My Parents Finally Got To Visit Bletchley Park!
We spent our last day of vacation visiting a very special and important place that is near and dear to my heart: Bletchley Park. For the past four years, I have been conducting my own personal research on Bletchley Park, Engima, and ULTRA. I think I have mentioned this several times on my blog, but back in 2010, I was fortunate enough to receive a prestigious research grant from Bryn Mawr College. I wanted to research military intelligence and through some preliminary reading, I stumbled upon Bletchley Park.
It's funny, over the past four years, I've noticed Bletchley's growing popularity in the press and public sphere. When I stumbled upon BP, it wasn't that well known. I hadn't really heard about it in my studies or in the popular press, but I guess my secret is out! (No pun intended). In the past year alone, I feel like so many articles about unheard stories from Bletchley have been unearthed and several code breakers have been honored by the government.
Bletchley Park has become super popular and seems to have captured the public's imagination! I mean, there is a movie (The Imitation Game) coming at this fall about BP's top codebreaker, Alan Turing, which will star Benedict Cumberbatch! This biopic of sorts will mainly focus on Turing's time at Bletchley Park, but will also touch upon other components of his rather complicated life.
Benedict Cumberbatch (right) will play the legendary Alan Turing (left) in The Imitation Game
Found this picture on google of "Turing" working on the bombe machines
If I am going to mention The Imitation Game, it's only fair that I also mention the 2001 film Enigma. Judge me if want, but I rather like this film. Yes, Hollywood has made this a romantic thriller, BUT from a historian's point of view, I think it does a respectable job of recreating Bletchley Park and giving a sense of how it worked and what it was like back then. My biggest issue with the film is the fact that there is no Alan Turing. This film is based on the Robert Harris novel, so the protagonist is a brilliant, but strange, mathematician named Tom Jericho. (Hmmmm…. I wonder who he is supposed to be…)
2001 film Enigma
For those who may not be aware, Bletchley Park was the center for Allied cryptography during the Second World War. During WWI and even during the interwar period, it was common for countries to send secret intergovernmental messages and for other countries to intercept those messages. With the outbreak of WWII, the Germans adopted a special machine called "Enigma", which was said to be unbreakable. The machine, which resembled a large typewriter, was truly a work of genius. The machine is incredibly complex, so I won't explain it here, but if you are interested, here is the wikipedia page all about the Enigma.
In response to the Enigma machine, the British knew it was vital to set up a center for code breaking. Located roughly 70 miles outside of London, Bletchley Park was remote and protected from German bombings, and ideally located for recruiting from Oxford and Cambridge. During the war, Bletchley Park was known as "Station X." It was at "the Park", that intercepted German messages were decrypted, analyzed, and sent off to whoever needed the intelligence. That is an EXTREME oversimplification, but if I start talking about Bletchley, I won't stop --- so I won't bore you.
On that note, I will take a moment for a self-indulgent plug. If you live in the tri-state area (or further) and you ARE interested in learning about Bletchley Park, code breaking during WWII, ENIGMA, and ULTRA --- I will be giving a lecture about all of this good stuff in November! My lecture will be hosted by the New York Military Affairs Symposium and will be at 7 pm on Friday, November 7th, 2014. Hope to see some of you there! (NYMAS Website)
Memorial dedicated to those who worked at Bletchley Park
The last time I visited Bletchley Park was back in July of 2010. Like I said, at that point, no one was really talking about this place. Back in 2010, Bletchley was falling apart. It really looked as if once the war ended, everyone left and that was it. The house was rather empty and the grounds were falling apart --- especially the few remaining huts. You couldn't really touch anything and frankly, you didn't want to, since everything looked like it was about to crumble…
When we arrived at Bletchley Park on this trip, my jaw LITERALLY dropped. Was this the same place I had visited four years ago? When I was here last, there was no fancy gate and visitor's welcome center. Back in 2010, you walked from the train station, up a unkept gravel road to the house, and that was it. I was shocked to see beautiful signs advertising Bletchley Park. I was further blown away to see a huge car park and ginormous visitor's center. WHERE DID THIS COME FROM? Once you paid your entrance fee, there was a welcome film that gave you and overview on BP, as well as mini exhibits, and a magnificent gift shop. I couldn't believe it. This was NOT here last time!
As we were getting ready to walk to the house, we were asked if we wanted video guides. I couldn't believe my ears, and once again, my jaw had hit the floor, when I was handed an iPad mini, loaded with a pre-made video guided tour of the estate! What is this place?! This is NOT the same Bletchley Park from four years ago!!!
The beautiful lake, with the mansion peeking out from behind the trees.
The beautiful manor, Bletchley Park
The original owner
The beautiful interior of the mansion
When I visited the house in 2010, it was just a house. It had pictures and explanations here and there, but it was pretty bare. My mind was blown when I saw what the house looks like now, four years later. I don't know whose idea this was, but it's brilliant, so major kudos to whoever that may be. A couple of the rooms on the ground floor have been made up to look as they did during WWII. You walked through the doorway and it was like being transported back to 1940! I loved it!
