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Year 9 Computing - Bletchley Park
Shristi and Eva in 9V sent this report:
On Wednesday, 1 December, the Year 9 Computing students had the opportunity to go on a trip to Bletchley Park, a secret WW2 wartime base that helped to decode many codes and ciphers. The most infamous code being the German Enigma, thought to be unbreakable by most. However, with the help of many intelligent men and women, most well known being Alan Turing, they were able to stop life threatening German attacks by breaking this code.
We arrived at school around 7am to register and board the coach. After a while, we arrived at Bletchley Park. One of the first thing we saw was the mansion. On our self guided tour, it was a huge estate and was well kept. There was quite a lot of information about life at Bletchley Park and how it affected their relationships with friends and even family. After looking through the mansion, we were taken to a workshop to participate in a task, to find the Russian Spy among us, which was a real case that had happened at Bletchley at the time, his name was John Cairncross. During the workshop, we were tested on our ability to decode morse code, many of us missed a lot of the characters at the faster parts even with repeats and a slower version of the code. But, this is what would happen daily in Bletchley, the decoders weren’t allowed repeats and they kept the code in 5 characters even if missing a letter, using a star to show that they missed a letter and to keep up with the 5 character rule. We were also taught the mechanics of the Enigma machine and were shown the different combinations and how it all had to be changed each day, which is why many thought the code was unbreakable. Finally, we were shown the same Enigma machine that was used in the film,”Imitation Game” starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
After lunch, we were taken to Hut 8, Hut 11A, and Hut 6 by our teachers where we explored even more information about Bletchley through interactive games and short videos. We were taught how the people in Bletchley Park worked in crowded, cold and smokey conditions (due to the workers mostly consisting of smokers). Most of the people who worked at Bletchley were women, ¾ in fact, as most men were conscripted to war, and many more of workers were very young. Bletchley Park is situated between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge so it was easier to recruit the necessary linguists and mathematicians. In Hut 11A, we got to specifically looked at the Bombe, which was an early computer mainly created in Poland. The Polish chose to share this technology with the Allies once they were invaded in the war. It formed a key part in the efforts to decipher the German Enigma-machine-encrypted messages efficiently throughout WW2.
Towards the end of the trip, we were given a guided tour before going to the gift shop and eventually going back home. We were taught about the Official Secrets Act which was a set in term contract that everyone had to sign, that prevented the people who worked at Bletchley to tell anyone about the nature of work they were doing. As a result of having to tell false stories to family and friends, many men were shunned due to not participating in the war effort as far as anyone knew. There was even a case where a man was disowned by his father because the father thought his son did not contribute to the war effort. We now know that he had instead helped save many lives by being able to contribute to the eventual decoding of enemy codes.
Overall, it was an interesting experience and everyone learned a lot more about the importance of what those working in Bletchley Park had achieved. We were so grateful for being given the opportunity to go on this trip, it was an amazing time and it was very enjoyable.
