Veterans’ Reunion marks 75th Anniversary of Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2014

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

September 2014

As well as marking the 75th anniversary of the Government Code and Cypher School getting its vital war work underway, this year’s annual Veterans’ Reunion will give many their first chance to see how Bletchley Park has been transformed.

2014 is a landmark year for the Bletchley Park Trust, marking not only 75 years since the Codebreakers got cracking on the task of breaking enemy codes and ciphers, but also the completion of a much-needed £8 million restoration project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

At this year’s Veterans’ Reunion, many former workers of the Government Code and Cypher School will see the new Block C Visitor Centre, lovingly restored Codebreaking Huts 3 and 6 and the reinstated landscaped parkland for the first time.

Visitors too can experience the World War Two atmosphere and feel what it was like for the thousands of men and women whose work at Bletchley Park and its outstations helped shorten the war, saving countless lives. On Sunday the 7th
of September, they will have the rare opportunity to walk among some of those extraordinary men and women.

By the time the Codebreakers arrived at Bletchley Park in 1939, a small number of Huts had already been built among the existing buildings on this Victorian country estate. The first delegation, codenamed Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party, had spent around a month setting up communications on the site in 1938.

Picture: ©Bletchley Park Trust

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #ww2veteran, #enigma

Transcript

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0:00.0	1939, Britain declares war.
0:04.8	The great British public huddle around radios listening to the news.
0:10.1	This is London.
0:11.3	Watching and waiting and listening.
0:15.2	A group of people that no one knows about or has even heard of is also listening.
0:24.6	Listening to something quite different. The sound of secrecy.
0:27.6	Fletchley Station, Fletchney station. Listen to them all.
0:45.3	Clickety click.
0:47.3	All those wheels whirling round and you're just recording the stops.
0:50.3	It's like churning blooming butter on a hot day.
0:53.3	Eventually though, the batter will come
0:56.6	and the messages can be decoded and lots of lives will be saved.
1:01.6	It might as be one of the first people to see in here. It just literally went down to nothing.
1:07.8	It looked awful. And now I'm seeing such a difference. How long did you keep the secret for?
1:15.2	70 years. I don't know how I did it. Mainly because
1:18.9	I never thought of talking about it. But recently
1:22.7	I've given a talk. I'm 91 next month.
1:26.1	You won't tell you about.
1:28.3	Job up.
1:30.3	Job up girls.
1:31.3	That's right.
1:32.3	That's the phrase.
	...

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