I have to say that I never thought that my video would last as long as it did!! Many thanks to all those people who have given such kind comments. During the time when I made this video times have changed; information has changed and details have changed! I no longer work for Bletchley Park but these days I work for TNMoC (The National Museum of Computing) where, on Thursday and Saturday afternoons I am more than happy to take tour groups around TNMoC and explain how BP broke, not only Enigma, but also Lorenz, which was the coding system used by Hitler and the High Command!! This was a system that was infinitely more powerful than Enigma but, thanks to media coverage, films etc etc most of the population have never heard of!! Time will tell!! The full story WILL come out!!
Thank you so much for your part in this wonderful video. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. I worked at the NSA starting in the early 80’s and thought I knew a lot of the information you provided but I was really mistaken. I hope I can get to visit Bletchley Park some day, it has always been a dream of mine and now with so many renovations, you have really made me want to visit. Thank you again, this was so nice. Regards, WT Martin
This was one of the best explanations, of the Enigma, ever. As an electronics engineer, the Enigma has always fascinated me. It has always been a dream of mine to operate/analyze one or, if I dare to dream high enough, to own one. Thank you for such a fine documentary!!!
Linden, thank you so much for this wonderful documentary.:a story that so richly deserves to be told and never forgotten. May god bless all of those fiercely dedicated Bletchley Park code breakers who very likely made my life possible.
Makes you proud of the greatest generation. Necessity is the mother of invention. Thanks for this wonderful presentation ,I found the presenter has an utterly agreeable cadence which made it a pleasure to watch and listen to,Thank you .
I would like to thank all you very kind people who have made such encouraging comments on the video that I made. I realise it wasn't up to professional standards but, there again, I'm not a professional vedeographer and I didn't have access to professional equipment but I did the best I could with amateur kit that I had available! If you want to visit Bletchley Park, and particularly learn how we broke the Lorenz code, I now work in the National Museum of Computing (TNMoC) every Saturday afternoon so please come and see us and take the tour; I would love to meet all of you who are interested in this side of "the business" and who really appreciate that Enigma was not the be all and end all of the computer breaking that we did here at the Park during the war!! Enigma was the day-to-day running of the German military; Lorenz was the machine that Hitler and the High Command used and this was Strategy and Battle Planning - a whole world away from day to day stuff!!!
@@patrickdarcy3863 The Bombe machines were built at the British Tabulating Machine company in Letchworth, Hertfordshire in the UK, and under the direction of Harold Keen, or "Doc" Keen as he was known as he had a habit of carrying his paperwork around in what looked like a doctors bag. The original design of the Bombe was done by Alan Turing but the machine never worked well until Gordon Welchman made some important modifications to the electrical system after which it worked very well!
@@patrickdarcy3863 Where did you get that erroneous information from?? The Bombe machine did NOT work as predicted until Gordon Welchman redesigned the electrical circuits into what became known as the " Diagonal Board". After this modification the Bombe machine worked as it was originally designed to work and was producing results in a few hours as opposed to the two to three days that it was taking before he redesigned the electronics - get your facts right!!! I used to work at the Park so I have this information to hand!!
I would like to thank all those people who have posted such kind comments as far as my video is concerned. I would like to say that this was shot several years ago and, since then, I have moved away to the North of England and have not worked at the Park for some years. Thank you again and, who knows, there may be something here in the north that gets my attention and maybe another video is just waiting to be made!!!
Having visited BP about 6 years ago , and having a son who studied at Manchester Uni where so much original work was done on electronic computing, i must say that the BP Museum is part of our National Heritage that MUST be supported to help teach the new generation. For GB to remain in the communication business, we need the enthusiasm and mind-set of people like you!
What an interesting docu about the code breakers.. The human mind is truly amazing !! Highly recommend to watch this.. A fine way to honor the heroes of that era.. Thanks for sharing..
Great to hear from a young student. We all as a society do owe a debt to these people. And don’t let the history books describing buggering or other immoral acts by anyone involved cloud your opinion. That is plain wrong - they all were hero’s and it makes me proud to know young brits today can appreciate that.
Great video, thank you. I visited Bletchley Park back in 2012, we arrived at 9.00 am expecting to spend an hour or so but found the displays and stories so jolly interesting that we stayed until 5.00 pm. I might add that I thought your camera work was pretty darn good, so please ignore the criticism of those, they know not what they say 🤦🏻♂️ greeting from Perth Australia.
This is so cool. The Enigma-Lorenz story is every bit as engaging, and thrilling, as any good book. Truth really is better than human made fiction. This is the first documentary I've seen that shows, in sequence, what the various machines did, and why they needed faster ones, in a way that is easy for this lay-person to understand. Gripping, and well presented. Thanks so much! I just have one question, and that is why are there pigeons cooing in the background through the whole video?
Hats Off..!! Great video. Visited Bletchley Park a few times. As a design engineer, I find this early logic switching interesting, Enjoyed the spy section, gun display and most of all the rebuild. The nostalgia, walking through the huts and buildings makes you wish, you had been part of this operation...........see you have hecklers already...sad people. Conclusion....if you want a great educational day out, and keep the kids entertained..Bletchley Park is a fraction of the cost of theme parks, and will take you more than one day to see it all.....Keep up the good work.
