The Debs of Bletchley Park and Other Stories

The Debs of Bletchley Park and Other Stories

Author: Michael Smith

Publisher: Aurum

Published: 2015-01-08

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 178131389X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For Winston Churchill the men and women at Bletchley Park were ‘the geese the laid the golden eggs’, providing important intelligence that led to the Allied victory in the Second World War. At the peak of Bletchley’s success, a total of twelve thousand people worked there of whom more than eight thousand were women. These included a former ballerina who helped to crack the Enigma Code; a debutante working for the Admiralty with a direct line to Churchill; the convent girl who operated the Bombes, the top secret machines that tested Enigma settings; and the German literature student whose codebreaking saved countless lives at D-Day. All these women were essential cogs in a very large machine, yet their stories have been kept secret. In The Debs of Bletchley Park author Michael Smith, trustee of Bletchley Park and chair of the Trust’s Historical Advisory Committee, tells their tale. Through interviews with the women themselves and unique access to the Bletchley Park archives, Smith reveals how they came to be there, the lives they gave up to do ‘their bit’ for the war effort, and the part they played in the vital work of ‘Station X’. They are an incredible set of women, and this is their story.


Bletchley Park and D-Day

Bletchley Park and D-Day

Author: David Kenyon

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2019-07-16

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0300244800

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“Demonstrates that the intelligence division . . . had a more significant role in WWII . . . making indispensable contributions to the invasion at Normandy.” (Publishers Weekly) The untold story of Bletchley Park's key role in the success of the Normandy campaign Since the secret of Bletchley Park was revealed in the 1970s, the work of its codebreakers has become one of the most famous stories of the Second World War. But cracking the Nazis’ codes was only the start of the process. Thousands of secret intelligence workers were then involved in making crucial information available to the Allied leaders and commanders who desperately needed it. Using previously classified documents, David Kenyon casts the work of Bletchley Park in a new light, as not just a codebreaking establishment, but as a fully developed intelligence agency. He shows how preparations for the war’s turning point—the Normandy Landings in 1944—had started at Bletchley years earlier, in 1942, with the careful collation of information extracted from enemy signals traffic. This account reveals the true character of Bletchley's vital contribution to success in Normandy, and ultimately, Allied victory.


The Hidden History of Bletchley Park

The Hidden History of Bletchley Park

Author: C. Smith

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-08-26

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1137484934

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is a 'hidden' history of Bletchley Park during the Second World War, which explores the agency from a social and gendered perspective. It examines themes such as: the experience of wartime staff members; the town in which the agency was situated; and the cultural influences on the wartime evolution of the agency.


Secrets at Bletchley Park

Secrets at Bletchley Park

Author: Margaret Dickinson

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2021-04-29

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1529018528

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Secrets at Bletchley Park by Margaret Dickinson, two young women from very different backgrounds meet in the Second World War and are plunged into a life where security and discretion are paramount. But both have secrets of their own to hide . . . In 1929, life for ten-year-old Mattie Price, born and raised in the back streets of Sheffield, is tough. With a petty thief for a father and a mother who turns to the bottle to cope with her husband’s brutish ways, it is left to the young girl and her brother, Joe, to feed and care for their three younger siblings. But Mattie has others rooting for her too. The Spencer family, who live at the top of the same street, and Mattie’s teachers recognize that the girl is clever beyond her years and they, and Joe, are determined that she shall have the opportunity in life she deserves. Victoria Hamilton, living in the opulence of London’s Kensington, has all the material possessions that a young girl could want. But her mother, Grace, a widow from the Great War, is cold and distant, making no secret of the fact that she never wanted a child. Grace lives her life in the social whirl of upper-class society, leaving Victoria in the care of her governess and the servants. At eleven years old, Victoria is sent to boarding school where, for the first time in her young life, she is able to make friends of her own age. Mattie and Victoria are both set on a path that will bring them together at Bletchley Park in May 1940. An unlikely friendship between the two young women is born and together they will face the rest of the war keeping the nation’s secrets and helping to win the fight. They can tell no one, not even their families, about their work or even where they are. But keeping secrets is second nature to both of them . . .


