Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park (BP) is a site located in the town of Bletchley, in Milton Keynes, England. During World War II, Bletchley Park was the location of the United Kingdom's efforts to break ciphers, including those of the Enigma and Lorenz machine used by Nazi Germany. The intelligence produced by Bletchley Park, codenamed ULTRA, has been credited with hastening the end of World War II.

Wartime history

The Government Code and Cypher School (GC & CS), the intelligence bureau responsible for interception and decryption of foreign transmissions amongst other things, moved into the main house in 1939. Until he broke down, the Sinclair's private chef made early service at BP something to remember fondly. The radio station that was constructed in the park for its use was given the code name "Station X", a term sometimes erroneously applied to the code-breaking efforts at Bletchley as a whole. (It was called Station X because it was the tenth in a series of radio stations, X being the Roman numeral for ten.) Station X itself was soon moved south to Whaddon Hall, to divert attention from the Bletchley Park site. Additional listening stations such as the ones at Chicksands and Beaumanor Hall, the War Office "Y" Group HQ, also gathered raw signals for processing at Bletchley. To further the disguise of Bletchley Park, it was built to appear as a hospital from above to deter bombing by German planes. However, a bomb was dropped next to the despatch riders' entrance, shifting the whole of Hut 4 (the Naval Intelligence hut) two metres on its base. The bomb was thought to have been intended for Bletchley railway station.

Related Topics:
Government Code and Cypher School - 1939 - Roman numeral - Whaddon Hall - Chicksands - Beaumanor Hall - Bletchley railway station

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The first government visitors to Bletchley Park described themselves as members of Captain Ridley's shooting party. The intelligence produced from decrypts at Bletchley was eventually code-named "ULTRA".

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When the United States joined the war, a small number of American cryptographers were posted to Bletchley Park.

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