Chapter 423 Bletchley Park

After receiving the news that the German army in Libya had begun to attack Egypt, Churchill was shocked and his first thought was that his intelligence had been leaked again.

The Germans must have learned about the oil fields from Spain and were worried that the oil fields would be attacked, so they were eager to attack; otherwise, why did they attack earlier or later, but when he gave the order to destroy the Libyan oil fields to the British Army Command in the Middle East?

"Where is this damn guy hiding?!" Churchill gritted his teeth and muttered.

Based on the clue of the "Catapult Plan", the entire naval headquarters was isolated and investigated, from the naval commander to the cleaning servants; only the cats and dogs in the Admiralty were taken for interrogation.

Such an investigation work really achieved certain results. The intelligence department found more than 40 suspects; but the biggest reason for these people to be listed as suspects was that their ancestors were of German descent.

Churchill, who received this report, was a little amused. Isn't this nonsense? Isn't the largest German descent in the UK the British royal family? Could it be that the royal family should also be listed as suspects?

The senior officer of the Intelligence Bureau who was reprimanded by Churchill said helplessly. "Prime Minister, there is really no suspicious person besides him."

"..."There are only two reasons for not finding anyone; one is that these people are innocent; the other is that they are too well hidden.

Just as Churchill cursed these damn spies, the German bomber formation took off again; their bombing formation this time was even larger.

Not only across the strait; the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and even Iceland took off a large number of bombers.

Dowding ordered the fighters to take off to defend London. Once a bomber group approached, the British fighter group immediately rushed over, and once the British fighters were found approaching, the German bomber group would carve away.

But then another group would slowly approach London, over and over again, without stopping. So Dowding could only let the fighters take turns to land and refuel at temporary airports around London, and the rest kept circling around London to ensure the safety of London's airspace.

Just after a day of bombing, Churchill received a call from Lord Adams. Lord Adams' voice was filled with deep sorrow. "Prime Minister, Bletchley Park was bombed by the Germans."

"What?!" Churchill almost screamed.

Bletchley Park is a mansion located in the town of Bletchley, Milton Keynes, England.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, the Polish Cipher Bureau disclosed the cracking technology of the German Enigma cipher machine to the British intelligence department, and the British government used this information to start the operation of deciphering the Enigma cipher machine signal. The Government Cipher School moved to Bletchley Park, and the school's Admiralty, Military Department and Air Force Department all occupied the ground floor of the mansion, while the top floor was occupied by MI6.

In addition, the mansion also set up a telecommunications department, a teletype machine room, a kitchen and a dining room for all staff to use.

In the early days, the water tower in Bletchley Park was converted into a radio room and named "Radio X". Although this name was later used as an alias for Bletchley Park, in fact, due to the many long antennas extending from the radio room, the radio room was soon moved away from Bletchley Park to avoid arousing suspicion from outsiders.

The work of Bletchley Park during the war was mainly to analyze the data collected from enemy countries by national and local listening stations. Generally speaking, the initial data collected by the listening station would be quickly delivered to Bletchley Park by intelligence officers driving motorcycles, and later, the listening station could directly transmit data using teletypewriters.

The most well-known "achievement" of Bletchley Park in later generations was that it successfully cracked the German Enigma cipher system; but the greatest achievement of Bletchley Park may be that it had cracked the German FISH advanced teletypewriter code.

The intelligence obtained from the decryption at Bletchley Park was all code-named "ULTRA". This intelligence largely enabled the Allies to successfully sink many enemy U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic, and also laid the foundation for the Royal Navy's victory in the Battle of the Matterhorn and the Battle of the North Cape.

In addition, since the United States entered the war, British Prime Minister Churchill agreed with US President Roosevelt to let the two countries share resources. In this context, many American cryptographers came to Bletchley Park to work with British experts. At that time, British experts were mainly responsible for German codes, while American experts were mainly responsible for cracking the codes used by Japan.

The confidentiality of this manor was done very well. Bletchley Park was only directly attacked once during the entire World War II. From November 20 to 21, 1940, the enemy dropped three bombs over the manor. However, the real target of those three bombs was actually the nearby Bletchley Railway Station. Among the three bombs, one exploded in the area opposite the messenger entrance of the mansion, and the strong vibration caused the nearby hut No. 4 (belonging to the school's Naval Intelligence Department) to shift slightly. However, since these huts were built on brick columns, the engineers could continue to work while moving the huts back to their original positions.

At the height of the decryption operation, there were about 9,000 people working at Bletchley Park, and as many as 10,000 during the war. Those recruited generally had unique talents, such as being a chess champion, a crossword puzzle expert, a polyglot, or an authority on mathematics.

Among the most famous examples, the Bletchley Park authorities used the Daily Telegraph's crossword puzzle as an interview test, requiring interviewees to complete the crossword puzzle within 12 minutes. In addition, the newspaper was also required to hold a crossword puzzle competition and then recruit the winner to participate in "a special work to contribute to the war."

At the end of World War II, most of the equipment and blueprints in Bletchley Park were destroyed. Although thousands of people had participated in decryption work there, they remained silent after the war. It was not until the 1970s that Bletchley Park's identity as a decryption base during the war was truly revealed to the outside world. After the war, Bletchley Park was occupied by different organizations, including British Telecom, the Civil Aviation Authority and PACE (Private Real Estate Property Advisor). In addition, until 1987, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, the reorganized Government Code School) still had a training center in Bletchley Park.

"Was it an accidental bombing? Were there any casualties?" Churchill's voice trembled slightly.

"It's obvious that the Germans' target is Bletchley Park. The Germans dropped a large number of incendiary bombs. The entire estate burned for several hours and no one survived."

"..." Churchill slumped in his chair, his face pale. After a long while, he screamed hysterically. "How did the Germans know! It's a spy! It must be a spy!!"