Bletchley Park Visit

Bletchley Park was a secret wartime codebreaking base in Bletchley, England. Around 40 min train ride from London, this is the center where allied code breaking happened, the Enigma was broken, which experts believe to have reduced the Second World War duration by a few years. Featured in the movie ‘The Imitation game’, Benedict Cumberbatch has elegantly played the role of Alan Turing, who is considered a hero at this place.

Bletchley Park Entrance

 

Main office room

A typical working room

The entire work place was organized and distributed among many blocks and huts, which are called code breaking huts. A few flaws in the repetitive procedures that were followed in the commands, led to the breaking of Enigma which was otherwise impossible to break within the required time.

There are numerous visual exercises to its visitors, including those for operating the Bombe, an electro-mechanical device consisting of levels of rotating drums, which reduced the number of wheel order or scrambler positions in Enigma coder that required further analysis to a ‘manageable number’. It is said to have named so, as a tribute to the Polish Bomba- an exclamation for something really good. There is also a Polish Memorial at the site as a tribute to their help in the process of breaking code. Some say the name was also because of the ticking sound they make while on work.

 

Bombe

“Careless talks costs lives”, a quote that is often seen on the premises of the Bletchley Park. This was to constantly remind the workers at the Park to keep things secret. There were more women employed at the Park, mainly from Women’s Royal Naval Service( WRENS) which is also an acronym that is often found on the premises.

It was a great experience to be in the actual location which created history with intelligence, saving many lives and paving way to the modern era of digital computers.

There are guided tours available in the morning and noon. Visit their website to get the latest timings. Even if you miss on a guided tour, the videos and demos/exercises will surely leave you with a first level knowledge of the cryptographic work that underwent at this place. If you visit, do not forget to carry their Muddled messages worksheet home and give it a try!