The Bletchley Girls

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During the Second World War, Bletchley Park was the home of a top-secret code breaking centre. Only in the 1970s did people begin to discuss what had occurred there. In the intervening years, however, three quarters of the workforce would rarely have been asked to describe their experiences during the war: because they were women. Dr Tessa Dunlop has spoken with fifteen of these veterans, and in this episode she tells James about the women of Bletchley Park: their backgrounds, work, and memory of their important duty.

Book 'An Afternoon in Conversation with the Bletchley Girls' with Tessa at https://www.fane.co.uk/bletchley-girls

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone, welcome to the History Hit World Wars podcast. I'm your host James Rogers and in this special episode for International Women's Day, I'm joined by the amazing Dr. Tessa Dunlop. She's a BBC broadcaster and the author of the Bletchley Girls.
0:13.7	Tessa takes us through what it was like to work at Bletchley Park
0:17.6	and to be involved in that amazing code-breaking effort.
0:21.9	She tells us how you became a Bletchley girl. Well it turns out you usually
0:26.4	had to be pretty elite and at least know a language and sometimes it could be pretty boring but
0:32.2	often it was amazing.
0:34.7	Tessa has interviewed so many of those who worked at Bletchley Park and so the insight that she provides
0:40.3	is truly fascinating.
0:42.2	So here is Tessa Dunlop on the B Wars. How you doing today?
1:03.0	I'm very well. I was just trying to tease out at the moment I'm working on a project which does involve
1:08.5	one of my Bletchley girls. I'm quite possessive, not how I put the word my there.
1:12.2	Actually, she's a Bletchley girl in her own right.
1:14.6	But she was also an army girl.
1:16.4	She was in the ATS.
1:18.0	Betty Webb, MBE, not incidentally, James, for fighting in the war but for talking so eloquently about
1:26.8	being in the wall because that's where we're at now isn't it some 75 85 years
1:31.9	on and I was thinking, gosh, I mustn't conflate the two when I talk to you.
1:36.6	It's really easy. The more you learn and the more you research, the more everything's joined up.
1:46.7	And when I first started the Bletchigals was the very first book I wrote actually history book and but it was before I finished my PhD and so I saw it very much
1:51.6	as this island and actually as I've become a bit more experienced I realize it's all interconnected
1:56.8	So now when people ask me a question they sit there for like 10 hours waiting for me to get to the end of my answer
2:02.4	Well, let's jump straight into it then because
	...

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