The

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

Welcome to the November 22 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.

Torch to Tunis.

The Allied victory in the Second Battle of El Alamein in November

1942 proved to be the beginning of the end of the war in North

Africa. But many months of hard fighting and the opening of a whole new front in northwest

Africa would be needed before the Allies were finally able to kick Axis forces off that

continent for good. Though often forgotten about today, the Operation Torch landings

were a pivotal event which led to the first battles between German and American forces.

These troops and the intelligence personnel who supported them had to learn their trade quickly

in the toughest of circumstances. In this It Happened Here episode,

Bletchley Park's research officer, Dr Thomas Cheatham,

reveals how these lessons would prove fundamental

to the allied use of intelligence later in the war.

This episode is hosted by exhibitions manager Erica Munro.

As usual, many thanks to Dr. Ben Thompson and Owen Mugan

for voicing our archival documents.

This This is Bletchley Park.

It happened here.

In this episode, we're looking at events that took place 80 years ago.

Thomas, could you tell us about the situation with the war at that time in late 1942?

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