HAYES MEN’S FELLOWSHIP

Newsletter April 2020, edited by Allan Evison, HMF Honorary Secretary (Membership Enquiries: For more information on joining the Fellowship retired and semi-retired men can ring me for a friendly chat on 020 8402 7416, or please drop me an e-mail to [email protected])

CORONAVIRUS EXTRA 2 KEEPING IN TOUCH: The purpose of this mid-month Newsletter is to keep in touch with members of the Fellowship at a time when we are all social distancing and many will be self isolating. The Committee want to assure members that although there is little opportunity for face to face meetings at the moment, they have not been forgotten. Your Committee are happy to chat over the phone with any of you who may be feeling isolated at this difficult time. Their numbers are on your current Membership Card.

Things to do: So far we have missed out on our planned Outing to and our talk on Motorsport 1894 -1939. We are hoping to reschedule these activities but until then we want to give members a taste of what has been missed/what is to come and also some things you might want to do in the meantime. So this Newsletter has:- • Things to occupy us! - we also have a quiz and a few other suggestions for things we might all do in our enforced social distancing. (Page 2) • Outing - Bletchley Park – information and photos about activities there during WW11. (Page 4) • Talk - Motor Sport 1894 -1939 – this is a broad topic and for this Newsletter we just focus on the role played by the Brooklands Motor Racing Circuit over that period. (Page 9) If you have a contribution for the Things to do section let us know. Contributions will be gratefully received!

Latest News Cancellations: The Kent & East Sussex Railway is now closed at least until the end of June so our planned outing on 17th June is the next casualty. Probably not the last, we shall update you in due course on our remaining programme for July and August.

Refunds: The Treasurer reports that all members who had prepaid for the outings to Bletchley Park (March) and D-Day Story at Portsmouth (April) have received full refunds direct into their bank accounts.

Revised Future Plans: As our Chairman advised in the previous Newsletter we have made a booking for Bletchley Park in October, possibly an escorted coach trip by City and Village Tours to West Sussex and Hampshire in September, and also a visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in November.

Finally, Take care, especially in Social Distancing. Try to stay safe in these difficult days ahead, and healthy in body, mind and spirit. 1

Things to occupy us!

Some gardens are wondering what has hit them as their owners have so much more time on their hands as they obey Government instructions to stay at home and in some cases self isolate. We are fortunate that there are so many wonderful things to occupy us during this period. Here is just a tiny selection with clickable links where available:- • National Theatre – Live streaming of a different performance each week - https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/nt-at-home • Shakespeare plays – Clips from the RSC at https://www.rsc.org.uk/education/teacher- resources/online-performances or at The show must go on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOAHj4ANGKw&t=3327s • Royal Opera House – Our house to your house series with regular changes - https://www.youtube.com/user/RoyalOperaHouse • Andrew Lloyd Webber Musicals – Regular weekly changes - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmPjhKMaXNNeCr1FjuMvag/featured • British Museum – Curators Corner videos which also change each week https://www.youtube.com/user/britishmuseum • Science Museum - Virtual tours etc https://www.youtube.com/user/sciencemuseum • National Trust – Regular podcasts available from the National Trust - https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/listen-to-podcasts-from-the-national-trust • Have you revisited your photo albums either to sort them out or to remind you of the times before lockdown?? • Have you sorted out your shed or your garage recently?? • Have you written down your own family memories or your family history??

London Underground Quiz

Most of us have been on the London Underground many times, but how well do we remember the names of the various stations? Challenge yourself to identify them from these cryptic clues.

Good luck

LONDON UNDERGROUND QUIZ 1. Alpine home 2. Envious clergyman 3. Truthful tree

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4. Angry Monarch 5. Double tower and drawbridge 6. For Royal Judges 7. Birdsong on the dock 8. Home for rabbits 9. He bashes metal 10. Oriental gammon 11. A chivalrous river crossing 12. Ascend Cathedral 13. Picnic area fit for Monarch 14. Ancient road 15. Stop at 1760 yards 16. She was not amused 17. Gabriel 18 Ideal location for seven bachelors 19 Do it yourself bridal headdress 20 Red rose entrance 21. In the hop county 22. Where the money Is 23. Blackboard material grown here 24. No acrobats at this university 25. Big gun road

How did you get on??

See the foot of Page 11 for the answers

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Bletchley Park Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the World War Two Codebreakers is now a vibrant heritage attraction.

