E106 - Invasion Norway

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2020

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

April 2020

In early 1940, as winter turned to spring, the world waited for the ‘Phony war’ to end with the expected German attack in the west. But the leaders of both Allied and Axis forces were looking in another direction, to the north, to the snow and the steel, to Scandinavia.

Meanwhile in a wooden hut at Bletchley Park, recent recruit Harry Hinsley was certain a German fleet was preparing to set sail, but how could he, a 21-year-old civilian in a highly secret department, persuade the Admiralty that he was right?

In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode we explore the difficult start of Bletchley Park’s role in Britain’s war at sea. Bletchley Park’s Research Historian Dr David Kenyon will be our guide.

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

* Producers Note *
We have had to record this episode remotely due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. This means that the audio quality is not to the high quality we would normally wish it to be. We hope our listeners will understand and still enjoy this episode.

Image: Public Domain Naval History and Heritage Command

#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyParkEnigma80, #Enigma80

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:38.8	Welcome to the April 2020 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, Invasion Norway.
0:45.6	In early 1940, as winter turned to spring, the world waited for the phony war to end
0:51.2	with the expected German attack in the West. But the leaders of both
0:55.2	Allied and Axis forces were looking in another direction, to the north, to the snow and the
1:00.1	steel, to Scandinavia. Meanwhile, in a wooden hut at Bletchley Park, recent recruit Harry Hinsley
1:07.4	was certain a German fleet was preparing to set sail, but how could he,
1:11.6	a 21-year-old civilian in a highly secret department, persuade the Admiralty that he was right?
1:17.6	In this It Happened Here episode, we explore the difficult start of Bletchley Park's role in Britain's
1:22.7	war at sea.
1:24.4	Bletchley Park's research historian, Dr David Kenyon, will be our guide.
1:28.6	As usual, special thanks go to Mr Ben Thompson for voicing our archival documents.
1:50.0	This This is Bletchley Park.
1:52.9	It happened here.
2:02.6	In our last episode, we looked at the early breaks of Enigma and particularly the army and the air force. In this episode,
2:07.9	we'll be looking at the Navy and the role of intelligence on the campaign in early 1940.
2:14.7	Our title is Invading Norway. David, what was the significance of Norway to Britain and to Germany?
2:20.9	Well, Norway has particular significance to both powers, even though it was neutral and wasn't part of the war at that point. From the German point of view, they are reliant on iron ore imports
2:26.6	from Sweden. But the problem with bringing iron ore from Sweden is the Baltic Sea,
2:31.1	which is the most direct route from Sweden to Germany, is frozen for half the year.
2:35.7	So during the winter, they would put the iron ore on trains and send it from Sweden through Norway
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bletchley Park, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bletchley Park and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.