SADLY--LIKE ALL THOSE WORKING ON THE PROJECT, SECRECY WAS PARAMOUNT. THEY WERE BOUND BY THE SECRECY ACT THEY HAD ALL SIGNED. NONE OF TOMMY'S BOSSES KNEW WHAT HE HAD DONE FOR THE GOVERNMENT IN THE WAR; HE JUST WENT BACK TO HIS NORMAL JOB, NOT EVEN A SECRET CASH REWARD , AND WASN'T EVEN AWARDED HONOUR'S TILL THE END OF HIS LIFE. HE TOO COULD HAVE BECOME FABULOUSLY WEALTHY AND WORLD RENOWNED--( IF HE HAD BEEN AMERICAN)
Undoubtedly, the B-E-S-T, comprehensive explanation of the various code-breaking efforts done at BP, especially, on the development of the machines used in the process! Well done.
It is a sound attempt but the intervening years have seen some excellent videos about BP. Unfortunately, some guides thought they were humourists but were sad embarrassments.
Best docu ever showing the incredible electro/mechanical equipment invented to hack Enigma and Lorenz. I've watched so many on BP, Turing, Tom Flowers and others and wish I had seen this one first. It displays the incredible complexity of the machines a few gifted people created. Now I would like to see a docu showing 10,000 people working at BP and making it all happen. Of course it would require Computer Generated Graphics but could show the enormous amount of labor and sacrifice of normal people living on tea and British war time rations.
What an enthralling documentary! You have imparted important information imparting information in a scholarly way that will be accessible to all generations. I have shared it with my children,grandchildreN a will copy it for my great grannies. You see, I am a child of the war it. was a huge part of my young life and it’s rare to find a good informative documentary told without hysterics but filled with clear information. My computer mad grandson was fascinated! And I think I may have gone up a notch in his estimation now that he’s seen the very beginnings of artificial intelligence .I thank you on so many levels, your undramatic telling of the horror of Alan Turings end. I so. Hope that my children have a clearer idea of uninformed bigotry and how that mind set can lead us to become brutes even to such a genius through ignorance, Thanh you from Lucy IZod Australia '
13:45 'contrary to popular belief i wasn't around in those days' - I love it when a presenter shows their funny and human side. Turin is amazing, the whole story behind the enigma code is amazing.
This is OUTSTANDING. Historical. Ingenious. Eternally relevant. Look at your cell phone. This story was the beginning of that. In a word, this is British. Mind you, I'm a flag-waving American. My whole life, i have been aware that England is the greatest country in history. If I were asked what I wish I could be other than an American, it would take me a millionth of a second to say: "How I wish - to be - a British - gentleman."
Many thanks for yhour kind comments! During the War both England and America worked together to do what we could to break the Axis Powers codes and shorten the War.
I'm a born Brit. The electric light bulb was also a British invention of Joseph Swan. Edison tried to sue him for patent infringement but lost. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edison_and_Swan_Electric_Light_Company
the intelligence of these men and women is almost overwhelming. I listened to your words intently but i have to say i am none the wiser. This is not a criticism of you i hasten to add more proof of my shortcomings with this sort of thing. In a way not understanding much of it makes it more entertaining. It just shows The brilliance of these people
This is the most significant aspect of the World War two And that what they did was so incredibly important for we the people of Great Britain to survive . I can't thank you enough for this interesting story about Bletchley Park thank you very much yours ernest Newbury from Nottingham
I shot this video several years ago when I was a tour guide with Bletchley Park. In January 2013 I left the Park as I was becoming decidedly disenchanted with the new Management and Regime! In 2014 I rejoined the Park but taking tours in the National Museum of Computing - which is on the same site. There is no way that I will ever be a Tour Guide in Bletchley Park as long as the present Board of Trustees, and the present Park Management, are still in charge. This is such a pity as BP has a tremendous amount to offer but NOT the way it is currently managed!!!
Yes! I gather Jerry Roberts (R I P) was hopping mad about what was going on. Especially about Collossus. When I visited there a few years ago there was tension in the air. It all smelled like a "wonderful" codebreaking media and flashing lights "experience." i.e. one coat of paint thick -- and about was much substance -- as compared with the REAL B P as was. The word 'travesty' comes to mind.
Seen documentaries about Enigma for some years. The whole story about breaking this code and Lorenz just amazes me. The people who did the hack work were amazing. I am still surprised that the other side were not fully aware of how badly their codes had been compromised.
In reply to cis4aber 2 months ago; please don't insult my intelligence! Of course I know of RV Jones, and the work he did, but that doesn't change the basic facts. If you bother to really READ what I have already said, on this video and others, then you'll realise that what I said is true. The info about BP didn't really come out into the public domain until the 70's. Yes, of course, there were people who knew before that but I am talking in generalities - I thought you would have realised that before you wasted your time going into micro detail about who knew what and when!! As I said before, until recently I worked at BP so had access to a whole load of info that the general public do not and what I have said is based on that info. As for swampfizz - that was my wife trying out a new chainsaw in the distance - haven't yet found out what she wants to use it for but I think she's just increased my life insurance!!!
