Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is the home of British codebreaking and a birthplace of modern information technology. It played a major role in World War Two, producing secret intelligence which had a direct and profound influence on the outcome of the conflict. The site is now a museum and heritage attraction, open daily.
The Bletchley Park Podcast brings you fascinating stories from Veterans, staff and volunteers on the significance and continued relevance of this site today.
E176 - The Age of AI
February 2025
Here at Bletchley Park - one of the birthplaces of modern computing – our latest temporary exhibition ‘The Age of AI’ has just opened. This new gallery explores the power and potential of AI in our everyday lives. From the 1930s origins of what we now call ‘artificial intelligence’, to the incredible (or alarming?) potential it might bring, the exhibition explores the benefits and risks of AI in our world today.
In this episode, Head of Content Erica Munro meets the team behind t
E175 - Decoding the Holocaust
January 2025
The 27th of January 2025 is the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau - an event marked annually by Holocaust Memorial Day.
In order to perpetrate the mass killings and other crimes of the Holocaust, the Nazi regime needed to coordinate and communicate about its activities. This included wireless communications which were intercepted and decoded at Bletchley Park.
In this episode we take a look at what the Government Code and Cyph
E174 - Top Secret Misinformation Part 4
December 2024
For this year’s festive episode, we once again put the word out to our listeners: what baffles you about Bletchley Park, and what myths and misconceptions would you like our resident Historians to investigate and interrogate?
Bletchley Park’s Head of Content, Erica Munro, is asking the questions, with Research Historian Dr David Kenyon and Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham fielding queries on uncracked ciphers, captured codes, cribbing, declassification … and, of course, Christ
E173 - Hunting the Beast Part 2
December 2024
On the 12th of November 1944 Germany’s largest battleship – Tirpitz – was sunk by British RAF Lancaster bombers off Tromso in Norway.
Ever since its deployment to the region back in January 1942, the battleship had posed a threat to Arctic convoy operations. A large part of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet as well as US vessels were tied up protecting convoys from this ship that Winston Churchill christened ‘The Beast’.
Despite Tirpitz having never fired its guns in anger at Allied w
E172 - Hunting the Beast Part 1
November 2024
On the 12th of November 1944 Germany’s largest battleship – Tirpitz – was sunk by British RAF Lancaster bombers off Tromso in Norway.
Ever since its deployment to the region back in January 1942, the battleship had posed a threat to Arctic convoy operations. A large part of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet as well as US vessels were tied up protecting convoys from this ship that Winston Churchill christened ‘The Beast’.
Despite Tirpitz having never fired its guns in anger at Allied w
E171 - Bletchley Park & Bomber Command Part 2
November 2024
The crews of RAF Bomber Command had one of the most hazardous jobs of the war. Flying by night to their targets in occupied Europe, they were alone and vulnerable to the prowling German night-fighters.
Helping them reach their targets was one of the least-known, but most significant achievements of the signals intelligence operation at Bletchley Park. Analysis of the night-fighters’ communications revealed priceless insights into the German defensive system – and how it could be
E170 – Bletchley Park & Bomber Command Part 1
October 2024
The crews of RAF Bomber Command had one of the most hazardous jobs of the war. Flying by night to their targets in occupied Europe, they were alone and vulnerable to the prowling German night-fighters.
Helping them reach their targets was one of the least-known, but most significant achievements of the signals intelligence operation at Bletchley Park. Analysis of the night-fighters’ communications revealed priceless insights into the German defensive system – and how it could be e
E169 - Learning the Ropes
September 2024
The Government Code and Cypher School employed thousands of people during the war. These varied from Cambridge dons who had broken codes in World War One to machine workers with very specific skills, to female conscripts from the three armed services.
How did all these people know what to do? As usual at BP, the answer is a complex one: a mix of training courses (some well organised, others less so) developed as the organisation grew exponentially as the war progressed.
In this
E168 - Inside Hut 6
August 2024
Hut 6 was the section at Bletchley Park which broke the German army and air force Enigma ciphers. Historical accounts usually focus on the early part of the war, when a small and inexperienced team was established in a newly-built wooden hut.
But by 1944 Hut 6 looked very different. It was a hardened unit of several hundred people, supported by cutting-edge technology. Hut 6 personnel had honed their methods through bitter experience against Enigma ciphers which continued to increa
E167 - The Forgotten Army
July 2024
In early 1942 one of the most disastrous defeats of the war saw British forces pushed out of Burma, now known as Myanmar. Two years later, the multi-national Fourteenth Army, the ‘Forgotten Army’, had learned to fight and beat the Japanese, inflicting their largest defeat of the war at Imphal and Kohima, and was poised to begin the reconquest of Burma.
This turnaround had much to do with bitter experience gained in close combat, and superb logistics, but an important element was det
E166 - D-Day80 Part 3 Block D to Bocage
June 2024
To commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, we are releasing 3 special episodes to tell the full story of The Longest Day. This third part is a brand new episode looking beyond the beaches.
Bletchley Park made a vital contribution to the planning and preparation of D-Day, but the landings were only the beginning. There would be another three months of hard fighting in Normandy before the German forces finally cracked, and France could be liberated.
Ultra intelligence from Bletch
E165 - D-Day80 Part 2 Overlord
June 2024
To commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, we will be releasing 3 special episodes to tell the full story of The Longest Day. This second part is a complete remastering of our original Overlord episode with the addition of much new content.
80 years ago today, more than 150,000 Allied troops were boarding planes, gliders and landing craft as they prepared to invade Fortress Europe in Operation Overlord, the Normandy Invasion. Meanwhile, 200 miles away in the Buckinghamshire coun
E164 - D-Day80 Part 1 Tide of Victory
May 2024
Over the next 6 weeks, to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, we will be releasing 3 special episodes to tell the full story of The Longest Day. This first part is a complete remastering of our original Tide of Victory episode with the addition of much new content.
This first episode takes us to the south coast of Britain which, in May 1944, resembled one huge army camp as over 2 million men waited for D-Day. In the Buckinghamshire countryside the staff at GC&CS carried o
E163 - The Women of Newnham College
April 2024
Women were the backbone of Bletchley Park during World War Two. At its peak in January 1945, the workforce was 75% female, but even at the start of the war, women comprised a significant portion of GC&CS’s numbers. Women were recruited in a variety of ways, but a significant quantity of them, particularly early in the war, were selected direct from prominent universities such as Oxford, St Andrews and Cambridge.
Over the last few years, a team of members of Newnham College Cambr
E162 - Before the Codebreakers
March 2024
Bletchley Park is famous as the home of World War 2 codebreaking. But what was there before the Government Code and Cypher School moved in? Who built Bletchley Park, and what remains of the pre-war country estate?
In this episode, Research Historian Dr David Kenyon and Head of Content Erica Munro examine the people who made Bletchley Park their home prior to World War 2. Sir Herbert Leon and his family bought, expanded and lived in the now-familiar Mansion, stamping their individual
E161 - Learning: Past, Present and Future
February 2024
In 2023, Bletchley Park Trust completed its biggest refurbishment project to date – a £13 million, three-phase project, to open up wartime buildings at the heart of the site for the very first time.
The final phase saw Block E, once the wartime Communications hub of Bletchley Park, transformed into two new resources – the Block E Learning Centre – which includes eight learning spaces able to accommodate learners from primary school pupils to students in higher education – and the
E160 - Colossus in Context Part 2
January 2024
Eighty years ago, in January 1944, the first Colossus computer was delivered to Bletchley Park. This machine and the nine that followed it have acquired legendary status within the story of World War Two codebreaking. The machines have also been described as the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computers – direct precursors of the digital world in which we live today.
But in 1944 the computer age still lay far in the future. These machines were built for a specific and
E159 - Colossus in Context Part 1
January 2024
Eighty years ago, in January 1944, the first Colossus computer was delivered to Bletchley Park. This machine and the nine that followed it have acquired legendary status within the story of World War Two codebreaking. The machines have also been described as the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computers – direct precursors of the digital world in which we live today.
But in 1944 the computer age still lay far in the future. These machines were built for a specific a
E158 - We Shall Fight to the Last Shell
December 2023
Eighty years ago this month Britain was marking its fifth Christmas of the war with still no end in sight. D-Day still lay in the future and the campaigns in Italy and on the Eastern Front ground on.
However on Boxing Day 1943 the Royal Navy achieved a significant, if grim success over the German Navy, sinking the Scharnhorst, one of the few last remaining large warships in the enemy fleet. This victory would help to secure the safety of Allied convoys to Russia for the remaining
E157 - Security & Insecurity Part 2
November 2023
For our tenth anniversary episode, E141 “Security & Insecurity”, we discussed one of the most important factors in wartime codebreaking – secrecy. We looked at its effects on operations at Bletchley Park and the lives of those who worked there.
We had so much to talk about on that occasion that we didn’t have the chance to explore beyond the bounds of Bletchley Park. However, as signals intelligence travelled to the battlefronts where commanders made life-and-death decisions
E156 - Italian Tiebreaker
October 2023
The fight up the Italian peninsula involved some of the most arduous battles of the war for Allied soldiers, but they were being supported at every stage by intelligence from Bletchley Park.
Ultra intelligence helped inform Allied strategy in Italy, kept commanders constantly up-to-date about enemy forces, and sometimes proved the difference between victory and defeat on the battlefield.
In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, Bletchley Park’s Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham wil
E155 - Veterans’ Reunion 2023
September 2023
The annual Bletchley Park Veterans’ Reunion is one of the highlights of our year. A chance to welcome back those who worked for Bletchley Park during World War Two, and thank them for their service. This year’s reunion saw 17 Veterans return to enjoy a very special afternoon tea in the Mansion.
In this episode, we bring you highlights from the day as we caught up with Jean Cheshire, who lived at Bletchley Park with her parents and siblings during the war, as well as Veterans:
E154 - The Diplomatic Section
August 2023
This month we examine the often-overlooked story of GC&CS’s work on diplomatic codes and ciphers.
This vital work predated work on military codes, beginning when CG&CS was created in 1919. Work continued throughout World War Two, with some staff eventually leaving Bletchley Park to carry on as the Government Communications Bureau in Berkeley Street London.
In this special episode our Research Historian Dr David Kenyon is joined by GCHQ’s Departmental Historian Dr David Ab
E153 - Sicilian Deception
July 2023
In 1943, when the guns fell silent in Tunisia, a lull fell over the war in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the work of the intelligence services continued unabated. An Allied amphibious assault somewhere in the Mediterranean was inevitable. The question for the Germans was “where?” – and the Allies were eager to supply the answers. But how much could the Allies mislead the enemy, and how far could Bletchley Park prove those deceptions were working?
When they came, the landings in Sicil
E152 - Sinclair in Focus
June 2023
Who chose Bletchley Park – a vacant estate in Buckinghamshire – as the wartime home of the Codebreakers? That decision was made by the man in charge of the Secret Intelligence Service, known as ‘C’ – Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair. A very public man with a very secretive profession, Sinclair was widely-known and well-respected. He passed away just a couple of months after World War Two began in 1939, but his influence was far-reaching.
Bletchley Park Trust is proud to be displaying, for
E151 - Stored Secrets
May 2023
Like many heritage organisations, Bletchley Park Trust holds a collection within its storerooms. And we are always seeking to improve how it’s managed and taken care of. Now, due to the support of foundations, trusts and generous individuals, we’ve created a new Collection Centre. Once the building had been refurbished and kitted out, the curatorial team had the mammoth task of moving and rehousing the collection of over 400,000 items: from intelligence reports to teleprinter component
E150 - Communication is Key
April 2023
80 years ago, Bletchley Park’s communications centre opened in Block E. Employing hundreds of staff, mainly young women, this block was vital to BP’s smooth running.
Most messages and reports coming into and out of Bletchley Park went through Block E. But as we’ll hear in this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, its wartime importance doesn’t necessarily mean its value has been fully recognised today. Block E is still standing, and is due to open to the public later this year, 2023, as Ble
E149 - Bletchley Park Poetry
March 2023
To celebrate World Poetry Day on the 21st of March, we have been looking into the poets and poetry of Bletchley Park.
We have chosen nine poems to feature in this episode; they are read by staff, volunteers and Bletchley Park Veterans.
Exhibitions Manager, Erica Munro and Research Officer, Dr Thomas Cheetham have been digging into the archives to give us more information as we listen.
Thanks to all our readers for their time and fantastic performances.
A special thank you to the
E148 - A New Look at Newman
February 2023
The breaking of the German Lorenz cipher system was one of BP's most complex technical achievements. This work is often associated with Tommy Flowers from the GPO, however Flowers' work, and the wider mechanisation of the breaking of TUNNY was overseen by a Cambridge mathematician who came to BP only reluctantly in 1942; Professor Max Newman.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the opening of Bletchley Park’s 'Newmanry' in February 1943, in this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, we exami
E147 – Oral History 2023
January 2023
The Podcast Team wish all our listeners a Very Happy New Year.
To start the 2023 season of the podcast, producer Mark Cotton sits down with Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne to catch-up on both our Roll of Honour and our continuing Oral History Project.
For the rest of the episode we have highlights of 3 selections from our Oral History Archive. As with previous years we have a theme … but this year the theme is unusual, they are all from people who didn’t work at either GC&
E146 - Top Secret Misinformation Part 3
December 2022
Since the first two Top Secret Misinformation podcasts in 2020 & 2021, our listeners have been asking us to record another one. Maybe it’s because the secrecy surrounding Bletchley Park is the perfect breeding ground for all sorts of myths and misunderstandings. Or maybe it’s because it lets our Historians off the leash to set the record straight once and for all.
We asked our listeners, via social media, what history mysteries they wanted solved by our resident representati
E145 - Torch to Tunis
November 2022
The Allied victory in the Second Battle of El Alamein in November 1942 proved to be the beginning of the end of the war in North Africa. But many months of hard fighting, and the opening of a whole new front in northwest Africa, would be needed before the Allies were finally able to kick Axis forces off that continent for good.
Though often forgotten about today, the Operation Torch landings were a pivotal event which led to the first battles between German and American forces.
E144 - Shark Attack
October 2022
In February 1942 the worst fears of the teams working on Enigma in Hut 8 and Naval Section were realised. The German navy introduced a new, more complex Enigma machine for use by its U-boats in the Atlantic.
At a stroke, Bletchley Park was no longer able to read messages sent by the German submarines hunting the vital Atlantic convoys.
By the end of the year, however, the new code had been broken, and BP was once again able to divine the secrets of the Atlantic U-boats. Just w
E143 - The Art of Data
September 2022
Earlier this year in April 2022, Bletchley Park opened a new temporary exhibition in a brand new gallery. The Art of Data explores how data can be visualised to reveal patterns and stories, helping us understand the world around us. The exhibition includes WW2 visualisations alongside a whole variety of striking contemporary examples, shown in objects, pictures, films and interactive displays. Visitors are invited to question the data they encounter, and take part in building th
E142 - Veterans’ Reunion 2022
September 2022
Each year, to mark the arrival of the first Codebreakers at GC&CS in 1939 we hold our Veterans’ Reunion. The Reunion is always a very special day for us at Bletchley Park as it gives us the chance to thank our Veterans for their service. For the Veterans it is a chance to meet old friends, make new ones, reminisce and tell stories of their time here.
