Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park, located in a Buckinghamshire mansion, was the headquarters for the British team of decoders, professors, WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) members, and more as they tried to solve the German Nazi’s Enigma code. The Polish had already made great lengths in cracking it; an Enigma machine had been accidentally shipped to one of their warehouses before the war and due to the desperation the Germans had in trying to get it back, the Polish realized that it was probably of some importance and went to great lengths to cracking it. They eventually did but, due to the fact that the code was changed once a day during the war, they reached out to the British for help in July of 1939.
The first codebreakers (a mix of M16 and Government Code and Cypher School students) arrived under the guise of Captain Ridley’s shooting party. They even brought along a top chef from a London hotel and were very friendly with each other. However, over time, more and more people were sent to Bletchley Park and the luxuries were lost. Huts were set up on the front lawn, as messages were decoded, printed, and sent to William Churchill. Soon, their food was worse than the army’s and they worked all through the night.
In January of 1940, Dilly Knox’s team of decoders discovered the German army’s administrative code, called “The Green”. This was only the first of their successes at Bletchley Park. After this, they figured out the Luftwaffe’s “Red Key” but, perhaps the most important, they solved Enigma in order to listen in on the German U-Boats. At the beginning of World War 2, German U-Boats were a large problem for the navy. Solving Enigma was the reason behind the decrease of U-Boat victories and the reason they lost so much power -- their movements could be easily tracked. This was also the case for the Luftwaffe. Although many suspect that the British (along with the Allies) still could have won WW2 without cracking Enigma, there would have been a lot of damage done. The war would have dragged on for longer and Britain would have taken a lot more damage. Rationing would have extended, there would have been starvation, and more.
Surprisingly, given the gender restrictions during the time period, a large amount of the workers at Bletchley Park were female. Many were members of the WAAF and have shared their personal stories with the world. For example, Carol West was transferred there and remembered how they caught sleep whenever they could, lying on top of cardboard boxes. Their food was so bad that, when the lucky few people were able to leave to attend some sort of dance, they would bring bags with them to fill it up with food. The sound of clacking keys and printing paper never seemed to stop. Besides that, boredom was a large problem. They even went as far as to organize various musical programs with each other to ease the lack of things to do.
Extreme secrecy was also an infamous part of Bletchley Park. At one point, Carol was arrested for a small offense such as not wearing her hat with her uniform in a train station. When the police arrested her, she couldn’t tell them where she worked and had to go through a series of complicated phone calls before a source assured the police she could be let go. Another woman named Kathleen Warren elaborated, saying that even when her grandchildren asked her for stories of what it was like working with the decoders at Bletchley Park, she could hardly remember as she didn’t keep a diary. Nobody was allowed to take a record there, such as diaries or notes, because of the top notch security. Most first hand accounts are remembered details as opposed to written pieces from the time period.
The Enigma code would never have been cracked without the many women and men that worked at Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park still functions as an open museum and activity center in Britain. Perhaps WW2 would have dragged on with many more civilian and military casualties without them.
The first codebreakers (a mix of M16 and Government Code and Cypher School students) arrived under the guise of Captain Ridley’s shooting party. They even brought along a top chef from a London hotel and were very friendly with each other. However, over time, more and more people were sent to Bletchley Park and the luxuries were lost. Huts were set up on the front lawn, as messages were decoded, printed, and sent to William Churchill. Soon, their food was worse than the army’s and they worked all through the night.
In January of 1940, Dilly Knox’s team of decoders discovered the German army’s administrative code, called “The Green”. This was only the first of their successes at Bletchley Park. After this, they figured out the Luftwaffe’s “Red Key” but, perhaps the most important, they solved Enigma in order to listen in on the German U-Boats. At the beginning of World War 2, German U-Boats were a large problem for the navy. Solving Enigma was the reason behind the decrease of U-Boat victories and the reason they lost so much power -- their movements could be easily tracked. This was also the case for the Luftwaffe. Although many suspect that the British (along with the Allies) still could have won WW2 without cracking Enigma, there would have been a lot of damage done. The war would have dragged on for longer and Britain would have taken a lot more damage. Rationing would have extended, there would have been starvation, and more.
Surprisingly, given the gender restrictions during the time period, a large amount of the workers at Bletchley Park were female. Many were members of the WAAF and have shared their personal stories with the world. For example, Carol West was transferred there and remembered how they caught sleep whenever they could, lying on top of cardboard boxes. Their food was so bad that, when the lucky few people were able to leave to attend some sort of dance, they would bring bags with them to fill it up with food. The sound of clacking keys and printing paper never seemed to stop. Besides that, boredom was a large problem. They even went as far as to organize various musical programs with each other to ease the lack of things to do.
Extreme secrecy was also an infamous part of Bletchley Park. At one point, Carol was arrested for a small offense such as not wearing her hat with her uniform in a train station. When the police arrested her, she couldn’t tell them where she worked and had to go through a series of complicated phone calls before a source assured the police she could be let go. Another woman named Kathleen Warren elaborated, saying that even when her grandchildren asked her for stories of what it was like working with the decoders at Bletchley Park, she could hardly remember as she didn’t keep a diary. Nobody was allowed to take a record there, such as diaries or notes, because of the top notch security. Most first hand accounts are remembered details as opposed to written pieces from the time period.
The Enigma code would never have been cracked without the many women and men that worked at Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park still functions as an open museum and activity center in Britain. Perhaps WW2 would have dragged on with many more civilian and military casualties without them.