A really excellent video tour and a great narrator. I have read many, many books on the achievements of Bletchley Park and I find it incredibly uplifting. What the people there did is just unbelievable. The minds of these people were on a different plane to the rest of us. Very sad that most of them have now gone. Most of them should have been knighted. Even the thousands of military members deserved to be recognised. I could say it must have been wonderful to have been there, but of course there was a war on. Absoulutely incredible.
Agree with your comments.try going there as I did last week and feel the atmosphere and wonder how they achieved so much with the limited facilities; heroes all!
Wow he really nailed it. What a mountain of information in a short program. Brilliant.I have never seen a program that very simply explained the code breaking.It is staggering that the other side did not know how comprehensively that these codes was broken.The other thing my father grew up with the computer industry and lectured part timein programming. I remember as a kid him bringing home small plug boards, to demonstrate programing. At retirement he was in charge of a dept with 4 large mainframes and about 300 people. His career was interesting and fascinating. He would have loved watching this because it became his life but in an interesting way, he was always investigating where computing would go, nothing ever surprised him about what came up. But this is where it started for him code & plug boards.
I studied Computer Science at my University (awarded both a Bachelors a Masters degree at the University) and we only glossed over these developments. However, I had always wondered about the details that you have so wonderfully brought to life and discussed! With the recent Touring movie, I had hoped there was something of substance to be found on the Internet, and you, sir, have truly enlightened and entertained - and more importantly, educated. Thank you! My only wish, now, is to further share this documentary with others that I know would love to hear and watch it!
Don't go by what you might have seen in the movie "The Imitation Game". Biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen supposedly appertaining to Bletchley Park. I used to work there and, believe me, very little in that film is actually accurate!!! But, as a film, is very entertaining, providing you don't actually know what went on there during the war!!!
I started watching and nearly stopped because of the quality of production and sound. But then I realised I was learning. Proof that glossy videos are not always the best. I finished watching knowing more than I did when I started. Thank you for sharing :)
fallyhag umm the problem here is NOT the video, its the insane background noise on the audio track shame really, does seem like a fascinating documentary
+VideosVideosVideos Thank you for your comments but, as I have said before, I am not a professional and did not have access to pro equipment - I just did the best I could with the amateur equipment that was available to me!
Jason Bourne hey Jason. I did read that, and I totally understand I still managed to make it through, and absolutely loved this clip it is one of the BEST videos about bletchley park and enigma (and the rest of the crypto tools) You don't happen to still have any of the original material do you? Thanks SO much for this!!! even tho the audio is rough :)
+VideosVideosVideos Hi there, Sorry to be so long in replying to your question but when I left the Park I also deleted all the BP stuff off my computer! At that time I saw no reason to keep it! Now I work in TNMoC and have nothing to do with the Park and I don't think they would let me back in to shoot another video!!!!!! Kind regards.
Jason Bourne not a problem! thanks for getting back to me... You seriously have one of the best documentaries about this subject. I feel it's worthy of a re-make :) thanks a lot again for this, I hope it stays up forever
Thanks for your excellent short description of what went on at Bletchley it’s amazing how much ground you covered in just over an hour I visited Bletchley a few years ago and found it an absolutely fascinating place I was lucky enough to go on a guided tour of the park which made things much clearer to me prior to that I had a little interest in computing and mathematics but ever since I regularly study the work at Bletchley and try to understand what is a most complex and fascinating subject. By chance I saw the bombe machine and Colossus in action and was there when one of the staff opened the glass case covering an Enigma machine to let us take a better photo of it My visit was purely by chance I had been visiting a friend a few miles away and had seen the town of Bletchley on an ordinance survey map on the wall I asked if this was the famous Bletchley Park from the war and was told yes so I changed my plans and visited the park and I’m eternally grateful that I did. I can truly say it is the most amazing place I have ever been and I can thoroughly recommend you pay a visit it if you get the chance. I suggest you should study the work of the park before you go and make sure you book onto a guided tour. If you don’t go on a guided tour you will find yourself wandering around a large area of different buildings without really understanding what was going on in them. My visit to Bletchley lasted five hours and was thoroughly worthwhile The movies. Enigma and The imitation game do not convey one tenth of the extraordinary work that went on at Bletchley and the amazing people who worked there. There were many very bright people working there and Turing was just one of them. The movies are okay is a bit of light entertainment but that is all
Wow, great video. Just what I was looking for. This week I saw the movie Imitation game and immediately felt the urge to get to know more about the Enigma machine and Bletchley Park. This video gave me lots and lots of great information. Thanks and greetings from Sweden.
Forget "The Imitation Game"; God awful film full of inaccuracies and downright lies!! A much better film was "Enigma" starring Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott. This was a film made from a fictional story by Robert Harris but all the techie detail in it was absolutely correct! Far better film and much more entertaining!
The standard German typewriter keyboard has always been QUERTZ. Those radio operators who intercepted total gibberish in Morse and transcribed it accurately must have been exceptionally good; most likely, the best ones were Aspies. We Aspies can be very literal.
The video is great, only one thing, the audio is only on one side of the stereo and it changes from side to side. But it's a minor detail, the video is very watchable and very informative. Thank you.
