E58 - Highs and Lows

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2017

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

May 2017

Highs and lows of the codebreaking operation at Bletchley Park are the subject of this month’s episode. There were a lot of lows, but it’s not all doom and gloom. We know how the war ended but, back then, the threat of invasion still hung in the air and Hitler’s forces were making great gains, not only in Europe. This was also around the time when the German Navy decided to tighten the security of its radio traffic in the Atlantic, where Allied shipping convoys were being found and sunk with horrifying success. We explore this - and the expansion and change of leadership at the Government Code and Cypher School - with Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon and the late Captain Jerry Roberts.

Also this month, Helen Leadbetter was a wireless telegrapher in Canada during World War Two, providing the codebreakers at Bletchley Park with the raw material they deciphered and turned into vital intelligence. She told her story to the broadcaster CBC, who we have to thank for letting us share it with you.

And we bring you details of some of the coming summer’s exciting events at Bletchley Park, featuring live vintage music, fashion, food and Bletchley Park’s own beer, as well as plenty to challenge and entertain young would-be codebreakers.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2017

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2,#Veteran, #History

Transcript

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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.
0:38.3	Welcome to the May 2017 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, highs and lows.
0:43.8	Turn the clock back 75 years and we're about halfway through the war.
0:47.6	The key thing to remember is they didn't know that then.
0:50.0	We know how it turned out, but it was by no means a foregone conclusion.
0:54.0	Remember, at the beginning, a stock phrase did the rounds.
0:56.7	It'll be over by Christmas.
0:58.4	And that carried dark echoes of similar predictions early on in the long and bitter Great War of 1914 to 18.
1:05.4	From this distance, it's an opportunity to take stock, looking at the highs and lows so far of the government code
1:11.3	and cipher school's top secret operation. We'll do that with Bletchley Park's research
1:15.5	historian Dr David Kenyon. But first, Helen Ledbetter was a wireless telegrapher in Canada during
1:21.1	World War II, providing the co-breakers of Bletchley Park with the raw material they deciphered
1:26.2	and turned into vital intelligence.
1:28.7	She told her story to the broadcaster CBC, who we have to thank for letting us share it with you.
1:39.1	After 72 years of secrecy, a Cambridge woman finally has permission to tell her war story.
1:48.7	Helen Ledbetter was a wireless telegrapher during the Second World War.
1:53.3	Her job was to intercept messages sent to German submarines.
1:58.9	That work was considered confidential until a few months ago. Ledbetter sat down
2:04.9	with reporter Melanie Ferrier on Sunday, and she began her story at the Guild of All Arts in Toronto,
2:11.8	where she received her training. They had wired up several long tables, three to be exact,
2:19.8	and you put your headphones into this jack underneath,
	...

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