This year it was made more poignant as because of the global pandemic, this was the first we have been able to hold since 201
E141 - Security & Insecurity
August 2022
This month instead of commemorating a World War 2 Anniversary, we have decided to do something a little different as we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of The Bletchley Park Podcast.
So after 10 years and more than 170 hours of content, we decided to answer our most frequently asked question, “How was Bletchley Park kept secret?”.
Such a ‘big question’ would be too much for just one historian to answer, so this month we have three. Our Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon & Re
E140 - Intelligence in the Arctic
July 2022
Eighty years ago, in July 1942 the Allies suffered one of their most notorious losses of World War 2. The Merchant ship convoy PQ 17, carrying supplies to Russia was attacked in the Arctic seas by German aircraft and submarines. Out of 34 merchant ships in the convoy only 11 made it safely to Russia.
The incident has become symbolic of the suffering and endurance of those involved in the Arctic convoys.
In this episode we revisit the events of July 1942 as well as the wider naval
E139 - The Pacific Turns
June 2022
In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode we return to South Asia and the Pacific, and the war against the Japanese.
After the disasters of Pearl Harbor, the Philippines and Singapore, and near disaster in Colombo in the first few months of 1942, the summer months would bring the Allies better fortune on the fighting fronts.
1942 would also see many changes for Britain’s Codebreakers in South and East Asia as they rushed to adapt to the changing situation – a situation requiring the servi
E138 - SIXTA
May 2022
The way in which the secrets of Bletchley Park were finally revealed to the world, bit by bit and now over the course of nearly four decades have meant that many myths and misunderstandings have become embedded in the story. One of our goals with these podcasts is to tell the full story of the Codebreakers and along the way hopefully correct some of those errors.
So in this ‘It Happened Here’ episode we will take a deep dive into Traffic Analysis, a topic that we have mentioned in
E137 - The Intelligence Factory
May 2022
Bletchley Park held a number of events to celebrate the opening of The Intelligence Factory and in this special episode we will take you to those events to hear from VIP guests, supporters and some of the people who helped to create our largest exhibition to date.
From the ‘Friends of Bletchley Park’ Preview we will hear from some of the first people who got to follow in the footsteps of our Veterans, in the newly restored Block A.
Dr Emily Scott-Dearing, the Interpretation Lead for
E136 - Scaling Up
April 2022
Thursday 28th April 2022 sees Bletchley Park unveiling its largest exhibition to date, in the newly restored Block A. Its focus is the period from late 1942 to early 1945, when the demands of its crucial wartime work changed the Government Code and Cypher School from a ‘cottage industry’ into an industrial-scale intelligence operation. The name of the exhibition is, very aptly, ‘The Intelligence Factory’.
Block A was the first of the purpose-built ‘Block’ buildings that marked the
E135 - Two Way Traffic
March 2022
Bletchley Park is synonymous with World War Two codebreaking, but the story is much bigger than just a country house in Buckinghamshire. Making, as well as breaking codes, was within the remit of the Government Code and Cypher School but is a much lesser known part of the story.
In this extended ‘It Happened Here’ episode, we not only find out about the British efforts to create codes of their own, but also German codebreaking successes and failures.
Bletchley Park’s Research Offi
E134 - Jumbo Takes Charge
February 2022
In every theatre of war, early 1942 was a dark time for the Allies. Japan seemed unstoppable in the Pacific. The Germans were at the gates of Moscow, threatening Egypt and prowling the Atlantic lifeline at sea. But at Bletchley Park there were far reaching changes to both the leadership and organisation that had one clear objective - to support the ultimate Allied victory.
In this It Happened Here episode, our research officer Dr Thomas Cheetham, guides us through the dramatic
E133 - Honouring Our Veterans
January 2022
The Podcast Team wish all our listeners a Very Happy New Year and how better to start it than with some great news.
With over 13,500 names so far, The Bletchley Park Roll of Honour aims to list all those who worked in signals intelligence for the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries during the Second World War. As no single list of the personnel of Bletchley Park and its outstations was ever produced, the Roll of Honour has been compiled from information in official sources
E132 - Easterly Wind, Rain
December 2021
On the 7th of December 1941, Japanese invasion forces landed in Malaya. An hour and a half later Japanese aircraft attacked the US fleet, at anchor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Simultaneous attacks were also made on Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island and the Philippines.
Since that day controversy has raged over how much the British and US Governments knew in advance about these attacks, and why they came as such a surprise to both countries.
In this It Happened Here episode, Bletchley P
E131 - Secrets of the Supermarina
November 2021
Many visitors to Bletchley Park are familiar with the story of breaking Enigma and reading German and even Japanese codes. But equally important work was done on Italian ciphers.
Not only were the Codebreakers able to read Italian naval messages, before and during the war, but this information was used to decisive effect in the Battle for North Africa, and the ultimate defeat of Italy in 1943.
In this It Happened Here episode, Bletchley Park’s Research Historian Dr David Kenyon
E130 – Action This Day
October 2021
On the 21st of October 1941, four of Bletchley Park’s Codebreakers sent a plea for more staff and resources in a now notorious letter to the Prime Minister. Demand for Bletchley Park’s work was increasing, and the organisation was facing a crisis.
Churchill was won over, adding the note ‘Action This Day’ to the document. But perhaps the changes that followed weren’t just the result of the Prime Minister’s influence.
In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, Dr Thomas Cheetham explore
E129 - Target England
September 2021
After Britain’s failure at Dunkirk and the Fall of France, the Germans seemed unstoppable. An invasion of Britain by Germany seemed the next logical step.
In 1940, Britain and Bletchley Park prepared for war on the Home Front. As the German air campaign brought air combat with the Battle of Britain and bombs by night during the Blitz, the RAF - supported by intelligence from Bletchley Park - fought back.
In this It Happened Here episode, Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham is
E128 - Whitehall 7947 - The Early Days Exhibition
August 2021
Hindsight and the lifting of decades of secrecy, allows us to know that by 1945 Bletchley Park had become a ‘codebreaking factory’ supplying war winning intelligence to the Allies ultimate victory.
But what was it like for the 185 members of staff on Monday the 4th of September 1939? And … who were they?
Supported by the UK government’s Culture Recovery Fund, our new exhibition ‘Early Days’ covers the events of 1938 to late 1939 and tells the story of the first Bletchley Park Co
E127 - Top Secret Misinformation Part 2
July 2021
In late 2020 we asked on social media for any questions our listeners wanted the podcast team to answer. We had so many that we needed to record a second episode that originally we had planned for January 2021. Unfortunately due to COVID restrictions this wasn’t possible … but now, we are back.
In this episode, Exhibitions Manager Erica Munro, Research Historian Dr David Kenyon, Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham and podcast producer Mark Cotton, will be shining a light on some fam
E126 - Barbarossa
June 2021
Eighty years ago in June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in what Hitler hoped would be a lightning campaign to destroy Bolshevism and provide ‘living space’ for his empire in the east.
The result was four years of brutal conflict which shaped the world we live in today.
What did the codebreakers at Bletchley Park know about the Germans’ plans of attack? Was Stalin warned? And how did the war in the east play out at BP?
In this It Happened Here episode we are joined by
E125 - Fall Gelb Part Two
June 2021
By late May 1940 the Germans have arrived at the French coast, cutting the Allied forces in two. Their risky invasion plan ‘Fall Gelb’ (or ‘Case Yellow’) has paid off. For the Allies, things will only get worse - an evacuation of the British forces from Dunkirk, the capture of Paris and the ultimate humiliation at Compiègne.
It also marked a turning point for Bletchley Park. The attack led the Germans to change their Enigma procedures which had been exploited so successfully by the
E124 - Fall Gelb Part One
June 2021
In May 1940, the much-anticipated German attack on France brings the Phoney War to an end. The French have the largest land army in the world, the Maginot Line giving them hundreds of miles of defences and they know the route the Germans will take. But in the space of only a few weeks, the entire strategic course of World War Two is turned on its head. The Germans have gambled on a new invasion plan, ‘Fall Gelb’ (or ‘Case Yellow’) to set them on a risky route through the Ardennes and
E124 - Oral History Special No. 7
May 2021 In this episode we bring you the second part of our interview with SLU Intelligence Officer Patricia Johnston. This time Oral History Volunteer Mike Chapman is also joined by Pat’s son, Joss Sanglier. The three of them travel back 75 years to map out not only Pat’s wartime service but also that of her husband and fellow Bletchley Park Veteran, Bill Sanglier. Bill, had what can only be described as a very varied carer during the war. Starting off during The Blitz searching for saboteu
E123 - Oral History Special No. 6
April 2021
Patricia Johnston’s idyllic childhood in Rangoon came to an abrupt end on the 7th of December 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbour. In early 1942 with the Japanese invasion getting ever closer she was flown out with her siblings and arrived in India, without her parents.
After settling her two brothers in boarding school Patricia’s war really began. She realised after completing her training that nursing wasn’t for her and transferred to the recently formed Women's Auxiliary
E122 - Never Alone
April 2021
Bletchley Park’s latest temporary exhibition is called ‘Never Alone’ and asks ‘what happens when everything is connected?’ Based on an exhibition developed and designed by the National Science and Media Museum, ‘Never Alone’ explores the popularity and power of smart devices.
There are now more devices connected to the internet than people on the planet. ‘Smart’ gadgets are becoming part of our lives, making us safer, bringing people together and making everyday tasks easier. In
E121 - Oral History Special No. 5
April 2021
Our Veterans who served in one of the three women’s auxiliary services during World War Two are always proud of their particular branch and WAAF Daphne Canning is no exception. When Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne interviewed her in 2017 she was still proud to have worn her ‘Sparks’ badge; the insignia of a Royal Air Force Wireless Operator.
These Oral History Specials allow us to bring you the complete recordings of interviews we have previously featured only as much shorte
E120 - Oral History Special No. 4
March 2021
In our last Oral History Special we brought you the first part of a 2017 interview with former WREN, Mary Sherrard. From 1942 until the end of the war, Mary served at Bletchley Park and then at the Eastcote Bombe Outstation. This helped shaped the rest of her life because it was at Eastcote where she met her future husband John.
After originally servicing Spitfires in 1940, an interview at the Foreign Office sent John to Eastcote and Stanmore to maintain Mary’s Bombe machines. B
E119 - Forging a Special Relationship
March 2021
In March 1946, as an ‘Iron Curtain’ was descending across Europe, in post-war London a document was signed that to this day is the basis of the most important and longest intelligence relationship that the UK has. But that Special Relationship with the USA didn’t suddenly begin 75 years ago; it was the culmination of five years of wartime collaboration.
In this episode Podcast Producer, Mark Cotton, and our Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, go back to February 1941 and look at e
E118 - Oral History Special No. 3
February 2021
To keep you going during the lockdown, the podcast team will be bringing you a new episode every two weeks.
Last year we featured short clips from dozens of our Veterans telling us what they did on VE Day & VJ Day. Now in these Oral History Specials we can bring you the longer versions of those interviews, allowing our Veterans to tell their full story, in their own voices and in their own way.
Vital to us capturing these interview are a team of brilliant volunteers who
E117 - Oral History Special No. 2
February 2021
As we did last year we have decided to release extra content again during the current lockdown and so for at least the next couple of months we will be bringing you a new show every two weeks. These will be a mixture of Oral History Specials and also our regular content as and when COVID restrictions allow us.
Last year we featured short clips from dozens of our Veterans telling us what they did on VE Day & VJ Day. Now in these Oral History Specials we can bring you the l
E116 - Oral History Special No. 1
January 2021
As we release this episode Bletchley Park Museum is currently closed as the UK is in a national lockdown to help contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Our staff and volunteers like so many around the world are in lockdown, self-isolation or working remotely from home. Unfortunately it means the promised second part of our Q&A’s from our listeners is on-hold for now, but once we are safe to do so we will bring you that show.
As we did last year during the first lockd
E115 - Oral History 2020
December 2020
At the end of each year we like to focus on the important work that our Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne and his team of staff and volunteers carry out. As with so many around the world, COVID-19 has had a huge effect on the work of Jonathan’s team in 2020.
In this episode we catch-up with Jonathan for an update on the Oral History Project and he shares four more highlights from our archive of 550 interviews.
Gwen Adsley was a civilian working in the Communications Sectio
E114 - Top Secret Misinformation Part 1
November 2020
For the first time since January 2020 the podcast team were able to be physically in the same room together, even if socially distanced. So to mark this return we decided to ask our listeners on social media for their questions about Bletchley Park.
In this, the first of these shows, Exhibitions Manager Erica Munro, Research Historian Dr David Kenyon, Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham and podcast producer Mark Cotton, will hopefully answer those questions and maybe do a bit o
E113 - A Historian for the Future
October 2020
For over 8 years the podcast has been privileged to receive help and support from the modern day version of the wartime Government Code and Cypher School, GCHQ, both as an organisation and from their Departmental Historian.
Previous listeners will know that GCHQ has a new Historian and in Podcast Episode 98, we had the honour of being able to exclusively reveal his identity when we met him at the GCHQ Centenary celebrations at the National Memorial Arboretum in November 2019.
E112 – The Best of Reunions Part 3
September 2020
This is the last of three special episodes to mark what would have been our Annual Veterans Reunion.
It was due to COVID-19 restrictions and with huge regret that Bletchley Park Trust had to take the difficult decision not to hold this year’s reunion on-site. But here at the podcast we can still celebrate our Veterans with these special episodes.
At a reunion we like to capture as many Veterans stories as we can, but we also always remember that it is their special day and
E111 – The Best of Reunions Part 2
September 2020
As we explained in the last show, due to COVID-19 restrictions and with huge regret, Bletchley Park Trust had to take the difficult decision not to host our Annual Veterans Reunion onsite this year.
To continue to mark what would have been this year’s reunion, this is the second of three special episodes we will be bringing you this month, to still pay tribute to our Veterans.
Reunion is always the busiest day of the year for the podcast, catching up with old friends &
E110 – The Best of Reunions Part 1
September 2020
Each year, to mark the arrival of the Codebreakers to their war station in 1939, we hold our Veterans Reunion.
This is the highlight of our calendar year, and a really special occasion for all involved. Veterans can meet up with friends old and new and share stories of their vital and once top-secret wartime work. These events have taken on even more meaning in the past few years, for the Veterans, their families, and all those who work for Bletchley Park Trust today.
It is w
E109 - VJ Day
August 2020
Nearly 3 months after VE Day, the war against Japan still continued. Its end would be drawn out over 6 weeks between the Potsdam Declaration in July and the final signing of the surrender on-board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September the 2nd.
During those weeks the world saw the use of a new weapon, the atom bomb and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be totally destroyed before World War Two would finally come to an end.