The library
Very cool tin I found. God save the King!
Very true
From the house, our tour of the outside began. We first explored the courtyard and stables of the Park. We got to see where code breakers lived, worked, and where traffic in and out of the park occurred.
Couriers with intercepts that needed decoding entered and exited the Park through this gate
Old ambulance circa WWII (far back) and the original car from the 2001 film, Enigma
Original courier bike
Stable leading to some of the code breakers' housing and offices
One major attraction in the courtyard area is this beautiful memorial dedicated to the Polish code breakers. Some of you may not know this, BUT the Polish were vital to the Enigma cracking process. It is the Polish who started working on Enigma during the 1930s and it is with THEIR preliminary information that the Brits were able to break Enigma.
One of the many huts
We were on a bit of a time crunch, so we couldn't visit every hut, but I made Hut 8 and Hut 6 priorities. During the war, German radio messages were intercepted by Y-Stations. Those intercepted messages, which were in morse code, were delivered to Bletchley Park --- specifically to either Hut 8 or Hut 6. Hut 8 dealt with naval Enigma messages, whereas Hut 6 dealt with army and air messages. The naval messages were more difficult to decipher because unlike the army/air Engima, which used three inner rotors, the naval Enigma used four! I was also keen on visiting Hut 8 because Alan Turing was in charge of this hut.
I was pleasantly surprised by the inside of the hut. In 2010, these huts were truly run down. Paint had faded, the wood was chipping, and the huts looked like they would collapse soon. This was not the case on this visit. Ironically, the huts were made to appear old, but I could tell, the huts had definitely been renovated and spruced up. Fresh paint, new interactive exhibits, and more WWII era room recreations --- these did not exist back in 2010, but I wish that they had existed!
Interactive notebook explaining how the "bombe machines" and the daily menus were created.
Finding the crib
After Hut 8, we moved onto Hut 6, which is very important to my research. I have been focusing a lot on Operation Market Garden, which was the failed Allied airborne invasion of Holland. If you've seen A Bridge Too Far, that's all about Market Garden. Any intelligence pertaining to Market Garden would have come to Hut 6.
In addition to refurbishing rooms to look as they did in WWII, BP also has projections of employees!
Once the code breakers were able to crack the Enigma rotor settings for the day and decipher the German messages, the decrypted intercept(s) was taken to either Hut 3 or Hut 4 for translation and analysis. Hut 3 dealt with army/air, whilst Hut 4 was for naval intelligence. The Typex machines were British cipher machine that helped with the translation process.
Typex Machines
After the huts, I wanted to visit the Bombe machines, but sadly, they were not available. Something about maintenance I think. So sad! The bombe machines are super cool. When I was at Bletchley last time, the bombe machines on display were props from the film Engima. Mick Jagger, who apparently was one of the producers of Enigma, offered them to the Park.
Anyway, you may be wondering, what is a bombe machine? If you look at the picture below, that's a bombe machine. These amazing machines were designed by Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman. They were designed to make the codebreaker's life easier. By coming up with a "menu" the bombe machines were programmed to predict what the Enigma rotor settings COULD NOT BE. Through this process of elimination, millions of combination were narrowed down to 30 or so. The bombe machines made the codebreaker's job a lot faster and more efficient. Sadly, after the war, Churchill ordered that all of the bombe machines be destroyed. He was worried that the Germans would find out about them .
A bunch of retired engineers and BP enthusiasts got together to rebuild a bombe machine
AN ENIGMA MACHINE!!!
More Enigmas!
Before heading back to London, I made sure to pay my respects to Alan Turing. I recognize that Alan Turing wasn't the only one who worked at the park, but I mean, let's face it, he's kind of like BP's #1 superstar. Sure, I have equal love and respect for other Bletchley Park celebrities like: Gordon Welchman, John Herivel, FH Hinsley, Mavis Batey, Dilly Knox, and many many more --- but Alan Turing has become synonymous with "The Park."
Beautiful statue of Alan Turing
Going back to Blethcley Park was amazing. First off, A LOT has happened in four years. I am so delighted to see how Bletchley Park has transformed. It's nice to see everything renovated and maintained. It was always brilliant, the way they recreated wartime conditions and created interactive activities. Well done Bletchley! If this is the result of BP's new found popularity, then I am overjoyed. I am glad that people are starting to pay attention and realize that truly amazing things happened at this estate.
On a more personal note, being able to visit Bletchley Park with my parents was such a treat. They really enjoyed visiting the place that I have dedicated the past four years of my life to. It was really wonderful to be able to share this vital part of my life with them. Now, you may think that that sounds dramatic, but it's not --- I assure you of that. If you ask my parents, they will confirm it. Since discovering Enigma, ULTRA, and Bletchley Park four years ago, my research has become my passion and part of who I am. Although I am a pre-medical student and I hope to become a physician one day, I still consider myself a military historian and a cryptography historian. I LOVE Bletchley Park and I look forward to continuing my research and learning more about Station X and her wartime activities!
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