Leading article: Save Britain's code of honour
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
One of the greatest of all the wartime stories of dedication and self sacrifice was played out in what are now the neglected, rotting buildings of Bletchley Park. In these rundown, weed-infested old huts, teams of code breakers, linguists, typists and file clerks worked in fantastically difficult and demanding conditions to decode, record and analyse thousands upon thousands of radio messages exchanged by enemy personnel. Their achievements saved countless lives, and may have shortened the war by two to three years.
This is a monument to a different type of dedication from the raw courage needed during the Battle of Britain or the Normandy landings. Bletchley's secret weapon was abstract thought. In an age when we struggle to interest our children in mathematics and the sciences, we have here a unique monument to what these branches of learning can achieve. In Bletchley Park, the power of analytical reasoning comes alive.
It is also a monument to the dedication of a mostly female support staff, who carried out very repetitive tasks that required undeviating concentration, because there was no room here for error. Wartime secrecy prevented them from knowing the importance of their work. For decades afterwards, they were not even allowed to answer questions about what they had done during the war years. This is where our grandmothers' generation helped to bring down fascism.
But Bletchley has never had the status of a museum. The Bletchley Park Trust has to scratch together an income, supplemented by occasional private donations, just to maintain those parts of the site that are fit for use as a visitor centre and business park.
An application for funds is now being considered by the Heritage Lottery Fund. If it is granted – and let us hope it will be, and soon – that will resolve some of Bletchley's financial problems, though not all. In May, Bletchley Park's application for funds was rejected by the Gates Foundation on the grounds that it is not relevant to internet technology, to which the foundation is committed. That is true. What is on display in Bletchley is pre-internet technology. It is the place where the very first computer was put to use, decoding the private messages between Hitler and his Field Marshals. All the knowledge on which the fortunes of IT companies such as Microsoft were built originated in the wooden huts and brick outbuildings of Bletchley Park.
Now that the Gates Foundation has said no, then surely that other internet giant, Google, could step in and dedicate a small fraction of its wealth to rescuing the birthplace of the computer from rack and ruin.
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Copyright 2008 Independent News and Media Limited
Having visited Bletchley Park twice in the past 10 years (from America), we, too, were appalled to read that it has fallen on even harder times. My family and I found the entire Park, from its volunteer tour guides to the rudimentary displays in some of its rooms – as well as other telltale signs of operating on a shoestring budget – to be both endearing and inspiring.
For us, the crude, now crumbling huts epitomize the human endeavor that took place in desperate times, and greatly add to the Park’s atmosphere. To this day, we are fascinated by the secrecy that enveloped the Park and its workers, remaining unbroken for decades after the war.
While we are neither mathematicians nor computer moguls – rather devotees of WWII history – we will gladly contribute to the "Save Bletchley" campaign. In the meantime, thank you to the Independent for taking up the cause of an historical treasure that deserves to be preserved and its achievements recognized for generations to come.
Posted by B. Sallay | 22.08.08, 09:14 GMT
Such a monument should be preserved at all costs. The tragedy is that we soon forget the contributions both by known and unknown heroes.
Posted by Ashok Mehta | 22.08.08, 08:40 GMT
Surely Bletchely's historical importance could be remembered in a cyber-space memorial? Undoubtedly those computer boffins who have largely lost the use of their legs would rather see and learn from a memorial on the 'tinter'net.
Posted by Steve 2 | 21.08.08, 00:02 GMT
The achievement at Bletchley was in abstract thought. I am not convinced it needs a physical memorial.
Posted by Technomist | 20.08.08, 23:00 GMT
I find it astonishing that 'The Gates Foundation' rejected the application for funding, on the grounds that it is 'not relevant to internet technology'.
If it were not for Colossus and the work of countless mathematicians, early 'computer technicians' and their like, there would be not internet as we know it today.
I do sincerely hope someone steps in and secures funding for this project, before a true piece of computing and wartime history becomes a thing of the past.
Posted by Chris Barrett | 20.08.08, 14:43 GMT
I recognise the real heroic intellectual and life saving observations of war time Bletchly Park, but such focus misses wider european organized catholic intellectual fascist games.
Germanic powers had no more desire for secure communications between Hitler and his military chiefs in the field than any of our own allies. To identify undesirable military commanders and remove them from influences on power or each other would be paramount to Gestapo (in Geneva/Zurich) and SS (in Berlin/Vienna) and it is to greatly under-estimate propaganda power of intercepted communications to assume that most messages were not designed with a dual purpose of providing sound-bites for any successful interceptions poured over in detail by our intellectual elite.
BP was duplicated at lesser parks.
Churchill's ability to convince germanic spies he had direct supplies from Champagne was inspired morale spook games.
Villagers killed by SS/G provided them with some postwar havens; "I am home".
Posted by Terence David Carroll | 20.08.08, 11:38 GMT
I think Bletchley Park should be a national monument. It should be preserved to tell the story to our grandchildren of how British 'boffins' managed to crack the Nazi's code and keep one step ahead of them.
Nowadays people have the Hollywood spin that America won the Second World War single-handed and we sat round drinking tea. But while the Americans may have had the strength of numbers and industrial might we Brits more than made up for that with our guts, ingenuity and sheer inventiveness.
Posted by Neil | 20.08.08, 09:42 GMT
How much are the 2012 Olympics going to cost? How many millions were wasted on the Millennium Dome? Saving Bletchley Park would be a better use of money. if you start a fund I will contribute and I'm sure thousands would.
Posted by Prestonian | 20.08.08, 09:10 GMT