Meeting the Codebreakers
There was much for Form 6 to experience and explore on their visit to Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the World War II Codebreakers. One of our young reporters, Ela, shares what life was like for the early pioneers at the secret war station on the a secluded countryside estate.
Reviewed by Young Reporter Ela (Form 6)
Once we arrived at the countryside estate we were able to take a close look at the Enigma machines. These were the enciphering machines used by the German armed forces to send messages securely during World War II. In the hallway we saw a statue of the brilliant mathematician Alan Turing who worked at Bletchley Park and who played a key role in cracking the Enigma codes that the German military used to communicate. He helped Great Britain win the war and to mark the war-time hero's work the Bank of England's newly-designed £50 note features his portrait.
After lunch we were shown around the museum collections and the recreated WW2 rooms. We saw the motorcycles used by staff to travel around the estate, and the memorial built to recognise the work of the Polish codebreakers as the first people to crack the Enigma code at the outbreak of the war. It was their work that Alan Turing built on to crack the more complex codes. We also watched an interesting film about the war.
Finally we enjoyed a lesson where we cracked a message in Morse code which used beeps instead of words, and we learnt about the different kinds of attacks used during the war.
Fig: Our Morse code codebreaker challenge.
