The British on intelligence: a collection (SIS, MI5, GCHQ & more)

[davidbfpo]

Bletchley Park was the centre for the WW2 British Empire code-breaking effort, often referred to as Ultra, which broke a large part of the encoded German Enigma radio traffic.

Alan Turing one of the key people there has come to the fore:

This week sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing, a man regarded as one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th Century. He is best known for his work cracking the Germans' secret codes during the Second World War. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of computer technology.

Link to the many BBC stories:http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/?q=turing

Recently Warwick Business School hosted an event with three speakers, each using a different perspective:

Chris Grey explores how Bletchley Park was made as an organisation. What was its culture and how was its work co-ordinated? Challenging many popular perceptions Chris examines the complexities of how 10,000 people were brought together in complete secrecy and yet worked as a team.

I've followed his work for a few years and he has made an important contribution to understanding what occurred at Bletchley Park. This is a short interview:http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/culture/chrisgrey

Then two historians:

Michael Smith an award-winning journalist and number one best-selling author; an expert on codebreaking, espionage and how spies operate.

Richard Aldrich, Professor of International Security at the University of Warwick who is an expert in the technology of secrecy. He talks about what happened to Bletchley Park after the end of the Second World War and how it transformed into GCHQ..

Podcasts and PPT slides available on:http://www.wbs.ac.uk/news/features/2...chley/Park/and

[davidbfpo]

A short press article:

While Alan Turing has been justly celebrated in his centenary year, there were other brilliant codebreakers

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/w...en-heroes.html

The British have a way of not rewarding those who make a valuable, no invaluable contribution to national success, although this came as a surprise:

Bill Tutte became a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, then went to Canada to become professor of mathematics at Waterloo. He never received any official recognition of his war work. Tommy Flowers was awarded £1,000 (less than he had personally spent on Colossus’s development) and given an MBE. He stayed at the GPO, working on electronic telephone exchanges and Ernie, the Premium Bonds computer. He was unable to use the success of Colossus to give weight to his advanced ideas and was left to watch America’s electronics industry move ahead of Britain’s.

[davidbfpo]

Richard Aldrich has written a historical tome 'GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency', which has been well reviewed:http://www.amazon.co.uk/GCHQ-Richard...mm_pap_title_0 and for the USA:http://www.amazon.com/Gchq-Uncensore...ligence+Agency

There is also a sub-website on his book plus other sources:http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pa.../lectures/gchq

[jcustis]

http://www.amazon.com/Codebreaker-Fa.../dp/0192803867

Alan Stripp's work is a short, but interesting book that adds to the explanation of Bletchley Park.

My copy is yours if you like David, in payment for your help with my research.

[davidbfpo]

A couple of days ago, in Post No.2, I remarked:

The British have a way of not rewarding those who make a valuable, no invaluable contribution to national success....

In the New Year Honours List:

A Bletchley Park codebreaker who has been appointed MBE in the New Year Honours said he still hopes his whole team will one day be recognised. Raymond "Jerry" Roberts, 92, receives the honour for services to the WWII decryption centre and to codebreaking.... was among four founder members of the Testery section tasked with breaking the German High Command's Tunny code. The decrypts are credited with helping shorten the war by at least two years.

He is now the last survivor of the nine cryptanalysts who worked on Tunny, and has spent the past four years campaigning for acknowledgement of his colleagues.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...herts-20859561 and a BBC radio interview:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20863205