Reunion for 18 wonderful and inspiring Bletchley Park Veterans
Yesterday Bletchley Park, welcomed back 18 wonderful Veterans who worked at Bletchley Park during WW2 to return to the once top-secret site for the Annual Veterans’ Reunion.
Aged between 97 to (almost) 102, Veterans enjoyed an afternoon tea in the Mansion, spending time together, with family and friends and reminiscing on their wartime experiences.
Hazel Halter, who worked in the Naval Section during WW2, is now 99 years old and attended the reunion for the first time. She said: “I am so glad I came here to my first reunion. I have had a most enjoyable time. I was so happy during my time working at Bletchley Park, with wonderful friends. It has brought back so many lovely memories.”
Bletchley Park, located in Buckinghamshire, England, was the central site for British codebreakers during World War II. It became operational in 1939, just before the war began, and played a pivotal role in breaking enemy codes, most notably the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. These codes were used by the Nazis to encrypt military communications, and their decryption gave the Allies crucial insights into enemy plans. Bletchley Park’s work significantly contributed to the success of the Allies, with some historians crediting it with shortening the war by several years.
The codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park were carried out by a team of mathematicians, linguists, and cryptanalysts, including notable figures such as Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, and Dilly Knox. Turing, in particular, developed the Bombe machine, which automated much of the process of deciphering Enigma messages. The work at Bletchley Park was highly secret, with workers sworn to secrecy, and it wasn’t until decades later that the full extent of their contributions became widely known.
In addition to breaking codes, Bletchley Park developed significant advancements in early computing and cryptography, laying the groundwork for modern computer science. The intelligence produced, known as “Ultra,” was used to inform key military decisions, such as the D-Day landings. Bletchley Park’s legacy is now preserved as a museum, where visitors can learn about the extraordinary efforts of the people who worked there and the impact their work had on the course of the war.
