The

The From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

Welcome to the January 2020 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.

Enigma Unlocked.

80 years ago, in January 1940, British and French troops were freezing in their dugouts,

awaiting a German attack which would not come for several months

yet, the so-called phony war. By contrast, Bletchley Park was a hive of activity, as efforts were

made to break into German codes and ciphers, including the Enigma system, before the land war

began in earnest. In this It Happened Here episode, we're guided by Bletchley Park's research historian, Dr David Kenyon, through the evolution of this infamous cipher machine and the international efforts which led to the unlocking of its secrets in January 1940.

As usual, special thanks go to Mr Ben Thompson for voicing our archival documents.

This is Bletchley Park.

It happened here.

We're standing in the pouring rain at the side of a French road, a road squelching with mud and lined right away over the plain to the far skyline

with the inevitable double row of poplars.

It's a grey, cold, dismal day. A few lorries only are splashing by

to and from the forward areas. But coming down the road towards us is a battalion that I know

to be of a famous Irish reggae. They're marching in threes and in their full battle dressing

kit they blend with the dripping green grass at the roadside and the brown of the haystacks.

As they passed us on that road, with their brown capes glistening and their tin heads perched on their heads

I thought how similar this must be to pictures of the last war the road the trees the rain and the

everlasting beat of feet we're picking up today on our previous episodes about early days, and we're looking at January

1940. David, can you give us a bit of background about what was happening at that time?

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