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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 this additional episode of the Bletchley Park podcast. Welcome to this additional episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, Market Garden.

By early September 1944, with the Normandy campaign behind them, six Allied armies were

racing across northern France and into the low countries.

Ahead of them, the remnants of the German army were retreating to the borders of the fatherland.

To many on the Allied side, it seemed that a bold action was all that was needed to finish the war by Christmas.

The plan called for a carpet of paratroopers to capture and hold bridges along a 64-mile road, allowing an armoured spearhead

to reach its goal of the bridge at Arnhem. If successful, this would leave the route to the

industrial heart of Germany, the Ruhr, wide open. For this It Happened Here episode,

Bletchley Park's research officer, Dr Thomas Cheatham,

has been looking in detail at the entire operation, including Bletchley Park's contribution,

to tell us if it was always going to be just a bridge too far.

Special thanks to Mr Ben Thompson for playing the role of our Hutt 3 intelligence officer.

This is Bletchley Park.

It happened here.

An Associated press dispatch from Supreme Allied headquarters reports today that American troops have reached Namur, 35 miles inside the Belgian border.

Other American forces are said to have captured Mets and Nazi in eastern France on the approaches to Germany. To the south, the Germans say they've

evacuated Lyon, France's third largest city. Thomas, in our last It Happened Here episode,

which was 90 days. it was summer 1944,

Paris had been liberated and the Allies are speeding across Europe. Can you tell us what

happened next? The German armies at this stage are in disarray and are really incapable of

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