PAST EVENTS

OUTING TO BLETCHLEY PARK

BLETCHLEY PARK
THE NATIONAL CODES CENTRE

On June 9th 2005, a group of JDA members, with their friends, relatives and volunteers to push a few wheelchairs, set off on a clear warm day to visit the unique Bletchley Park Mansion which became Churchill's World War II Intelligence Headquarters. Here, around 10,000 people worked in total secrecy to crack the Enigma code machine and other impossible codes held by the Germans. They also developed the world's first semi-programmable computer to help break Hitler's messages.

The importance of Bletchley Park was that it helped to shorten WW2 by two years and saved countless lives, maybe your friend or relative. So we were curious to find out how that came about.

Bletchley Park was built in 1883 by a wealthy Jewish financier, Sir Herbert Samuel Leon. It was his family home for several years. Herbert was made a Baron in 1911.

The Mansion is situated just outside Milton Keynes, so it was just over an hour's drive from JDA. On arriving there, we were greeted by a friendly tour guide. We had our own sign language interpreter and lipspeaker with us to ensure that all of the JDA group could follow the story of Bletchley Park.

After tea and biscuits, the tour guide took us around the place, showing us various historic huts used by the codebreakers. We saw the original Bombe machine hut where the team, led by an eccentric brilliant young professor, Alan Turing, made ground-breaking work on solving the very complex Enigma code machines used by the Germans. The Germans didn't think Britain would be able to break their codes using their very complex Enigma machines. How wrong they were!!

Alan Turing developed a brilliant idea, resulting in the Bombe machine - an electro mechanical machine with code wheels to break the ever-changing Enigma keys. All the huts at Bletchley Park were responsible for receiving and decoding incoming German codes from all over the UK every day, and fitting all the pieces together like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. This Bombe machine helped to shorten the codebreaking process.

It was very complex work that most of us would find extremely difficult, or even impossible, to make sense of. You need a very clear, mathematical, logical and focused brain to be able to work it all out!! Thank G-d for geniuses like Turing!

Bletchley Park is now called the National Codes Centre. Back then, it was called Station X and it was here that the first programmable computer was engineered. It became the birthplace of modern computing and communications.

We went round the Exhibition Room, which tells the story of Bletchley Park and displays many interesting pieces of equipment used during wartime.

The tour, although very interesting in parts, went on a bit too long with the guide also telling us about his wartime experiences as a pilot! We were glad to have a break in between, when a free lunch of delicious sandwiches and drinks was served by the staff at the Mansion.

All in all, it was a memorable, educational outing and we all learned so much about how hard British people worked during World War II to break the codes and to try and stop the Germans winning the war as quickly as possible.

Kay Kaufman

<< Back to Top