To commemorate VJ Day we present this special It Happ
Intelligence Insight No. 013
July 2020
As COVID-19 struck we decided to start releasing these extra episodes to give you our listeners something extra each week while you were in lockdown. We are glad we could share so many previously unheard recordings that we just hadn’t been able to before and hopefully these shows have helped you through these extraordinary times, if even in a small way.
Over the next few episodes we shall start to return to our more normal podcast episodes and eventually our It Happen Here shows
Intelligence Insight No. 012
July 2020
Bletchley Park is an independent charity and so we rely on the ticket sales of our visitors for 95% of our operating costs, but another way to support the museum is to become a Friend of Bletchley Park.
As a friend of Bletchley Park you not only get our normal free unlimited year-round access to our heritage site and museum, but a range of other benefits including exclusive events, previews and discounts … all while knowing you are helping us to keep telling the story of the vita
Intelligence Insight No. 011
July 2020
In this episode we are staying with Dermot Turing & his wider family. First we go back to a very cold day in March 2015 when more than twenty members of Alan Turing’s family gathered at Bletchley Park to pay tribute to their famous ancestor. The Imitation Game had been released only a few months earlier, so to have so many Turing’s in one place, at the same time, meant the worlds press turned up too & so the perfect opportunity for Dermot to launch the fundraising campaign f
Intelligence Insight No. 010
June 2020
This week we return for the second and final time to the 2018 launch of Dermot Turing’s book, X, Y and Z: The Real Story of How Enigma Was Broken. It’s a story of international cooperation, spanning many years and for the first time tells of how the French, British and Polish secret services came together to unravel the secrets of the Enigma machine.
At the launch Dermot was joined by Nathalie Genet-Rouffiac, the Curator of Heritage for the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and
Intelligence Insight No. 009
June 2020
The breaking of the German Enigma machine wasn’t just down to the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park and it didn’t start with the outbreak of World War Two. It’s a story of international cooperation, spanning many years and who better to tell it than the nephew of Alan Turing.
In this, the first of two episodes, we return to 2018 when Bletchley Park hosted representatives of the Polish Embassy in London and families of Polish codebreakers, for the launch of Dermot Turing’s book, X, Y
Intelligence Insight No. 008
June 2020
This week we return for the last time to the Bill Tutte symposium that was held at Bletchley Park in 2017, the centenary of his birth.
In this episode we bring you the closing address of the day given by our then Chairman, Sir John Scarlett. But before that we have the final speaker of the day, the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, here for the first time in full.
The work that Bill did at Bletchley Park would help lead to the creation of the cutting edge technology
Intelligence Insight No. 007
May 2020
We return in this episode to the Bill Tutte symposium that was held at Bletchley Park in 2017, on the centenary of his birth. Again we bring you one of the many talks given that day, but for the first time in full.
Bill Tutte’s breaking of the Lorenz machine led to the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park being able to read the messages being sent between Hitler, the German High Command and the Generals in the field. In his talk our Research Historian Dr David Kenyon, looked at why this
Intelligence Insight No. 006
May 2020
In this episode we stay with the attack on the Lorenz code that Bill Tutte played such an important part in, with a first-hand account.
Captain Jerry Roberts worked with Bill Tutte in The Testery cracking, what they called Tunny, the German High Commands code, used by Hitler & his top Generals. Jerry tells us what it was like to work in The Testery, why breaking Tunny was so important to the ultimate Allied victory and of his 3 Heroes of Bletchley Park.
Jerry’s was the last o
Intelligence Insight No. 005
May 2020
In this episode we again return to the Bill Tutte symposium that was held at Bletchley Park in 2017, on the centenary of his birth.
As a member of the Bill Tutte Memorial Fund Claire Butterfield had by 2017 spent 4 years campaigning for more recognition for the little-known mathematical genius. For the first time we can bring you Claire’s entire talk that opened the day and in it she explores Bill’s entire life and work.
Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020
#BPark, #WW2, #Bletc
E108 - Victory in Europe
May 2020
After more than 5 and a half years of fighting, 75 Years ago today the war in Europe officially finally came to an end.
To commemorate the day we present this special It Happened Here episode. Using archive recordings and interviews with our Veterans from both our official Oral History Project and nearly 8 years of podcasts, we hope to take you back to the heady days of early May 1945.
20 of our Veterans will share their memories, both happy and sometimes poignant, of what VE Day an
E107 - The German Surrenders
May 2020
Since first marching into Poland on the 1st September 1939, the German army had conquered most of Europe. But the tide had turned and, as April 1945 began, they were caught between the Western Allies and the vast Red Army of the Soviet Union. The inevitable end was finally in sight, but not before multiple surrenders were signed.
For the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, after more than 5 and a half years, their work wasn’t over. Not only did they have to keep supplying vital intelligen
Intelligence Insight No. 004
April 2020
Many of Bletchley Park’s senior early war staff had cut their codebreaking teeth during World War One. In 2015 we opened an exhibition called The Road to Bletchley Park which looked at the work of Room 40 and MI1B. So following on from our previous Intelligence Insight we will be sharing again some interviews with the families of these famous Codebreakers of both conflicts.
Dillwyn ‘Dilly’ Knox started World War Two as GC&CS’s Chief Codebreaker but in World War One had been o
Intelligence Insight No. 003
April 2020
Over the years we have been very fortunate to welcome the families of some of our more famous Codebreakers for a visit to Bletchley Park. The families always have such an immense pride in their ancestors and the work they did for GC&CS and it’s always an honour for the podcast to sit down with them for our listeners.
Following on from our last podcast, Invasion Norway, where we looked at the vital work Harry Hinsley carried out in the Naval Section, we go back to 2017 when tw
E106 - Invasion Norway
April 2020
In early 1940, as winter turned to spring, the world waited for the ‘Phony war’ to end with the expected German attack in the west. But the leaders of both Allied and Axis forces were looking in another direction, to the north, to the snow and the steel, to Scandinavia.
Meanwhile in a wooden hut at Bletchley Park, recent recruit Harry Hinsley was certain a German fleet was preparing to set sail, but how could he, a 21-year-old civilian in a highly secret department, persuade the Ad
Intelligence Insight No. 002
April 2020
2017 was the centenary of a relatively little-known genius who went straight from studying mathematics at Cambridge to codebreaking for the Government Code and Cypher School. The crucial role that Bill Tutte played in the attack on the system used by Hitler and his high command, Lorenz, not only broke it but also helped paved the way for the creation of the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computer, Colossus.
Finally Bill received the recognition he so richly deserved
Intelligence Insight No. 001
March 2020
Bletchley Park Museum is currently closed as a precautionary measure to help contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Our staff and volunteers like so many around the world are in lockdown, self-isolation or working remotely from home.
Bletchley Parks CEO Iain Standen said “This isn’t the first time that Bletchley Park has operated at unprecedented times of national crisis and it is the values of those that have and still work here – understanding, collaboration, integrity,
E105 - Plunder on the Rhine
March 2020
As 1945 began, the Germans’ last roll of the dice in the Ardennes has failed. They were left to face the overwhelming force of men and materiel of the Allied armies approaching the Fatherland from all directions.
For the Allies in the west, the natural barrier of the Rhine River was all that lay between them and the open plains of Germany, and the last phase of the war in the west.
Meanwhile the Government Code & Cypher School at Bletchley Park were producing more intelligen
E104 - Challenge HQ
February 2020
In contrast to its roots as a top secret organisation, the name of Bletchley Park is now recognised around the world. Sharing Bletchley Park’s stories with our audiences through education is at the heart what we now do here. Since first opening the site as a museum in 1992, educational programming has been a crucial part of the work of Bletchley Park Trust.
Our Learning team of dedicated staff and volunteers now welcomes over 35,000 visitors to the site each year and reaches
E103 - Enigma Unlocked
January 2020
80 years ago, in January 1940, British and French troops were freezing in their dugouts awaiting a German attack which would not come for several months yet; the so-called ‘Phony war’.
Bletchley Park, by contrast was a hive of activity as efforts were made to break into German codes and ciphers, including the Enigma system, before the land war began in earnest.
In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode we are guided by Bletchley Park’s Research Historian Dr David Kenyon through the evo
E102 - Collegiate Connections
December 2019
During World War Two, 34 alumnae of St Hugh’s College Oxford ended up working at Bletchley Park and its Outstations and In March 2020 the college will be holding a symposium to celebrate them.
In this, the last of three episodes this month, our Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne tells us how this has opened up a potential new source for us to discover more of our Veterans and to hopefully capture more stories before it is too late.
The rest of this episode is given over to
E101 - Battle of the Bulge
December 2019
After nearly 6 months of fighting from the beaches of Normandy, by early December 1944 the Allies’ front line stretched for 600 miles from the North Sea coast to the borders of Switzerland. The Scheldt estuary had finally been cleared, allowing the port of Antwerp to be opened and to start to ease their supply problems.
With one of the coldest winters on record taking hold and Christmas approaching many of the front line troops probably expected a respite for at least a few w
E100 – Légion d’honneur
December 2019
At the end of each year we like to focus on the important work that our Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne and his team of staff and volunteers carry out. The interviews they record not only help to build a better picture of the vital work carried out here during World War Two but also help us develop new ways to share those stories with our visitors, such as exhibitions, family activities and online resources.
In this, the first of three episodes this month, we catch up with
E99 - 100 Years of Codebreaking
November 2019
In this month’s 2nd episode celebrating the anniversary of the creation of GCHQ, where better to learn more about those 100 years than in the heart of its current Headquarters.
We were given special permission to record within the walls of the famous ‘Doughnut’ building in Cheltenham. Our guide to those top secret corridors is GCHQ’s new official Historian David Abrutat.
With a century of codebreaking behind them, there is a rich history to dive into and it’s not just about
E98 - GCHQ at 100
November 2019
During WW1 the United Kingdom had two separate cryptographic organisations, the Navy’s Room 40 & the Army’s MI1(b). Both had major codebreaking success during the conflict but it was decided that after the war that they should merge.
On the 1st of November 1919 the Government Code & Cypher School or GC&CS was created. Best known for its work during WW2 at Bletchley Park, after the war its name was changed to one more familiar to us today GCHQ.
To mark the annive
E97 - Early Days
October 2019
“Gas masks are to be taken” so ends what seems a rather mundane government memo dated the 2nd of August 1939. It importance becomes apparent when you discover this was the Move Order sent to the staff of the Government Code and Cypher School.
As Hitler threatened Poland it seemed another war in Europe was inevitable, so it was decided the staff of GC&CS should move to their War Station in the Buckinghamshire countryside. With hindsight we now know that over the next 6 long
E96 - Market Garden
September 2019
By early September 1944, with the Normandy Campaign behind them, 6 Allied Armies were racing across Northern France and into the Low Countries. Ahead of them the remnants of the German Army were retreating to the borders of the Fatherland. To many on the Allied side it seemed that a bold action was all that was needed to finish the war by Christmas.
The plan called for a carpet of paratroopers to capture and hold bridges along a 64 mile road, allowing an armoured spearhead to
E95 - Veterans’ Reunion 2019
September 2019
Each year, to mark the arrival of the first Codebreakers at Station X in 1939 we hold our Veterans Reunion. This year it was made more poignant as the date fell on the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Poland.
The Reunion is always a very special day for us at Bletchley Park as it gives us the chance to thank our Veterans for their service. For the Veterans it is a chance to meet old friends, reminisce and tell stories of their time here.
This is the podcasts 8th reunio
E94 - 90 Days
August 2019
In earlier episodes this year we have concentrated on the preparations for, and the events of D-Day itself, the 6th of June. However D-Day was only the beginning of the Normandy Campaign.
The Allies had to face an enemy determined to throw them back in to the sea and it led to some of the bitterest fighting that Western Europe saw in WW2. It would eventually, after three months, end in a massive victory for the Allies and the liberation of Paris at the end of August 1944.
In
E93 - The GPO and GC&CS
July 2019
Most people now know of the work carried out by Tommy Flowers and his team that ultimately led to the design and construction of ‘Colossus’, the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computer. Flowers worked for the General Post Office at their Research Station at Dollis Hill but that work was just one part of the connection between the GPO and the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park.
With the opening this year of our new exhibition, D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion,
E92 - The D-Day Dodgers
July 2019
In this It Happened Here episode we leave the invasion of Western Europe and return to the hard fought battles of the Italian Campaign.
Since first invading in September 1943, Italy had been anything but the “soft underbelly” that Churchill had called it. Finally in the spring and summer of 1944, after months of being held back by German forces defending Italy, things started to move.
With the eyes of the world on Normandy the men fighting their way up the boot of Italy felt th
E91 – David Kenyon presents: Bletchley Park and D-Day
June 2019
On June the 6th 2019, Bletchley Park ran a number of events to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Never before seen handwritten decrypts were release to the public and we took over Twitter for the day to Tweet those very messages in real time, as if it was 1944. You can now find these messages on our website at www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/bletchley-park-and-d-day
In this episode we take you to the dining room of the iconic mansion and bring you the talk that our research his
E90 – Overlord
June 2019
75 years ago today, more than 150,000 allied troops were boarding planes, gliders and landing craft as they prepared to invade Fortress Europe in Operation Overlord, the Normandy Invasion. Meanwhile, 200 miles away in the Buckinghamshire countryside the Codebreakers of GC&CS were also ready and waiting.
A special section, known as NSV(X), spent the day decrypting German messages and forwarding that vital intelligence to allied commanders. In many cases only two hours after th
E89 - Bletchley Park and D-Day
May 2019
With the opening of D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion, the key role that Bletchley Park played in the success of the Normandy campaign is finally being told. Now, a new book written by our very own research historian, Dr David Kenyon adds even more depth to that story.
Using previously classified documents, David casts the work of Bletchley Park in a new light, as not just a codebreaking establishment, but as a fully developed intelligence agency. This account reveals th
E88 - The Tide of Victory
May 2019
It Happened Here this month takes us to a Britain who’s south coast in May 1944 resembled one huge army camp as over 2 million men waited for D-Day. In the Buckinghamshire countryside the staff at GC&CS carried on feeding detailed and crucial intelligence to the Allied forces that would play an integral part in the success of the upcoming Operation Overlord.
The Western Front Committee was established at Bletchley Park in October 1942 and for the next 18 months built up a co
E87 - D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion
April 2019
In this month’s episode we take you to the preview opening of a major new exhibition, D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion.
For 18 months prior to the launch of Overlord the staff at GC&CS produced intelligence that was integral to the invasion plans. The detailed picture that the codebreakers created of German forces in France made sure that as the troops hit the beaches on the 6th of June 1944, they knew almost as well as the Germans what to expect.
Based on r
E86 - From Cassino to Kohima
March 2019
In this It Happened Here episode we go back to the spring of 1944 when much of Europe, and indeed the world held its breath awaiting the ‘Second Front’ in Europe. This would be realised in June when Operation OVERLORD; the D-Day landings, began in France.
