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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: Gwendoline Francis on Friday 14 November 14 17:27 GMT (UK)
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I would love to find out more of those Bletchley Girls, very few of them still living. They did such a good job doing their bit for the WW2 effort.
I often wonder why after the war ended they had to keep so secret about what they did?
Does anyone actually know of such a girl/woman that did so much at Bletchley Park?
I lived in Harrow during the last years of the war, so that far from Bletchley.
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The secrecy was due to National Security
http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/
http://www.gchq.gov.uk/history/Pages/Bletchley-Park---Post-War.aspx
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It's strange that you refer to "Bletchley Girls when that just happens to be the title of a book to be published next year:
https://www.hodder.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781444795738
If you think it might be too expensive then alert your public library to this and ask them to place an order in advance of publication.
Imber
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A friend of mine just told me about a newspaper article of a few surviving Bletchley girls. These girls were in the Wrens & the article shows great reading of them during those years & now. I am completely fascinated by their bravery.
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Thanks Dawnsh, for your most informative post concerning Bletchley Park. I find it fascinating reading.
I am also interested in Alan Turing, a brilliant man who was treated so unfairly even after his involvement with the Enigma machine that helped win the war WW2.
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Did those people, men & women, who worked at Bletchley Park live in digs close by, if so, how did they keep their coming & goings so secret? Just curious!
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Hi...I posted a link to the book "The Secrets of Bletchley Park" on the other thread about Bletchley that you responded on...well worth buying as it tells how the workers were billeted close by but never divulged where they worked or what they did...the secrecy in the village was accepted by the locals and they didn't question it.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=704634.msg5482671#msg5482671
Carol
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The local newspaper yesterday had this about a local woman who was involved; http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/features/11601201.New_film_lifts_lid_on_codebreakers__role_in_history/
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Did those people, men & women, who worked at Bletchley Park live in digs close by, if so, how did they keep their coming & goings so secret? Just curious!
Around 1990 I spent a week at Bletchley on a course run by BT. We spent our days in the main
house, but slept in the original huts used as on- site accommodation for these workers during WW2.
Ashamed to say I knew very little about Bletchley before then.
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I saw a preview recently of the new 'Imitation Game' film about Alan Turing.
It was suggested in the film that Bletchley Park was known as a radio manufacturers when friends and family asked.
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The capture of U-505 by the Americans greatly enhanced the workings of Bletchley Park. Also, dogged habits of certain German communicators/enigma operators.
Regards
Malky
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Officially Bletchley Park didn't exist. All signposts referring to it were removed & it went by the name of Station X.
The 1st. Enigma m/c was captured by HMS Bulldog 1941.
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Yes, the capture by the Americans of U-505 was in July 1944. The British had recovered an Enigma machine from U-110 in 1941 and Enigma codes etc from U-559 in 1942.
Imber
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Thanks for all responses concerning the Bletchley Girls, I found Mary Ratcliffe's story thoroughly fascinating because of her actual participation during WW2 years.
The mention of Alan Turing reminded me of a very good movie, more like a documentary of Alan's life story shown on Netflex movie channel. The film is called Codebreaker with Ed Stoppard playing the leading role.
I have not yet seen the Benedict Cumberbach version of Alan Turing but, I am sure it will not be as accurate or as convincing as Stoppard's movie.
Such a shame about Alan Turing, a genius, who was treated disgracefully by the government because of his sexual preference.
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There has recently been a tv new series called The Bletchley Circle. It is highly fictionalised but I think it is an attempt to start to get at the Bletchley story without uncovering the secrecy of the war.
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It just dawned on me that there was a Cold War after the end of WW2, so it was vital that the Russians were kept out of knowing about the secret codes etc., hence the secrecy of the Bletchley Girls.
I also found out the plans to demolish the site to built a housing estate were vetoed, let's us hope it remains a special part of British history & WW2.
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The Allies knew the Russians had captured the Enigma m/c on their march into Germany & were more than likely to adapt it & use it themselves.
The Russians were never told about Colossus & although 4 were destroyed 2 were kept I believe into the 1960's.
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Alan Turing lodged at the Crown public house in Shenley Brook End during his time at Bletchley Park. He would cycle to work wearing a gas mask due to pollen not the threat of attack. The village was hit by German bombs in October 1940 falling near Dovecote farm a couple of hundred yards up the road. There is a story that Alan worried about keeping his savings safe and converted it to silver bars which he buried around the village he never found them. I haven't checked my back garden but you never know.