Storm clouds gather

Codebreaking at Bletchley Park first took place in September 1938. On 18 September 1938, a small group of people moved into the Mansion under the cover story that they were a shooting party. They had an air of friends enjoying a relaxed weekend together at a country house. They even brought with them one of the best chefs from the Savoy Hotel to cook their food. Behind the cover were members of MI6 and the Government Code and Cypher School (GC & CS), a secret team including a number of scholars and academics turned Codebreakers. As tensions in Europe peaked, Admiral Sinclair, Director of GC & CS and SIS, had activated their War Station: Bletchley Park. The group’s job was to set up and run intelligence activity from Bletchley Park. They responded quickly, transmitting their first message at 6 pm on the day they arrived. As tensions eased, the War Station was stood down. The group returned to their London offices on 9 October.

Cottage Industry

Work began in the Mansion and its outbuildings, with a staff of around 150 people. As more and more people arrived to join the codebreaking operations, the various sections began to move into large pre-fabricated wooden huts set up on the lawns of the Park. For security reasons, the various sections were known only by their hut numbers. The first operational break into Enigma came around the 23 January 1940, when the team working under Dilly Knox, with the mathematicians John Jeffreys, Peter Twinn and , unravelled the German Army administrative key that became known at Bletchley Park as ‘The Green’. Encouraged by this success, the Codebreakers managed to crack the ‘Red’ key used by the Luftwaffe (German air force). In addition to German codes, Italian and later Japanese systems were also broken.

Intelligence Factory

Despite ever increasing numbers of staff, work in the ‘Huts’ continued. In October 1941 after receiving a letter from some of the senior codebreakers decrying the lack of resources being afforded them, Prime Minister directed: ‘Make sure they have all they want extreme priority and report to me that this has been done.’

From that moment on Bletchley Park began receiving a huge influx of resources and a major building programme ensued to create the space to house the ever increasing workforce. Brick and concrete blocks were

4 built for staff, and Outstations created to house the growing number of ‘Bombe’ machines in use finding Enigma ‘Keys’. The Bombes were operated by Wrens, many of whom lived in requisitioned country houses such as Woburn Abbey. Codebreaking had been turned into an ‘industrial’ process.

Impact and Legacy

Bletchley Park was vital to Allied victory in World War Two. The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) devised methods to enable the Allied forces to decipher the military codes and ciphers that secured German, Japanese, and other Axis nation’s communications. This produced vital intelligence in support of Allied military operations on land, at sea and in the air. Bletchley Park also heralded the birth of the information age with the industrialisation of the codebreaking processes enabled by machines such as the Turing/Welchman Bombe, and the world’s first electronic computer, Colossus.

At the end of the War the expertise developed at Bletchley Park was taken forward in the organisation known now as the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). This highly efficient intelligence-gathering machine is aided by the special relationship with America, the genesis of which came from collaboration at Bletchley Park. Today Bletchley Park is a heritage site designed to preserve the uniquely important story of these Codebreakers during WW2. Preserving Bletchley Park

Codebreaking operations at Bletchley Park came to an end in 1946. After the war Bletchley Park became home to a variety of training schools: for teachers, Post Office workers, air traffic control system engineers, and members of GCHQ. In 1987, after a fifty-year association with British Intelligence, Bletchley Park was finally closed.

There were moves to demolish the whole site in favour of housing development and a supermarket. In 1991 the Bletchley Archaeological and Historical Society formed a small committee with the aim of saving Bletchley Park in tribute to the remarkable people whose collective intellects changed the course of WW2, and so that the story could be kept alive for the education and enjoyment of future generations.

On 10 February 1992, the committee persuaded Milton Keynes Council to declare most of Bletchley Park a conservation area. Three days later the Bletchley Park Trust was formed and in 1994 its Chief Patron, HRH The Duke of Kent, opened the site to the public, as a museum. In June 1999 Trust was awarded a 250 year leasehold of the core historic areas of the Park, and this was followed in 2009 by a successful bid for support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Bletchley Park is now a self funding historic visitor attraction with over 250,000 visitors per year, and additional buildings continue to be restored and opened to the public.

Enigma Machine

The was invented by a German engineer Arthur Scherbius shortly after WW1 The machine (of which a number of varying types were produced) resembled a typewriter. It had a lamp board above the keys with a lamp for each letter. The operator pressed the key for the plaintext letter of the message and the enciphered letter lit up on the lamp board. It was adopted by the German

5 armed forces between 1926 and 1935. The machine contained a series of interchangeable rotors, which rotated every time a key was pressed to keep the cipher changing continuously. This was combined with a plug board on the front of the machine where pairs of letters were transposed; these two systems combined offered 103 sextillion possible settings to choose from, which the Germans believed made Enigma unbreakable.

The Poles had broken Enigma in as early as 1932, but in 1939 with the prospect of war, the Poles decided to inform the British of their successes. Dilly Knox, one of the former British World War One Codebreakers, was convinced he could break the system and set up an Enigma Research Section, comprising himself and Tony Kendrick, later joined by Peter Twinn, Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman. They worked in the stable yard at Bletchley Park and that is where the first wartime Enigma messages were broken in January 1940. Enigma traffic continued to be broken routinely at Bletchley Park for the remainder of the war.

Lorenz

Perhaps Bletchley Park's greatest success was breaking the Germans' strategic ciphers. These complex ciphers were used to secure communications between Berlin and Army commanders in the field. Messages consisted of teleprinter code encyphered with the highly complex Lorenz cypher machine. The intelligence value of breaking into these was immense. Initial efforts were successful, but were done by hand but could not keep up with the volume of intercepts. Under Professor Max Newman the ‘Newmanry’ started to devise machines to mechanise the process. This ultimately led to the design and construction by the brilliant General Post Office (GPO) engineer Tommy Flowers of ‘Colossus’, the world’s first semi-programmable electronic computer. Breaking into these ciphers allowed the Allied staff planning for the invasion of Europe to obtain unprecedented detail of the German defences, and to see into the minds of the enemy commanders including Hitler himself.

Japanese Codes and Ciphers

Japanese codes were a longstanding interest of GC&CS. Japanese codes were broken as early as the 1920s, and Japan was a particular target for intelligence efforts due to the naval competition between the US, UK and Japan in the inter-war period. Japanese codes improved throughout the period of GC & CS operations but the codebreakers, with American help, were able to keep pace. British codebreaking operations were initially carried out in Singapore, and then later Colombo, and Kilindini in Kenya. In addition increasing amounts of work were carried out at Bletchley Park itself, first on diplomatic and Naval traffic and later on Japanese Army and Airforce messages. In addition to providing information about their own operations, Japanese messages also reported on German activities via their Military and Naval Attaches in . This traffic provided significant advance warning of the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, and later provided a mass of vital information about the German defensive plans in France prior to the D-Day invasion.

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Who were the Codebreakers

Nearly 10,000 people worked in the wider Bletchley Park organisation. At first GC&CS followed its pre-war recruitment policy, and looked for ‘Men and women of a professor type’ through contacts at Oxford and Cambridge universities. Many famous Codebreakers including Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman and Bill Tutte were found this way. Others such as Dilly Knox and Nigel de Grey had started their codebreaking careers in WW1. The organisation started in 1939 with only around 150 staff, but soon grew rapidly.

As the codebreaking process became more mechanised, and the volume of intercepts grew, many more staff were recruited from a wider range of sources. A significant proportion of these were recruited from the Women’s Services; the WRNS, the ATS and the WAAF. By 1945, 75% of the staff of Bletchley Park were women, and of these six out of ten were in uniform. The remainder were recruited through the Civil Service. As a consequence civilians and uniformed personnel worked alongside each other in most sections. A small group of American service personnel were also brought over and integrated into a number of the Sections. The was the first time many of the UK staff had met an American, but the visitors fitted in very well.

Impact on the War

Land

Intelligence from Bletchley Park was vital in the Allies’ land battles. It was in North Africa where Bletchley Park came into its own, assisted by its outpost in Cairo, the Combined Bureau Middle-East. Enigma decrypts provided vital intelligence to the British generals throughout the campaign. The Codebreakers also made a vital contribution to D-Day. The ability to read Japanese diplomatic and naval and military attaché cyphers provided military commanders with full details of the German defences in Normandy. The ‘Fish’ enciphered teleprinter links from Berlin to the battle fronts also gave details of German plans laid down by Hitler and passed to his commanders. The breaking of the ciphers of the German Secret Intelligence Service allowed the British to confuse Hitler over where the Allies were to land. His decision to divert troops away from the Normandy beaches undoubtedly helped secure the invasion’s success.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander of Allied forces wrote: ‘The intelligence which has emanated from you before and during the campaign has been of priceless value to me. It has simplified my task as a commander enormously. It has saved thousands of British and American lives…’

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Sea

Breaking German, Italian and Japanese naval codes was vital to the war effort. The intelligence produced by deciphering Naval Enigma was passed to the Admiralty by Naval Section. In the early days, they struggled to get the naval commanders to take it seriously, but a series of spectacular successes turned things around for the Codebreakers. The second half of 1941 saw Hut 8, led by Alan Turing, make the breakthrough on the Dolphin Enigma key used by the U- Boats attacking the trans-Atlantic convoys. From then on, throughout the Battle of the Atlantic, they helped the Admiralty to track the U-Boat wolf packs, considerably reducing the German Navy’s ability to sink the merchant navy ships bringing vital supplies to Britain from America.

In the Mediterranean, the Battle of Matapan in March 1941 was a direct result of Bletchley Park’s break into the Italian Naval Enigma system, which led to a Royal Navy victory that restricted the Italian Navy’s operations for the rest of the war. Also in the Far East, reading Japanese codes led to routine sinking of enemy ships.

Air

Bletchley Park was able to read huge numbers of enemy air force messages. This was Bletchley Park’s first substantial contribution to the British war effort. The first Enigma messages to be successfully decrypted were from the German Luftwaffe. For example the breaking by Hut 6 of the Brown Enigma cypher allowed Bletchley Park to predict the targets and routes of the Luftwaffe bombers, which ensured that RAF fighter aircraft could ambush them on their way to their targets and that the authorities on the ground could anticipate and prepare for the raids, limiting the numbers of deaths and amount of damage so far as was possible.

Later in the war, Bletchley Park decrypts made a significant contribution to the Allied bombing offensive over Germany from 1943 onwards. Interception and analysis of transmissions from the German air defence network allowed British and American bomber routes and tactics to be refined, to minimise losses. False broadcasts were also made to confuse the enemy system.

(Text courtesy of Bletchley Park website https://bletchleypark.org.uk/ )

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Brooklands

Brooklands was a 2.75-mile (4.43 km) motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, . It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit[n 1] as well as one of Britain's first airfields, which also became Britain's largest aircraft manufacturing centre by 1918, producing military aircraft such as the Wellington and civil airliners like the Viscount and VC-10.

The circuit hosted its last race in August 1939 and today part of it forms the Brooklands Museum, a major aviation and motoring museum, as well as a venue for vintage car, motorcycle and other transport-related events.

History of Brooklands motor circuit

The Brooklands motor circuit was the brainchild of Hugh F. Locke King, and was the first purpose- built banked motor race circuit in the world. Following the Motor Car Act 1903, Britain was subject to a blanket 20 mph (32 km/h) speed limit on public roads: at a time when nearly 50% of the world's new cars were produced in France, there was concern that Britain's infant auto-industry would be hampered by the inability to undertake sustained high-speed testing. King commissioned Colonel Capel Lofft Holden of the Royal Artillery to design the projected circuit and work began in 1906.

Requirements of speed and spectator visibility led to the Brooklands track being built as a 100 ft (30 m) wide, 2.75 miles (4.43 km) long, banked oval. The banking was nearly 30 feet (9 m) high in places. In addition to the oval, a bisecting "Finishing Straight" was built, increasing the track length to 3.25 miles (5.23 km), of which 1.25 miles (2.01 km) was banked. It could host up to 287,000 spectators in its heyday.

Owing to the complications of laying tarmacadam on banking, and the expense of laying asphalt, the track was built in uncoated concrete. This led in later years to a somewhat bumpy ride, as the surface suffered differential settlement over time.

Along the centre of the track ran a dotted black line, known as the Fifty Foot Line. By driving over the line, a driver could theoretically take the banked corners without having to use the steering wheel.

The track was opened on 17 June 1907 with a luncheon attended by most of Britain's motor manufacturers, followed by an informal inauguration of the track by a procession of 43 cars, one driven by Charles Rolls. The first competitive event was held on 28–29 June, with three cars competing to break the world record for distance covered in 24 hours, and the first race meeting was held on 6 July, attracting over 10,000 spectators.

Apparently drawing inspiration from the development at Brooklands, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built soon afterwards, and held its inaugural race in August 1909.

