E160 - Colossus in Context Part 2

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

January 2024

Eighty years ago, in January 1944, the first Colossus computer was delivered to Bletchley Park. This machine and the nine that followed it have acquired legendary status within the story of World War Two codebreaking. The machines have also been described as the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computers – direct precursors of the digital world in which we live today.

But in 1944 the computer age still lay far in the future. These machines were built for a specific and vital purpose, to assist with the breaking of the wireless messages of Germany’s senior commanders, enciphered using the Lorenz cipher machine and known at BP as ‘Tunny’.

What role did Colossus actually play in the breaking of Tunny? The Colossus machines were members of a wider family of machines, and the Newmanry – the department in which they operated - was only one of several teams at Bletchley Park, all of whom were crucial to the successful breaking of the cipher.

In this ‘It Happened Here’ episode, Bletchley Park historians Dr Tom Cheetham and Dr David Kenyon are here to place ’Colossus in Context’ and examine where exactly these machines fitted into the effort to break Tunny.

Many thanks to Dr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.

Image: ©Crown. Reproduced by kind permission, Director, GCHQ

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #Colossus80,

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Mark, the podcast producer again,
0:04.8	and this is the second part of our episode to celebrate the arrival of Colossus at Pledgeley Park 80 years ago this month.
0:12.4	In this show, we look at the arrival of the machines and how they help to break Larent.
0:18.0	Now over to the show.
0:52.3	Okay. break Lorentz.. Welcome to the January This is the Bletchley Park podcast.
1:03.7	Welcome to the January 2024 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, Colossus in Context.
1:12.2	80 years ago in January 1944, the first Colossus computer was delivered to Bletchley Park. This machine,
1:16.9	and the nine that followed it, have acquired legendary status within the story of World War II Codebreaking. The machines have also been described as the world's first large-scale,
1:22.2	electronic digital computers, direct precursors of the digital world in which we live today.
1:30.8	But in 1944, the computer age still lay far in the future. These machines were built for a specific and vital purpose to assist with
1:36.9	the breaking of the wireless messages of Germany's senior commanders, enciphered using the Lorenz
1:42.3	cipher machine, and known at BP as TUNY.
1:46.1	What role did Colossus actually play in the breaking of Tunney? The Colossus machines were
1:50.8	members of a wider family of machines, and the Newmanry, the department in which they operated,
1:55.6	was only one of several teams at Bletchley Park, all of whom were crucial to the successful
2:00.2	breaking of the cipher. In this, it happened here episode, Bletchley Park, all of whom were crucial to the successful breaking of the cipher.
2:02.1	In this It Happened Here episode, Bletchley Park historians, Dr Thomas Cheatham and Dr David Kenyon
2:07.3	are here to place Colossus in context and examine where exactly these machines fitted into
2:12.8	the effort to break Tunney. Many thanks to Dr Ben Thompson for voicing our archival documents.
2:33.2	This is Bletchley Park.
2:37.1	It happened here.
2:42.0	Now we know with Enigma, it was constantly evolving during the war.
	...

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