E150 - Communication is Key

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2023

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

April 2023

80 years ago, Bletchley Park’s communications centre opened in Block E. Employing hundreds of staff, mainly young women, this block was vital to BP’s smooth running.

Most messages and reports coming into and out of Bletchley Park went through Block E. But as we’ll hear in this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, its wartime importance doesn’t necessarily mean its value has been fully recognised today. Block E is still standing, and is due to open to the public later this year, 2023, as Bletchley Park’s brand new Learning Centre.

Here to help us set the record straight and rediscover the value of Block E is our Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham, who has been researching the building and its various departments.

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thompson, Sarah Langston and Maria Turnbull for voicing our archival documents.

Image: Block E Cypher Office showing Mr Alfred Sidney White (wearing glasses). © Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Enigma,

Transcript

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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.
0:39.2	Welcome to the April 2023 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:44.5	Communication is key.
0:47.1	80 years ago, Bletchley Park's communication centre opened in Block E.
0:51.4	Employing hundreds of staff, mainly young women, this block was vital to Bletchley
0:55.5	Park's smooth running. Most messages and reports coming in and out of Bletchley Park came through
1:00.7	Block E. But as we'll hear in this It Happened Here episode, its wartime importance doesn't
1:06.3	necessarily mean its value has been fully recognised today. Blocky is still standing and is due to open to the
1:13.7	public later this year, 2023, as Bletchley Park's brand new learning centre. Here to help us set the
1:20.5	record straight and rediscover the value of Blocky is our research officer, Dr Thomas Cheatham,
1:25.9	who's been researching the building at its various departments.
1:29.8	Many thanks to Dr. Ben Thompson,
1:32.1	Sarah Langston and Maria Turnbull for voicing our archival documents. This is Bletchley Park.
1:54.1	It happened here.
1:58.9	Tom, tell us what was happening in Block E during World War II and why it was so important.
2:04.4	Okay, so Blocky's put simply as a communications centre.
2:08.0	And I opened 80 years ago, so this is why we're talking about it now.
2:12.3	Communications at Bletchley Park are something that's, I think it's fair to say, have not been given a lot of attention.
2:18.2	And mostly people treat it as a background factor.
2:21.0	We know material had to make its way to Bletchley and then make his way out again, but
2:25.3	people have sort of waved their hand and said, well, it's communications, it goes on in the background,
	...

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