So, Where Shall We Go On Our Journey Today - Bletchley Park (Part Two)

Thank you so much for visiting last week for part one of our tour of Bletchley Park. Now, are you ready for part 2?  

Back outside and the gardens were beautiful to walk around on a very warm day, along with just sitting by the lake, but we loved to see the other areas that were occupied during this secret time.  Dilly Knox, Mavis Batey and Alan Turing were just three of its residents.

This little garden looked so quaint, especially with the collection of logs ready for the winter months.

Then into one of the huts.  So plain but interesting to see where all the work took place.

The long single corridor with doors off to either side.  

Simple, blacked out, just desks and office paraphernalia occupying the space.  There were sounds of people working so you felt a little like you had an invisible cloak on and were listening to people’s conversations without being noticed.

Codes waiting to be deciphered from one room to the next.  The anxiety of the people working here must have been incredibly high.

From one hut to another, each one having a purpose.  We loved this room with its exhibits of pigeon carriers.  Another vital thing during the War.

And then a plain room, dark, with two desks and a little cupboard for personal items. 

This is where one of the great people during the War worked.  Nothing was said about what he did for decades, while this man tried to live his life as he wanted to.  Without him and his team, the war would have rumbled on killing many more lives.  And yet, here is where he worked.  A mind totally full of goodness knows.

In one of the main block stands a tribute to him.  Such artistry with slate, incredibly inspiring just like him.

On the wall is hung the apology from Gordon Brown who was the Prime Minister in 2009.  It is incredibly sad that Turing took his own life from cyanide poisoning after being chemically castrated for his homosexuality.  A different era and so punishing and unforgiving.

Amongst the exhibition, is Turings’ teddy bear.

And his watch.

It seemed only right to see his machine – the Turing Bombe.  This is a reconstruction as these machines were dismantled after the War to protect the secrecy behind them and the code breakers.  A lady gave a verbal and visual demonstration and I could give you a run down however, I didn’t understand a single word!  Basically the German Enigma machines gave the code breakers a headache by them trying to figure out what the solution was from a code which would give a possibility of 26x26x26 different codes.  The Turing Bombe narrowed this to about 624 different codes which would then go to the code breakers who had a limited amount of time to crack them (I think I’ve got this right!).

Unfortunately one of the problems was to work out which targets would be allowed through and which wouldn’t.  This was to make sure the Germans didn’t deduce the fact that their codes were being solved.

The invasion of the Normandy beaches were possible due to this machine as the British sent a code to say they were invading Calais with the hope that the Germans would pick this up.  With the Turing Bombe, they were able to decipher a code coming back from Germany to confirm they had taken the bait, Britain and the allied forces then invaded Normandy and worked their way through and cut the War’s life at least by a couple of years.

To think that this enormous working machine can now fit on a microchip is beyond mind blowing.

And there we have it.  After an £8m restoration, Bletchley Park can at last reveal its secrets, its personal stories with diaries donated and code papers unearthed. 

It was fascinating to learn about the lives that helped with the victory of War, and the sadness of life afterwards.

It was also lovely to see things that are still a recognisable sight and well, just home!

Thanks for coming along with us on this mammoth tour!

Have a wonderful weekend and week ahead.