During that spring, however British and Allied troops were involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war, in Italy and in the Far East as the tide finally turned against the Japanese in Burma.
The codebreakers at B
E85 - Drama at Bletchley Park
February 2019
This month we leave the code breaking behind and focus on what became an important part of the Off-Duty time for many of the staff at GC&CS during World War 2.
Working long shifts and being far from the bright lights of London and other major towns, the staff of Bletchley Park organised much of their own entertainment. As early as 1940 the management recognised that the staff needed diversions to fill their down time and encouraged the organisation of many of these.
E84 - Second Front Now
January 2019
1943 had been a year of Turning Points in World War 2, but 75 years ago few people could have known for certain the monumental events that would unfold in 1944.
In this It Happened Here episode we take stock and look at the year ahead. The Big Three, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met together for the first time and took decisions that would ultimately lead to the 6th of June, D-Day.
In the wider war the Germans had bogged the Allies down on the Italian Front, while at
E83 - Bletchley Park & Beyond Part 2
December 2018
In this second of our two episodes this month we bring you two more interviews from our Oral History Archive.
Our Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne and his team have collected over 450 interviews in the last 7 years with our Veterans’. Now with the support of Milton Keynes Council the project is being extended to include local people with connections to the wartime Bletchley Park.
Judith Wainer couldn’t have been a closer neighbour to Station X as she lived on Wilton Avenue
E82 - Bletchley Park & Beyond Part 1
December 2018
In the first of two episodes this month we bring you three interviews of Veterans and local people from our Oral History Archive.
Our Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne and his team have collected over 450 interviews in the last 7 years. He tells us about a new project, being run with the support of Milton Keynes Council, to extend our archive to include local people with connections to the wartime Bletchley Park.
At the outbreak of World War 2 Val Pinker was a teenage
E81 - Inside GCHQ
November 2018
In this exclusive additional episode, podcast producer Mark Cotton was given special permission to record inside the normally top secret walls of GCHQ in Cheltenham.
There he met GCHQ’s Departmental Historian Tony Comer to talk about the life of a modern GCHQ insider, how it has changed over the last 3 decades and was given a guided tour of their own secret museum.
Tony also gives us some sneak peeks into how their upcoming Centenary in 2019 will be celebrated.
Grat
E80 – Eastcote From GC&CS to GCHQ
November 2018
In this month’s ‘It Happened Here’ we are marking 75 years since the establishment of the Eastcote Outstation, the site at which Bombe machines were operated from the autumn of 1943. By 1945 over 100 machines were at Eastcote along with over 800 Wrens and RAF technicians, and a small group of American GIs. How did it start and what was life there really like?
Bletchley Park’s research historian Dr David Kenyon tells us the complete story with help from our Archivist Guy Rev
E79 - Over Here & Over There
October 2018
In this It Happened Here episode we are going back to the autumn of 1943 and the invasion of Italy. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill saw it as strike at the Germans via the “soft underbelly of Europe”, while our American allies saw it as a “tough old gut”.
At a strategic level the allies may have had differing opinions but in the Intelligence War the cooperation grew closer with the increasing involvement of American personnel in the code breaking operations at GC&am
E78 - Veterans’ Reunion 2018 Part 2
September 2018
During World War Two more than 10,000 people worked for GC&CS either at Bletchley Park, it’s Outstations or connected branches both Civilian and Military. This gives us a wealth of different stories to be able to tell and in this second visit to this year’s Reunion we will bring you 3 more exclusive interviews with our Veterans.
Sergeant Stanley Clegg served from 1943 till 1945 in the RAF and with Special Liaison Unit 8 in North Africa, Italy and France. His fascinatin
E77 - Veterans’ Reunion 2018 Part 1
September 2018
Every year, close to the anniversary of GC&CS staff first arriving at Bletchley Park in 1939 we invite our Veterans and their families back to celebrate their vital war work. It’s our favourite day of the year at the Museum and it allows us to share their amazing stories with our listeners.
This year also coincides with the 80th anniversary of the formation of the Auxiliary Territorial Service or ATS, the woman’s branch of the British Army during World War 2. To celebr
E76 - Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party
August 2018
This is the second of two episodes this month.
In this It Happened Here episode we’ll be taking you further back than our normal 75 years, this time to September 1938.
Twenty years after The Great War, the clouds of conflict were once again looming across Europe. Hitler threatened Czechoslovakia and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Germany to try to avert war.
At the same time in Buckinghamshire, at an unassuming, recently purchased country house, activity w
E75 - Countdown to D-Day
August 2018
This is the first of two episodes this month.
In August 1943 at the Quebec Conference the Allies began the initial discussions for what would ultimate become Operation Overlord, the invasion of France in 1944. So it seems fitting that 75 years later Bletchley Park have released the plans for what will be an exciting new exhibition opening in spring 2019.
D-DAY: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion will tell the story of the vital role that GC&CS played in informing the D-Da
E74 - Sound and Vision
July 2018
This month we swing a shoe, meet the artist exploring the layers and fragmentation of the Bletchley Park story and hear from a Foreign Office clerk who thought she was going to be a spy.
Hear what happened when Bletchley Park played host to a Guinness World Record attempt at the largest swing dance lesson. The swing dance club, JiveSwing, led the couples, many of whom who’d turned out in their best vintage gear, in a half hour lesson followed by a three minute dance, to take a crac
E73 - Bond at Bletchley Park
June 2018
This month it’s all about 007. Bletchley Park has opened a new exhibition in historic Hut 12, featuring memos, letters and personal photographs of Ian Fleming, a fantastic collection of Bond novels through the decades and original, specially commissioned works by talented and innovative artists, inspired by scenes, themes and characters from Bond novels.
The Bond creator and author, Ian Fleming, worked in Naval Intelligence during World War Two, and had close links with Bletchley P
E72 - Fishing Season
May 2018
The Bletchley Park story is about more than Enigma. A different kind of traffic was also coming over the airwaves, being intercepted and mined for crucial intelligence. But it was generated by an even more fiendishly complex system than Enigma, which was itself believed to be unbreakable. Lorenz was the machine being used by Hitler and his high command to send top level, strategic messages. It was less portable and more secure than Enigma, but that didn’t defeat the boffins at Bletchl
E71 - The Bombe Breakthrough
April 2018
A brand new exhibition telling the story of the Bombe machines has opened in Hut 11a, where they were housed during World War Two.
Hundreds of Bombe machines were made and operated at both Bletchley Park and its outstations. This exhibition tells the story of how this incredible technological breakthrough came to be, and the stories of the people whose ingenuity and hard work made them both a reality and a success.
This episode takes you to the official opening of the exhibition
E70 - Secrets Revealed
March 2018
From the attempt to assassinate Hitler in July 1944, to orders to shoot dead any German soldier seen fleeing Riga as a cowardly traitor, the Hut 3 Headlines tell a story of World War Two in tiny snippet form. They were succinct summaries of Enigma messages sent by the German army and air force, intercepted and deciphered by Bletchley Park. These messages were then boiled down to the barest essentials to be sent to the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
He’s reputed to have wanted
E69 - From Cooks to Codebreakers
February 2018
Is Bletchley Park about codes, machines or people? Of those, the most fascinating stories come from the people who did this incredible job, and then kept it absolutely secret, for at least another 30 years.
Their memories are precious and it’s crucial that we capture as many as we can, so that future generations can read and listen to their first-hand accounts of not only their amazing achievements, but what life was like during those defining years.
A new exhibition in
E68 - Turning Points
January 2018
January is a good time to take stock and look at the year ahead. 75 years ago, it was January 1943 and, after a dark and difficult year, things were starting to look up.
By this time, Hut 8 had broken back into the naval Enigma codenamed Shark, after a devastating ten-month blackout. The daring raid on a sinking submarine which cost the lives of two brave sailors became a huge turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Elsewhere, five gruelling months drew to a close with th
E67 - In Their Words Part 2
December 2017
Bletchley Park’s Oral History project has been running for six years, interviewing more than 400 veterans so far. These personal testimonies capture the unique and precious memories of people who worked at Bletchley Park and its outstations.
Not only are these interviews a great source of historical facts, adding to what we know about the work carried out by the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two, they’re also a treasure trove of lesser-known details about t
E66 - In Their Words Part 1
December 2017
Bletchley Park’s Oral History project has been running for six years, interviewing more than 400 veterans so far. These personal testimonies capture the unique and precious memories of people who worked at Bletchley Park and its outstations.
Not only are these interviews a great source of historical facts, adding to what we know about the work carried out by the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two, they’re also a treasure trove of lesser-known details about t
E65 - Women at War
November 2017
This month, it’s all about women. A century ago, the Women’s Royal Naval Service - aka Wrens - were founded. They went on to play a crucial part in the codebreaking effort during World War Two.
By November 1917, Britain was three years into a bloody, devastating war. In this episode, we explore what kind of work women did during both wars and what they - and the men - thought of it. A new pop up exhibition is now open in the Visitor Centre at Bletchley Park, celebrating the con
E64 - The End of the Beginning
October 2017
75 years ago, one of the most decisive battles of World War Two marked the end of the beginning. El Alamein was of huge strategic importance to both the Allied and Axis forces in North Africa.
Rommel and Montgomery’s forces clashed twice. The second battle would become famous, making a household name of this obscure outpost.
The intelligence was a crucial weapon. Rommel’s attack plan was confirmed by intercepts which were deciphered and translated by the top secret Government
E63 - Veterans' Reunion 2017 Part 2
September 2017
There were so many memories shared at this year’s Veterans’ Reunion, that we’ve split this month’s episode into two parts. This time, we’ll hear some of the longer conversations, as people who spent part of their youth carrying out vital war work, tucked away in the Buckinghamshire countryside or at one of Bletchley Park’s equally secretive outstations. They went on to keep their lips sealed about what they’d done for at least another 30 years. Now, when the memories begin to fl
E62 - Veterans' Reunion 2017 Part 1
September 2017
More than 110 Veterans returned to Bletchley Park for this year’s reunion - the highest number in recent years. They came back to the headquarters of the Government Code and Cipher School, where they, among thousands of men and women, carried out vital war work which made a huge difference, not only to the outcome of World War Two, but to the digital age in which we live today.
Once in the tranquil grounds of the Victorian mansion, they met up with friends old and new, and too
E61 - Our 5th Anniversary
August 2017
Hear some of the best bits from five packed years of this podcast, primarily from the Veterans themselves, but also a smattering of prestigious visitors down the years, from movie stars to heads of foreign security agencies.
The highlight of the calendar at Bletchley Park is without doubt the annual Veterans’ Reunion, when people who worked at the Government Code and Cypher School and its outstations during World War Two return to revive and share their memories, helping to keep
E60 - PQ17 Disaster in the Arctic
July 2017
What happened when the Admiralty didn’t believe the intelligence coming from Bletchley Park? The answer; huge losses at sea. But this is not to suggest blame - hindsight can be cruel.
The Tirpitz was a much-feared German battleship - it was the biggest they had built. Bletchley Park provided intelligence under the banner of Ultra - the highest level of secrecy - that it had not yet set sail. But this reassuring news was not taken on board by the naval powers that be. Convoy PQ17 w
E59 - Bill Tutte
June 2017
Bill Tutte played a crucial role in deciphering messages between Hitler and his high command. Yet he remains one of Bletchley Park’s unsung heroes. This little-known genius went straight from studying mathematics at Cambridge to the Government Code and Cypher School, where he used his analytical brilliance to help break what was believed to be an unbreakable code. His work also paved the way for the creation of the world’s first semi-programmable computer, Colossus.
His breath-taki
E58 - Highs and Lows
May 2017
Highs and lows of the codebreaking operation at Bletchley Park are the subject of this month’s episode. There were a lot of lows, but it’s not all doom and gloom. We know how the war ended but, back then, the threat of invasion still hung in the air and Hitler’s forces were making great gains, not only in Europe. This was also around the time when the German Navy decided to tighten the security of its radio traffic in the Atlantic, where Allied shipping convoys were being found and su
E57 - Off Duty
April 2017
Bletchley Park’s brand new exhibition, Off Duty, High Spirits in Low Times, is now open. It explores what happened outside of the gruelling shifts the thousands of workers did, day and night. Wartime work at the Government Code and Cypher School was stressful and tiring - but the authorities understood it was important to keep staff happy - and healthy. We’ll hear from Veterans who gave an intimate Q&A session, which launched the exhibition.
Also this month, we hear memories f
E56 - Enter Japan
March 2017
This month’s It Happened Here story is a truly global one. It’s about what happened when the war was no longer just in Europe.
In December 1941, Japan entered World War Two. This meant intelligence gathering and processing became a far bigger and more complex task, which brought about the need for a significant expansion of the top secret operation at Bletchley Park.
We'll hear from two of the women who worked on Japanese codes at Bletchley Park, Betty Webb and Mary Every, who h
E55 - Unique and Precious Memories
February 2017
This month we celebrate the unique and precious memories being gathered in Bletchley Park’s Oral History Project.
Jean Kotchie was a Royal Navy Wren who worked on the noisy, smelly Bombe machines which helped speed up the daily race against time to find the Enigma settings on hundreds of networks, so that messages could be deciphered in enough time to make the intelligence operationally pin-sharp. Hers is a story of oil stains, monotony and exhaustion in the rural outreaches o
E54 - The Zimmermann Telegram
January 2017
The Zimmermann Telegram tells the story of how the US became embroiled in World War One. The threat from Germany came home to the United States 100 years ago this month, courtesy of an intercepted telegram sent by the German Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann. The tricky thing was, British intelligence didn’t want the US finding out they were reading what was coming over those cables. That made it rather difficult to warn the US, without giving the game away and thereby doing en
E53 - You might have heard of
December 2016
Fifty years after World War Two, a farewell party was held for Veterans of the Government Code and Cypher School, at the ramshackle site where they had carried out vital intelligence work. It was about to be bulldozed for housing, but the party bolstered a burgeoning desire to save and preserve it for future generations. Then, more so than now, Codebreakers from all levels of the organisation were able to attend and enjoy the reunion.
As a result, the 14 hours of audio recorde
E52 - Everything but the work
November 2016
Fun, food and friendships at 1940s Bletchley Park were among the most popular topics of conversation at the party that saved the site. Travel back 25 years for another dip into the memories shared by the Veterans that day in 1991, about everything but the work - from digs to dances.
It was quite a party, carefully timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the letter sent to Churchill, asking for more resources. Sent in 1941, the letter opened the door for Bletchley Park to
E51 - The Party that Saved Bletchley Park
October 2016
The Party that Saved Bletchley Park takes you back 25 years, to the first Veterans’ reunion.
On 19 October 1991 Bletchley Park was about to be bulldozed for housing. A group of local historians organised the first - and, they thought, last - reunion of Veterans of the Government Code and Cypher School in the very buildings where they did their war work. They believed it would be a chance for the Veterans to have one last look around the site before it was consigned to history, a
E50 - The Welchman Connection
September 2016
Action This Day! In our historic anniversary-based series, It Happened Here, we look at a paper-based act of daring which changed the course of history.
