No, this is not another Trump story, just a sneak peak into the past, more exactly the Second World War. I was visiting the main base of the Codebreakers, at Bletchley Park. Started with a few amateurs, this unit reached almost nine thousand people by the end of the war. It is said that they probably shortened the war by at least two years, saving countless lives, the number of people they saved being at least up to tens of thousands. Funny enough, every one of the foreign generals listened and used the information delivered by this intelligence centre, except some American ones, who ignored the British intelligence at first, losing quite a few troops without that being needed. After that, they appreciated the quality of the shared info, with more than one thousand US soldiers being at Bletchley Park in 1944-1945.
While there are different theories, Bletchley Park predicted a massive Japanese attack days before Pearl Harbour, but they didn’t know the location, assuming that the most credible target may be somewhere near Thailand. This was possible due to Japanese forces maintaining an almost perfect radio silence, with not many chances to intercept a message.
This was a motorbike used by the people delivering decoding intelligence to the other Army units.
This is the famous Enigma, the machine that changed the tides of the war, thanks to Alan Turing team.
The Mansion, where the decoders started to work.
One of the cars used to transport staff. Important staff, I believe, as they did also have around 30 bus coaches.
One of the Ambulance vans.
This car is a prop from the movie 'Enigma' (2001), donated to the Park.
The door guardians, set forever in stone. Arthurian magic at its best.
The Mansion main door.
The music is still singing in the canteen, as a memento of a long forgotten time.
The tables are missing the busy time from the decades ago.
But in the weekend, you can still come and book a period accurate meal of that time.
The stairs of the mansion are a brilliant piece of architecture.
This is the ballroom, where officers and civilians relaxed some weekends.
A corner of the library. Mostly they used to have German, Italian and Japanese books, to study the language. Fun fact, the first civilians to work in there were mostly female librarians, due to their extensive knowledge and language grasp.
The decoding was happening in here.
They would also study the maps too.