Bletchley Park

November 2019  During WW1 the United Kingdom had two separate cryptographic organisations, the Navy’s Room 40 & the Army’s MI1(b). Both had major codebreaking success during the conflict but it was decided that after the war that they should merge.  On the 1st of November 1919 the Government Code & Cypher School or GC&CS was created. Best known for its work during WW2 at Bletchley Park, after the war its name was changed to one more familiar to us today GCHQ. To mark the anniversary, a special event was held exactly 100 years later with past and present members of staff and representatives of the other Five Eyes Intelligence Services from around the world. We’ll hear from GCHQ’s current director Jeremy Fleming as well as memories from the staff that were specially recorded for the event. We catch up with Bletchley Park Veteran Betty Webb who shares her pride at being part of the organisation and talks about the changing role of women in defence with her guest Retired Colonel Ali Brown. Finally we mark the retirement of a very good friend of the podcast, GCHQ’s Official Historian Tony Comer. The centenary event was a chance to say goodbye to Tony and meet his replacement, whose identity we can exclusively reveal in this podcast.  #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #GCHQ100

October 2019  “Gas masks are to be taken” so ends what seems a rather mundane government memo dated the 2nd of August 1939. It importance becomes apparent when you discover this was the Move Order sent to the staff of the Government Code and Cypher School.  As Hitler threatened Poland it seemed another war in Europe was inevitable, so it was decided the staff of GC&CS should move to their War Station in the Buckinghamshire countryside. With hindsight we now know that over the next 6 long years, Bletchley Park would become a codebreaking factory, but what were those Early Days really like? In this “It Happened Here” episode, our host, Erica Munro & Bletchley Park’s Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham take us back to August 1939 and through documents held in the archives tell the story of the arrival at Bletchley and dispel a few myths along the way. Special thanks to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents. In memoriam, Jane Fawcett MBE (1921–2016) FO Civilian Hut 6 Image courtesy Judie Hodsdon  #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #80WW2

September 2019  By early September 1944, with the Normandy Campaign behind them, 6 Allied Armies were racing across Northern France and into the Low Countries. Ahead of them the remnants of the German Army were retreating to the borders of the Fatherland. To many on the Allied side it seemed that a bold action was all that was needed to finish the war by Christmas. The plan called for a carpet of paratroopers to capture and hold bridges along a 64 mile road, allowing an armoured spearhead to reach its goal of the bridge at Arnhem. If successful this would leave the route to the industrial heart of Germany, The Ruhr, wide open. For this “It Happened Here” episode, Bletchley Park’s Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham has been looking in detail at the entire operation, including Bletchley Park’s contribution, to tell us if it always was going to be just A Bridge Too Far. Special thanks to Mr Ben Thomson for playing the role of our Hut 3 Intelligence Officer. In memoriam, Eileen Younghusband BEM (1921-2016) WAAF Section Officer #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #MarketGarden75

September 2019  Each year, to mark the arrival of the first Codebreakers at Station X in 1939 we hold our Veterans Reunion. This year it was made more poignant as the date fell on the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Poland.  The Reunion is always a very special day for us at Bletchley Park as it gives us the chance to thank our Veterans for their service. For the Veterans it is a chance to meet old friends, reminisce and tell stories of their time here.  This is the podcasts 8th reunion and this year we were lucky enough to sit down with four of these amazing people to have a chat. Many are accompanied by their families and for them it can be very emotional as for the first time they get to hear in detail what their relation did during World War Two. Christine Brose set this year’s record for travelling to the reunion, coming with her two sons from Tasmania. She insists she “didn’t do anything important” but at age seventeen in 1941 she ended up working in Hut 8 Naval Section under Hugh Alexander. When Winston Churchill made his one war-time visit to the home of the codebreakers, it was Alexander who jumped to Christine’s defence.  The army originally wanted Arthur Maddocks to be a Tank Commander but he thinks the study of economic theory at Oxford University probably made him more suited to breaking codes in The Testery. Even though he was only at GC&CS for the last year of the war it would have an effect on the rest of his life as it led to him meeting his wife of 72 years. Audrey Hodges is proud of her service and she feels she was “doing her bit to protect her country”. After leaving a factory job she hated in Newcastle she ended up in 1941 working for the Foreign Office at Bletchley Park. Her granddaughter Nicole tells us just how cool it is to have a ‘Nan’ who worked as a Codebreaker. Finally, we join Eric Dodd and four generations of his very proud family. Eric was in the Royal Signals working as a Special Wireless Operator for our Y Service. On D-Day he could understand his German counterparts for the first time as under attack they broke with procedure. Special thanks to our roving reporter Sarah Langston.

