Apparently the people who worked here during the 2nd World War were sworn to secrecy, to the extent that some of those still alive still won’t discuss their work to this day!
The whole site is fascinating and very well presented, and doesn’t take much notice of the secrecy element any more. What my wife and I loved most was the talk from one of the staff who had been part of reconstructing the “Bombe”- the computer they invented to work out the settings of the Germans’ Enigma code machine, which was the vital element in their decoding work. This man stood in front of the machine, surrounded by a crowd of people mixed in age and gender, and gave the most detailed account of how it was originally constructed and how it worked. He’d lost me after the first few minutes (as I guess he had everyone else!) but carried on regardless absolutely immersed in his task. He knew what he was talking about, in spite of his audience!
What this showed for me was the type and quality of person who was chosen to work there, and how brilliant their minds must have been. Also, the conditions in which they had to work, in what we would now consider primitive huts, with only basic tools at their disposal, must have made their task even more difficult.
However, they succeeded for the most part in shortening the war, and in saving many lives of the Allied forces. It’s an excellent visit, albeit that you need to read a lot of information and use your brain to try to understand everything, and very rewarding.
“Park website”:https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/
