August 2020
Nearly 3 months after VE Day, the war against Japan still continued. Its end would be drawn out over 6 weeks between the Potsdam Declaration in July and the final signing of the surrender on-board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September the 2nd. 
During those weeks the world saw the use of a new weapon, the atom bomb and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be totally destroyed before World War Two would finally come to an end.
To commemorate VJ Day we present this special It Happened Here episode. Using archive recordings, a recreation of the memoir of Eric Norris and interviews with our Veterans from both our official Oral History Project and 8 years of podcasts, we hope to take you back to those momentous weeks in 1945.
10 of our Veterans will share their memories, both happy and sometimes poignant, of the beginning of the Atomic Age, the end of the war, VJ Day and looking forward to the rest of their lives. Featured in order of appearance are:
Sheila Willson
Dennis Gilley
Dr Michael Loewe
Lady Marion Body
Joyce Bogoni
Joan Smeaton
Dennis Underwood
Betty Webb
Gwendoline Page
Margaret Thomas
We would like to take this opportunity to thank not just the Veterans of Bletchley Park and its Outstations, but all Veterans, for their service. 
Very special thanks go to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.
Image: Wrens in London on VJ Day. With grateful thanks to Mrs Joan Smeaton.
#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #BletchleyParkVJDay75, #VJDay75

July 2020 

 

As COVID-19 struck we decided to start releasing these extra episodes to give you our listeners something extra each week while you were in lockdown. We are glad we could share so many previously unheard recordings that we just hadn’t been able to before and hopefully these shows have helped you through these extraordinary times, if even in a small way. 

 

Over the next few episodes we shall start to return to our more normal podcast episodes and eventually our It Happen Here shows too.

 

It seems only fitting that as our last Intelligence Insight we look at how Bletchley Park has managed to finally reopen to the public. It’s been a long journey, which is still not over, but who better to hear from than some of our paid and volunteer staff who have made it happen.

 

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020

 

#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma,

July 2020 

 

Bletchley Park is an independent charity and so we rely on the ticket sales of our visitors for 95% of our operating costs, but another way to support the museum is to become a Friend of Bletchley Park. 

 

As a friend of Bletchley Park you not only get our normal free unlimited year-round access to our heritage site and museum, but a range of other benefits including exclusive events, previews and discounts … all while knowing you are helping us to keep telling the story of the vital war winning work carried out by the men and women of The Government Code and Cypher School during WW2.

 

So in this episode we take you back to early 2018 and to one of those exclusive Friends talks from our very own Research Historian Dr David Kenyon. The Y Service was the organisation responsible for intercepting enemy wireless and radio communications with Y Stations based around the world. In his talk David focused on a smaller part of this organisation, the Coastal Y Service. 

 

In the Q&A that follows his talk, who better to help him than Pat Davies who from 1942 – 1945 was one of those Intercept Operators for the Royal Navy. Post war Pat had an astonishing career as a journalist, documentary maker and television producer. In June 2019 the French Government awarded her the Legion d'honneur.

 

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020

 

#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma,

July 2020  In this episode we are staying with Dermot Turing & his wider family. First we go back to a very cold day in March 2015 when more than twenty members of Alan Turing’s family gathered at Bletchley Park to pay tribute to their famous ancestor. The Imitation Game had been released only a few months earlier, so to have so many Turing’s in one place, at the same time, meant the worlds press turned up too & so the perfect opportunity for Dermot to launch the fundraising campaign for the restoration of Hut 11a.  Then we will return to Hut 11a exactly 3 years later & the official opening of The Bombe Breakthrough. In the very building that housed the Bombe Machines during World War Two the exhibition tells the entire story for the first time. From the earliest work by Polish Codebreakers using mathematics & machines, through Alan Turing & Gordon Welchman’s famous invention, to finally producing war winning intelligence for the Allies. You will hear from the people involved with creating the exhibition, VIP’s & guests, including some of our specially invited Veteran’s.     * Producers Note *Bletchley Park will be safely reopening to visitors on Saturday the 4th of July. All visitors must pre-book online, including Friends or Annual Season Pass holders. Please head to the Bletchley Park website for the latest information. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, @PolishEmbassyUK

