E66 - In Their Words Part 1

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2017

⏱️ 55 minutes

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Summary

December 2017

Bletchley Park’s Oral History project has been running for six years, interviewing more than 400 veterans so far. These personal testimonies capture the unique and precious memories of people who worked at Bletchley Park and its outstations.

Not only are these interviews a great source of historical facts, adding to what we know about the work carried out by the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two, they’re also a treasure trove of lesser-known details about the processes and what life was like during that time. Adding reminiscences about food, fun and uniform to the official records of how the codebreaking was done make this truly a people’s history of Bletchley Park.

In this episode we hear from Phyllis Keates, who operated Britain’s answer to Enigma; a Typex machine. We learn more about the stringent security in the recruitment process from Kenneth Nicolson, who served in the Royal Signals and we listen in on Morse slip reader Daphne Canning’s account of a V1 attack on her accommodation.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2017

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #Enigma, #WW2

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.
0:38.1	Welcome to the December 2017 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, in their words.
0:44.8	This month, we're diving into some highlights of the Oral History Project.
0:48.7	It's been running for six years now, with more than 400 interviews conducted so far,
0:53.9	mostly by volunteers. They capture the
0:56.2	unique and precious memories of people who worked at Bletchley Park and its outstations.
1:01.5	We can learn a great deal from these interviews. They're so much more personal than official records,
1:06.5	and people's own memories bring the situation to life so much more than any list of names or description of processes ever could, they'll also create a lasting legacy of first-hand memories for the future.
1:18.2	We sometimes find out things that we haven't learned from the official records as well.
1:22.3	Above all, these interviews collectively make up a people's history of Bletchley Park.
1:27.1	Because no one remembers just
1:28.6	the work in isolation, they remember the situation, the real fear of invasion and defeat,
1:34.5	what it was like to be involved in top secret work away from home, often for the first time,
1:39.5	and the people they worked with. We've got so many highlights to bring you. We're splitting
1:44.0	this episode into two parts.
1:46.5	Firstly, let's find out how the project is progressing from Bletchley Park's oral history officer,
1:51.4	Jonathan Byrne.
2:00.2	Jonathan, six years, more than 400 interviews, those are some quite staggering statistics for
2:05.1	what I think is the jewel in the crown of Bletchley Park, certainly in terms of this podcast,
2:10.4	the oral history project, hearing directly from people their memories. You just can't beat that,
2:14.9	can you? No, that's right. And thank you for those very kind words about the project.
	...

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