With the Blitz raining down on London, some of Britain's top military departments moved to the countryside so they could continue their fight against the Nazis. With convenient road and rail networks the countryside of North Buckinghamshire was a perfect place for many of our top secret operations to be located. Local historian John Taylor, and BBC Three Counties Radio presenter Toby Friedner visited five different locations in the area, whose true nature were a highly guarded secret. Wavendon Tower
Codenamed Simpson after nearby Simpson village, Wavendon Tower was the first home of Britain's 'black' propaganda service. Anti Nazi radio programmes called Freedom Stations were recorded there, in French, German, Italian & Balkan languages among others. Operations at Wavendon Tower came to an end when the unit was moved to Milton Bryan on the Woburn Estate, where a state of the art radio station was built for the job. Aspley Guise
Staff working for the many top secret organisations in the area were given temporary homes in villages across North Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire. Many of these were French who'd escaped the Nazi invasion, and Germans who'd been taken prisoner or decided to defect.Some stayed in Aspley Guise and although they weren't supposed to mix with the locals, they often ended up down the local pub! Maryland
For years, Maryland College near Woburn has been used as a teacher training college, but throughout the war it was the centre of allied print operations. Fake German newspapers and all the propaganda leaflets dropped on the enemy were designed there. When Pearl Harbour was bombed in 1941, the US asked Britain for the expertise they'd built up through Maryland. The British agreed, but only if they could have a destroyer in exchange, the Americans promptly handed over a ship, although to this day, no-one knows which destroyer we got as payment. Paris House
Paris House is now an exclusive restaurant in the grounds of Woburn Estate, but had the Germans invaded, it would have been used as a safe house to hide the King and Queen. During the war it had a number of important visitors and it's believed there are secret underground passageways beneath it, which would have helped them escape if the Nazis were closing in. Windy Ridge
The fields around the Village of Whaddon were full of massive aerials. Nicknamed Windy Ridge, top secret information from Bletchley Park was coded and sent to allied commanders across Europe from their transmitters in Tattenhoe. From Whaddon Hall the allies kept in contact with secret agents right across Europe. There were also two transmitters at Potsgrove called Pansy and Poppy, and others at Gawcott, and Calverton. Find out more about the Secret War that was fought around Milton Keynes. You can find more stories like this and add your own on the People's War Website. Listen to World War Two poetry on the Milton Keynes Breakfast Show 
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