Elizabeth Watson British and Bletchley Park History 12

a. Status of British Espionage Before the Second World War ​ ​

- Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) was established in 1909 in response to increasing concerns about the threat to the British Empire posed by Germany’s new strategy of Weltpolitik. - Its name was originally Service Service Bureau. It was officially christened SIS in 1920. As a flag of convenience, some later referred to it as MI6. - During WWI, SIS worked closely with Military Intelligence, establishing a bond between domestic agencies, foreign intelligence services, and military establishments, all of which have remained strong to this day. - Diverse workforce, including many women, who worked as secretaries, typists, clerks, etc. - Establishment of many overseas espionage networks. For example, La Dame Blanche was created in occupied Belgium. Over the course of the war its membership expanded to over 800. This network of spies provided key intelligence concerning German troop movements. It was led by Walthere Dewe and Herman Chauvin. ​ - Following the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, the main focus of the Foreign office after the First World War became the threat of communism. - In the immediate post war years, there was a substantial reduction in resources and the service was pressured to make cuts. - In 1938, in preparation for a potential war, Section D was established under Laurence Grand. Its aim was “to plan, ​ prepare and when necessary carry out sabotage and other clandestine operations”, which, during the war, included plans to target German electricity, railways, food supplies, and telecommunications. - By WWII, British Intelligence services were second-to-none. They were well prepared to tackle Axis powers.

b. The Need for Espionage

- After 1917 Britain found itself increasingly threatened by communism. - The job of a secret service is to steal secrets of other countries and to protect with all its might secrets of its own. During wartime, information is ammunition which can make or break a victory. - The war in the Pacific was being lost by the Allies. U-Boats were successfully sinking convoys headed for Britain. These convoys carried vital supplies, such as food, and war materials necessary for allied troops. Using a machine called Enigma, german naval officers were communicating with each other daily and none of this correspondence could be read. The Poles had broken an earlier version of Enigma in 1932, but the Germans had since updated the cipher machine to such a degree that Naval Enigma was said to be “unbreakable”. It had over 159 million million million possible settings, which were regularly changed. - In addition to enigma, German high command was using a more sophisticated, iron clad cipher, the Lorenz cipher, which was used to communicate key information concerning troop movements, morale, invasion plans, and strategy developments. If the allies could crack this code, then maybe, just maybe, they’d have enough information to win the war as well. - Japanese aggression, followed by its entrance into the war, also meant that Bletchley Park needed facilities to crack Japanese correspondence.

c. Why, How, and By Whom was Bletchley Park Established ​ ​

- The story of Bletchley Park began in late August 1938. A small ensemble of gentlemen and women arrived at a ​ country house in Bletchley, a small town in Buckinghamshire, England. The gathering was planned by Captain Ridley. It was said to be a Shooting Party. However, the group came under false pretences. For, they were all secretly agents for her majesty’s secret service. Their goal was to determine whether Bletchley would be a suitable location for the new wartime base of Government Code & Cipher School (GC&CS), as well as a centre for appropriate sections of SIS. The rise of fascism was increasingly causing war to appear more likely, and the Axis powers were using highly complex, sophisticated ciphers in military communications. The director of the SIS Hugh Sinclair swiftly purchased this mansion and its surrounding estate for 6000 pounds. It was then transformed into what would be one of the most effective, secretive, and valuable code-breaking hubs in British history.

d. Which Nations were involved in Bletchley Park ​ ​

The majority of Bletchley workers were either (a) living in Britain or (b) British citizens. There were, however, many Europeans hired for their language abilities or overseas connections. The United States was also highly involved in the day-to-day runnings of Bletchley Park. The two core allies shared intelligence at an unprecedented rate, fostering trust and joint military operation initiatives. In fact, the “special intelligence relationship” between Britain and the United States was a product of Bletchley Park and WWII.