What a fantastic documentary many thanks for posting im not sure when this documentary was made ?.i went to bletchley park 2 days ago and i can see that the money has been well spent its fantastic and a place everyone should see.the debt we owe to those codebreakers is beyond description.
So where is the information on how the messages were received, the type of antennae, the bands, the operating methods, and the radio sets (HRO/AR88 Lend Lease) and the CW girls copying the data etc. I am certain, that along with GCHQ's demise of most HF-specific stations for RATT interception, as soon as it's not required just "bin it" as it has "no historical value" or indeed is remaining classifed.
I did not know the first computer's development came out of WW2. A really fascinating story. I wish I had a few of those tubes (valves) for my guitar amps, as they are getting costly in 2023.
many many thanks for this documentation. For me it is the first docu, which explains in greater detail, how all this code breaking and machinery works. Which, as beeing a computer scientist, is enormously interesing for me. And all I can say: I lift my hat and bow in front of all those people. What they were capable of doing is truly amazing.
Unfortunately for the presenter I learned in the meantime, what the principle of breaking the code really was and what was the deal with the "menues". The point is: It didn't work as is described in this video beginning with 24:00 For the very simple reason, that what he calls the Indicator - or what the Germans called "Spruchschluesselverdopplung" - was no longer used after May 1st 1940. This was the way the polnish codebreakers cracked the enigma-coding, but Turing had to come up with something completely different as the point of attack could no longer be used. What Turing used, what the bomb did and what the menu was a graphical representation of, was information of the form: In my message at position 0 the letter of eg. 'A' is encoded to 'Z', at position 12 'Z' is encoded into eg. 'F', at 7 'F' is encoded into 'D' and at position 4 'D' is encoded into 'A'. So what they needed (this restriction was later removed) was a sort of enocding ring, where a sequence of encodings came back to the letter it began with. So when in the preprocessing the crib matching came up with a position in the code text which could contain the crib, the guys preparing the menu tried to find such encoding rings. The point is: while there might be more then 1 key which creates this encoding ring, usually the number of possible solutions is small. And this was exactly what the bomba did: it checked all key settings if such a ring formed. If it did then a possible key was found. The whole process is described much more in detail here www.ellsbury.com/enigmabombe.htm but the point is: Turing did not attack the indicator. For the simple reason that the method used for creating the indicator has changed in 1940 and did no longer create a point of attack. And if you think of it, what he describes doesn't even make sense. If you want to attack the indicator, then you do not need cribs or menues. You "just" have to find the settings which when given a plain text which had the 1st and the 3rd letter the same, the 2nd and the 4th, the 3rd and the 6th the same. That still was an impossible task, but the polnish code breakers found a way to simplify this task, such that 6 small hand held devices could do the job in a short amount of time. But as said: at the moment he is saying "Turing attacked the indicator" he is as wrong as he can be.
@@kallewirsch2263 Thank you for the above points - I have one or two observations. Much of what you said in the first part of your post I did actually say in the video, albeit in a somewhat different form! I don't think I actually said "Turing attacked the indicator" I know perfectly well that the sending of the indicator did change but let me ask you a question: you have seen and, I assume read, all the information that is printed on the website whose address you gave. Whilst it says that the sending of the double indicator ceased in 1940 it does not go into any real detail as to what replaced it and how it then worked! Secondly, I thought that you would have realised that this video was not made for the benefit of computer scientists; I made it for Mr & Mrs Average who might have an interest in Bletchley Park. What I said, therefore, was as simple as I could make it but still get across the salient details whilst still retaining interest. If I had gone into all the detail that is included in that website the video might have been 100% factually correct but it would also have been at least twice as long and, hence, virtually everybody would have switched off! I think it's called "poetic licence"!!!
@@stratman9479 The practice of sending the indicator twice in the beginning simply was dropped. Originally it was done to have some way of check for the operator that the deciphering of the indicator part was correct. The duplication wasn't needed to for the operation of the encoding or decoding. Just a single indicator worked perfectly fine. I appreciate the effort you put in this video and my response wasn't ment to attack you. The point is: I have seen so many videos which suggest tht the whole point of Turings work was based on that indicator duplication. Well it wasn't. Actually (at this time) it wasn't easy to find information on how Turings method really worked and how it differed from the method used by the polnish code breakers. As it turned out, those two methods had nothing in common. This is not ment to diminsh the work of the polnish code breakers, without their work Turing could not have come up with his method. I would need to rewatch the video to figure out if you literlly said "He attacked the indicator". My intention is not to attack you, but to make people aware that this is not what Turings method was based on, even if a lot of videos I have seen seem to suggest this. Turings method had a completely different operating principle in which the indicator actually had no contribution at all. I have seen so many videos which put an emphasis on this indicator, go into detail of how they needed a "crip" and how they obtained it, then talk about the alignment of the crip with the cypher text and then - some magic happens - the cipher text is decoded. I was never satisfied with that simpe explanations thus I searched for a long time how it really worked. As it turned out the part "some magic happens" isn't some minor detail but is an amazing process to come up with most of the videos seem to never address. The beauty of Turings method is located in the way this "some magic happens" part worked, this is where all the brain power went into.)