June 2020  This week we return for the second and final time to the 2018 launch of Dermot Turing’s book, X, Y and Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken. It’s a story of international cooperation, spanning many years and for the first time tells of how the French, British and Polish secret services came together to unravel the secrets of the Enigma machine. At the launch Dermot was joined by Nathalie Genet-Rouffiac, the Curator of Heritage for the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and GCHQ Historian Tony Comer. To finish this episode we have highlights from the Q&A Session that all three joined, which ended the day. But first we return to Dermot’s talk. In the last episode we left the Polish Codebreakers, enjoying life, living in a Chateau, working for the French. He now completes the story of what happened to them following the Allied landings in North Africa in late 1942 as the Germans rushed to occupy Vichy France. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020 * Producers Note *While we are still in these exceptional times, we will continue to produce these Intelligence Insight episodes, switching to one every two weeks from now. We are also looking forward to bringing you new episodes in our It Happened Here series as soon as we are able to. In the meantime, please follow Bletchley Park on social media and visit the website for the latest information on plans to safely reopen, thank you. #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, @PolishEmbassyUK

June 2020  The breaking of the German Enigma machine wasn’t just down to the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park and it didn’t start with the outbreak of World War Two. It’s a story of international cooperation, spanning many years and who better to tell it than the nephew of Alan Turing.  In this, the first of two episodes, we return to 2018 when Bletchley Park hosted representatives of the Polish Embassy in London and families of Polish codebreakers, for the launch of Dermot Turing’s book, X, Y and Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken. Based on his own original research and newly released documents, both in the book and this exclusively recorded talk, Dermot tells the story of how the French, British and Polish secret services came together to unravel the secrets of the Enigma machine.  He is introduced by His Excellency the Ambassador of Republic of Poland, Dr Arkady Rzegocki. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, @PolishEmbassyUK

June 2020 

 

This week we return for the last time to the Bill Tutte symposium that was held at Bletchley Park in 2017, the centenary of his birth. 

 

In this episode we bring you the closing address of the day given by our then Chairman, Sir John Scarlett. But before that we have the final speaker of the day, the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, here for the first time in full.

 

The work that Bill did at Bletchley Park would help lead to the creation of the cutting edge technology of the Colossus Computer. Therefore it was fitting that in his talk Gordon looked for the connecting threads between then and now, between maths and machines, computers and people. 

 

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020

 

#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, #Tunny

May 2020 

 

We return in this episode to the Bill Tutte symposium that was held at Bletchley Park in 2017, on the centenary of his birth. Again we bring you one of the many talks given that day, but for the first time in full.

 

Bill Tutte’s breaking of the Lorenz machine led to the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park being able to read the messages being sent between Hitler, the German High Command and the Generals in the field. In his talk our Research Historian Dr David Kenyon, looked at why this was so important to the Allied planners. Focusing specifically on how intelligence derived from Tunny decrypts played a role in D-Day, he asked the question “How Fishy was Ultra?”

 

To find out even more about the work of The Western Front Committee and the planning for D-Day, why not go back and listen to Episode 88 The Tide of Victory, where we looked at this in even greater detail.

 

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020

 

#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, #Tunny

May 2020  In this episode we stay with the attack on the Lorenz code that Bill Tutte played such an important part in, with a first-hand account. Captain Jerry Roberts worked with Bill Tutte in The Testery cracking, what they called Tunny, the German High Commands code, used by Hitler & his top Generals. Jerry tells us what it was like to work in The Testery, why breaking Tunny was so important to the ultimate Allied victory and of his 3 Heroes of Bletchley Park. Jerry’s was the last of a day of talks held in 2012 as part of the celebrations of Alan Turing’s Centenary. The introduction is by Lord Charles Brocket who acted as master of ceremonies for the day.  In memoriam, Captain Jerry Roberts MBE (1920-2014) Image: ©mcfontaine #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, #Lorenz, #Veteran

May 2020  In this episode we again return to the Bill Tutte symposium that was held at Bletchley Park in 2017, on the centenary of his birth.  As a member of the Bill Tutte Memorial Fund Claire Butterfield had by 2017 spent 4 years campaigning for more recognition for the little-known mathematical genius. For the first time we can bring you Claire’s entire talk that opened the day and in it she explores Bill’s entire life and work.   Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, #Tunny