E64 - The End of the Beginning

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2017

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

October 2017

75 years ago, one of the most decisive battles of World War Two marked the end of the beginning. El Alamein was of huge strategic importance to both the Allied and Axis forces in North Africa.

Rommel and Montgomery’s forces clashed twice. The second battle would become famous, making a household name of this obscure outpost.

The intelligence was a crucial weapon. Rommel’s attack plan was confirmed by intercepts which were deciphered and translated by the top secret Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, giving the Allies an unseen advantage.

In this episode, we bring you a personal perspective on this slice of history, with Bletchley Park’s good friend, the historian Dan Snow. He made an unforgettable trip to the desert with his father, Peter, where they traced the soldiers’ footsteps through the sand for a memorable TV documentary. He looks back on that experience, with Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2017

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

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.
0:43.3	Welcome to the October episode of the Bletchley Park podcast. Welcome to the October episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, the end of the beginning.
0:50.6	The second battle of El Alamein in North Africa 75 years ago is widely recorded as one of the most decisive battles of World War II. 1942 was a dark year for the Allies.
0:56.4	The wolf packs of German U-boats were ruling the waves in the Atlantic,
1:00.3	resulting in huge losses of life and essential supplies.
1:04.6	Meanwhile, British soldiers were also demoralised in the desert in North Africa.
1:09.3	El Alamein, which lies 150 miles west of the Egyptian capital, Cairo,
1:14.1	was of huge tactical importance for both the Axis and Allied forces. Part of this was about
1:19.9	access to oil. Control of the Suez Canal would have given Germany the keys to the Middle East's
1:25.7	entire oil supply. The leaders on both sides were
1:29.5	notable, if not notorious. Romel was known as a master tactician, while Montgomery was reputedly
1:36.0	prickly and opinionated. So what does all this have to do with Bletchley Park? Well,
1:40.8	Rommel's attack plan was confirmed by intercepts, which were deciphered and
1:45.1	translated by the boffins of the top secret government code and cipher school. This gave the
1:50.2	Allies an unseen advantage as they went into this crucial battle. Coming up, we'll get a personal
1:56.0	perspective on this slice of history with Bletchley Park's good friend, the historian Dan Snow.
2:04.5	He'll be looking back on a trip to the battlefield he made with his dad,
2:06.6	which you might remember seeing on the telly.
2:09.4	But first, let's put some meat on the bones of this story with Bletchley Park.
2:29.5	It happened here.
2:34.2	It's 1942. Can we just break it down a little bit and look at why both sides were in North Africa?
	...

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.