April 2024

Women were the backbone of Bletchley Park during World War Two. At its peak in January 1945, the workforce was 75% female, but even at the start of the war, women comprised a significant portion of GC&CS’s numbers. Women were recruited in a variety of ways, but a significant quantity of them, particularly early in the war, were selected direct from prominent universities such as Oxford, St Andrews and Cambridge.

Over the last few years, a team of members of Newnham College Cambridge have been researching the women from their college who worked at Bletchley Park and in other wartime roles. They have discovered, astonishingly, more than 70 students and alumnae were recruited to BP. After close collaboration with the team at Bletchley Park Trust, a new exhibition presents their findings and reveals some hidden histories.

In this episode, recorded at Newnham College, Bletchley Park’s Head of Content, Erica Munro, meets the three women behind this new research and we visit the exhibition to find out more about their discoveries. Dr Sally Waugh, Dr Gill Sutherland and Newnham College Archivist Frieda Midgley share what they’ve uncovered, and what surprised them, about the Newnham women who worked at Bletchley Park.

This episode features our Oral History recordings of three of those Newnham women:

Sister St. Paul
Lady Elisabeth Reed
Mrs Brenda Lang

Image: Reproduced with the permission of Dr John Clarke via Kerry Howard from her research into the life of Joan Clarke.

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Newnham,

March 2024

Bletchley Park is famous as the home of World War 2 codebreaking. But what was there before the Government Code and Cypher School moved in? Who built Bletchley Park, and what remains of the pre-war country estate?

In this episode, Research Historian Dr David Kenyon and Head of Content Erica Munro examine the people who made Bletchley Park their home prior to World War 2. Sir Herbert Leon and his family bought, expanded and lived in the now-familiar Mansion, stamping their individual style on the design of the building and the estate. Surviving historical records shed an intriguing light on the Leons, their philanthropy, interests and impact on the local community.

We also hear from Professor Abigail Green of Brasenose College, Oxford University, an expert on Jewish Country Houses, to discover more about the social context of the family who ‘made’ Bletchley Park.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2024

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

February 2024

In 2023, Bletchley Park Trust completed its biggest refurbishment project to date – a £13 million, three-phase project, to open up wartime buildings at the heart of the site for the very first time.

The final phase saw Block E, once the wartime Communications hub of Bletchley Park, transformed into two new resources – the Block E Learning Centre – which includes eight learning spaces able to accommodate learners from primary school pupils to students in higher education – and the Fellowship Auditorium, a state-of-the-art, 250-seat, presentation and event space.

In this special episode, we join Lily Dean, Learning Manager, and Vicki Pipe, Head of Audiences and Programmes, as they give us tour of the new spaces, and reveal the inspiring activities learners can enjoy as part of our award-winning learning programme. Dr David Kenyon, Research Historian, and Dr Thomas Cheetham, Research Officer, also bring to life the wartime and post-war history of this once closed off building.

Image: Learners in Block E  ©Bletchley Park Trust 2024

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

January 2024

Eighty years ago, in January 1944, the first Colossus computer was delivered to Bletchley Park. This machine and the nine that followed it have acquired legendary status within the story of World War Two codebreaking. The machines have also been described as the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computers – direct precursors of the digital world in which we live today.

But in 1944 the computer age still lay far in the future. These machines were built for a specific and vital purpose, to assist with the breaking of the wireless messages of Germany’s senior commanders, enciphered using the Lorenz cipher machine and known at BP as ‘Tunny’.

What role did Colossus actually play in the breaking of Tunny? The Colossus machines were members of a wider family of machines, and the Newmanry – the department in which they operated - was only one of several teams at Bletchley Park, all of whom were crucial to the successful breaking of the cipher.

In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, Bletchley Park historians Dr Tom Cheetham and Dr David Kenyon are here to place ’Colossus in Context’ and examine where exactly these machines fitted into the effort to break Tunny.

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Image: ©Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Colossus80,

January 2024 

Eighty years ago, in January 1944, the first Colossus computer was delivered to Bletchley Park. This machine and the nine that followed it have acquired legendary status within the story of World War Two codebreaking. The machines have also been described as the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computers – direct precursors of the digital world in which we live today. 

But in 1944 the computer age still lay far in the future. These machines were built for a specific and vital purpose, to assist with the breaking of the wireless messages of Germany’s senior commanders, enciphered using the Lorenz cipher machine and known at BP as ‘Tunny’. 

What role did Colossus actually play in the breaking of Tunny? The Colossus machines were members of a wider family of machines, and the Newmanry – the department in which they operated - was only one of several teams at Bletchley Park, all of whom were crucial to the successful breaking of the cipher.

In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, Bletchley Park historians Dr Tom Cheetham and Dr David Kenyon are here to place ’Colossus in Context’ and examine where exactly these machines fitted into the effort to break Tunny.

