Bletchley Park
Commander Denniston's Office: Commander Alexander (Alastair) Denniston was the first Operational Director of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), and it was in this office that the “special relationship” between the UK and USA is said to have been born.
In early 1941, before they had entered the war, the first party of US officers arrived at Bletchley Park to understand more of the work undertaken there. They visited in high secrecy and Denniston told his secretary, Barbara Abernethy, to bring in the sherry and then depart and never breathe a word that they had entertained Americans.
It was also here that Commander Denniston welcomed all new recruits to the Top Secret Bletchley Park. Following meetings with the Polish Cypher Bureau in 1938, Denniston had recognised the need for academics and in particular mathematicians, to be involved in cryptographic work. He subsequently began planning for a proposed expansion of GC&CS by drawing up a list of so-called ‘men of the professor type’ who agreed in the event of war, to report to GC&CS’s new wartime base at Bletchley Park. This list included Codebreakers Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman but also, intriguingly, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings author, JRR Tolkein who declined his place at GC&CS.
Pictures taken on a visit to Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park was the central site for Britain's codebreakers during World War Two. Run by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), it regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers – most importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. The official historian of World War II British Intelligence has written that the "Ultra" intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and that without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain
Bletchley Park
Commander Denniston's Office: Commander Alexander (Alastair) Denniston was the first Operational Director of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), and it was in this office that the “special relationship” between the UK and USA is said to have been born.
In early 1941, before they had entered the war, the first party of US officers arrived at Bletchley Park to understand more of the work undertaken there. They visited in high secrecy and Denniston told his secretary, Barbara Abernethy, to bring in the sherry and then depart and never breathe a word that they had entertained Americans.
It was also here that Commander Denniston welcomed all new recruits to the Top Secret Bletchley Park. Following meetings with the Polish Cypher Bureau in 1938, Denniston had recognised the need for academics and in particular mathematicians, to be involved in cryptographic work. He subsequently began planning for a proposed expansion of GC&CS by drawing up a list of so-called ‘men of the professor type’ who agreed in the event of war, to report to GC&CS’s new wartime base at Bletchley Park. This list included Codebreakers Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman but also, intriguingly, The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings author, JRR Tolkein who declined his place at GC&CS.
Pictures taken on a visit to Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park was the central site for Britain's codebreakers during World War Two. Run by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), it regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers – most importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. The official historian of World War II British Intelligence has written that the "Ultra" intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and that without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain