Bletchley Park's legacy as WWII winner overstated - GCHQ historian

Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley starred Bletchley Park codebreakers in BletchleyPark

The role played by codebreakers at Bletchley Park in Britain’s victorious war effort against Nazi Germany is regularly overstated, a new history of UK spy agency GCHQ claims.

In Behind the Enigma, released on Tuesday, Professor John Ferris casts doubt on the “cult of Bletchley”, which he claims has protected GCHQ and boosted its reputation.

The spy agency was set up as a peacetime “cryptoanalytic” unit in 1919. After World Word Two broke out staff were moved to Bletchley Park country estate in Buckinghamshire, where intelligence analysts famously cracked the Nazi’s Enigma code.

An official history in the war had previously claimed that the breakthrough had shortened the conflict by two to four years, and without it the outcome would have been uncertain.

But Prof Ferris told the BBC: "Bletchley is not the war winner that a lot of Brits think it is.

“Intelligence never wins a war on its own”.

The lake and mansion house at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire
Alamy Stock Photo

The work of the mathematicians at Bletchley – where women made up 75 per cent of the workforce – was immortalised on the big screen in the 2014 blockbuster The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as codebreaker Alan Turing.

Although Polish mathematicians had worked out how to read Enigma messages and had shared this information with the British, the Germans increased its security at the outbreak of war by changing the cipher system daily.

This made the task of understanding the code even more difficult.

Alan Turing
Channel 4

(Channel 4)

Cracking the code meant that Allied convoy ships could be steered away from the German’s lethal U-boat 'wolf-packs'. Turing’s role was essential in turning tide for the Allies during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Behind the Enigma charts the history of the agency through the 20th century, from its origins and work during World War Two, through to the Falklands Wars and its response to the leaks by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Prof Ferris writes that despite having access to top secret documents, he was given the freedom by the spy agency to come to his own conclusions.

"GCHQ is probably Britain's most important strategic asset at the moment and will probably remain that way for generations," he says.

"I think that Britain gains from keeping it strong and world class, but at the same time, you need to put in proportion what it is you can and cannot get from intelligence."

In a foreword, the current director of the intelligence agency, Jeremy Fleming writes: "GCHQ is a citizen-facing intelligence and security enterprise with a globally recognised brand and reputation. We owe all of that to our predecessors."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in