This episode features the following contributors from our Oral History Archive:

Jerry Roberts
Betty Webb

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2024

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Colossus80,

December 2023

Eighty years ago this month Britain was marking its fifth Christmas of the war with still no end in sight. D-Day still lay in the future and the campaigns in Italy and on the Eastern Front ground on.

However on Boxing Day 1943 the Royal Navy achieved a significant, if grim success over the German Navy, sinking the Scharnhorst, one of the few last remaining large warships in the enemy fleet. This victory would help to secure the safety of Allied convoys to Russia for the remaining 18 months of the war.

The codebreakers of Bletchley Park played a key role in helping the navy to locate Scharnhorst and were spectators on the final battle via German messages read in Naval Section at BP.

For this It Happened Here episode we are joined by Bletchley Park’s Research Historian Dr David Kenyon who’s recently published a book on the subject entitled, Arctic Convoys; Bletchley Park and the War for the Seas.

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson & Sarah Langston for voicing our archival documents.

Image: © Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-63-46 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

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

November 2023

For our tenth anniversary episode, E141 “Security & Insecurity”, we discussed one of the most important factors in wartime codebreaking – secrecy. We looked at its effects on operations at Bletchley Park and the lives of those who worked there. 

We had so much to talk about on that occasion that we didn’t have the chance to explore beyond the bounds of Bletchley Park. However, as signals intelligence travelled to the battlefronts where commanders made life-and-death decisions on a daily basis, security was a bigger problem than anywhere else.

In this follow-up episode, Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham is again joined by a special guest, former GCHQ Departmental Historian Tony Comer, to discuss the problems of security in the field. We’ll hear how the safe use of Ultra intelligence required good planning, flexibility and, most of all, trust.

Many thanks to Owen Moogan & Dr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2023

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Enigma, #GCHQ,

October 2023

The fight up the Italian peninsula involved some of the most arduous battles of the war for Allied soldiers, but they were being supported at every stage by intelligence from Bletchley Park.

Ultra intelligence helped inform Allied strategy in Italy, kept commanders constantly up-to-date about enemy forces, and sometimes proved the difference between victory and defeat on the battlefield.

In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, Bletchley Park’s Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham will tell us how this difficult and inconclusive campaign can also be seen as one of the most successful of the war for Bletchley Park.

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Very special thanks to Lowden Jim for his recording of The D-Day Dodgers. His work can be found at  www.youtube.com/Lowdenjim 

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2023

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

September 2023

The annual Bletchley Park Veterans’ Reunion is one of the highlights of our year. A chance to welcome back those who worked for Bletchley Park during World War Two, and thank them for their service. This year’s reunion saw 17 Veterans return to enjoy a very special afternoon tea in the Mansion. 

In this episode, we bring you highlights from the day as we caught up with Jean Cheshire, who lived at Bletchley Park with her parents and siblings during the war, as well as Veterans:

Carol Broughton 
Alice Wolynskyj 
Ruth Bourne
Charlotte ‘Betty’ Webb

2023 marks 10 years of the online Bletchley Park Roll of Honour, and we also bring you a short interview with our Oral history Officer, Jonathan Byrne about its ongoing significance.

You can also enjoy an interview with Sue Litchfield, Database & Membership Manager, who has been involved with reunions since 2005, and Iain Standen, CEO of Bletchley Park Trust, who talks about why these events are so special.

Image: ©Will Amlot for the Bletchley Park Trust 2023

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

August 2023

This month we examine the often-overlooked story of GC&CS’s work on diplomatic codes and ciphers. 

This vital work predated work on military codes, beginning when CG&CS was created in 1919. Work continued throughout World War Two, with some staff eventually leaving Bletchley Park to carry on as the Government Communications Bureau in Berkeley Street London.

In this special episode our Research Historian Dr David Kenyon is joined by GCHQ’s Departmental Historian Dr David Abrutat, to discuss all things diplomatic and beyond.

This episode features the following contributors from our Oral History Archive:

Sir Arthur Bonsall 
Stephen Freer

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Image: ©Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Enigma, #GCHQ,

July 2023

In 1943, when the guns fell silent in Tunisia, a lull fell over the war in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the work of the intelligence services continued unabated. An Allied amphibious assault somewhere in the Mediterranean was inevitable. The question for the Germans was “where?” – and the Allies were eager to supply the answers. But how much could the Allies mislead the enemy, and how far could Bletchley Park prove those deceptions were working?

When they came, the landings in Sicily in July 1943 marked the opening of a new front against the Axis in Italy, with far-reaching strategic consequences.

In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, Bletchley Park’s Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham leads us through Operation Husky, and Bletchley Park’s role in its execution and success.

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Image: © US Army Green Books (Public Domain)

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