@@kallewirsch2263 Hi there; thanks for the above. I assume you have got your information from a variety of sources (I would like to know which ones and how accurate they are) the problem is many sources do tend to contradict each other. When we joined BP as Tour Guides the "scripts" we were given to learn, and impart that information to the visitors, were all based on the work done by Tony Sale who was one of the first Trustees of the Park and who set up TNMoC and the rebuild of Tunny, Robinson and Colossus. I don't know how his work varies with what you have found out but you can find his information at: www.codesandciphers.org.uk/enigma/
@@stratman9479 My main source is this www.ellsbury.com/enigmabombe.htm This is the first web site I found which actually described the whole process and the principle it is based on, which made complete sense and describes an actual working process without any "white spots" in the algorithm.
Reply to cis4aber of two months ago. In the early part of the video the guide said 40 years - that was a slip of the tongue, it was the best part of 30 years. The guide acknowledged this slip because later in the same video as the one referred to above the Guide did correct that and say 30 years.
We owe so much to people that enjoyed chess, cross word, and bridge. He higher level of thought that allowed these codes to be broken. I am sure that other codes e it’s today.
Minor correction about ENIGMA in the Lorenz-chapter: ENIGMA day-keys changed every day, message-keys (which were encrypted with the day-key), should be changed for every message
And I want to Bletchley Park about this time last year and I am going again next month armed with the information that you have given me and to look out for all the other things I did not get to see because I didn't know they were there so a big thank you and you never know I might get to see and of course that would be very great pleasure for my lovely wife and my self now. Yours Ernest Newbury.
I’ve been on a tour of Bletchley Park, and I can thoroughly recommend a visit, it’s really fascinating and there are some very good tour guides to pass on the stories.
My mum worked there. She described it as moving giant Bobbins (as in an old sewing machine) around. At the time she told us I myself was more interested in Led Zeppelin so didn't really pay much attention. Her name was June Hopewell. If anyone, including PA3DMI yourself, could reveal more about her time there I would be extremely grateful.I know this very late in the day but I cant find any details about her anywhere. Watching this video made me realize this is the best I have so far watched and the most appropriate to make this appeal for information. It goes without saying I eenjoyed watching this very much. Thank you for uploading it.
Thank you for this amazing tour! I've been fascinated by the codebreakers for years and am in awe of the Britons who endured the bombings. Now visiting Bletchley Park is on my to-do list! 🇬🇧🇺🇸
Likewise I have been interested in the going on in Blechley Park & will make an effort to go on a guided tour . I know & appreciate all the work done by everybody connected with the "Park "
A very good documentary. Only thing I noticed, the Polish cryptologists didn't get the credit for their extraordenary achievements they unquestionably deserved. After all, it was not Alan Turing who invented the first Bombe (Bombe is the name for some Polish candy), the Polish did. They also brought two reverse engineered Enigma machines to London just two weeks before Poland was attacked by Germany, on Sept. 1st, 1939... Even the very people who worked on the Enigma didn't know much on the Polish input... That is why it was surprising for me that a tour guide, so knowledgeable on the topic, didn't even mention the Poles! (((( It was almost the same as not inviting the Polish pilots and solders to the Victory Parade in 1945 or 46 for fear to upset Stalin...
The secret was revealed in a B.B.C. series made shortly after Winterbottom's book 'The Ultra Secret'. The Polish contribution was acknowledged in full by Dr. R.V. Jones in the final programme of 'Secret War' (Part Six). Unfortunately people try to smear the Bletchley success by insinuating 'the British stole the glory for themselves!'. What is striking about the Polish success is that it was led by a a man of great foresight, Col. Langer who saw quicker than anyone else it seems that mathematics was the future of code breaking. Others in France, Britain and the U.S. did not try hard enough or had other motives for declining to think in new ways; 'Dilly' Knox,a 'classicist', hated mathematicians turning up at Bletchley Park! The Poles showed how Enigma was vulnerable and ultimately breakable and this was well conveyed in books and television in the U.K. last century. However, the version of Enigma the Poles broke had been changed and had become too complex by the beginning of 1939 and a the approach of war - apparently; I suspect the Poles also wanted their Allies involved in any case. But none of the brilliant methods they invented and exploited worked any longer. That cannot and doesn't detract from their achievements. The Lorenz cypher belongs to another story altogether; but I would suggest that the fact that the Poles 'kicked down the door' to decrypting machine codes was great example to those who followed on from their pioneering work. As for your other points we can only agree. Power politics after such a shattering war present grim examples of expediency and bad faith. This is still. shamefully. apart of our world today.
A very good point but, I'm sorry to say, inaccurate! British Intelligence learned of the work done by the Polish Cypher Bureau at a meeting that was convened at Pyry, just outside the Kabake Woods outside of Warsaw in July of 1939. The Poles did NOT deliver any Enigma machines to London but did give all the details that they had about Enigma to British Intelligence and did, in fact, give BI one of their rebuilds of an Enigma machine. The term "Bomba"(the true Polish term for the machine) came from sources which, have yet, to be verified but the common belief is that the machine was named after an Italian desert made from ice cream which was being eaten by the Polish code breakers at the time! Nobody knows whether this is true or not but British Intelligence, at Bletchley Park, named their machine as the "Bombe" machine (out of deference to the Poles) although it was light years ahead of anything that the Poles had designed! I would agree that to ignore the contribution made by the Poles, especially the pilots of Fighter Command, in the subsequent victory parades was inexcusable and should not have happened. The Poles contributed an enormous amount to the winning of the Battle of Britain and their efforts should never be forgotten!!