Tazzie in Shenley Brook End
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Shame the Crown Public housel is no longer there. It should have been kept as a tribute to Alan Turing's stay there.
OK, films are ok as a reminder of his genius, but is that all there is as a reminder of his bad treatment by the government.
I just can't picture Benedict Cumberbatch as AT in the new film which has just been released over here.
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"The Russians were never told about Colossus & although 4 were destroyed 2 were kept I believe into the 1960's."
Considering what Albert Small did for the Americans regarding the Colossus, do you really think that the Russians did not also have an insider. One has just to remember The Manhattan Project and what information the Russians had regarding that.
Regards
Malky
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I lived in Harrow during the last years of the war, so that far from Bletchley.
I started secondary school in September 1944 at Boy's High School, Sheepcote Road, Harrow and had to cycle from Pinner/Rayners Lane - 2.7 miles uphill most of the way, and home for lunch. If you went to Headstone Lane we might have some mutual friends. My late brother-in-law was a WO at RAF Stanmore which is right next to Bletchley, around that time.
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Yes indeed Malcolm, since we are both in the same age bracket & lived in the same area could be coincidental that we might know someone or the other.
My parents moved to the Headstone Lane council estate right after the war about 1946 I believe.
A lovely area which was like living in the country for me after London living. Most on the council estate were bombed out Londoners & a bit rough around the edges I suppose.
When I was about fourteen, I got a part time job at Boots chemist in Raynors Lane. I also remember cycling to work by way of North Harrow. Rayners Lane was always the worst part of the journey, very hilly.
Those were the days, how I ended up in the U.S., has been a disaster, but I didn't know it then.
Nice chatting Malcolm
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My Aunt was one of the girls and still going strong (if a little slower) at 92. She kept her secret. At first when she told us it meant nothing as we had no notion of the importance of the operation. One of the earliest publications had a cover showing a silhouette of Churchill visiting a working hut. My aunt immediately recognised her colleague who worked opposite and the realised the other figure was herself. This shot was a still from a colourised film recently shown on television on "World War II in colour". I am delighted the work of this whole team is at last being recognised not just in the UK but the world over.
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Bravo to your Auntie, I admire all those girls who did so much for the war effort. I also watch WW2 in colour, I must look for that section of the film.
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The Bletchley Circle series highlighted the many talents and abilities of the girls and women who worked there. There were an awful lot of very clever talented dedicated serious minded people working long hard hours under immense pressure. Not just the genius of Mr Turing and the senior team!
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They all did their bit I am sure, but without Alan Turing, perhaps a different story as to winning the war.
My shock & dismay was how he was treated because of his sexuality, after all, not that long ago. I wonder when the law was changed. Think how many gay men at that time had to stay in the closet, or was there such a thing as just an old bachelor who never married.
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We visited Bletchley Park last year, and whilst we were there I also got a couple of slim books there on the Enigma (and decoding it). The visit was so incredibly interesting. From the information I gleaned there (and those books) I even wrote a program to emulate the Enigma itself which was really fun to do.
Anyhow after much anticipation, we watched the "Imitation Game" last night on DVD. I was really looking forward to seeing it, as I had wanted to watch it in the cinema (but missed it).
The acting was great. The cinematography was brilliant. The sound was really good. Unfortunately it bore little to historic fact. A really interesting and entertaining film - but unfortunately it was only entertainment.
A brilliant man, but so were the nine thousand of men and women who worked at Bletchley.
No mention of Tommy Flowers or any other of the other greats. Their contribution was absolutely colossal (http://www.tnmoc.org/explore/colossus-gallery).
Alan Turing's "Bombe" (in the film called 'Christopher' for some bizarre reason) could not decrypt any of the high level Natzi communication 'Lorenz' traffic. It as completely useless for that.
The Colossus computer designed and built by Tommy Flowers, (a General Post Office GPO engineer) could decrypt this traffic revealing this highest level strategy traffic - according to historic sources, the work of Tommy Flowers shortened World War 2 by two years.
Yes, Alan Turing made a great contribution, but in the crown of creating the first programmable digital computer, decrypting prime strategic wartime Nazi Germany communication within the top level - that rests quite firmly on Tommy Flowers MBE .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Flowers
Trystan