Science & Technology - Bletchley Park
Science and
Technology Trip to Bletchley Park on Wednesday, 25th June 2014
Bletchley Park housed the British code breaking operation during World War Two and was the birth place of modern computing. Historians estimate that the code breakers efforts may have shortened the war by as much as 2 years, saving countless lives. The Park was purchased in 1938 and many subterfuges were used to keep its existence secret. One of which was Colonel Ridleys shooting parties. The members of the party there to take stock of the facilities and to prepare for the war time operations. By 1943 as many as 10,000 civilians and service personnel were working there to break the German Enigma coded messages. By this time the huts and brick built blocks covered much of the site.
Our group assembled in the newly opened (by the Duchess of Cambridge last week) entrance hall where we collected our lunch tickets and personal electronic guides units. This gave members the facility to be anywhere in the park and able to have commentary for their position. After coffee in the mansion the group joined the official human guide who gave us an insight into life in the Park during the War. Music, sport, drama and art were all provided for the wellbeing of the assembled young graduates who worked in highly charged situations as they decoded messages. Many lifelong relationships were formed. We were also told of the secrecy that governed every activity. Even now little is known about many of the tasks that individuals were involved in.
At lunch we reassembled in the Mansion for a wartime lunch of stewed beef, mashed potatoes and carrots. After lunch members made their own way round the park. Hut 6 being a highlight where Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman worked on their design of the bombe machine that helped to speed up the decoding process. The design was the outcome of the collaboration between them and 3 Polish mathematicians who came to Bletchley in the early years of the War. We spent some time in the McAfee exhibit which we heard about in our meeting a few weeks ago. This display emphasized the dangers and complexity of the internet which has been a good and bad outcome of the work on computing at Bletchley.
The group made their way safely back to Aston Clinton in the car share convoy – except for one car. My car suddenly lost its clutch and I was stuck for an hour waiting for an AA rescue. Mrs T came and rescued Chris and Pete, my passengers, who were only a little delayed on the return home.
It was a good day out and one that made you appreciate the work of those at Bletchley and the outstations of Stanmore and Eastcote during WW2. The refurbished areas make it a very worthwhile trip again for those who have visited in the past.
Additional Information
Most visitors have heard of the Enigma machine – the machine used by the Germans to encrypt their armed forces messages. But this was only part of the Bletchley cryptological work. Other armed forces’ messages were also broken and read - in particular those of the Italians and Japanese. Completely separately from this work, encrypted diplomatic messages using different sets of cyphers were also broken and read.
It was only by some good luck and a lot of effort that the Enigma messages were broken. Theoretically the messages created by Enigma should have been unbreakable but the cryptologists were helped by poor use of the Enigma machines. In parallel with the code breaking efforts, a huge and dedicated team of intercept operators monitored the German messages and individual intercept operators soon learnt the call signs of individual German Enigma operators and their types of messages. For example, one operator would send a nightly message with an update for his superior and the message would always start with the recipient’s name and rank. This was actually quite common in many German messages. Other German operators always finished their messages with “Heil Hitler”. This is a massive help as it can vastly reduce the permutations needed to be examined when cracking a code. These aids to cracking were called “cribs” and the bombes were designed to use these cribs to break a code. Without these cribs the bombes would never have been fast enough to crack the codes if the messages had been truly random.
Somewhere there is a suggestion as to why Bletchley Park was kept such a secret after the war. It is claimed that the British Government sold a British copy of the Enigma to many other governments on the ground that its messages could not be broken, but of course Bletchley Park had the means and experience to do so. Whether this is true or not – we may never know!
Bletchley Park housed the British code breaking operation during World War Two and was the birth place of modern computing. Historians estimate that the code breakers efforts may have shortened the war by as much as 2 years, saving countless lives. The Park was purchased in 1938 and many subterfuges were used to keep its existence secret. One of which was Colonel Ridleys shooting parties. The members of the party there to take stock of the facilities and to prepare for the war time operations. By 1943 as many as 10,000 civilians and service personnel were working there to break the German Enigma coded messages. By this time the huts and brick built blocks covered much of the site.
Our group assembled in the newly opened (by the Duchess of Cambridge last week) entrance hall where we collected our lunch tickets and personal electronic guides units. This gave members the facility to be anywhere in the park and able to have commentary for their position. After coffee in the mansion the group joined the official human guide who gave us an insight into life in the Park during the War. Music, sport, drama and art were all provided for the wellbeing of the assembled young graduates who worked in highly charged situations as they decoded messages. Many lifelong relationships were formed. We were also told of the secrecy that governed every activity. Even now little is known about many of the tasks that individuals were involved in.
At lunch we reassembled in the Mansion for a wartime lunch of stewed beef, mashed potatoes and carrots. After lunch members made their own way round the park. Hut 6 being a highlight where Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman worked on their design of the bombe machine that helped to speed up the decoding process. The design was the outcome of the collaboration between them and 3 Polish mathematicians who came to Bletchley in the early years of the War. We spent some time in the McAfee exhibit which we heard about in our meeting a few weeks ago. This display emphasized the dangers and complexity of the internet which has been a good and bad outcome of the work on computing at Bletchley.
The group made their way safely back to Aston Clinton in the car share convoy – except for one car. My car suddenly lost its clutch and I was stuck for an hour waiting for an AA rescue. Mrs T came and rescued Chris and Pete, my passengers, who were only a little delayed on the return home.
It was a good day out and one that made you appreciate the work of those at Bletchley and the outstations of Stanmore and Eastcote during WW2. The refurbished areas make it a very worthwhile trip again for those who have visited in the past.
Additional Information
Most visitors have heard of the Enigma machine – the machine used by the Germans to encrypt their armed forces messages. But this was only part of the Bletchley cryptological work. Other armed forces’ messages were also broken and read - in particular those of the Italians and Japanese. Completely separately from this work, encrypted diplomatic messages using different sets of cyphers were also broken and read.
It was only by some good luck and a lot of effort that the Enigma messages were broken. Theoretically the messages created by Enigma should have been unbreakable but the cryptologists were helped by poor use of the Enigma machines. In parallel with the code breaking efforts, a huge and dedicated team of intercept operators monitored the German messages and individual intercept operators soon learnt the call signs of individual German Enigma operators and their types of messages. For example, one operator would send a nightly message with an update for his superior and the message would always start with the recipient’s name and rank. This was actually quite common in many German messages. Other German operators always finished their messages with “Heil Hitler”. This is a massive help as it can vastly reduce the permutations needed to be examined when cracking a code. These aids to cracking were called “cribs” and the bombes were designed to use these cribs to break a code. Without these cribs the bombes would never have been fast enough to crack the codes if the messages had been truly random.
Somewhere there is a suggestion as to why Bletchley Park was kept such a secret after the war. It is claimed that the British Government sold a British copy of the Enigma to many other governments on the ground that its messages could not be broken, but of course Bletchley Park had the means and experience to do so. Whether this is true or not – we may never know!