I didn't mention the Poles, or a great many other people for that matter, as this video was meant to show how Enigma and Lorenz were broken and the technicalities of this - it was not designed to be a vehicle for carrying the biographies of the people concerned. If I had done that I would still be filming it!!
Hi Phil (and all others), Many thanks for your kind comments. Unfortunately, due to the deteriorating atmosphere in the Park I left in January 2013 but came back again in 2014, albeit as a Tour Guide in The National Museum of Computing (TNMoC) which is on the same site. It is just a pity that the Bletchley Park Trust (BPT) and the Management of the Park can't get their act together to work in closer cooperation with TNMoC; this has led to the now toxic relationship between the two. There are quite a few things in the original video that I shot that I would love to change but, due to the current situation, that is now not going to happen. I think this is sad but, c'est la vie!!! In fact, if any of the staff of TNMoC want to go into the Park (which we could do on an unlimited basis before all of the renovations were done) we have to go through the Visitor Centre and pay £15 to get in!!!??? AND WE WORK ON SITE!! If you want to visit the Park, and TNMoC, and you want to chat to me, come on a Saturday afternoon, which is when I work there. I'm usually found in the Tunny and Colossus Galleries.
@@foobarmaximus3506 What on earth is your problem? Not only have you put a post on here giving erroneous information about the work done by the Polish Cypher Bureau but now you insist on having a pop at me (not for the first time, I might add) but suggesting that I was "fired" from the Park! If you had actually read what I have previously posted you would know that I left voluntarily due to the degenerating atmosphere there and subsequently went to work at the National Museum of Computing which is on the same site! Why don't you get a life and stop being such a pratt??!!
@@LindenStead1844MbdTuB P.S. I was slightly interest in your choice of handle for your posts as I had heard the word "FooBar" before, so I looked it up. It has connotations with computer programming but I think the best definition I found was in the Urban Dictionary and I quote: "FooBar: When '' is used in connection with '' it has generally traced to the WWII-era FUBAR ('Fucked Up Beyond All Repair' or 'Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition'), later modified to . I
P.S. I don't quite know what happened to my post above as it came out truncated; it should have read: When '' is used in connection with '' it has generally traced to the WWII-era FUBAR ('Fucked Up Beyond All Repair' or 'Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition'), later modified to .
Eight years ago, my son and I did the Bletchley Park tour, with this gentleman as the guide. We were totally captivated by the tour, and I have watched this video several times over the years since then. I am still totally impressed by the German machines, and more importantly, the people who were able to figure out the inner workings of the machines (recognizing the work that was done by the Poles on Enigma), and Lorrenze, so that the machines could be built to reliably mechanically decrypt the code and reveal the messages. A phenomenal achievment that impresses me to this day.
This is absolutely amazing! 😲 To think of the brain power then to create all this! I’m so glad to have watched this. My brain 🧠 is not wired for this, but can absolutely appreciate the genius and intelligence that created it.
Awesome documentary! Bletchley Park has had a lot of funding since this video was made, all done up, all freshly painted and a lot of investment gone into educational material. It worth pointing out, there is a 30 year ratio from mainframe to consumer level computing. - A 1985 mainframe computer probably has the same computing power as the latest iPad.
A 1975 mainframe computer could do all the accounts necessary for a 300 branch bank, on 30Mb of hard disc. I know, I was working in the computer centre of Nationwide Building Society.
You seem to forget that the film "Enigma" was based on a book written by Robert Harris and it was a book of FICTION!! The technical stuff in the film was entirely accurate as it was vetted by Tony Sale, who was one of the original Trustees of the Park and TNMOC but the story was purely fiction. The worst film about the Park was "The Imitation Game" which was a truly awful film and so full of inaccuracies and mistakes you wouldn't believe it! How do I know? I used to work at Bletchley Park as a tour guide and I have spoken to so many people who work at the Park, and who have seen this God awful film that I have yet to find anybody who actually likes it!!! The film "Enigma" was an entertaining film that shed light on what happened at Bletchley Park albeit a fictional scenario; the "Imitation Game" was purely and simply a complete abortion that distorted the truth to such an extent as to be unwatchable - at least for those of us who actually work there!!
Please expand on that. All I am saying is that the film "Enigma" was a far better film than "The Imitation Game" which was truly awful - and really inaccurate in so many ways! You have to remember that "Enigma" was based on a book by Robert Harris and that the story in that book was FICTION!! The technical bits in the film were , however, totally accurate as the Historical & Technical Advisor on the film was Tony Sale of the National Museum of Computing - unfortunately now passed away.
