Bletchley Park

July 2016

Dive into stories of stolen intelligence treasures which helped turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic in the July 2016 episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Pinches and Breaks.

As part of the historic anniversary-based series, It Happened Here, we hear from Arnold Hargreaves, a seaman aboard HMS Bulldog, who boarded the captured German submarine, U110, and still has the spoils today. An Enigma machine, codebooks and other vital documents were among the haul taken from the U-boat before it sunk.

Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon delves into the story of HMS Bulldog and other key pinches, which helped the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park glean vital naval intelligence. Genius alone was not enough. Pinches - in other words, stealing stuff from the enemy - were vital in breaking naval codes.

Also in this month’s episode, Bletchley Park celebrated Armed Forces Weekend in style this year, with a themed weekend and a very special giveaway. Two thousand free tickets were given to military personnel and their families, bands played throughout the weekend and there were stalls and activities to entertain visitors of all ages. Hear from some of the families - military and civilian - enjoying the festivities.

Visit Bletchley Park. It happened here. Book now.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2Veteran, #History

June 2016

No Sleep on VE Day, a brand new episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, is out now. Cynthia Humble was an intercept operator in the ATS from 1944 and was stationed at Forest Moor in the Yorkshire countryside. There she listened intently to enciphered Morse signals which were whisked off to a place she and her colleagues knew only as Station X.

Her memories of the intense work, the somewhat rationed but sparkling social life and how she and her watch did not sleep a wink on VE Day, despite it falling between gruelling night shifts, are all in this month’s episode.

Bletchley Park’s Oral History project has been running for five years, gathering more than three hundred rich and detailed interviews so far, with Veterans of the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park and its outstations all over the world.

This rich archive is ever growing as the project continues apace. Born into an army family, Cynthia was keen to do her bit for the war effort, so she joined up at the grand old age of seventeen and a half. She went on to make memories which have lasted a lifetime.

We take you to the opening of the second phase of the ground-breaking exhibition about codebreaking during World War One, The Road to Bletchley Park, which has been extended to tell stories of the impact this pioneering work had on the war at sea, on land and in the air. It also touches on the tribulations of effectively sharing intelligence without revealing its source.

Phase one of The Road to Bletchley Park explores some of the people involved in WW1 codebreaking who went on to be crucial to the successes of the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two.

Now the second phase, which extends the exhibition in the Visitor Centre at Bletchley Park, explores stories including the largest naval battle of WW1 and the secret telegram which brought the USA into the conflict. Podcast producer Mark Cotton took a sneaky first peek alongside the Friends of Bletchley Park, at their exclusive preview evening.

Also, we hear why another night of The Imitation Game has been laid on at the Open Air Cinema in September. The Oscar-winning film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the Codebreaker, mathematician and all-round genius Alan Turing will be shown on the lawn at the uniquely historic site where a lot of the action is set, and key scenes were filmed.

Visit Bletchley Park. It happened here. Book now.

Image: ©Cynthia Humble, nee Grossman

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2Veteran, #History, #WW1, #AudioMo, #AudioMo2016

May 2016

This month in the Bletchley Park Podcast’s It Happened Here series, we tell the story of The Bismarck. The iconic German battleship was sunk by the Royal Navy 75 years ago. While this clearly did not happen at Bletchley Park, but in the Atlantic Ocean, codebreaking and some of the pioneering techniques developed as part of it played a crucial role in locating the flagship of the German fleet.

Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, explains how work going on in wooden huts in the Buckinghamshire countryside contributed to the ship’s destruction, which was vital for the Allies, both strategically and symbolically.

Jane Fawcett worked in Hut 6 from 1940. She recalls “It may be the most important thing that any of us have ever done in our lives. We didn’t realise it at the time, but we do now.”

Hear about the special Bletchley Park beer being launched at the Fathers’ Day BBQ next month, and there’s news of how the ever-popular 1940s Boutique is expanding.

Also in this month’s episode, Dermot Turing opened up his family archive to give a rare insight into the man who’s become a figurehead for the breath-taking achievements of the Bletchley Park Codebreakers, his uncle, Alan Turing.

Alan Turing died before Dermot was born but his legend looms large in the family and Dermot has written a book, debunking some of the myths that have grown up about this intriguing man, and giving a unique family perspective on his remarkable work and the tragic end to his life. We hear highlights of Dermot’s talk at Bletchley Park, sharing some of what’s in his book, Prof: Alan Turing Decoded.

Visit Bletchley Park. It happened here. Book now.

Image: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

In memory of Jane Fawcett, who passed away on 21 May 2016.

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2Veteran, #History, #Turing, #Bismarck

April 2016

This episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance, celebrates five years since Bletchley Park’s Oral History project began in earnest.

This rich archive has grown to more than three hundred interviews and this month we begin to celebrate its fifth anniversary, by sharing the very first interview that was carried out under its auspices.

Doris Marshall, nee Phillips, lived just outside the boundaries of Bletchley Park and her family welcomed a number of billetees who worked for the Government Code and Cypher School. They suggested to her when she was coming of age that she too might work at this highly interesting, top secret place.

Throughout this year, the Bletchley Park Podcast will bring memories from more of these fascinating oral history interviews out of storage for the world to hear, watch and read. We still want to hear from anyone who worked as part of the Bletchley Park operation and has not yet been interviewed. If you know of someone, email [email protected] and mention the Oral History Project.

This month we also bring you details of the exciting new open air cinema at Bletchley Park, which will show the Oscar-winning film, The Imitation Game as well as the World War Two classic, The Great Escape, over two nights in September.

Last but not least, a heartfelt letter of thanks for the vital intelligence provided by Bletchley Park has been brought out of the shadows, 70 years after it was written. Eisenhower’s 1945 letter to Sir Stewart Menzies hung on the wall in the top secret Chief’s office at MI6 for several years, inspiring today’s Bletchley Park Trust Chairman Sir John Scarlett during his tenure. It is now on public display for the first time, at Bletchley Park, and we take you to the launch with Sir John, GCHQ Departmental Historian, Tony Comer, Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon and the NSA’s Historian, David A Hatch.

All this is waiting for your ears in this month’s episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance.

Visit Bletchley Park. It happened here. Book now.

Image: Freeborn Machine Section Hollerith Punch Room, Block C ©Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2Veteran, #History, #Eisenhower

March 2016

In November 2015, the GCHQ Departmental Historian made a rare public appearance as part of the Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. Tony gave a talk titled International Partnerships - Bletchley's Foreign Relations. In this second part of his talk he picks up the story with the fundamental work on Enigma carried out by Polish Codebreakers in the years running up to the start of World War Two and the start of the UK US relationship.

The simultaneous management of different levels of relationship with different countries added an often unsuspected level of complexity, and the need gradually to decouple from some relationships as the war in Europe came to an end, needed careful management.

This talk added rich detail to the Bletchley Park story.

Bletchley Park’s Polish Memorial Image: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #History, #WW2