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The Mountain Circuit

The Brooklands Mountain Circuit was a small section of the track giving a lap 1¼ miles long, running from the Fork to the rear of Members' Hill and back. It was created in 1930 using movable barriers.[8]

Motoring records

24-hour event

On 28–29 June 1907, eleven days after the circuit opened, it played host to the world's first 24-hour motor event, with Selwyn Edge leading three specially converted Napier cars around the circuit. A statement of intent had been made in 1906, and Selwyn Edge entered into a physical training program to prepare for the event. His car, "804" was extensively modified, having a special fuel tank, bodywork removed, and a special windscreen. Over 300 red railway 1906 Napier lamps were used to light the track during the night. Flares were used to mark the upper boundary of the track. Edge drove his car for the full duration, with the drivers of the other two cars (Henry C. Tryon/A. F. Browning and F. Draper/Frank Newton) taking the more familiar shift approach. During the event Edge covered a distance of 1,581.74 mi (2,545.56 km) at an average speed of 65.91 mph (106.07 km/h), comfortably beating the existing record of 1,096.187 mi (1,764.142 km) set at Indianapolis in 1905.

Women were not allowed to compete for several years. Dorothy Levitt, S. F. Edge's leading driver, was refused entry despite having been the 'first English-woman to compete in a motor race' in 1903, and holding the 'Ladies World Land Speed Record'. Edge completed 2,545 km at an average 106.06 km/h, a record which stood for 17 years. The first standard race meeting would be held the next week, on 6 July.

One-hour records

George E. Stanley broke the one-hour record at Brooklands race track on a Singer motorcycle in 1912, becoming the first ever rider of a 350 cc motorcycle to cover over 60 miles (97 km) in an hour.

The world record for the first person to cover 100 miles (160 km) in 1 hour was set by Percy E. Lambert at Brooklands, on 15 February 1913 when driving his 4.5 litre sidevalve Talbot. He actually covered 103 miles, 1470 yards (167.1 km) in 60 minutes. A contemporary film of his exploits on that day can be viewed at the Brooklands Museum.

Distance records

In July and August 1929, Violette Cordery and her younger sister Evelyn drove her 4.5 litre four- seater Invicta for 30,000 miles in less than 30,000 minutes (approximately 20 days, 20 hours), averaging 61.57 mph and earning her second Dewar Trophy from the Royal Automobile Club.

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World War One

Brooklands closed to motor racing during World War I, was requisitioned by the War Office and continued its pre-war role as a flying training centre although it was now under military control. Brooklands soon became a major location for the construction, testing and supply of military aeroplanes.

Inter-war years

Motor racing resumed in 1920 after extensive track Count Zborowski with Chitty Bang Bang 1 at repairs and Grand Prix motor racing was established at Brooklands, 1921. Brooklands in 1926 by Henry Segrave, after his victories in the 1923 French Grand Prix and the San Sebastián Grand Prix (all won on Sunbeam Racing Cars which in various hands had significant success in Brooklands) the following year raised interest in the sport in Britain. This first British Grand Prix was won by Louis Wagner and Robert Sénéchal, sharing the drive in a Delage 155B. The second British Grand Prix was staged there in 1927 and these two events resulted in improved facilities at Brooklands.

In 1930, the Daily Herald offered a trophy for the fastest driver at an event at Brooklands. The first year, Birkin and Kaye Don competed, the former in a Bentley Blower tourer, the latter in the Sunbeam 'Tigress' 4 litre, Don winning with a speed of 137.58 miles per hour (221.41 km/h). In 1932, Birkin won driving his red "Monoposto" Bentley Blower No.1, clocking 137.96 miles per hour (222.03 km/h).[15] The track record stood for two years, before being beaten by John Cobb driving the 24 litre Napier-Railton, which holds the all-time lap record at 143.44 mph (230.84 km/h).

Morgan 3 wheeler During the late 1930s, Brooklands also hosted massed start cycle racing events organised by the National Cyclists' Union (as the sport's governing body, the NCU banned such events from public roads). In 1939, it was used as a location for the Will Hay film, Ask a Policeman.

Racing stopped when World War II started in 1939. The site was turned over to war-time production of military aircraft. Enemy bombs damaged the track and a new access road to the Hawker factory was cut through from Oyster

Lane. Temporary dispersal hangars covered other sections.

(Text courtesy of Wikipedia)

Answers to the London Underground Quiz

1. Swiss Cottage, 2. Parsons Green, 3. Gospel Oak, 4. Kings Cross, 5. Barbican, 6. Baron’s Court, 7. Canary Wharf, 8. Warren Street, 9. Hammersmith, 10. East Ham, 11. Knightsbridge, 12. Upminster, 13. Queens Park, 14. Old Street, 15. Mile End, 16. Victoria, 17. The Angel, 18. Seven Sisters, 19. Maida Vale, 20. Lancaster Gate, 21 Kentish Town, 22. Bank, 23. Chalk Farm, 24. Oxford Circus, 25. Cannon Street

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