Image: ©Will Amlot for the Bletchley Park Trust 2019

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #80WW2

August 2019  In earlier episodes this year we have concentrated on the preparations for, and the events of D-Day itself, the 6th of June. However D-Day was only the beginning of the Normandy Campaign. The Allies had to face an enemy determined to throw them back in to the sea and it led to some of the bitterest fighting that Western Europe saw in WW2. It would eventually, after three months, end in a massive victory for the Allies and the liberation of Paris at the end of August 1944.  In this “It Happened Here” episode, we see how Bletchley Park continued to contribute to Allied success. We’ll find out how the nature of this contribution changed from one of supporting the planning of future operations, to one of supporting an ongoing battle.  Bletchley Park’s Research Officer Thomas Cheetham has been exploring the role of ULTRA intelligence in this crucial campaign. #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #DDay75, #BletchleyParkDDay

July 2019  Most people now know of the work carried out by Tommy Flowers and his team that ultimately led to the design and construction of ‘Colossus’, the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computer. Flowers worked for the General Post Office at their Research Station at Dollis Hill but that work was just one part of the connection between the GPO and the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park.  With the opening this year of our new exhibition, D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion, that link with the modern GPO, British Telecom now called BT, continues. In this episode our research historian, Dr David Kenyon, sat down with the Head of Heritage and Archives for BT, David Hay, to talk about our shared history. Also in this episode we bring you something very special indeed. In 1981 at the modern equivalent of Dollis Hill, Adastral Park, Tommy Flowers and some of his original team gave a talk about their wartime work and thanks to BT we can bring you highlights of that reunion.   BT is the Sole and Exclusive Corporate Partner of the restoration of Teleprinter Building and the Exclusive and Sole Partner of the Exhibition. Image: ©BT ref TCB 638/RES 23706-05 Tommy Flowers & Team 1981 reunion   #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #DDay75, #BT

July 2019  In this It Happened Here episode we leave the invasion of Western Europe and return to the hard fought battles of the Italian Campaign. Since first invading in September 1943, Italy had been anything but the “soft underbelly” that Churchill had called it. Finally in the spring and summer of 1944, after months of being held back by German forces defending Italy, things started to move.  With the eyes of the world on Normandy the men fighting their way up the boot of Italy felt they had been forgotten back home, but they were not by codebreakers at Bletchley Park. Our research historian, Dr David Kenyon, will be your guide to the vital support GC&CS gave to the Army’s on the Italian Front. It would be their hard fighting that would ultimately lead to the capture of the first of the Axis Capitals, Rome. We also look at the absolutely enormous offensive launched by the Soviet forces in late June 1944, Operation Bagration. Very special thanks to Lowden Jim for his recording of The D-Day Dodgers. His work can be found at  www.youtube.com/Lowdenjim

 We dedicate this episode to Sgt Charles Leslie Harris and Gunner Gordon Brown, two of our own D-Day Dodgers.  #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #DDay75, #BletchleyParkDDay

June 2019  On June the 6th 2019, Bletchley Park ran a number of events to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. Never before seen handwritten decrypts were release to the public and we took over Twitter for the day to Tweet those very messages in real time, as if it was 1944. You can now find these messages on our website at www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/bletchley-park-and-d-day  In this episode we take you to the dining room of the iconic mansion and bring you the talk that our research historian Dr David Kenyon gave on the day to celebrate the launch of his new book; Bletchley Park and D-Day.  Bletchley Park and D-Day is published by Yale University Press. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2019 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #DDay75, #BletchleyParkDDay

June 2019  75 years ago today, more than 150,000 allied troops were boarding planes, gliders and landing craft as they prepared to invade Fortress Europe in Operation Overlord, the Normandy Invasion. Meanwhile, 200 miles away in the Buckinghamshire countryside the Codebreakers of GC&CS were also ready and waiting.  A special section, known as NSV(X), spent the day decrypting German messages and forwarding that vital intelligence to allied commanders. In many cases only two hours after the German operators had sent them. Today at Bletchley Park our Archive holds hundreds of these handwritten decrypts and using a selection of these we tell the story of The Longest Day. Our Research Historian Dr David Kenyon & Research Officer Thomas Cheetham will be your guides. Also Veterans’ Pat Davies & Colette Cook share a couple of short memories from that eventful day. Special thanks to Mr Ben Thomson for playing the role of our Intelligence Officer. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2019 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #DDay75, #BletchleyParkDDay

May 2019   With the opening of D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion, the key role that Bletchley Park played in the success of the Normandy campaign is finally being told. Now, a new book written by our very own research historian, Dr David Kenyon adds even more depth to that story. Using previously classified documents, David casts the work of Bletchley Park in a new light, as not just a codebreaking establishment, but as a fully developed intelligence agency. This account reveals the true character of GC&CS’s vital contribution to success in Normandy, and ultimately, Allied victory. Podcast Producer Mark Cotton sat down with David to talk about the book, the process of writing military history, and the challenges of re-writing a well-known story in the light of new evidence. Image: ©Yale University Press #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #DDay75