e. Key Actions and Reactions at Bletchley ​ ​

- In 1939, Stewart Menzies became the new director of GC&CS and SIS following the death of his predecessor, Hugh Alexander. He oversaw an extensive expansion of the two agencies in an effort to win the war. Over the course of the war, he hired over 837 SIS workers. - The Bombe was designed by Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman and perfected in early 1941. It ran through all the possible ​ Enigma settings/configurations reducing the possibilities to a manageable number for further hand testing. Its invention allowed the allies to defeat the so-called unbreakable enigma code. - In 1941, faced with difficulty finding funds from the government, the Bletchley staff wrote to Churchill, who, acknowledging their vitality, wrote to the war office to ‘Make sure they have all they want extreme priority and ​ ​ report to me that this has been done.” - German high command used a teleprinter called the Lorenz Schlusselzusats (SZ)- codenamed TUnny at Bletchley to transmit secret non-morse language. It was a much more sophisticated cipher used to communicate much more valuable information. A team including Gordon Welchman, Bill Tutte, and Tommy Flowers were tasked with breaking the Lorenz Cipher. Their goal was achieved after the creation of Tommy Flower’s Colossus, which could efficiently break the Lorenz code. Bletchley workers also cracked the :Red: key used by Luftwaffe liaison officers and, a team of Alan Turing, Dilly Knowx, Peter Twin, and John Jeffreys unravelled the German Army administrative key ”The Green” - Work at Bletchley Park was shrouded in secrecy. Every staff member signed the Official Secrets Act before beginning any work at what was known in official records as “Station X”. In order to “explain” how intelligence was so accurate and effective, reports given the appearance of coming from an SIS spy, codenamed Boniface, with a network of imaginary agents in Germany. Y Service was a wireless intercept establishment with stations across Europe. It intercepted and recorded ciphered radio messages . These messages were then forwarded to Bletchley to be deciphered, translated, and fitted. Once this was completed, intelligence reports were sent to . Special liaison units also delivered intelligence to commanders in field. Churchill famously remarked that the Bletchley staff were “the geese that laid the golden eggs and never cackled”

f. Key British British Intelligence Moments and Missions ( Spy Stories ) ​ ​

1. The Exploits of Agent Fifi ​ ​

Agent Fifi was so remarkable that she became a WWII spy legend. She was an agent provocateur for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), credited as being one of the most expert liars in the world”. Throughout the war, she tested the loyalty, discretion, and will power of new recruits, seducing them in an attempt to see whether or not they would disclose confidential or secretive information. Those who fell for her deception were swiftly dismissed or harshly disciplined. Her meticulous reports surrounding encounters with these potential employees could make or break their careers.

2. Krystyna Skarbek a.k.a. Christine Granville ​ ​

Krystyna Skarbek was a Polish agent of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War. Fluent in French, courageous, and one of the longest serving female agents. Her nom de guerre was Christine Granville. She was the daughter of a wealthy Jewish mother and a Roman Catholic count father. She organise an extensive correspondence system between and . She is also credited with penetrating and sabotaging the main communications between Axis Powers on the River Danube. Famously, Granville was so persuasive that, after being arrested by the , she secured the release of herself and several other British prisoners of war. She also worked as “Madame Pauline” for French intelligence forces. Granville’s career came to an abrupt end on the 15th of June, 1952, when she was stabbed to death in the Shelbourne Hotel, Earls Court, London, England. How? One would think that her life in espionage had created one too many enemies for her to escape. Well, that would be expected, but it is not what happened to her. Granville was murdered by Dennis Muldowney, an obsessed Reform Club porter whose advances Christine had rejected.

3. Service Clarence ​ ​

- Service Clarence was a SIS network based in Belgium and led by by Hector Demarque and Walthere Dewe. This service collected vital information on enemy activity in Belgium and along the border with France. It also gave key intelligence on the impact of Allied bombing raids on German morale and infrastructure, as well as the location of German units and the nature of German coastal defences.

4. The Makir Wireless Station ​ ​

- The Makir Wireless Station was established my the British secret services in Occupied Norway. It sent up to ten messages on a daily basis to London. Information collected by the Makir Wireless Station included U-Boat activity, German plans, and details on the conditions of German forces. It was led by Oluf Reed Olsen who had been dropped into Norway in early 1944. The Makir Wireless Station operated with the utmost secrecy. Its workers were careful to remain vigilant and silent in order to avoid detection.

