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Wrens (members of the Women's Royal Naval Service) at Bletchley with Colossus, the world's first electronic programmable computer.

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire was Britain's main decryption establishment during World War Two. Ciphers and codes of several Axis countries were decrypted including, most importantly, those generated by the German Enigma and Lorenz machines.


Photo: Wrens (members of the Women's Royal Naval Service) at Bletchley with Colossus, the world's first electronic programmable computer, in 1942. (SSPL/Getty Images)

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Introduction

Wrens (members of the Women's Royal Naval Service) at Bletchley with Colossus, the world's first electronic programmable computer. Bletchley Park

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More information about: Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park, in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was the central site of the United Kingdom's Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which during the Second World War regularly penetrated the secret communications of the Axis Powers – most importantly the German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers. The official historian of World War II British Intelligence has written that the "Ultra" intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and that without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain. The site is now an educational and historical attraction memorialising and celebrating those accomplishments.

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Who

Code breakers

What

World War Two Operations

Encryption Machines

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