We went back towards Bletchley Park, but first stopped off for some internet time at the McDonalds's right beside the magnificent Stadium MK.
We went first up to the back of the site to the original entrance and sentry-box, now in a sadly dilapidated state.
Near the sentry box we find the garages. In these are a few very interesting vehicles, Firstly, a 1940 Packard Six 6-cylinder Touring Sedan. In June 1940, MI6 purchased the entire showroom stock of a local dealer on the behalf of Bletchley Park, had them repainted in camouflage colours and equipped each with a radio receiver and transmitter. These were a part of the 'Ultra' operation. This car is one of those vehicles, now restored to its original showroom colour.
The 1943 Norton WD16H 500cc single cylinder, side valve motorcycle. This was the mode of transport used by most dispatch riders bringing intercepted coded messages in to Bletchley Park. Initially the Dispatch Riders (known as Don R's) were responsible for delivering up to 3000 messages per day from all the various intercept stations (or Y stations), and this increased to 20,000 per day at the peak.
A 1938 Austin 18 6-cylinder ambulance.
A 1947 Sunbeam Talbot 2-litre sports saloon converted to a tourer. Actually, this has nothing ro do with Bletchley Park — except that it was set up for and used in the 2001 film Enigma, produced by Mick Jagger, who subsequently donated the vehicle to Bletchley. It'a a bit of an anachronism, as the film was set during the war, but this car was not manufactured until two years after the end of the war. Nevertheless, it is interesting, even if only for the blackout fittings attached to the headlights. Wouldn't want to have been driving the British roads under those conditions!
The Sunbeam Talbot can be seen behind Kate Winslet in this still from the film Enigma.
Near the garages, we find the Cottages, the first buildings to house the code breakers. In these lived and worked Dilly Knox (the first British code breaker to decrypt Enigma ciphers before the war, and whose later breaking of the German intelligence service Enigma cipher proved crucial to the "Double Cross" deception operation that helped the Allies on D-Day), Mavis Lever (a key member of Knox's team whose highly-skilled work on Italian ciphers played an important part in the 1941 Battle of Cape Mataplan, when BP was able to inform the Royal Navy of Italian and German ship movements), and Alan Turing (who joined Knox and Twinn at the outbreak of the war working to break Army and Air Force Enigma — he later moved to the more complex Naval Enigma because 'no-one else was doing anything about it and I could have it to myself.')
Near the Cottages is the Polish Memorial, acknowledging the vital contribution the Poles made to the success of Bletchley Park:
This plaque commemorates the work of Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski — mathematicians of the Polish Intelligence, in first breaking the Enigma code. Their work greatly assisted the Bletchley Park Code Breakers and contributed to the Allied Victory in World War II.
Life at Bletchley wasn't all hard grind. They did have their relaxations. We walked past the tennis court, and we had also learned about the concerts and plays put on in the grounds. The workers here worked hard — damned hard! — but many also played hard. The only thing they weren't allowed to do was talk about their work — to anyone, even colleagues! Every man (and woman) was an island in this respect. There are even stories about workers at Bletchley who didn't meet up on the premises, but who later married — and neither found out that the other had ever worked at Bletchley until they met each other at a Bletchley reunion some 30 years later!
From here we went down to Hut 3. This is where the decoded messages were passed for intelligence treatment. This means that any gaps in the messages were filled out here, where possible, and the messages translated into English. The intelligence was then prioritized, and sent out to whichever part of the war machine was best fitted to deal with it, whether it be to the Government, or to the Army, Navy or Air Force — or any combination of the above!
Then we went in to Hut 6, which was actually earlier in the chain of processing. It was here that the raw coded intercepts were examined with the aim of determining what Enigma or Lorenz settings could be used to decipher the message. This was where the real hard-core code-breaking took place.
Hut 6 — in the Netz Room
Hut 6 — in the Netz Room
One of the rooms in Hut 6 was the Netz Room. To test out possible for the day's Enigma keys, large pieces of paper known as Netz sheets — known also as Zygalski sheets, from their Polish inventor Henryk Zygalski — were punched through with holes according to the keys sent in various messages. The sheets were then stacked over a light. If the light shone up one hole through the whole stack it was called a drop, indicating settings that might be correct.
Alan Turing's desk in Hut 6
Alan Turing's desk in Hut 6
Then we went on to Hut 8, which was much like Hut 6, but which has been set up as an interactive experience, where visitors can try their hand at (very) simple code-breaking.
A few comments by Codebreakers are fascinating:
One was thinking ... about the psychology of what it was like in the middle of the fighting when you were supposed to be encoding a message for your general and you had to put three or four letters in these little windows and in the heat of the battle you would put up your girlfriend's name or dirty four-letter German words. I am the world's expert on dirty four-letter German words.
Mavis Batey (née Lever), Codebreaker, Cottage 1
You can guess sometimes how messages are started even though you haven't ssen the German text. For example you might expect that a message might start 'An die Gruppe' something or other, just an address. So you make a supposition that it started like this and you might be able to get a very little confirmation that if you wrote An die Gruppe something or other under the message, the one thing that the encoded message couldn't for instance have is the A of An as A, it could be any one of the twenty-five letters other than A and the second letter couldn't possibly be N and the third letter couldn't possibly be G of the word Gruppe so if you had quite a long thing you might have far from certain evidence but quite a feeling it might very well be right.
Peter Twinn, Codebreaker, Hut 8
The idea behind Banburismus is ... that if two rows of letters of the alphabet, selected at random, are placed on top of each other the repeat rate between them will be one in twenty-six, while if two stretches of German Naval plain language are compared in the same way the repeat rate will be one in seventeen. Cypher texts of Enigma signals are in effect a selection of random letters and if compared in this way, the repeat rate will be one in twenty-six but if, by any chance, both cypher texts were encyphered at the same position of the machine and then written level under each other the repeat rate will be one in seventeen because, wherever there was a plain language repeat, there will also be a cypher repeat. Two messages thus aligned are said to be set in depth.
Patrick Mahon, Codebreaker, Hut 8
You must be in awe of the codebreakers, who were not just mathematicians, and puzzle fanatics or chess players or crossword freaks, but also superb psychologists, as they had to read into the minds of the German soldiers or technicians who were composing and sending the coded messages — and they were succeeding!
Again it was getting dark, so we left for our lay-by at Shucklow Hill.
Distance driven — today, 17 miles ( 28 km ); to date, 30,860 miles ( 49,665 km )
Looks and sounds fascinating. Love ya, Cathy
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