Seventy five years ago Winston Churchill visited Bletchley Park, amid the utmost secrecy. He understood how important the intelligence being produced was, and valued it highly. He gave a morale-boosting speech to the Codebreakers, and we hear from Sir Arthur Bonsall, who stumbled across the PM on his way to lunch.
Once the
E49 - Enigma from the other side
August 2016
Hear from a German Enigma operator for the first time in the August 2016 episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Enigma from the other side.
Sharing her unique story as part of Bletchley Park’s Oral History Project, Irmgard Enge, later Copley, tells how she was part of a secret operation to make sure the Allies did not find out how badly German aeroplanes and munitions factories were being damaged by bombs. She also recalls friendly - and less friendly - French people living near
E48 - Pinches and Breaks
July 2016
Dive into stories of stolen intelligence treasures which helped turn the tide in the Battle of the Atlantic in the July 2016 episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Pinches and Breaks.
As part of the historic anniversary-based series, It Happened Here, we hear from Arnold Hargreaves, a seaman aboard HMS Bulldog, who boarded the captured German submarine, U110, and still has the spoils today. An Enigma machine, codebooks and other vital documents were among the haul taken from the U-
E47 - No Sleep on VE Day
June 2016
No Sleep on VE Day, a brand new episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, is out now. Cynthia Humble was an intercept operator in the ATS from 1944 and was stationed at Forest Moor in the Yorkshire countryside. There she listened intently to enciphered Morse signals which were whisked off to a place she and her colleagues knew only as Station X.
Her memories of the intense work, the somewhat rationed but sparkling social life and how she and her watch did not sleep a wink on VE Day, d
E46 - The Bismarck
May 2016
This month in the Bletchley Park Podcast’s It Happened Here series, we tell the story of The Bismarck. The iconic German battleship was sunk by the Royal Navy 75 years ago. While this clearly did not happen at Bletchley Park, but in the Atlantic Ocean, codebreaking and some of the pioneering techniques developed as part of it played a crucial role in locating the flagship of the German fleet.
Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, explains how work going on in wooden
E45 - Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance
April 2016
This episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance, celebrates five years since Bletchley Park’s Oral History project began in earnest.
This rich archive has grown to more than three hundred interviews and this month we begin to celebrate its fifth anniversary, by sharing the very first interview that was carried out under its auspices.
Doris Marshall, nee Phillips, lived just outside the boundaries of Bletchley Park and her family welcomed a number
Extra - E49 - Bletchley's Foreign Relations with Tony Comer Part 2
March 2016
In November 2015, the GCHQ Departmental Historian made a rare public appearance as part of the Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. Tony gave a talk titled International Partnerships - Bletchley's Foreign Relations. In this second part of his talk he picks up the story with the fundamental work on Enigma carried out by Polish Codebreakers in the years running up to the start of World War Two and the start of the UK US relationship.
The simultaneous management of different level
Its significance resonates down to today
March 2016
Dr David A Hatch, NSA Historian, explains the huge historic significance of the letter sent by General Dwight D Eisenhower, the five-star general in the United States Army during World War Two who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, to the Chief of MI6, Stuart Menzies, at the end of the war, thanking him for the intelligence produced by Bletchley Park.
In it, Eisenhower says “The intelligence … has saved thousands of British and American lives.” The letter
E44 - Bombe Girls
March 2016
In this month’s brand new episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Bombe Girls, meet some of the trailblazing women who were assigned to Special Duties X or posted to HMS Pembroke 5 when they joined the Wrens (Women’s Royal Naval Service or WRNS).
These women found themselves at Bletchley Park - or, in many cases - at one of its huge, industrial outstations on the fringes of London - operating state of the art machines created to speed up the process of finding the daily Enigma se
Extra - E48 - Bletchley's Foreign Relations with Tony Comer Part 1
March 2016
In November 2015, the GCHQ Departmental Historian made a rare public appearance as part of the Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. Tony gave a talk titled International Partnerships - Bletchley's Foreign Relations. In this first part of his talk he examined how foreign partnerships became an integral part of British signals intelligence shortly before World War Two.
Although parts of the story are told, the meeting with the Poles in Warsaw in July 1939, and the arrival of the
E43 - The Special Relationship
February 2016
75 years ago, a tentative meeting was held late at night, aided by sherry, in the office of Alastair Denniston, then Head of the Government Code and Cypher School.
It was to prove an important turning point in the history of both the UK and the US. That night, as intelligence secrets were shared, the Special Relationship was founded. That alliance continues to be crucial to both nations today.
To celebrate this anniversary, the Directors of GCHQ and the NSA visited Bletchley
E42 - It Happened Here
January 2016
Throughout 2016, the Bletchley Park Podcast will tell stories of the Codebreakers’ successes and agonies - all of which they kept completely secret.
This month, it’s not German and it’s not Enigma. With help from Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon, we look into the high level Italian ciphers being broken by Bletchley Park, which impacted significantly on the war in North Africa. There was a continuing dance of difficulty between the codebreaking operation in C
Celebrating family pride
December 2015
Veterans’ families encouraged to join community and buy a brick
Pride burns bright in relatives of the men and women whose secret work at Bletchley Park and its outstations helped shorten World War Two.
The Bletchley Park Trust is in touch with more than 1,500 Veterans of the clandestine codebreaking organisation, the Government Code and Cypher School. Many more are no longer with us.
Now, for the first time, the Trust is reaching out to its Veterans’ families to join a glo
The Petard Pinch
December 2015
A story full of heroism and tragedy is now told at Bletchley Park in a new mini exhibition.
The Petard Pinch was the seizure of vital codebooks from a sinking U-Boat in which two young men drowned. But they didn’t die in vain - the intelligence treasures they captured were extremely valuable. They allowed the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park to break back into the naval Enigma network Shark, after a devastating ten month blackout.
Image: Petard Crew 1942 ©The Petard Association
E41 - Best Ever Year
December 2015
Bletchley Park has had its best ever year. In the whole of 2014, 196,000 people came to discover the secret world of World War Two codebreaking and this year, with nearly a month still to go, the figure stands at more than 280,000 thousand.
New exhibitions which opened this year included The Road to Bletchley Park, about codebreaking during World War One, and the little-known story of one of World War Two’s forgotten heroes, Gordon Welchman. Among the treasures which went on sh
Extra - E47 - How computers were used against Hitler
December 2015
Professor Jack Copeland, Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing, celebrated another forgotten hero of Bletchley Park, Max Newman, as part of the Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. His August talk ‘How Computers Were Used Against Hitler’, was a huge success.
Professor Copeland explored the story of little-recognised Codebreaker Max Newman, whose work was fundamental to the construction of the first electronic computer, Colossus. The section he founded
Extra - E46 - Last chance to see That is All You Need to Know
November 2015
Time is running out to see That is All You Need to Know, an original play which shines a light on the Home of the Codebreakers.
Created by theatre company, Idle Motion, the work pulls together three different strands of Bletchley Park’s history; Alan Turing and his team breaking the Enigma code during World War Two, Gordon Welchman writing his ground-breaking book, The Hut Six Story, in the 1970s and the campaign to save the site for posterity in the 1990s.
That is All You Ne
Did Churchill know Coventry was about to be bombed?
November 2015
In the throes of war, difficult decisions have to be made. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was fully aware that Bletchley Park was breaking German codes, and even received regular digests of the intelligence gleaned, known as Hut 3 Headlines.
However, a myth was born in the mid-1970s that remains in circulation even now. The theory was that messages decoded by Bletchley Park warned Churchill that the Luftwaffe was heading for Coventry on 14 November 1940, and that he allowed t
E40 - The Coventry Myth
November 2015
Hindsight can be cruel. The conspiracy theory that Churchill allowed Coventry to be bombed beyond recognition, killing hundreds of civilians, in order to protect the Ultra secret - that Bletchley Park was breaking German codes - is a myth.
In this episode we bring you memories of the devastating air raid on Coventry, which took place 75 years ago, on 14 November 1940. Hear from Sir Arthur Bonsall, who worked in the German Air Section, debunking the myth. And Bletchley Park’s R
When she speaks of Bletchley, a light comes into her eyes
November 2015
Sarah Harding’s mother remembers Bletchley Park as a happy place. Dorothy Harding, nee Thompson, worked as a Morse slip reader in the Communications Centre from 1943 to the end of the war.
Many years later, Sarah directed the hit ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle, about four fictional women who worked at the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two and, some ten years later, regrouped in secret to solve mysteries including murder.
Now Sarah is joining a worldwide
Extra - E45 - Anthony and Michael de Grey - Cementing Family Ties
October 2015
The Bletchley Park Trust is reaching out to Veterans’ families, to create a worldwide community of people with a special link to this unique piece of British history. The Trust is inviting relatives of the Codebreakers to cement their family ties with the breath-taking achievements of the Bletchley Park operation during World War Two. Their names and the importance of what they did was once shrouded in secrecy, but can now be celebrated in perpetuity.
For the next six months Vet
E39 - Forgotten Genius
October 2015
In Forgotten Genius, the October 2015 episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, we take you to the opening of a brand new, fascinating exhibition about Gordon Welchman, Bletchley Park’s Architect of Ultra Intelligence. Hear from Welchman’s granddaughter, Jennifer, who flew in specially to be at the launch and from his Hut 6 colleague, Jimmy Thirsk, who at the age of 101 is one of the last few of his kind left.
Also featured is the grandson of a man who was involved in Codebreaking
Last chance to see The Imitation Game, The Exhibition
October 2015
You’ve seen the Oscar winning film, now visit the set and get a rare insight into how the story of genius Codebreaker Alan Turing was brought to life. Benedict Cumberbatch said Filming at Bletchley Park was amazing. It was a very important part of the film.
In the Ballroom and Billiard Rooms of the Mansion, this atmospheric exhibition is all about the making of The Imitation Game, in the very room where the bar scenes were filmed.
Among the many behind the scenes gems are sec
Extra - E44 - Commander Dennistons Granddaughters
September 2015
On 29 July Bletchley Park’s Royal Patron, HRH The Duke of Kent, officially opened the major new exhibition, The Road to Bletchley Park, telling the story of codebreaking during World War One. Many of those World War One Codebreakers went on to work at Bletchley Park during World War Two. Among them was Alastair Denniston the first operational head of the Government Code and Cypher School.
The August episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast featured an edited version of an intervi
Rory Cellan-Jones - Loebner Prize Judge
September 2015
Chatbots have yet to fool the judges of the Loebner Prize into believing they’re human at the Loebner Prize. The 25th annual Artificial Intelligence competition, which puts the Turing test into practice, has ended without any of the judges being duped.
The BBC’s Technology Correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, was one of the four judges. He says it was easy to tell which of the conversations were with humans and which were with bots. When he started talking about keeping slugs off
Bletchley Park Presents Gordon Corera
September 2015
On 18 October the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera, will give a talk at Bletchley Park about his new book which traces the intertwined history of computing and espionage, Intercept – The Secret History of Computers and Spies.
The computer was born to spy. Under the intense pressure of the Second World War and in the confines of Bletchley Park, the work of men like Alan Turing and Tommy Flowers led to the birth of the computing age. It was a breakthrough that helped
E38 - We Meet Again
September 2015
Nearly ninety Veterans of the Government Code and Cypher School and its many outstations gathered at Bletchley Park on Sunday 6 September, to reminisce and meet old friends and new.
After a summer of 70th anniversary commemorations, it was a chance for people who worked in secret at both Bletchley Park and its outstations to remember their contribution. They took the opportunity to bring their friends and families to soak up the atmosphere back in the very buildings where the
VJ Day - when it was still a secret
August 2015
Seventy years ago on the 15th August 1945, small group of young women were quietly at work in Hut 16 at Bletchley Park. They included twins Valerie and Mary Glassborow, who later married brothers and among whose grandchildren was a girl who became HRHThe Duchess of Cambridge.
Marion Graham (later Body) was also in that room in Hut 16, which Hut 6 was renamed as the codebreaking factory that was Bletchley Park grew and developed throughout World War Two. She recalls a moment of gr
E37 - Royal Patron
August 2015
In this episode we take you to the royal launch of a major new exhibition, which looks at the roots of codebreaking as we know it. The Road to Bletchley Park was officially opened on July the 29th by Bletchley Park’s Royal Patron, HRH, The Duke of Kent. We have interviews with the designer, a sponsor, our friendly GCHQ Historian & family members of two of the WW1 codebreakers.
This episode also features highlights of the last three years’ Veterans’ Reunions, as this year’s ap
The Road to Bletchley Park
Today Bletchley Park’s Royal Patron, HRH The
Duke of Kent, will officially open a major new
exhibition telling the story of Codebreaking in
World War One, The Road to Bletchley Park.
The Duke will meet representatives of the
exhibition’s sponsors, BAE Systems and
Ultra Electronics, as well as visiting new
displays and exhibitions updated since
his last visit in 2009.
Timed to coincide with the exhibition opening,
the Bletchley Park Trust is delighted to republish
a unique parody of A
E36 - Find a Codebreaker in your family
July 2015
This brand new episode celebrates five years of the Roll of Honour, which aims to record all those who worked at Bletchley Park and its outstations during World War Two. It now holds nearly 11 thousand names, as well as a rich archive of memories, anecdotes and photographs.
Also this month, hear from Bletchley Park Veteran Betty Webb MBE, about how keeping news of her honour secret for seven weeks was harder than sticking to the Official Secrets Act for more than 30 years. Betty w
E35 - The Road to Bletchley Park
June 2015
This month’s episode provides a peek at a major new exhibition at Bletchley Park, about
codebreaking during World War One. The roots of Bletchley Park’s codebreaking success in World War Two can be clearly traced back to WW1, when several of the key figures of the Government Code and Cypher School were already engaged in the business of snooping into the enemy’s communications. The Road to Bletchley Park traces the roots of this codebreaking powerhouse back one hundred years. The exh
E34 - Remembering VE Day & Beyond
May 2015
First this month we talk to our official photographer Shaun Armstrong who’s pictures help to tell the story of our new exhibition; Bletchley Park Rescued and Restored. Shaun was on hand to capture images from the start of the £8 million phase one restoration project, right through to the official opening in June 2014 by HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.
Sarah Harding, director of the 2nd series of The Bletchley Circle was one of last years speakers in our Bletchley Park Presents series
Bletchley Park Veterans remember VE Day
May 2015
70 years ago on May the 7th 1945
General Jodl signed the unconditional
surrender of all German forces in
Europe. The next day then
became Victory in Europe Day.
In this clip we bring you some of the
sounds from those two monumental
days along with the memories of some
of our amazing Veterans that we have
had the honour to interview over nearly
three years now.
