Code Breaking at Bletchley Park

Year 9 recently visited Bletchley Park, known for its secret British code breaking during World War II.

Here are some accounts from pupils:

‘We started the day meeting our guide, who informed us of some basic information and gave us the general idea of the functioning of the Enigma Machine. We had a go ourselves and many cracked the code he gave us! After this we proceeded to the exhibition concerning Juan Garcia, also known as Garbo to the English, who was one of the very few double agents to receive a medal from both sides. Without the work of those at Bletchley Park in decoding German signals, the war might have continued for a further two years. After this we went to the main building where Mr Tickle gave us a splendid impersonation of Churchill on the stone he used to stand on due to the fact he was so small! From here, we viewed a number of other monuments and exhibitions which were also great ranging from the old cottages to the pigeon parachutes. All in all, a fantastic day out!’ – James

‘Bletchley Park was arguably one of the most vital places of importance in The Second World War. The Enigma cipher was the backbone of German military intelligence. Invented in 1918, it was initially designed to secure banking communications, but achieved little. The German military, however, were quick to see its potential. They thought it was unbreakable, and not without good reason. The enigma’s complexity was bewildering. The odds against anyone who did not known the settings being able to break Enigma were a staggering 150 million-million-million to one. Alan Turing (1912-1954) was one of the most important workers at the top secret location. He was hand selected from Trinity College Cambridge to work for the government after he excelled in a crossword set in the Times. Turing worked mainly in cracking German naval codes.  If not for the presence of Bletchley Park in the war, I doubt that Britain would have triumphed over the ever-growing Nazi power in Europe. The war may also have lasted even longer due to the mutual inability to uncover opposition intelligence.’ – Fraser