JSSL Crail

Tower and buildings
� Osclay

JSSL Crail was the Joint Services School for Linguistics, based at the former World War II airfield of RNAS Crail, just east of Crail, in east Fife, on the Firth of Forth.

The school at JSSL Crail was formed in 1956, when three separate schools for the three services: Bodmin (Army), Caterham (Navy) and Cambridge (RAF), were amalgamated and relocated there. The intake was formed from selected conscripts undertaking their two years of National Service, which was compulsory at the time, and which ended in 1960. Those who took part avoided normal military training, but were subject to weekly testing, and would be returned to normal service if they failed to meet standard.

A final exam was held after about eight months, with those who passed with very high marks being sent to Cambridge to continue their Russian studies. The remainder were promoted to Leading Coder (Special) and sent for further instruction and practice in listening to groups of Russian numbers being read out like an encrypted message.