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Bletchley Park, Wartime Codebreaking

Belinda and Mike - follow our tourist travels in the UK

Bletchley Park & Museum of Computing: Holiday May 2017 - page 1

Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire was the home of the Second World War British Codebreakers who worked tirelessly to break the cipher codes sent by German Enigma machines and Lorenz.  Now a fascinating heritage attraction, Bletchley Park houses a series of historic museums including the rebuilt Bombe decoding machine, a large display of Enigma machines, restored Codebreaking huts with Alan Turing's office, and the Mansion.  Adjacent is the National Museum of Computing containing a huge collection of functional historic computers including Colossus, built to decipher Lorenz (Tunny) messages.  We enjoyed a wonderful day at Bletchley Park...
This is page one of three.
Bletchley Park | Buzz Railway & Buckinghamshire walks | Shuttleworth Collection
 

Bletchley Park grounds, Buckinghamshire
Bletchley Park was established as a museum in 1993 and entrance to the visitor centre is through Block C.  Within are various introductory exhibitions and collection of a multimedia guide tour handset.  We decided to make our own way round so first...

The Mansion at Bletchley Park
...headed to the Mansion, with the wartime office of Commander Denniston, the first chief of the Government Code and Cipher School.  In the Mansion Garages behind were some impressive WW2 military vehicles.  Next we made for the...

Bletchley Park: The Turing Bombe Rebuild Project
...museum in Block B at Bletchley Park to learn about the amazing Codebreaking work of Alan Turing and his team and view the Turing Bombe Rebuild Project.  This is a working recreation of the awesome WW2 Bombe Codebreaking machine...

Demonstration of The Bombe at Bletchley Park
...which was the brainchild of chief Codebreaker Alan Turing.  The rebuilt Bombe is an operational replica and its principles were described here by a knowledgeable professor type to a large gathering of entranced Bletchley Park visitors.  During the...

A look behind the rebuilt Bombe machine
...Bombe demonstration Mike sneaked around the back to try to fathom out its inner workings but despite all the electro-mechanical wirrings and clunkings was somewhat baffled!  Adjacent to the working Bombe...

Bombe parts display in Block B at Bletchley Park
...here in Block B was an exhibit cabinet containing the multitude of parts that went to assemble it - relays, drums, commutators, gears, spindles and oodles of wiring!  Of course there were...

German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park
...many of the German Enigma machines displayed in the museum; the largest display in the world in fact.  We made our way along to absorb the fascinating Turing Bombe Rebuild Story and learn about...

Bletchley Park: the Alan Turing gallery
...the Enigma Codebreaking process in the Alan Turing gallery.  Also here is a Bletchley Park timeline, a reconstructed Y station, and an exhibition on how people lived during WW2.  As you might expect...

Alan Turing figurine
...a figurine of the great Codebreaker himself, yes, Alan Turing.  Well, there's plenty more at Bletchley Park so after dropping into the site's absorbing restoration project exhibition in Hut 12 and...

Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Huts Nos. 3 and 6
...enjoying lunch in the Hut 4 café we made our way to the restored Codebreaking Huts Nos. 3 and 6.  These consisted of long corridors with the Codebreaking office rooms set up just as they were...

Room inside Hut 3 at Bletchley Park
...during WW2 complete with window blackouts, 1940s furniture, telephones and typewriters.  Cleverly projected figures on the walls related what life was like as a Codebreaker at Bletchley.  Next up was...

Alan Turing's office in Hut 8 at Bletchley Park
...Hut 8 which housed Alan Turing's wartime office complete with his chained to the radiator coffee mug!  We also learnt of the methods the Codebreakers used through interactive displays.  Finally...

Bletchley Park: the Bombes in Hut 11
...in Hut 11 we absorbed the story of how the Bombes were operated by the WRENS of the WRNS as they ran the encrypted codes through the machines, working a relentless three-shift work pattern.

Colossus demonstration at the National Museum of Computing
On the same Bletchley Park site is the National Museum of Computing.  Here we had an engaging demonstration of the rebuilt wartime Colossus computer used to break the Lorenz (Tunny)...

National Museum of Computing: rebuilt Colossus computer
...code ciphers and of course Mike went round the back to take a peek at Colossus's innards.  All those valves (tubes) must have generated oodles of heat!  Mike also drolled at the bank of AR88 communication receivers here, used to intercept the German's secret code transmissions, and later available on the 70s ham radio surplus market when he was aka G4BFJ.

Main frame computers from the eighties
The National Museum of Computing has a huge collection of computers; here's some large main frames from a later era than Colossus (the 80s).  The museum highlighted just how far computer technology has progressed since those pioneering early WW2 wartime days.  There are many displays of computing technology, from...

EDSAC memory project at National Museum of Computing
...WITCH, the oldest working digital computer in the museum, through various restoration projects such as this EDSAC replica project, and on to the beginnings of modern computing with...

Early personal computers at National Museum of Computing
...the personal computers of the 1980s.  Here's Belinda trying her hand on an old, er, well something before today's smartphones for sure!  It sure was impressive how the National Museum of Computing...

NATS Air Traffic Control system display
...manage to keep so many machines in working condition.  In another display above is a simulation of NATS, the current Air Traffic Control system.

At the time of our 2017 visit Bletchley Park adult entry cost £17.75 and the separately run National Museum of Computing £7.50.  But we got a 2FOR1 deal for each attraction by taking the train from nearby station.

Please see our tourist resources for Bletchley Park, National Museum of Computing & related websites.

TIP: spread a visit out over two days; we crammed it into one and it proved hard going, as it was we had to rush a visit to the National Radio Centre which is also on the Bletchley Park site.

Display cabinet of bygone personel devices
On the way out of the museum we passed this fascinating display cabinet containing personal 'tech' from earlier eras, some of which seemed surprisingly recent!  Or we're getting old.

We found both Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing absolutely captivating and pleased we finally managed a visit after intending to for some time - we may return as the ticket allows re-entry within a year.  It certainally brought 'The Imitation Game', a movie based on Alan Turing's Codebreaking time at Bletchley to life.

On the next page of our Buckinghamshire holiday: some walks and a ride on the Leighton Buzzard Railway >>>

Other wartime themed attractions visited include the Royal Signals Museum, Churchill War Rooms and Duxford IWM.