E45 - Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2016

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

April 2016

This episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance, celebrates five years since Bletchley Park’s Oral History project began in earnest.

This rich archive has grown to more than three hundred interviews and this month we begin to celebrate its fifth anniversary, by sharing the very first interview that was carried out under its auspices.

Doris Marshall, nee Phillips, lived just outside the boundaries of Bletchley Park and her family welcomed a number of billetees who worked for the Government Code and Cypher School. They suggested to her when she was coming of age that she too might work at this highly interesting, top secret place.

Throughout this year, the Bletchley Park Podcast will bring memories from more of these fascinating oral history interviews out of storage for the world to hear, watch and read. We still want to hear from anyone who worked as part of the Bletchley Park operation and has not yet been interviewed. If you know of someone, email [email protected] and mention the Oral History Project.

This month we also bring you details of the exciting new open air cinema at Bletchley Park, which will show the Oscar-winning film, The Imitation Game as well as the World War Two classic, The Great Escape, over two nights in September.

Last but not least, a heartfelt letter of thanks for the vital intelligence provided by Bletchley Park has been brought out of the shadows, 70 years after it was written. Eisenhower’s 1945 letter to Sir Stewart Menzies hung on the wall in the top secret Chief’s office at MI6 for several years, inspiring today’s Bletchley Park Trust Chairman Sir John Scarlett during his tenure. It is now on public display for the first time, at Bletchley Park, and we take you to the launch with Sir John, GCHQ Departmental Historian, Tony Comer, Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon and the NSA’s Historian, David A Hatch.

All this is waiting for your ears in this month’s episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast, Punch Cards, Porridge and a Pittance.

Visit Bletchley Park. It happened here. Book now.

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2Veteran, #History, #Eisenhower

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The From the home of the co-breakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:44.1	Welcome to the April 2016 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, Punchcards, porridge and a pittance.
0:49.8	This month we celebrate five years since Bletchley Park's oral history project began in earnest.
1:00.6	More than 300 veterans of the Government Code and Cipher School and its outstations during World War II have been interviewed in that time, mostly by a team of dedicated volunteers.
1:05.8	And we want to hear from those who've yet to contribute their memories to this rich archive.
1:10.9	We'll also give you details of an exciting new open-air cinema at Bletchley Park, which will show the Oscar-winning film The Imitation Game,
1:14.1	as well as the World War II classic The Great Escape over two nights in September.
1:19.5	Before all that, though, the letter which cemented Bletchley Park's place in history
1:23.6	has come out of the shadows and is on public display for the first time.
1:29.1	This was a personal thank you letter from the US five-star general Dwight D. Eisenhower
1:34.1	at the end of World War II to Sir Stuart Mingis, wartime chief of the Secret Intelligence
1:39.4	Service. It hung for several years on the wall of the top secret office of the chief of MI6.
1:46.4	It was there during the tenure of Sir John Scarlett, now chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust,
1:51.7	who launched it to assemble media in March.
2:09.6	Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, Office of the Supreme Commander, 12 July 1945.
2:13.6	Dear General Menges, I had hoped to be able to pay a visit to Bletchley Park in order to thank you, Sir Edward Travis, and the members of the staff personally for the magnificent services which have been rendered to the Allied cause.
2:26.3	I am very well aware of the immense amount of work and effort which has been involved in the production of the material with which you have supplied us.
2:33.3	I fully realize also the numerous setbacks and difficulties with which you have had to contend
2:40.0	and how you have always, by your supreme efforts, overcome them.
2:44.0	I am here today at Bletchley Park, very proudly to unveil the original letter sent to General Sir Stuart Mingis, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service and Director of the Government Coden Cyphur School by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe, and signed on the 12th of July 1945.
3:10.3	The existence and text of this letter first became public knowledge in September 2010,
	...

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.