Remembrance Day 2014

"At the going down of the sun,

 and in the morning, we shall remember them."

                      

Churchill, Bletchley Park, the Radio Spies and "The Imitation Game"

Churchill's experiences during World War One had prepared him for the national web of secrecy and espionage needed to help defeat Hitler in World War Two.  This included Bletchley Park and it's famous code breakers. Also, the radio interceptors or radio spies who were based at listening stations throughout Britain, listening and writing down enemy morse code transmissions which were sent to Bletchley Park for decoding. Further support came from the Voluntary Interceptors, who were recruited early in the war, radio hams with the expertise and often their own radio equipment needed to listen in to enemy transmissions.  They also worked in secret, often from their own homes, the other occupants of the house unaware of their activities.

"The Imitation Game," a new film starring Benedict Cumberbatch is a bio-pic of the work of the mathematician Alan Turing at Bletchley Park, decoding the information from the radio interceptors and working with colleagues to develop the "Bombe" an early computer to assist with and speed up the process of code-breaking. The success of Bletchley Park saved over three million lives and helped to shorten the war. The  work and accuracy of the Y Service or listening station was also vital. For example, a listening station at the Old Rectory, Whitchurch, Shropshire intercepted foreign diplomatic transmissions from the Japanese Embassy in Berlin to Japan, giving detailed information about German defences in northern France in 1943. helping with the success of D-Day. The importance of safeguarding "Ultra" the intelligence received from Bletchley Park and of keeping Germany unaware of our ability to break the Enigma code is well known, but Churchill's vast network of secrecy also extended to the homefront with the British people's contribution, well aware that "careless talk costs lives."