5. Operation Mincemeat ​

- Operation mincemeat fooled the Germans about invasion plans for Sicily in 1943. Prior to the invasion of Sicily, the Allies dropped the body of a uniformed dead vagrant into the ocean currents near the coast of Spain. A briefcase containing fake invasion plans for Greece was chained to his wrist. When the Germans were informed of a body washed up on the Spanish shore, they believed the plans to be authentic. This caused them to divert resources meant for rapid reinforcements of Sicily to preparations for an “upcoming” allied invasion of Greece.

6. The Alliance Network

- The alliance network was based in occupied France. Its purpose was to supply the British detailed intelligence reports on enemy troop movements, order of battle, and secret weapons. The network was led by Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, who was known to be a “copybook beautiful spy”.

7. 1944: D-Day Sussex Scheme ​

- SIS collaborated with American and Free French allies in creation of special team codenamed “sussex”. men and women, working in pairs, were dropped behind enemy lines. Their mission was to provide front-line intelligence after the D-Day invasion in order to assist in the Allied liberation of Nazi-Europe. Over 30 individuals were dropped in France, and, by August, they had dispatched over 800 messages to SIS.

h. Key Individuals ​ ​

1. Alan Mathison Turing ​ ​

rd - Alan Turing was born on the 23 ​ June, 1912 in London, England. As the son of Julius Mathison Turing, a civil ​ servant based in India, Alan spent most of his childhood separated from his parents. At age thirteen, he began a life in boarding at Sherborn Public School in Dorset. Here, he met Christopher Morcom, an important friend and possibly the first love of his life. Christopher died of tuberculosis in 1930. His death was a shock to Alan, who had been ignorant of his illness, but it inspired him to follow his academic gifts as a way to cherish the memory of his dear friend.

- At nineteen, Alan began to read Mathematics at King's College, Cambridge. He earned a First Class Honours.

- While studying at Cambridge, Turing became inspired by the notion of finding practical uses for abstract mathematics. It was here he wrote a revolutionary, era-defining paper, On Computable Numbers. His paper ​ ​ theorised that all computable numbers could be calculated and imagined a hypothetical computer that could decipher instructions written in binary (1s and 0s) on a long piece of tape. This computer, now referred to as a Turing machine, could achieve every task it was given. It was the birth of the computer.

th - On September 4 ,​ 1939, the day after war was declared between Britain and Germany, Turing reported for duty at ​ Bletchley Park, with the task of breaking the German Naval Code Enigma. In order to accomplish this looming challenge, Turing and his team developed what became known as the Bombe, a specified electromagnetic machine, th which was perfected on the 18 ​ of March, 1940. The Bombe searched through every possible parameter of an ​ enigma message and, through a chain of deduction, reduced the number of possibilities to one that could be managed by hand.

- After the war, Turing began work for the National Physical Laboratory in London. In 1946, he developed detailed designs for a programmable registered computer. In 1948, he accepted a position in the department of Mathematics at the University of Manchester. In 1950, he published a paper called the Imitation Game. It was the idea that a machine could think like a human mind if it scored a passing mark on the Turing Test. The Turing test was passed if a human could not, through conversation, distinguish a computer from a human. To this day, there has not been a computer to pass the test.

- Sadly, Turing was maltreated and later condemned by his government and his society. He was a homosexual living in a time where homosexuality was a crime. After his discovery in 1952, he was found guilty of Gross Indecency. Given the choice between imprisonment and prohibition with chemical castration, he chose the latter, and, in consequence, was forced to take hormonal treatment to reduce his libido. During this period, the police harassed him, his security clearance at GCHQ was revoked and his consultations with the Secret Service came to an end.

- Alan Turing died on the eighth of June, 1954. He was 41 years old. He left no note. Cyanide was found in the house and a half eaten apple lay next to his bed. He was pushed to suicide because he did not conform to society’s version of “normal”. What his society failed to realize, though, was that no one normal could have achieved what Turing achieved in his lifetime.

