Bletchley Park

September 2020  Each year, to mark the arrival of the Codebreakers to their war station in 1939, we hold our Veterans Reunion.  This is the highlight of our calendar year, and a really special occasion for all involved. Veterans can meet up with friends old and new and share stories of their vital and once top-secret wartime work. These events have taken on even more meaning in the past few years, for the Veterans, their families, and all those who work for Bletchley Park Trust today. It is with huge regret that, due to COVID-19 restrictions, Bletchley Park Trust has taken the difficult decision not to host our Reunion onsite this year. To mark what would have been this year’s reunion, this is the first of three special episodes we will be bringing you this month, not just the highlights of the last 8 years that the Podcast has attended but also from the very first Reunion in 1991, the one that started the campaign to Save Bletchley Park. The Veterans featured in this episode, in order of appearance are:

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

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 t

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 crea

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

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

May 2020 After more than 5 and a half years of fighting, 75 Years ago today the war in Europe officially finally came to an end.  To commemorate the day we present this special It Happened Here episode. Using archive recordings and interviews with our Veterans from both our official Oral History Project and nearly 8 years of podcasts, we hope to take you back to the heady days of early May 1945. 20 of our Veterans will share their memories, both happy and sometimes poignant, of what VE Day and beyond meant to them. Featured in order of appearance are: Betty Flavell Peggy Huntingdon Ron Unwin Joyce Spurr Tim Edwards Pamela Billinton Lady Marion Body Elizabeth Ruth Hughes Mary Sherrard Joyce Bogoni Betty Lawrie Eileen Younghusband Helene Aldwinckle Sheila Willson Walter 'Joe' Wright Margaret Thomas Jane Fawcett Elizabeth Marshall Stanley Clegg Marigold Freeman-Attwood We would like to take this opportunity to thank not just the Veterans of Bletchley Park and its Outstations, but all Veterans, for their ser

May 2020 Since first marching into Poland on the 1st September 1939, the German army had conquered most of Europe. But the tide had turned and, as April 1945 began, they were caught between the Western Allies and the vast Red Army of the Soviet Union. The inevitable end was finally in sight, but not before multiple surrenders were signed. For the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, after more than 5 and a half years, their work wasn’t over. Not only did they have to keep supplying vital intelligence, but they also looked towards an uncertain future and the threat of a new enemy. It must have been satisfying for the night shift in Hut 6 on the 7th May 1945 as they secretly became some of the first people to learn that the war in Europe was at an end. With the help of archival recordings and Ultra decrypts from the time, Bletchley Park’s Research Officer, Dr Thomas Cheetham, guides us through the dramatic last days of the Nazi regime.  Very special thanks go to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

April 2020    Many of Bletchley Park’s senior early war staff had cut their codebreaking teeth during World War One. In 2015 we opened an exhibition called The Road to Bletchley Park which looked at the work of Room 40 and MI1B. So following on from our previous Intelligence Insight we will be sharing again some interviews with the families of these famous Codebreakers of both conflicts.   Dillwyn ‘Dilly’ Knox started World War Two as GC&CS’s Chief Codebreaker but in World War One had been one of the team that helped to break the famous Zimmerman Telegram. So first we return to 2015 when 14 members of his family paid us a visit and we spoke to his 4 grandchildren, Charlotte, Tim, Peter and the modern incarnation of Dilly.   The person credited with most of the work on the Zimmerman Telegram was Nigel de Grey. Again in 2015 we spoke to Michael de Grey about his grandfather’s work and he shared some amazing letters that Nigel sent him as a child. Then Michael’s brother, Anthony de Grey spoke about their fat

April 2020    Over the years we have been very fortunate to welcome the families of some of our more famous Codebreakers for a visit to Bletchley Park. The families always have such an immense pride in their ancestors and the work they did for GC&CS and it’s always an honour for the podcast to sit down with them for our listeners.   Following on from our last podcast, Invasion Norway, where we looked at the vital work Harry Hinsley carried out in the Naval Section, we go back to 2017 when two of his children, Clarissa & Hugo paid a visit with 3 generations of the family. They not only speak about their famous father but also their mother Hillary who also worked at Bletchley Park.   We will then hear from Gordon Welchman’s grandson Geoffrey on his first visit to Bletchley Park and how emotional it was for him.    Finally we sit down with Welchman’s biographer Dr Joel Greenberg, his granddaughter Jenny and two Veterans Jimmy Thirsk and Betty Webb as they discuss his wartime work and his book The Hut 6 S