WW2 Codebreaking People and Places

WW2 Codebreaking People and Places

Author: Ronald Koorm

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2024-09-30

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1399053531

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

WW2 Codebreaking People and Places is the first volume of a series on a glossary of codebreaking, ‘People and Places’, brings to the reader an easily understandable account and listing, of those involved in collecting and analysing military intelligence, principally during the second world war. while some will be well known, such as Alan Turing, many others have made significant contributions to codebreaking but fail to attract the attention of the media for the most part. From an individual named ‘Wren’ who worked at a codebreaking outstation supporting Bletchley Park, to a mathematician who modified a codebreaking machine just prior to D-Day, to a ladies foundationwear factory in Hertfordshire that helped make machine components, these people and places now can be appreciated as to where they fitted-in within the overall picture of gathering, and processing enemy intelligence in wartime. The entries are cross-referenced to enable the reader to research as much or as little as they want, to dip-in to the glossary, to use it as a basis for further study, or just to learn a little more about the people that helped us win the war with our allied friends. .


Code Girls

Code Girls

Author: Liza Mundy

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0316353744

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the tradition of Hidden Figures and The Girls of Atomic City, Code Girls is the amazing true story of the young American women who cracked German and Japanese military codes during World War II. More than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II, recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to the nation's capital to learn the top secret art of code breaking. Through their work, the "code girls" helped save countless lives and were vital in ending the war. But due to the top secret nature of their accomplishments, these women have never been able to talk about their story--until now. Through dazzling research and countless interviews with the surviving code girls, Liza Mundy brings their story to life with zeal, grace, and passion. Abridged and adapted for a middle grade audience, Code Girls brings this important story to young readers for the first time, showcasing this vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.


The Forgotten Giant of Bletchley Park

The Forgotten Giant of Bletchley Park

Author: Harold Liberty

Publisher: Pen and Sword Military

Published: 2022-07-20

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1399089641

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In recent years, the work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers has caught the public’s imagination with books and films. While men such as Alan Turing and Dilly Knox have been recognized, Brigadier John Tiltman has been hardly mentioned. This overdue biography reveals that ‘The Brig’, as he was known, played a key role. After distinguished Great War military service, he established himself as a skilled codebreaker between the Wars, monitoring Russian and other unfriendly powers’ messages. During World War Two he was regarded as the most versatile of cryptographers, cracking a range of codes including Japanese ones. He made the first breakthrough against the German High Command Lorenz system and what he found led to the creation of machines including Colossus, the first recognisable computer. His lack of recognition may be down to his apparent lack of association with Enigma but, in truth, he was closely involved at the start. In addition to his cryptological brilliance, ‘The Brig’ was a gifted communicator and team-builder whose character combined charm, intelligence, determination and common sense. He was key to building the special relationship with our American partners both during and after the war. Harold Liberty’s biography shines light on a man whose contribution was essential to Britain’s survival and triumph in the Second World War.


Women in Intelligence

Women in Intelligence

Author: Helen Fry

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 030027453X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A groundbreaking history of women in British intelligence, revealing their pivotal role across the first half of the twentieth century From the twentieth century onward, women took on an extraordinary range of roles in intelligence, defying the conventions of their time. Across both world wars, far from being a small part of covert operations, women ran spy networks and escape lines, parachuted behind enemy lines, and interrogated prisoners. And, back in Bletchley and Whitehall, women’s vital administrative work in MI offices kept the British war engine running. In this major, panoramic history, Helen Fry looks at the rich and varied work women undertook as civilians and in uniform. From spies in the Belgian network “La Dame Blanche,” knitting coded messages into jumpers, to those who interpreted aerial images and even ran entire sections, Fry shows just how crucial women were in the intelligence mission. Filled with hitherto unknown stories, Women in Intelligence places new research on record for the first time and showcases the inspirational contributions of these remarkable women.


I Glanced Out the Window and Saw the Edge of the World

I Glanced Out the Window and Saw the Edge of the World

Author: Catherine Halsall

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2020-07-08

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1725258994

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is about WAR—not the causes and results, not the planning and the campaigns, not the artillery and the bombs. It is about the heinous crimes committed by the combatants, the horrifying experiences of civilians, the devastation of cities and villages, the killing and the dying, the glory leading to revulsion and guilt, and the assimilation of suffering that either ends in death or in the triumph of the soul. It looks at the struggle of the church to remain faithful and the servants of the church who seek to bring sense and solace to the victims. It discusses antisemitism, racism, and war itself from biblical perspectives. It reveals the unjustifiable reasons for engaging in war and how this brings catastrophic results for all peoples—the mental instability of the survivors and the loss and grief of those on the home front. In war, how can men and women carry out the actions that they do? As Viktor Frankl writes: “After all, man is that being who has invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who has entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”