This clip includes,
Betty Flavell
(WRNS 1944-1945)
Joyce Roberts
(WAAF 1945-1947)
Dot Tuffin
(WRNS 1943-1945)
E33 - Rescued and Restored
April 2015
This month we take you into our new Hut 12 Exhibit; Rescued and Restored, showcasing historical treasures found during the transformation of the Huts and Blocks. When conservation specialists were brought in to rescue fragile, derelict buildings as part of the much needed first phase of restoration, little could they know what they might find. In the cracks between roof beams in Hut 6 they discovered folded pieces of what appear to be scrap paper, with mysterious notes scribbled on
E32 - Turings Pay Tribute
March 2015
This month join us on a very special tour of Bletchley Park, when more than twenty members of Alan Turing’s family gathered to pay tribute to his contribution to the war-winning intelligence that emerged from this unassuming country estate. It was a poignant visit for members of his family, some of whom had never been before and most who’d never met the man. Sir John Dermot Turing, a Trustee of Bletchley Park and Alan Turing’s nephew, took the opportunity to talk about exciting plan
Extra - E43 - Ben Macintyre - A Spy Among Friends
March 2014
In this EXTRA’s episode we bring you highlights of bestselling author, journalist and TV presenter Ben Macintyre’s talk on his book ‘A Spy Among Friends, Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal’.
Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War.
It is followed by the interview we recorded with Ben after his talk, that r
Free School Trips To Bletchley Park
February 2015
Bursaries for disadvantaged schools have
Been added to Bletchley Park’s expanding
education programme
Winton Global Investment Management is
funding a pilot bursary scheme to allow free
school trips to Bletchley Park.
Bletchley Park welcomes more than 9,000
schoolchildren every year to its thriving
education programme. The bursaries will
be available to schools which might be most
in need of financial support. Each bursary will
cover the cost of coach hire and 40 chil
E31 - Telling The World
February 2015
This month best-selling author, journalist and TV presenter Ben Macintyre talks to us about his latest book, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. Ben spoke to us after his sell out talk last year in our Bletchley Park Presents lecture series. Tickets are on sale now for the 2015 talks which already includes Michael Smith, Victor Madeira, Jerry White, Taylor Downing and Sinclair Mackay, with more speakers to be announced soon.
Then we bring you this month’s m
THE IMITATION GAME Oscar Nominations
January 2015
The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch
& Kiera Knightley, has been nominated for 8 Oscar’s
Best Picture
Benedict Cumberbatch for Actor in a Leading Role
Kiera Knightley for Actress in a Supporting Role
Directing
Film Editing
Music (Original Score)
Production Design
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The 87th Academy Awards will be held in Los
Angeles on February the 22nd 2015.
Trailer, Music & Picture: © Black Bear Pictures/Studio Canal
#BPark, #Blet
E30 - Crucial Contributions
January 2015
This month we are celebrating a cast of thousands who all made Crucial Contributions.
Back in November, the families of the three Polish codebreaking geniuses, whose work proved invaluable in the breaking of Enigma, visited Bletchley Park.
We take a look ahead at what’s new in 2015 with Bletchley Park’s Director of Learning and Collections, Victoria Worpole.
A memorial plaque has been unveiled at the site of Bletchley Park’s largest outstation at Eastcote, where Bombe mach
Extra - E42 - 2014 Christmas Special
December 2014
Bletchley Park Podcast – 2014 Christmas Special.
2014 has been a landmark year at Bletchley
Park. It’s seen the transformation of the site,
returning it to its wartime glory with phase
one of the restorations. Royalty returned with
not one but two Veterans in the family this time,
and the stranger than fiction story of Alan Turing
hit the silver screen.
Join podcast host Katherine and producer Mark
as they take you on a virtual trip around the
park and back through the y
Help Bletchley Park hit 200,000 visitors in 2014
December 2014
It’s been an extraordinary year at Bletchley Park
and the icing on the cake would be to reach a
record-breaking attendance level of 200,000
visitors before 31 December 2014.
We can do it with the help of our listeners.
The 200,000th visitor will be celebrated with
prizes and greetings from Bletchley Park VIPs.
Picture: ©mcfontaine
#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #AlanTuring,
#ImitationGame
E29 - Ghosts of Bletchley Park
December 2014
This month we again have more exclusive
content for you from The Imitation Game.
Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Alan
Turing in the film, tells us about how nerve
wracking, special and even ghostly it was
filming scenes at Bletchley Park.
We also take you to the opening of The
Imitation Game, The Exhibition, which was
held at the Home of The Codebreakers with
a special screening of the film. BBC 3 Counties
Jane Killick and our own roving podcast reporter
Astrid Spech
E28 - Benedict Cumberbatch on Bletchley Park
November 2014
With only a couple of weeks till the UK release
of THE IMITATION GAME, we can now bring
you more exclusive interviews with the cast
and crew.
Our roving reporter Astrid Specht braved the
rain with patient fans at The Odeon Leicester
Square for the London Film Festival premiere
last month.
Podcast host Katherine Lynch sits down with
Director Morton Tyldum, screen writer Graham
Moore and actors Allen Leech and Matthew
Beard.
We also bring you what was a very special
m
E27 - From The Red Carpet
October 2014
This month we come to you from the red carpet at
The Odeon Leicester Square for the premiere of
THE IMITATION GAME. The movie based on the
life and work of Codebreaker Alan Turing was
picked to open the prestigious 2014 BFI London
Film Festival.
To celebrate the film’s release in UK cinemas on
the 14th of November, Bletchley Park will open
a major new exhibition, taking visitors behind the
scenes of this highly anticipated movie. We’ll bring
you more on that next month
THE IMITATION GAME at Bletchley Park
October 2014
To celebrate the release of THE IMITATION GAME
in UK cinemas on 14 November, Bletchley Park will
open a major new exhibition, taking visitors behind
the scenes of the highly anticipated movie. The
exhibition will open on Tuesday 4 November with
an exclusive preview screening of the film for a
select audience at Bletchley Park. The same
evening, this vibrant heritage attraction will preview
a major new exhibition all about the making of the
film, in the very room where the
Extra - E41 - Codebreakers’ Legacy - Joel Greenberg
September 2014
In this final highlight from last year’s sell-out day of talks,
Codebreakers’ Legacy, Dr. Joel Greenberg talks about
the vitally important work of another lesser known figure
from GC&CS, Gordon Welchman.
Welchman designed changes to Alan Turing’s Bombe
Machine which was used throughout the war to find the
daily settings for Enigma. He also drew up the
organisational plan for Bletchley Park which ultimately
would enable it to become a “Codebreaking Factory”.
Joel is
Hurricane Fly Past at Bletchley Park
September 2014
As part of our annual Veteran’s Reunion this year
there was a fly past by a Hurricane of the RAF’s
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
14,533 Hurricanes had been built by the end of
World War 2, but sadly, today, there are only 12
still airworthy worldwide; only 6 of those in UK.
The BBMF is proud to operate two of these
historically important and rare aircraft.
For more information on The BBMF please go to http://www.raf.mod.uk/bbmf/
The beautiful picture accompanyi
E26 - Walking Among Them
September 2014
This month we bring you a special episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, from the Annual Veterans' Reunion.
2014 is a landmark year for Bletchley Park, marking not only 75th anniversary of the Government Code and Cypher School getting its vital war work underway, but also the completion of £8 million worth of much-needed restoration, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. At this year’s reunion many of the Veterans saw those renovations for the first time.
Bletchley Park's
Veterans’ Reunion marks 75th Anniversary of Bletchley Park
September 2014
As well as marking the 75th anniversary of the
Government Code and Cypher School getting its
vital war work underway, this year’s annual
Veterans’ Reunion will give many their first chance
to see how Bletchley Park has been transformed.
2014 is a landmark year for the Bletchley Park
Trust, marking not only 75 years since the
Codebreakers got cracking on the task of
breaking enemy codes and ciphers, but also
the completion of a much-needed £8 million
restoration project
Extra - E40 - Codebreakers’ Legacy – Jack Copeland
September 2014
Professor Jack Copeland talks about ‘one of his greatest
heroes’ Tommy Flowers, from his early life & career leading
to working with the Bletchley Park Codebreakers.
Jack explains the task faced when in mid-1942 the German
High Command started to use a new encryption device, the
Lorenz SZ40/42. The attack on Tunny, as it was dubbed by
GC&CS, would involve some of the greatest codebreakers we
had, Alan Turing, Bill Tutte & Max Newman.
It would culminate in
Extra - E39 - Gwendoline Page
August 2014
In July, as part of the Bletchley Park Presents series of
talks, four women whose diverse roles within the
Government Code & Cypher School during World War
Two give a rare insight into the inner workings of this
top secret organisation.
One of those women was WREN Gwendoline Page who
worked first in the Naval Section at Bletchley Park,
indexing U-boat signals & later on the Japanese vessels
index based in Colombo.
After her talk, at the end of a very long day, sh
E25 - Inspiring Women
August 2014
This month’s episode is all about Inspiring Women.
We first take you to the launch of McAfee’s Cyber Security Exhibition and Computer Learning Zone which was held in the ballroom. The focus is on Online Safety for all ages, but especially children, as well as encouraging more women
to Cyber Security. We have highlights of the speeches from McAffee’s Ross Allen & Raj Samani, Natalie Black of The Cabinet Office & Bletchley Park Trust Chairman Sir John Scalett, as well as i
Signals Intelligence in World War One
August 2014
As the centenary of World War One is marked, Bletchley
Park looks back at the early intelligence career of one of
its lesser-known geniuses.
In this extract, recorded at the Codebreaker’s Legacy Talks
in November 2013, bestselling author and Bletchley Park
Trustee Michael Smith charts the World War One service
of John Tiltman, Bletchley Park's Chief Cryptographer, who
was awarded the Military Cross fighting in the trenches.
After being badly wounded in the Battle of Arras
Pyry Forest Meeting - 75th Anniversary
July 2014
On 26 and 27 July 1939 one of the most important events
in the history of intelligence took place in the woods outside
Warsaw. Just three weeks before the Government Code
and Cypher School (GC&CS) moved to its War Station at
Bletchley Park, its Head, Alastair Denniston, and its Chief
Cryptanalyst, Dilly Knox, travelled to Warsaw to meet
their Polish and French equivalents to share all they
knew about Enigma.
At a commemorative ceremony in Warsaw held earlier
this month
Extra - E38 - Lady Marion Body
July 2014
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge visited Bletchley
Park on the 18th of June to mark the officially opening
of the 8.5 million pound restorations, but she also
had a much more personal reason for her visit as
both her paternal grandmother & great aunt worked
in Hut 16 at The Government Codes and Cipher
School during World War 2.
Lady Marion Body worked alongside the twins, Valerie
and Mary Glassborow and one of the highlights of the
Royal Visit was when the Princess sat down
E24 - HRH The Duchess of Cambridge at Bletchley Park
July 2014
This month we take you behind the scenes during
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge’s visit on 18 June,
meeting the Veteran who worked with her grandmother
and some of those involved in the transformation of
Bletchley Park.
Valerie Glassborow, The Duchess of Cambridge’s
paternal grandmother, worked as a Foreign Office
Civilian, towards the end of the war, alongside her
twin sister, Mary, in Hut 16. They went on to marry
the Middleton brothers. But before that, they shared
a very s
Bletchley Park Presents - Guy Burt & Sarah Harding
July 2014
This September, Bletchley Park Presents Guy Burt
and Sarah Harding, the creative partnership which
brought us the second series of the hit ITV drama,
The Bletchley Circle. As part of the prestigious
Bletchley Park Presents lecture series, Guy will tell
the story behind this ripping yarn, exploring how
he created the strong female characters and why
he based their lasting bond at Bletchley Park during
World War Two.
Sarah Harding, Director of the second two-part story
in se
Sir John Scarlett - McAfee Cyber Security Exhibit Launch
June 2014
McAfee, part of Intel Security, today announced the
official opening of its international Cyber Security
Exhibition and Computer Learning Zone at Bletchley
Park, as part of its five-year collaborative partnership
with the home of the World War Two Codebreakers.
Sir John Scarlett gave a speech on the impact and
importance of Bletchley Park, online safety and the
role of women in Cyber Security.
Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com
#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #enigma, #McAfee,
Extra - E37 - Royal Visit with BBC 3 Counties
June 2014
On Wednesday 18 June, Her Royal Highness The Duchess
of Cambridge visited Bletchley Park to mark completion of
the eight million pound, Heritage Lottery Fund supported
restoration project. This uniquely historic site has been
restored to its wartime glory, enabling visitors to experience
what it was like for the Codebreakers who worked here and
creating a permanent and fitting tribute to those extraordinary
men and women.
Among the honoured guests was Nick Coffer from BBC T
E23 - The Transformation of Bletchley Park
June 2014
The transformation of Bletchley Park is now complete & on
the 18th of June, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge will visit
to launch the completed restoration. In this month’s episode
we take you inside Code breaking Huts 3 and 6 & the new
Block C Visitor Centre with the first people to see them
restored to their wartime glory; the Veterans themselves.
We join RAF Veteran Sergeant Bernard Morgan when he
met his modern day equivalent, RAF Aerospace Battle
Manager, Flight Lie
The Crucial Link - Bletchley Park & the D-Day Deception
June 2014
The importance of Bletchley Park’s role in the D-Day
deception should not be underestimated.
Messages decrypted at Bletchley Park showed that the
feint had been swallowed whole, leading Germany to
believe that the invasion would be at the Pas de Calais
rather than Normandy.
Katherine Lynch talked to Bletchley Park’s Senior Archivist,
Richard Lewis, and historian and founding member of the
Bletchley Park Trust, Peter Westcombe.
Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com
#BPar
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge Visit to Bletchley Park
May 2014
The Duchess of Cambridge will visit Bletchley Park,
on Wednesday 18 June 2014 to mark the completion
of the year-long restoration project, which has restored
the site to its World War Two appearance.
Her Royal Highness will view the restored location, tour
the WW2 Codebreaking Huts and will hear about the
achievements of the Codebreakers whose work is said
to have helped shorten the war by two years.
During the visit, Her Royal Highness will meet
Codebreaker veterans who w
Extra - E36 - Codebreakers’ Legacy - Michael Smith
May 2014
Bestselling author & Bletchley Park Trustee, Michael Smith
discusses the life & work of John Tiltman, whom many
consider may have been Britain’s greatest ever code breaker.
For these highlights we have concentrated on the lesser
known parts of Tiltman’s life, both before & after his time at
Bletchley Park.
This talk was recorded at last year’s sell-out day of talks,
Codebreakers’ Legacy. If you would like to attend a similar
event in the Bletchley Park Presents s
Velocity Launch - How Bletchley Park Overcame Adversity
May 2014
Bletchley Park CEO Iain Standen has told a new
support hub for businesses how focusing on the
fascinating story of World War Two Codebreaking
helped transform Bletchley Park from a ramshackle,
derelict site into a vibrant heritage attraction.