Nicely put together, Linden, under difficult circumstances! I visited BP some years ago with my long-suffering wife, who allowed me to dawdle over the exhibits (and try my hand at using an Enigma machine) to my heart's content. Just one minor point -- you refer to Heath Robinson as "a cartoon character"; he wasn't, he was a real person (1872 - 1944), an accomplished illustrator and cartoonist. His drawings of enormously complicated and silly machines were loved by the British public, and the words "Heath Robinson" as in "That's a really Heath Robinson contraption" have passed into the English language. NB I've actually incorporated the Enigma / BP / Alan Turing story into one of my watch reviews, so if anyone wants to see more detail about this fascinating topic, may I suggest this link: pippick.com/reviews/worldfaceoff/worldtimer_faceoff.htm
A wonderful video. I have heard that the American were consumed with jealousy when all this came out. But their system had a fatal flaw which exists today. Apart from the Manhatton Project, they always outsourced this sort of work to private universities and corporations. Whereas in Britain the one thing the people didn't have to worry about was money. Churchill always made sure that they had what they needed. in the late 80s and 90s, I had the pleasure of working with the former chief communications scientist of the U S Navy and his research buddy. They formed a company and were the first to create a computer data network on a single circuitboard and using plain telephone cable to each computer. It was the first network hub, something you can buy in an electronics store today for $20. In 1988 IBM invested in the company and we eventually received a medal from the IEEE for the achievement. Their names were Dick Schott and Ralph Ungermann. They told me that what was achieved at Bletchley Park was nothing short of miraculous. He said they were decades behind. He also said how amazing were the Germans to invent Enigma and Lorenz in the first place. I feel privileged to have been around to see all this evolve into the tech industry we have today.
National HRO Sr's were used extensively, too. Especially at Y stations (where mine came from, with its multiple coil boxes). Beautiful radios with superb tuning and almost no frequency drift.
Interesting . . . in Britain you had "Heath Robinson" machine comics, while in the US, we had "Rube Goldberg." doing the same thing.. I wonder who came first.
As I mentioned just a bit earlier, this video on code-breaking is excellent! In addition, it would be great if a similar in-depth video could be done on TRAFIC ANALYSIS, I believe led by Gordon Welchman. These efforts, while not providing the enemy's internal communications, did provide important information on their command & control, order of battle & even approximate locations. This branch of electric espionage would later be used in the collection & storage of worldwide mega-data in acres of vaults. The whistleblower, Edward Snowden, was later to leak this information.
Gordon Welchman wrote a book called "The Hut 6 Story"; if you get hold of a copy of that (Amazon, Ebay etc) I think that will tell you everything you want to know!
If those people were properly honoured after the end of WW2 then probably today UK would have been the greatest place in the world in the field of computing, digitalization, electronics and communications ... sadly mostly left country to USA & Canada and did huge technology innovation there and some who didnt go died here in the UK behind the scene ...
I have been to Bletchley and have seen the reconditioned huts back in early 2017. This documentary was so good I can't put it into words. Such detail, so professionally put together. I saw part of this last night and was compelled to go and watch "The Imitation Game". I saw the rest tonight and was blown away again. Thank you for such a good documentary. I know I will watch this over and over, maybe so I can finally get it in my head how these systems were operated.
Better still, watch the BBC Docu-Drama of the same title (which was nicked by Hollywood) ) starring Ed Stoppard, a brilliant and believable portrayal of Turing. It's on DVD
Many thanks for your kind comments. The Imitation Game was OK, very inaccurate but good entertainment but a better film is "Enigma" with Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet. Unfortunately I no longer work at the Park as I have moved house and now live in the North of England but please enjoy all the videos about BP.
+CusterFlux Hi there. I absolutely agree with you but, as I have said before, I only had the use of amateur equipment when I made this video - my own video camera! I would have loved to be using a Canon or Sony Pro Camera and Lavalier microphone equipment but I do not have that so I was stuck with what I had and tried to make the best of it! I apologise if the sound quality wasn't as it could have been!
Fascinating! My wife and I did the conference then the tour, had lunch there and spent another couple of hours talking to a historian chap. Yeah, we are dedicated visitors! 😎
very wrong about a.t.'s sense of humor....every interview of his surviving coworkers said he was very silly and funny and sweet and caring to friends. also he was not socially awkward, he very much enjoyed gathering with friends, as evidenced by surviving coworkers testimony and reading his letter correspondence. why do ppl have always make out geniuses to be the stereotype of introverted socially awkward weirdos. its not true esp in the case of a.t.
I'm very sorry but I don't know where you get your information from. It is on record that Turing WAS very socially awkward; he was suspected of suffering from Aspergers althought this was not officially diagnosed. He used to walk from his hut to the refectory with his head down as he did not want to engage in conversation with anybody that he considered to be socially, or interllectually inferior to him. When he was away from BP it is on record that he was interested in "sleeping" with his room mate (always Male) but this seldom happened. He did not relate well to his colleagues and was always very socially disadvantaged. If you are going to put a post on Turing, on this site, please make sure that your facts are correct. How do I know this? I worked at BP for some years and know the history of Turing and many of the other codebreakers that worked there in some detail!
