Bletchley Park is an estate in Milton Keynes – which in World War 2, became the place where a team (records show it was 6,760 women out of 8,857 total staff – so 76.35% – at peak operations) devised automatic machinery to help with decryption, which culminated in the development of Colossus, the world’s first programmable digital electronic computer. Codebreaking operations at Bletchley Park ended in 1946 and all information about the wartime operations was classified until the mid-1970s.
It was about an hours drive to Milton Keynes – involving lots and lots of roundabouts – and we arrived in bright sunshine at about 10.30am…
… while a man in a fluorescent jacket was 1 of many in fluorescent jackets (clutching walkie-talkies) directing an unbelievable mass of cars. We parked near a car that had its boot open + it seemed to be being used as a changing table for a baby; we got out, went + joined a queue, saw a lot of people dressed in 1940s style clothing, were behind a couple of people who were holding hands + snogging each other a lot, a sticker on a door said ‘City of Culture 2027 bidding city’, a girl behind a counter had very very long false eyelashes on, a small boy was wearing something I forgot, Mum wanted coffee – + we stood in a queue there. I decided to go + sit down, saw a small boy in a union jack hat, heard a lady having a rant about toilets, and a quite short man was walking around in army officer uniform (with a hat); a stick thin long (gingery curly) haired man seemed to have a soft toy London underground train (2ft long + red) wedged under 1 arm; + then we went into quite a dark room via doors meant to make it look like a train carriage: there was a big signpost in there, a film was playing on a couple of different loops – showing bombings of lots of places I forgot the names of, + mentioned the Africakorps.
We went round the corner + passed a massive dispatch rider motorbike…
…followed by glass boxes of enciphering machines (and Mum tried a Morse code dots and dashes code breaking challenge on a screen), BP decrypting messages in multiple languages – including Japanese – was described on boards, the humidity in the room was making me sweat like mad by then, we left it; and saw a coin press machine, rubber ducks + teddy bears (in military uniform), lots + loads of puzzle books; + then the building was left – + the breeze stopped my sweating.
Some sort of weapon – that I was then told by a military policeman (who asked me – humorously – if I was a journalist, so I explained + he said – humorously – he thought I might be a German spy) was a Vickers 303, + then he described something called ‘a bombe’ getting its name from an ice cream (La bombe was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War 2); + Winston Churchill being in the hill trenches. We went round the corner + into a building – about Hitler’s unbreakable cipher machine, how the code was broken, + how Colossus was developed; followed by a lot about Alan Turing needs a link and all the different types of enigma. Alan Turing’s teddy bear was in a glass case, a small girl was poking a screen + trying to ‘operate’ an enigma machine, + then we found an exit sign, a not very usable looking door, a couple of people turned away from it, Mum marched up to it, opened it via a handle + said ‘people have very little determination these days’.
Out there – a man in a Union Jack waistcoat read my card, said a lot about Morse code + respecting the speed of the person you’re communicating with; several military vehicles were by a lake, and picnic area, with recruitment posters, a US air force gasoline container, + music (‘swing swing swing everybody starts to swing’) of the 1940’s was playing. We came round the edge of the lake, and military vehicles were parked round the edge of a picnic field, the couple seen earlier were snogging each other there, a horse box had become an ice cream stall, we went past a big pine tree, – + then a stall – with evacuee bears + edible substances – under brown tarpaulin was also showing gas masks + a plastic baby in a gas suit sort of thing.
I thought I could hear a choir singing – + then a building was entered – containing a library with typewriters, a small chess board, and a blue sign said ‘DON’T HELP THE ENEMY! CARELESS TALK MAY GIVE AWAY VITAL SECRETS’.
Sun was shining through the windows, we passed through another couple of rooms – before the billiard room, which had lots of model boats on a table; the ballroom had a fashion talk going on in it; then due to the time – Mum decided we were going to have lunch. In the café, I noticed things called raspberry, rose + pistachio blondies amongst the cakes, sandwiches called bloomers, + interesting posters on the walls – including a big (with orange) fish + ‘DON’T BE A SUCKER! KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT’, and another with a cartoon carrot; a lady (mid 60s) in a long blue dress wheeled in a small dog in what could be described as a nice cage on wheels, and salad was consumed by me. We moved at 2.45pm + passed a brown tent/tarpaulin with gas masks on a table + some other stuff I forgot; lawn mowers were under another tent/tarpaulin, I could hear a saxophone somewhere (+ a man started singing with it); + in a big metal barn was a motorcycle from 1943, a 1940 Packard Sedan, + a shipping container used in Afghanistan in 2009. The other side of an archway was a courtyard (a sign termed it the ‘stockyard garages’ that housed code breakers) sort of area containing cottages; a big stone open book was a Polish memorial, + raised beds / what could be termed a small allotment before the front of the houses, a lawn + a grassed area to 1 side with a small hut – with noises of a ball being whacked around + a person saying things like ‘net!’ + ‘I’m exhausted!’ coming out of thin air, recreation was an important part of Bletchley Park during the war(- + 2 small poles made me assume this was usually a tennis court area).
The camera battery died at 2.50pm, + we entered hut 11A – which was all about code breaking (so I frantically photographed stuff with my phone) + included the ‘Bombe’ + how it was operated – + a film; then Mum poked a screen + found out about enigma, people were poking another screen about banburismus; and the last room was all about carrier: there were lots of PDSA posters about pigeons, Winkle – who was the 1st pigeon to win the animal Victoria Cross, a ‘Plucky Pigeons’ poem was framed, lots of named Flying Heroes posters were on the walls.
Outside at 4pm – sun was v. bright, music was audible – coming from the other side of a big lake with a fountain in the middle of it…
…and we went into the teleprinter building, and I photographed some more stuff I forgot because a film started (and we were in a very dark room): about D-Day + code breaking, The Atlantic wall, encrypted messages, Bletchley Park turning into an intelligence factory with 5000 people by 1943, + Eric Jones + his running of Hut Three – where deciphering German messages was done by people, + what it was about; + mentioned a machine called Heath Robinson that came before collossas, (collossas was made over 3 years), – + Operation Fortitude – which succeeded in deceiving the Germans in where an invasion would take place. When the invasion began, enigma deciphered messages in under 2 + 1/2 hours; + between 1942→5 – Bletchley Park decoded around 5 million messages (enough for 120 paperback novels).
Outside – sun was bright, we passed the lake with fountains on, a saxophone (+ some singing) was audible, a triangular metal structure that I forgot the purpose of wasn’t far away, – + at 4.35pm – the car was reached – + the heat in it meant it was described as a turkish bath.