2. Tommy Flowers

- Tommy Flowers was vital in Bletchley Park. A civil servant with a first honours degree from the University of London in engineering, Flowers was a modest genius. In December 1942 he finalized Colossus, the first programmable, electronic computer. It was perfected and in 1944 was tackle the more sophisticated Lorenz machines. This invention gave the allies significant insight into the German defenses for the D-Day invasion and subsequent battles. Colossus was 16 by 7 feet, weighed one ton and was made by standard telephone exchange parts. By the end of the war at least ten machines were in operation. The second one built ran five times as quickly as the first. Most were dismantled after the war and remained secret until the efforts of Bletchley Park were revealed to the public.

4. Mansfield Cumming - The original “C” ​ ​

- A former Navy officer - First chief of SIS – appointed head of the Foreign section of the Secret Service Bureau - Workaholic - Prioritized secrecy and discretion above all - Established SIS as a worldwide service and secured it an international reputation - Cumming wrote all his letters in green ink, a tradition which remained with the Secret Service. He was nicknamed “C”, a title which has been given to every chief since his time in office.

i. Initial Outcomes of British Intelligence

- Decrypts from Enigma and Lorenz enabled Field commanders to plan operations with unprecedented confidence. They were able to reading an enemy’s hand, which helped it play its cards in the best way possible.

- Intelligence from Naval Enigma was pivotal throughout the First Battle of the Atlantic. Deciphered messages ​ helped the British Admiralty to track U-Boat wolf packs, which, in turn, considerably reduced the German Navy's ability to sink the British convoys and merchant ships.

- After breaking Japanese ciphers, the Codebreakers at Bletchley were able to monitor the Japanese preparations for war

- In 1942, the Codebreakers' intelligence involving North Africa enabled the Royal Navy to cut Rommel's supply lines. Bletchley Park also kept Montgomery informed of the Desert Fox's movements and strategies. Bletchley Park’s establishment led to the creation of the World’s first semi-programmable electronic computer: Colossus

j. How did British Espionage Efforts, Including the Work of Bletchley Park, change the course of the War? ​ ​

- Historians estimate that the extraordinary work achieved at Bletchley Park shortened the war by almost two years, saving millions of lives.

- Information deciphered and transmitted by Bletchley Park workers was key in the naval war and proved vital in ensuring the success of the D-Day invasions.

- The technological innovation achieved at Bletchley was incredible, though most were kept as official secrets until much later, including the invention of Tommy Flower’s Colossus computer.

- “The GC&CS mission was to crack the Nazi codes and cipher systems […]. Essentially, it was war-winning work in earnest” — Bletchley Park Museum

Part II - Multiple Choice Questions:

1. How can a machine pass the Turing Test?

a. By solving the Endeinshleign problem b. By being indiscernible, through written communication , from a human being. c. By being capable of storing more information than the human mind d. By being able to solve any calculable number

2. Why was it so vital that the allies break enigma?

a. Because Hitler was personally using enigma on a daily basis to communicate with German high command b. Because the Luftwaffe blitzkrieg bombings of London had almost wiped out the city c. Because the Germans used enigma to communicate developments of an atomic bomb d. Because u-boats using enigma were consistently destroying British convoys carrying munitions and supplies.

3. What is the chief of SIS traditionally referred to as and why? a. “C” in memory of the first chief of SIS, Cummings b. “M”, adopted after ’s series was released c. “S”, for head of SIS d. “X”, as in agent “unknown”

4. What cipher was most important to break? a. The Lorenz cipher b. The fish cipher c. Naval enigma d. “The Green” cipher

5. Immediately after Tommy Flowers created the first programmable electronic computer, did the British industry in computers expand? a. No, because Mr. Flowers had patent rights and did not want the mass production of his computer b. Yes, the British led computer innovations in the immediate post-war years c. No, the Americans took the credit for British work and, with more money and resources, led computer innovations in the immediate post war years d. Yes, the British spurned a new industry that was quickly overtaken by the Americans e. No, all of the information regarding Tommy Flowers’ computer remained confidential for many years following the allied victory in WWII

6. Why was Agent Fifi famous? a. For securing her release, along with the release of her colleagues, from a Gestapo controlled prison b. For testing new recruits through the art of seduction c. For being a “copybook beautiful spy” d. For establishing a wireless intercept network in nazi-occupied Belgium