Velocity, a new growth hub for ambitious small and
medium-sized enterprises across the South East
Midlands, was launched in the newly-restored Block C
Visitor Centre at Bletchley Park on Friday 23 May. It will
help businesses unlock the
Elizabeth Marshall - A Very, Very Secret Place
May 2014
When Elizabeth Marshall, nee Tatham, was recruited
to Bletchley Park in 1944, she was told “This is a
very, very secret place. You must never breathe a
word of what you do here.”
Every one of the ten thousand or so men and women
who worked for the Government Code and Cypher
School, a mixture of military and civilians, was sworn
to lifelong secrecy. During a visit to Bletchley Park,
Elizabeth recalled “We were told ‘your family and
your friends must not know.’ We sat there abs
Loebner Prize to call Bletchley Park home
May 2014
The Loebner Prize is making Bletchley Park its permanent
home. The competition is modelled on Alan Turing’s
famous test, which suggests that a thinking computer’s
responses would, in conversation, be able to convince a
panel of judges that it is human.
The Loebner Prize was founded and is sponsored by
Dr Hugh Loebner, a New York philanthropist. He says
“The competition is the longest running Turing test.”
Since the competition’s inception in 1991, no computer
has yet managed
E22 - A Very, Very Secret Place
May 2014
This month, we learn about the doomed German plans
to invade Britain in 1940 with Historian & founding
member of the Bletchley Park Trust, Peter Wescombe
as we join him in the Bletchley Park Archive.
We also take you to the launch of the biography of
one of Bletchley Park’s lesser known geniuses,
Gordon Welchman. Joel Greenberg has been reading up
on & researching Bletchley Park’s World War Two
history since the 1970s. He is a Volunteer Tour
Guide & works part t
Operation Sealion - A Doomed Venture
May 2014
As the 70th anniversary of D-Day approaches, original
Bletchley Park Trust member & Historian Peter Westcombe,
compares the meticulous planning which preceded the
Normandy landings with the doomed German plot to invade
Britain much earlier in World War Two, Operation SEALION.
You can hear more of this interview with Peter in the next
episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, out on the 10th of May.
©Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ
#BPark, #Bletchleypa
Bletchley Park Presents - The Real Women of Bletchley Park
April 2014
On the 20th of July 2014, Bletchley Park proudly
presents four women whose diverse roles within
the Government Code and Cypher School during
World War Two give a rare insight into the inner
workings of this top secret organisation.
Ruth Bourne, Gwendoline Page, Jean Valentine
and Charlotte (Betty) Webb will each give a
personal glimpse into their time at Bletchley Park
and WW2, followed by a Q&A Session.
For more information and tickets got to https://www.bletchleypar
Gordon Welchman - Bletchley Park’s Architect of Ultra Intelligence
April 2014
The biography of one of Bletchley Park’s
lesser-celebrated geniuses, Gordon Welchman,
has been launched with the handover of personal
documents and possessions to the Bletchley Park
Trust. They include letters and documents which
had been in Welchman’s son Nick’s loft until he
was approached by the author, Dr Joel Greenberg.
Tickets are on sale now for Bletchley Park
Presents Dr Joel Greenberg; a talk about
Gordon Welchman, on Sunday 18 May.
#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #enig
Water Hall foundations found - Yet another exciting discovery
April 2014
Foundations believed to be of a house that predated
the iconic Mansion have been found as part of the
restoration of Bletchley Park. Water Hall was built in
1711 but by the late 18th century it had fallen into
disrepair and was demolished by 1806.
Bletchley Park's Media Relations Manager & Podcast
Host, Katherine Lynch, spoke to Helen Legh on BBC
Three Counties Radio Friday 18 April.
Thanks to BBC3CR for use of this recording.
Image: ©English Heritage Detail from the
Extra - E35 - Codebreakers’ Legacy - Prof. Barry Cooper
April 2014
Prof. Barry Cooper discussed Alan Turing’s life
and work at last year’s sell-out day of talks,
Codebreakers’ Legacy.
Book now for Bletchley Park Presents
Christy Campbell on Easter Sunday.
https://bletchleypark.org.uk/calendar/d.rhtm/758932-Bletchley-Park-Presents---Christy-Campbell.html
Book now - https://bletchleypark.org.uk/shop/p.rhtm/130872/762467-Ticket20AprilChristyCampbell_Talk.html
Picture ©Mubsta.com
#BPark, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma,
#AlanTuring, #Turing,
The Bletchley Circle Returns to PBS
April 2014
The Bletchley Circle makes a welcome return this
weekend on America’s Public Broadcasting Service.
Series two of the hit ITV drama attracted more than
4 million viewers per episode on ITV in January and
from Sunday 13 April it will be shown on PBS.
You can hear more from the cast as well as the series
Writer and Creator, Guy Burt, and Executive Producer,
Jake Lushington, in our special December episode.
https://audioboo.fm/boos/1803303-bletchley-park-podcast-extra-the-blet
E21 - It nearly drove us mad
April 2014
This month, we take you inside the 1940s Boutique, a
new event which helps you recreate wartime glamour.
We hear from the daughter and granddaughters of a
woman who may or may not have worked at Bletchley
Park but who, family legend has it, knew her brother
had been killed in action when the rest of her family
could only be told he was missing.
We take a sneak peek inside the soon to be opened
Codebreaking Huts, taken back to their wartime glory
as part of the £8 million r
Volunteer Actors Bring Huts To Life - John Wilkes
April 2014
Volunteer actors from the local community will help bring
Codebreaking Huts 3 & 6 to life through their projected
images & voices, created by Elbow Productions.
You can hear more about this project in the next episode
of The Bletchley Park Podcast, out on the 10th of April.
Picture: ©Elbow Productions
#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #ww2veteran, #enigma
It nearly drove us mad - Margaret Reardon
April 2014
Margaret Reardon, ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service), Royal
Signals, recalls her time listening to enemy radio messages
on the Isle of Man during World War Two.
You can hear more from Margaret in the next episode of The
Bletchley Park Podcast, out on the 10th of April.
#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #ww2veteran, #enigma
Extra - E34 - Captain Jerry Roberts MBE
March 2014
Captain Jerry Roberts MBE, one of Bletchley Park’s last
Codebreakers, died this week at the age of 93.
Jerry was one of the original members of The Testery
working on cracking Tunny, the German High Commands code,
used by Hitler & his top Generals.
Their work warned the Russian’s of The Kursk Offensive,
allowing them to defend until the Germans called off, what would be their last major offensive on the Eastern Front.
Winston Churchill said “Stalingrad was the end of the
E20 - A Proud Moment
March 2014
Children’s TV presenters Dick & Dom came to
Bletchley Park to film a programme about Alan Turing.
Absolute Genius with Dick & Dom will be on CBBC
on the 12th March. We caught a quick word with them
between takes.
Battlefield History TV is making a fascinating
documentary about the Bletchley Park story which
will soon be available on DVD. We bring you a taste
of what will be in the finished programme with Iain
Standen interviewing Veteran Bombe Wren Sue Winn
&
Extra - E33 - Sarah Harding – Bletchley Circle Director
February 2014
This is the full length version* of our exclusive interview
with Sarah Harding, Director of the second two-part story
in series two of the hit ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle.
In this month’s Bletchley Park Podcast & the first part of
this EXTRA Sarah tells us about her mother, Dorothy
Harding (nee Thompson) who was a Wireless
Operator / Morse slip reader at Bletchley Park 1943-1945.
It was a happy coincidence that Sarah had that personal
connection to Bletchley Park wh
E19 - I hope she will smile, feel recognised & proud
February 2014
This month we join Bletchley Park Veteran Margaret
Roland as she was asked to be the special guest at a
ceremony to mark the completion of refurbishment
work at White Spire School in Bletchley.
We take you behind the scenes at rehearsals for
February half term’s exciting Living History project,
where Sorrel Meechan, one of the actors helping bring
the buildings to life, tells us about her personal
connection to the Bletchley Park having grown up
knowing her grandfather wor
Extra - E32 - Audrey Wind
January 2014
In this episode we bring you the entire interview we
recorded with Veteran Wren Bombe Operator, Audrey
Wind, who recalls how she was plucked from filthy
cleaning jobs in basic training & recruited to do a
very, very secret job.
Audrey was posted to Eastcote, an outstation of Bletchley
Park, where she operated Bombe machines. She says
“The pressure was enormous. It took me a long time
after the war to get over it and I’m sure it did for
everyone. It was terribly stre
E18 - You Must Not Mention This Conversation
January 2014
This month we take you exclusively behind the scenes
during filming of The Bletchley Circle, hearing from the
Producer, Standby Art Director & Bletchley Park Trust
staff who were cast as supporting actors, to safeguard
machines which belong to GCHQ.
We hear from Veteran Audrey Wind, whose story is
featured as a DVD extra, who was told when she was
recruited: “You must not mention this conversation to any
living person.” Years after the war, she was spotted by a
fellow al
Extra - E31 - The Bletchley Circle Returns
December 2013
In this EXTRA episode we look back at what turned into
another busy year at Bletchley Park, but also ahead to the
return of the ITV drama The Bletchley Circle.
The thrilling series based on the lives of four extraordinary
& brilliant women who worked at Bletchley Park during
WW2 returns to UK screens on ITV for a four-part series
starting on Monday 6th of January 2014.
Over the next few Podcasts & EXTRA episodes we will
be bringing you exclusive interviews with
E17 - Blind Dates, Doodlebugs & Tweezers
December 2013
This month, we join Bletchley Park historian Dr Joel
Greenberg & AS Level history students from Milton Keynes
College as they discover hidden treasures under The
Mansion car park. Footings of what the Bletchley Park
Trust believes were the first few wooden huts built at the
outbreak of World War Two were found when the tarmac
was removed.
We find out what happened at a specially set-up monitoring
station in the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park,
when AMSAT-UK
Extra - E30 - Norah Boswell & Joyce Roberts
December 2013
In this month’s Bletchley Park Podcast we brought you
some highlights of the day we spent with two amazing
Veterans, Norah Boswell, a Wren Bombe Operator who
was stationed at Stanmore & Joyce Roberts, a WAAF
Teleprinter Operator at Bletchley Park.
In this extended version join tour guide Mike Chapman as
we roll back 70 years for these two amazing ladies & listen
in as Norah gets her revenge on The Bombe & Joyce finds
a dear old friend in the Hut she worked i
Extra - E29 - Women in Cyber Security
November 2013
In October Cyber Security Challenge UK & Raytheon held an event called Today, Then & Tomorrow.
It looked at the role of women in cyber security, celebrating the Bletchley Park Veterans, leading figures of today & a look into the future.
Here is a flavour of the day featuring Natalie Black, Stephanie Daman, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, Dr Brooke Hoskins, Clare McBrearty, Lucy Robson & Bletchley Park Podcast’s, very own, Kerry Howard.
#BPark, #Bletchleypa
Extra - E28 - Mavis Batey
November 2013
Mavis Batey, one of Bletchley Park’s leading female
Codebreakers, died this week at the age of 92.
Mavis’s work on Enigma was crucial to the Royal Navy’s
victory at Matapan in 1941 and the success of the D-Day
landings in 1944. She was part of Dilly Knox’s team, working on
as-yet unbroken codes and ciphers.
In this Bletchley Park Podcast Extra, we can hear her
chatting with Bletchley Park historian and author Michael
Smith.
Many thanks to Michael Smith, Matt Rawlins
E16 - Frogs over the Air
November 2013
This month, with so much happening at Bletchley Park recently, we have to bring you an extended episode.
First we grab Hard-Hats & Hi Viz Jackets to join Conservation
Architect Janie Price & Site Manager Rob Davies to get an in-depth update on the HLF Restoration of Bletchley Park, from
floorboards to granite floors, via the roof.
In October Bletchley Park hosted Are You Listening? The event
looked at the history of communications. We spoke to members
of Milton Ke
E15 - Job Up in the Hell Hole
October 2013
This month we talk to actor Simon Callow, who was filming in Alan Turing’s office in Hut 8 & we discover a secret about his university tutor.
Architect Janie Price, brings us a short update on the HLF Restoration of Bletchley Park; where they are looking at floorboards … one by one.
Then join Bombe Wrens as they are transported back in time when they see Hut 11 restored to its WW2 atmosphere. Veterans, Ruth Bourne & Joan Tolson tell us what it was like to work on a Bom
Extra - E27 - Doreen Sawyer
September 2013
Earlier in the year we interviewed some of the original members
of The Bletchley Park Trust who gave us an insight into how they started to save Bletchley Park.
In this episode we bring you an interview with Doreen Sawyer,
the lady, that original trust member Peter Wescombe climbed
through the fence to speak to, and that started the ball rolling.
Doreen worked at Bletchley Park from 1955 for the CAA and she
tells us some of the post war history of the park and about
or
E14 - 40s Stories on Modern Tech
September 2013
This month stories from 70 years ago are given a modern twist.
The New Enigma event was a chance to find out if you have what it takes to be a Codebreaker, with experts from GCHQ telling us about some truly amazing new technology, which might just confuse a certain podcast producer.
Rich storytelling is the key to enjoying a visit to Bletchley Park. Now included in the admission price, as well as a guided tour by a passionate historian, every visitor can take an iPod Touch b
Extra - E26 - Sir Arthur Bonsall
August 2013
In this episode we bring you the full interview with former
Bletchley Park Code Breaker & Director of GCHQ, Sir Arthur
Bonsall.
He explains the work he carried out in the German Air
Section at Bletchley Park, dispels a few BP Myths & tells
us why there was a stone for Winston Churchill to stand on
when he visited in 1941.
Picture: ©Kate Arkless Gray (@RadioKate)
#BPark, #Enigma, #GCHQ, #audiowk
E13 - Spy Kids, Veterans, Letters & Lakes
August 2013
It’s all about the past & the future this month.
Former Bletchley Park Code Breaker & Director of GCHQ, Sir Arthur Bonsall, tells us why there was a stone for Winston Churchill to stand on when he visited in 1941.
We talk to science & technology presenter Maggie Philbin about Bletchley Park, her mother’s wartime work & the legacy that war brings to modern tech.
Kerry Howard tells us about her research into code breaker Margaret Rock for her new book Dear Code
Extra - E25 - A Tribute to Betty Flavell
July 2013
In February this year Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cornwall paid a visit to Bletchley Park to have afternoon tea with around 60 of our lady Veterans.
One of those Veterans that I had the pleasure to interview at the time was former WRN Betty Flavell. Her son Tony, who was with her on the day, has recently been in touch to tell us the sad news that Betty unfortunately passed away in June this year.
Tony told me that the visit to Bletchley Park was the last time Betty ventur
E12 - Timely Visitors
July 2013
This month it’s all about Timely Visitors
Milton Keynes South MP & long time Bletchley Park supporter, Iain Stewart goes on a Hard Hat Tour to see some of the Heritage Lottery Funded restoration with the trusts CEO Iain Standen.
Then a few days later it was announced that former Bletchley Park Trust director Simon Greenish had been awarded an MBE for services to English heritage in the Queen's Birthday Honours list. We took Simon on his first tour of the restoration work that
Extra - E24 - From Bletchley to GCHQ Part 2
June 2013
This is the second & final part of BBC Radio Gloucestershire recent series of short programs on both Bletchley Park & GCHQ.
