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

Welcome to the March 2026 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.

Dilley and his girls.

The 28th of March, 26, will be the 85th anniversary of the naval battle of Cape Matapan, fought by the Royal Navy

against the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean. The battle was a significant victory for the

Allies and cast a shadow over the Italian Navy, making them reluctant to challenge British

superiority at sea in the Mediterranean for the remainder of the war.

In part, the battle came about due to knowledge of Italian operations derived from code breaking

at Bletchley Park, and it's one of the few successes by BP in that theatre of war which is

widely recognised.

In this episode, Head of Audiences and programs, Vicky Pipe, is joined

by research historian Dr David Kenyon to go beyond the popular mythology of this event, to

look in more detail of what exactly GCNCS knew and when. Our thanks go to Dr Ben Thompson

for voicing our historical documents.

Shall we begin with what is Matterpan? What is the myth that surrounds Matterpan?

Well, I started this off with the myth around Matapan because it's a feature of the popular

history of Bletchley Park that the focus tends to be all about the Germans.

But the Italians and the Japanese were also significant players in the Axis.

And it's interesting that their stories tend to get completely overshadowed by the Germans.

The Italian story is equally interesting, particularly on the naval side, and that's what

we're going to talk about today.

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