[8].
The original location of the Y station was immediately east of the farmyard at the edge of the ancient woodland known as The Great Hanging; the site was captured by Ordnance Survey aerial photography in 1945.
In 1950, plans were submitted for a purpose-built wireless array by the Ministry of Works and discussed by the Mere and Tisbury Rural District Council, who raised no objection.
The USAF designated Higher Wincombe as a Radio Beacon Site, and it was also known as Operating Location-J (OL-J) of the European Communications Area and housed Detachment 4.