April 2020  In early 1940, as winter turned to spring, the world waited for the ‘Phony war’ to end with the expected German attack in the west. But the leaders of both Allied and Axis forces were looking in another direction, to the north, to the snow and the steel, to Scandinavia. Meanwhile in a wooden hut at Bletchley Park, recent recruit Harry Hinsley was certain a German fleet was preparing to set sail, but how could he, a 21-year-old civilian in a highly secret department, persuade the Admiralty that he was right? In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode we explore the difficult start of Bletchley Park’s role in Britain’s war at sea. Bletchley Park’s Research Historian Dr David Kenyon will be our guide. As usual special thanks go to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents. * Producers Note * We have had to record this episode remotely due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. This means that the audio quality is not to the high quality we would normally wish it to be. We hope our listeners will und

April 2020    2017 was the centenary of a relatively little-known genius who went straight from studying mathematics at Cambridge to codebreaking for the Government Code and Cypher School. The crucial role that Bill Tutte played in the attack on the system used by Hitler and his high command, Lorenz, not only broke it but also helped paved the way for the creation of the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computer, Colossus.   Finally Bill received the recognition he so richly deserved with a BBC Documentary, an exhibition at Bletchley Park and, on the day of his centenary, a symposium of talks about his life and work.   Here for the first time we can bring you, instead of just highlights, the entire talk and Q&A session from GCHQ’s shortly to retire Departmental Historian, Tony Comer. In his talk Tony looked at the fundamental changes that had happened at GC&CS to allow Bill Tutte to carry out his breath-taking achievements.   We have also included again the interview we recorded at The Nat

March 2020    Bletchley Park Museum is currently closed as a precautionary measure to help contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Our staff and volunteers like so many around the world are in lockdown, self-isolation or working remotely from home.   Bletchley Parks CEO Iain Standen said “This isn’t the first time that Bletchley Park has operated at unprecedented times of national crisis and it is the values of those that have and still work here – understanding, collaboration, integrity, perseverance, resilience – that we hold dear at this moment.”   While we can we will continue to produce our normal podcasts but in addition to that the Podcast Team have decided to bring you something each Friday for the next few weeks. With 8 years of content we will not only return to some gems from previous shows but also bring you things that have not been heard before.    For this first episode our producer Mark Cotton has dipped into the over 100 hours of recordings to bring you a selection of interviews that he

March 2020  As 1945 began, the Germans’ last roll of the dice in the Ardennes has failed. They were left to face the overwhelming force of men and materiel of the Allied armies approaching the Fatherland from all directions.  For the Allies in the west, the natural barrier of the Rhine River was all that lay between them and the open plains of Germany, and the last phase of the war in the west.  Meanwhile the Government Code & Cypher School at Bletchley Park were producing more intelligence than ever before, but for how much longer? We’ll find out how it was at this point that the Germans challenged the Codebreakers like never before.  In this It Happened Here episode our Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham will take us through the action on the front line and reveal just how difficult it was becoming to keep supplying actionable Intelligence in the last year of the war. As usual special thanks go to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents. In memoriam, Eileen Younghusband BEM  (1921-2016)

February 2020    In contrast to its roots as a top secret organisation, the name of Bletchley Park is now recognised around the world. Sharing Bletchley Park’s stories with our audiences through education is at the heart what we now do here. Since first opening the site as a museum in 1992, educational programming has been a crucial part of the work of Bletchley Park Trust.    Our Learning team of dedicated staff and volunteers now welcomes over 35,000 visitors to the site each year and reaches even more through their growing Outreach and Digital programmes. Their workshops, tours and events have won awards at the national School Travel Awards and a prestigious Sandford Award in 2019.   A recent project, Challenge HQ, has seen Bletchley Park open brand new learning spaces on site to complement the increasing work done by this busy team. This gives us a perfect opportunity for our listeners to meet the Learning team and find out more about this exciting new project.   For the Bletchley Park Podcast, we brought