Codebreaking during World War II was very critical for the Allies victories. All nations using forms of communication were encrypting their communications to try to prevent other nations from reading them. The German code machine was known as the enigma. The British and French received information and assistance from the Polish intelligence whom already broke enigma. The main code breaking operation for the British codebreakers for the Government Code and Cypher School took place at Bletchley Park.
While in London we toured Bletchley Park. Before leaving for London, I took several classes that have discussed intelligence and its role during World War II. After taking those classes talking about enigma, bombe, typex and other machines it was really interesting to see them in person. Bletchley Park was set up to show the different roles British intelligence had leading up to World War II. Bletchley Park had multiple enigma machines on display and showed how the plain text was coded. While there, I had the opportunity to type on an actual enigma machine that was on display in the museum section. During the tour of the grounds, I learned a lot about how the camp was set up and about the people who worked there. I loved the tour guide’s story about the food and how the workers would be reminded that they should not take seconds. One employee said there were days that they wished they did not even have first helpings. I found it very funny that the people who were working on probably the most important operation in England during the war received the same treatment as those who were working on other war jobs. Bletchley Park also had a demonstration on a bombe showing how it worked and all the electronics inside of it. It amazed me the complexity of the machine and the ingenuity that went into making it. The bombe that was on display was able to allow visitors to truly understand how loud the machine was. I really was amazed at the transitions intelligence took during the war and how the same techniques that were used and invented at Bletchley Park are used today in code breaking operations. One technique was traffic analysis. Traffic analysis looked at how many messages were being sent and where they were being sent to.
The nice part about Bletchley Park was that it did not just focus on the work and activities that went on there. The museum gave a lot of information on the deception operations and double agent operations the British ran. The double cross system controlled the intelligence Germany was allowed to receive on Britain during the war. Juan Garcia was mentioned several times about how the Germans thought he was their best agent operating in Britain and did not know he was working for British intelligence. Another part of the double cross system was that the code breakers at Bletchley Park were able to confirm the information that was being sent to Germany was being believed by the Germans.
After leaving Bletchley Park and concluding our time in London, I can now say that that was my favorite site and activity in London. Seeing and being able to use an actual German enigma machine, a bombe and all the other artifacts on display has changed my interpretation on the movie the Imitation Games and other films on Bletchley Park and British intelligence. I cannot wait to share the knowledge I learned from this experience in my future classes on intelligence.