Sorry, but the public personna of Alan Turing has been garnered from very many sources including those he worked with; those who had dealings with him and how he dealt with those that he had to deal with. All of these sources indicate a man who was, possibly, on the Autistic scale; one who did not like to converse with co-workers whom he considered to be of lower intellect than himself and a man who was socially arkward and definitely NOT at ease with co-workers. That is not to say that the man was not a genius but he was a very flawed character; something that Turing fans don't particularly want to admit! As for "The Imitation Game"; well, least said soonest mended - what a God awful film!! I sat through it and filled one A4 side of paper with all of the historical; technical and downright lies that this film portrayed. How do I know this? I used to work as a tour guide at Bletchley Park and, therefore, have inside knowledge as to what the real truth is!!
It's amazing how facts can become distorted with time. Before making this video I checked the archives and spoke to as many people as I could who knew the background to Turing and what I said in the video was the net result of that research! Sorry if other people differ, all I can go on are the facts that I could determine at the time.
What you did with this video is amazing, telling the story and doing it in a fantastic way. The story of people that changed the course of the world. People that accomplished amazing things, but could not tell anyone. They are the people that deserve wealth and prosperity. Sadly that did not happen. Thank you for your work. Hope more people see this!
Further to my comment of 42 minutes ago I have just been onto the RU-vid site of PA3DMI and there I found this, MY video, there and my, haven't they been busy!! You should see all the other videos that are residing there! I would love to know how PA3DMI has found time to "shoot" all of these themselves. If my hijacked video is there how many others have suffered the same fate as mine!!!! If they haven't then let PA3DMI prove it and I would dearly like to know why a video that I filmed finished up on their site with PA3DMI apparently claiming it as their own???????
I've seen several videos and films on Bletchley and , of course Alan Turing, and found them very interesting; However, this series of videos by Mr Stead was absolutely fascinating, enjoyable, enlightening and even entertaining. The presentation was entirely flawless - no mumbling, no "aw's and um's - perfect delivery by a man with an obvious knowledge and passion for his subject, and with the ability to convey to even a simpleton like me, what is indeed a very complex system of codes and ciphers. Absolutely fascinating, and great credit richly deserved. Thank you so much for this.
Hi Charles, Many thanks for your very kind comments! Unfortunately, I no longer work for the Park, or TNMOC, as I have moved house up to North Yorkshire - to be beside the Sea - so I no longer have a day to day interest in either but I still maintain a material interest and would love to see all of the problems that beset the Park resolved - will it ever happen - unfortunately I think not!!
Very well told. Everyone should have seen this video. Amazing what they have achieved here with so few in so little time. Pitty they didn't buy an Enigma in the 1920's when it was on the german market. 😂
@@foobarmaximus3506 Incorrect - yet again! Prior to 1939 Dilly Knox, at the Park, had been working on the family of Enigma's that we had knowledge of. He had almost cracked the military Enigma but was stuck on one point that the Poles helped him out with and that allowed him to make the first break on this machine in January 1940! Something that the Poles had not managed to do as the military version of Enigma had certain modifications to it that the Poles had not broken.
It is very sad to think that so many people worked on code breaking, and at the end of the war where told "Do not tell anyone what you have been doing for the past 4 years!" under threat of hanging or something else. So they could not brag about helping during the war. They could listen to friends talk about flying a plane over Germany or Poloist, or something, and not be able to brag about doing important things that helped end the war at least 1 year sooner! And to sink all of those U-Boats! It was code breaking that led to sinking over 400 of the German Submarines! And to the Germans thinking that Port De Calle is the correct invasion port. One man met his wife in 1946, got married, and never discovered they both worked at Bletchley park until they toured Bletchley Park in the 1980's, and then discovered they both worked there in 1945.
I've visited Bletchley Park with John Elver of the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust and Royal Aeronautical Society. Need to visit the National Computing Centre. I should have asked why is the Enigma decription machine called the Bomb? Also why destroy these machines as they would have been useful until solid state semiconductors replaced them in the late 50's? Has some one tried to copy the operation of the Enigma machine using a computer programme in software say on a laptop. Thanks for the great tour of the site and technical details.
Back again ! Enjoyed the video again....planning to visit BP soon so will see if there is anything else to see that I may have missed..... In 2017 I think it cost me £10...will be dearer no doubt
No mention that the first bombes were built by Polish codebreakers (bomba was a Polish word), nor that later, and very much more capable and reliable bombes, were built by NCR in the USA because the British didn’t have sufficient production capabilities.
sad how all the genius were treated after WW2 ... thats why many shifted to USA, Canada and innovated technologies there which could have done here in the UK if they all were rewarded and stayed here. to the worse Turing was criminalised and sadly committed suicide.
there is an Enigma machine, taken from a Japanese submarine, at Living Computers Museum in Seattle and a street of new apartment buildings near Microsoft campus has been named for Alan Turing
Hi, if you visit please consider that the place has now had a massive upgrade its a wonderful place to visit both this and the Museum of Computing. Good to see so much has been changed since 2012.
if the advancing wheels do not advance for any reason or if there is a short circuit from a burr of brass between a contact the messages become garbage since the machine have to be in synchronism. a simple typo makes no problem but on the russian front in a muddy field at 25 below and in mitts forget it.
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