This part deals more with the personal lives of some of our great Veterans.
Many thanks again to BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Anna King & Manpreet Mellhi, for letting us share these programs with our listeners.
#BPark, #BBCGlos, #GCHQ, #BletchleyPark
Extra - E23 - From Bletchley to GCHQ Part 1
June 2013
Bletchley Park as you know was the home of code breaking during WW2, its official title being the Government Code and Cypher School. After the war this became, as it’s still known now, GCHQ. First based in Eastcote, but in 1951 moving to its current home of Cheltenham.
BBC Radio Gloucestershire recently ran a series of short programs in Anna Kings daily show about both establishments and have kindly said we can share them here with our Podcast Listeners.
Many thanks to BBC Radio
E11 - Back to The 40s
June 2013
This month, we have an update on the work to restore
Bletchley Park from Site Manager Rob Davies.
We give you a taste of the Forties Family Festival which was
held in May. Miss Luna Nightingale serenades us, we find out about Auxiliary Units from The British Resistance Archive &
Dodging The Doodlebugs keep us laughing during WW2.
We also have fascinating interview with WW2 Veteran
Marjorie Nichols, who worked for SIS.
Picture: ©Sarah Langston
#BPark, #Enigma, #Spys,
Extra - E22 - The Perfect Nazi Part 2
May 2013
Martin Davidson’s mother told him a family secret shortly
after the death of his German Grandfather.
This sent him on a quest to discover the true story of Bruno
Langbehn – The Perfect Nazi.
In this 2nd & final part, Martin looks deeper into the history
of his German Grandfather Bruno Langbehn – The Perfect
Nazi. It includes a Q&A session held after the talk.
#BPark, #MartinDavidson, #Bletchleypark
Extra - E21 - The Perfect Nazi Part 1
May 2013
Martin Davidson’s mother told him a family secret shortly
after the death of his German Grandfather.
This sent him on a quest to discover the true story of Bruno
Langbehn – The Perfect Nazi.
This is the first part of a talk given by Martin at Bletchley
Park as part of our recent Winter Lecture Season.
#BPark, #MartinDavidson, #Bletchleypark
E10 - Have Enigma, will travel
May 2013
This month, Jean Wallace tells us about the Fashion Show at the 40’s Family Festival & showing the Prime Minister her bloomers …
Our new Education Officer, Tom Briggs, has Enigma … will travel.
In 1926, at the age of twenty, a trainee dentist called Bruno Langbehn joined the Nazi party and as the party rose to power, he was there every step of the way. For fifty years after the end of the Second World War, his family kept this horrifying secret. His British grandson, Martin Da
Extra - E20 - Nick Coffer Part 2
April 2013
This is the second and final part of Nick Coffers BBC 3 Counties Show, which was broadcast from Block B at Bletchley Park during the 3rd Enigma Challenge.
It starts with Nick being taken on a tour by Bletchley Park guide and historian Joel Greenberg.
Thanks again to The BBC 3 Counties OB Team, Emma Smith & Gareth Lloyd, Nick Coffer of course, Joel Greenberg, The Bombe Rebuild Team & The 3 Belles.
#BPark, #Enigma, #BBC3CR, #NickCoffer
Extra - E19 - Nick Coffer Part 1
April 2013
In the last episode of Podcast we gave you just a small flavour of The Third Enigma Challenge that was held in March.
For 4 days GCHQ’s Historical Section were based at The Big Bang Fair at London’s ExCel Centre were sending Enigma Coded Messages for the Bombe Rebuild Team to try and crack back at Bletchley Park.
On the Friday Nick Coffer of BBC 3 Counties Radio presented his afternoon show from Block B at Bletchley Park and that’s what we will be sharing with you over the next
E09 - Neptune Begins
April 2013
This month, BBC 3 Counties Radio covered the 3rd Enigma Challenge.
Bletchley Park Event’s Manager, Claire Urwin, tells us about some of the forthcoming Summer Events.
Author Michael Smith tells us all about his new book, Bletchley Park, the Codebreakers of Station X which had just been released.
Project Neptune, the HLF restoration of Bletchley Park is about to start. We take you inside the soon to be restored Huts and Blocks with the people who’ll be running the project
Extra - E18 - Veterans Storys
March 2013
In this episode we bring you the longer versions of some of the interviews featured in the last episode of The Bletchley Park Podcast.
They were recorded by mcfontaine and our new roving reporter Kerry Howard, after the visit of HRH The Duchess of Cornwall.
Featuring Aileen Hasdell, Gwen Flavell, Peggy Dorrington & Alba Whiteman.
#bpark, #enigma, #bombe, #bletchleypark
E08 - The Royals
March 2013
This month, we hear from some of the veterans* who met Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, when she came to Bletchley Park to learn about the contribution women here made to the war effort. Thanks to Jessica Cooper of BBC 3 Counties Radio for some audio clips.
We’ll bring you reaction from senior cryptographer Captain Jerry Roberts after he met Her Majesty The Queen for the second time, as he received his MBE at Buckingham Palace.
We look ahead at some upcoming event
Extra - E17 - Capt. Jerry Roberts MBE Full Interview
February 2013
In this episode we have the full interview with Captain Jerry Roberts, who was today (28/02/13) awarded an MBE by Her Majesty The Queen in honour of his 4 year campaign for more recognition for Alan Turing, Bill Tutte and Tommy Flowers.
Jerry shares with us what it was like to work in The Testery breaking coded messages from Hitler, his memories of “a great man” Bill Tutte, working as a War Crimes Investigator and setting up the first Marketing company in post war South America
E07 - Capt. Jerry Roberts MBE
February 2013
This month we talk to Captain Jerry Roberts about being awarded an MBE and his 4 year campaign for more recognition for Alan Turing, Bill Tutte and Tommy Flowers.
We have an update from CEO Iain Standen on the Heritage Lottery Funded restoration programme.
Also, an exclusive interview with another Bletchley Park Veteran Nancy Jackson, who worked in the Newmanry, the section led by Alan Turing’s friend and mentor Max Newman.
A message from mcfontaine
This month’s epi
Extra - E16 - Bob Horners Malta Convoys Part 2
January 2013
This week we have the concluding part of Bob Horner’s talk Malta George Cross 1940-42 - The Battle for Survival.
During World War II, Malta played an important role owing to its proximity to Axis shipping lanes. The bravery of the Maltese people during the second Siege of Malta moved King George VI to award the George Cross to Malta on a collective basis on 15 April 1942 "to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history.
Last week Bob left us at th
Extra - E15 - Bob Horners Malta Convoys Part 1
January 2013
This week we have the first of a two part talk, as part of Bletchley Park Winter Lecture Series, given by Bob Horner called Malta GC 1940-42 - The Battle for Survival.
During World War II, Malta played an important role owing to its proximity to Axis shipping lanes. The bravery of the Maltese people during the second Siege of Malta moved King George VI to award the George Cross to Malta on a collective basis on 15 April 1942 "to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will l
E06 - Reunions
January 2013
This month it’s all about reunions.
40 years ago a group of teenagers came to Bletchley Park as CAA Apprentices & they told Jessica Cooper of BBC 3 Counties Radio all about their time here when they came back last month.
We interview some of the original members of the Bletchley Park Trust who talk about the early days of Saving Bletchley Park to celebrate 21 years of the Trust.
Also BP CEO Iain Standen tells us all about Get Fit for 2013 & you can find out about so
Extra - E14 - The Christmas Special
December 2012
This is an X-Mas Special looking back on the first 6 months of the Bletchley Park Podcast.
#BPark, #Turing, #Christmas2012
Extra - E13 - Kevin Warwick & Huma Shah
December 2012
This week we bring you a final talk from the Turing Education Day event that was held at Bletchley Park in June 2012.
Professor Kevin Warwick and Huma Shah explained The Turing Test in a talk called Turing and Artificial Intelligence.
#Bpark, #AlanTuringYear, #Turing, #KevinWarwick, #HumaShah
E05 - A Year of Turing
December 2012
This month we take a look at 2012 The Alan Turing Centenary.
William Newman & Sir John Dermot Turing talk about The Alan Turing Limited Edition Monopoly Set & Turing in 2012. Barry Cooper, of the Turing Centenary Committee, updates us on some of the worldwide celebrations. Turing expert, Jack Copeland, gives an exclusive reading from his soon to be published book & The LGBT History Month Pre-Launch event was held at Bletchley Park to mark the centenary.
Milton
Extra - E12 - Baroness Susan Greenfield
November 2012
This week we have another talk from the Turing Education Day event that was held at Bletchley Park in June 2012.
Baroness Susan Greenfield presents a lecture called, How Brainpower Goes Beyond Computer Power.
#Bpark, #AlanTuringYear, #Turing, #SusanGreenfield
Extra - E11 - Eileen Younghusband WAAF Veteran
November 2012
This week we have a talk recorded at this year’s Veterans Day.
WAAF Veteran & author Eileen Younghusband gives a first-hand account of The Vital Role of the Secret Filter Room in Air Defence in WW2.
Hear about the part they played in the Battle of Britain & later as the tide of war turned, against the V1 & V2 attacks.
Eileen sadly passed away on the 2nd of September 2016. RIP
Find more information about Eileen & her two autobiographies at www.onewomanswar
Extra - E10 - More Ultra Mythbusting
November 2012
This week we have more content from the Mythbusters event held at Bletchley Park.
Organised by bestselling author Michael Smith (Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, Britain's Spies - the Real James Bonds) who was joined by the official GCHQ historian and, in a rare public appearance, veteran Bletchley Park Code Breaker & former Director of GCHQ, Sir Arthur Bonsall
#BPark, #Turing, #Mythbusters @MickWSmith
For Remembrance Day
November 2012
Recording of Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph on Whitehall from 2010.
#BPark, #RBL, #RemembranceDay
E04 - Ultra Mythbusting
November 2012
This month we have an original code breaker joining the Mythbusters, the story of a MIA Spy Pigeon, how 1940’s tech is working better than ever & the youngest person to ever sign the Official Secrets Act.
#BParkPodcast #BPark #Turing #Enigma
Extra - E09 - Whitfield Diffie
October 2012
This week we have another talk from the Turing Education Day.
Whitfield Diffie gives a talk on historical turning points in cryptography.
#BPark, #AlanTuringYear, #Turing, # WhitfieldDiffie
Extra - E08 - William Hague & Iain Lobban
October 2012
This week we bring you the visit to the Park by The British Foreign Secretary William Hague and the Director of GCHQ, Iain Lobban.
#BPark #WilliamHague #GCHQ
Extra - E07 - Margaret Boden on Turing
October 2012
Another talk from this years Turing Education Day.
Margaret Boden's talk was on a lesser known area of Turings work.
#BPark, #AlanTuringYear, #Turing
E03 - Turing Monopoly
October 2012
This month’s highlights include the launch the Alan Turing Monopoly board with Max Newman’s son William & interviews with Enigma expert Frank Carter & Bletchley Park Veteran Ruth Bourne.
Many thanks also to Jenna Benson & BBC Three Counties Radio.
Image: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com
#BParkPodcast #BPark #TuringMonopoly #Enigma
Extra - E06 - Jack Copeland Part 2
September 2012
This week we have the concluding part of Prof. Jack Copeland’s talk from The Turing Education Day, looking at the Turing Test & Colossus.
Image: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com
#Bpark, #ATY, #BletchleyPark, @alanturingyear, #JackCopeland #ATY #BletchleyPark #Bpark #JackCopeland
Extra - E05 - Jack Copeland Part 1
September 2012
This first part of Prof. Jack Copeland's, Turing Education Day talk, looks at Turings early work in Cambridge & then The Bombe.
Image: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com
#Bpark, #ATY, #BletchleyPark, @AlanTuringYear, #JackCopeland
Extra - E04 - Sinclair McKay & The Y Stations
September 2012
This week we will bring you the full version of the talk by Sinclair McKay about his next book which looks at the work of The Y Stations.
#BPark, #BlectchleyPark, #SinclairMcKay,
E02 - Veterans Weekend
September 2012
This month we will bring you highlights of the 2012 Enigma Reunion, with Sinclair McKay, Mark Niel & Bletchley Park Veterans.
#BPark, #BletchleyPark, #SinclairMcKay, #MarkNiel #BlectchleyPark
Extra - E03 - 2012 Turing Lecture by Capt. Jerry Roberts Part 2
August 2012
Part 2 of the 2012 annual Turing Lecture which was given by Bletchley Park veteran Captain Jerry Roberts. including a Q&A from Jerry with Lord Charles Brocket.
#Bpark, #ATY, #CaptJerryRoberts, #Tunny, #BletchleyPark
BBC Radio 5 Live - Outriders 21-08-12
August 2012
Chris Vallance was kind enough to feature The Bletchley Park Podcast in this episode of Outriders. We produced a 3 minute edit of the podcast a a teaser for his listeners.
Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/outriders/ for more information.
Extra - E02 - 2012 Turing Lecture by Capt. Jerry Roberts Part 1
August 2012
Part 1 of the 2012 annual Turing Lecture which was given by Bletchley Park veteran Captain Jerry Roberts. Introduced by Lord Charles Brocket.
#Bpark, #ATY, #CaptJerryRoberts, #Tunny, #BletchleyPark
Extra - E01 - Lord Charles Brocket & Sir John Dermott Turing on Alan Turing
August 2012
This is the 1st of a series of extra content we will be loading between monthly podcasts.
The Turing Education Day was held at Bletchley Park on 30/06/12. This 1st selection is Lord Charles Brocket & Sir John Dermott Turing.
Many thanks to AlanTuringYear for this recording.
Image: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com
#Bpark, #AlanTuring, #ATY, #CharlesBrocket
BBC Three Counties Breakfast 10-08-12 - with Katherine Lynch
August 2012
Katherine Lynch. Bletchley Park Podcast presenter, on BBC Three Counties Breakfast 10-08-12
E01 - The First Show
August 2012
The 1st Bletchley Park Podcast, including an interview with CEO Ian Standen, selections from the first Family Fun Day of 2012 & an excerpt from Capt. Jerry Roberts annual Turing Lecture.
#BPark, #BletchleyPark, #WW2, #Spitfire, #Turing, #AlanTuringYear #Wonder88
Teaser 3 - Spitfire Flypast
August 2012
The flypast of a Spitfire recorded on 28th July 2012, the 1st of this years Family Fun Wednesdays at Bletchley Park.
#BPark, #BletchleyPark, #Spitfire, #MerlinEngine
Teaser 2
August 2012
Ident for The Bletchley Park Podcast, created from some of the machines on display at Bletchley Park & The National Museum of Computing.
#BPark, #TNMOC, #BletchleyPark
Teaser 1
August 2012
The official monthly Bletchley Park Podcast will be here on 10/08/12. Here's a little teaser.
#BPark, #BletchleyPark, #BParkPodcast #bletchleypark #bpark #bparkpodcast