WORLD FIRST AT BLETCHLEY PARK

On 4 September 1939, the day after the declaration of war by Prime Minister Chamberlain, codebreakers, including Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, reported for top-secret duties at Bletchley Park and so began a most remarkable period in codebreaking history; the breaking of German Enigma. 

Today, Bletchley Park is home to an impressive permanent collection of Enigma and other vintage cypher machines and equipment but to mark this special anniversary weekend, the exhibits will multiply when over 70 more, previously top-secret, machines from all around the world will be on display.  The arrival of these extraordinary encoding machines will coincide on the Sunday with Bletchley Park’s Annual Enigma Reunion event, uniting them with many of the men and women who cracked their codes during World War Two, often without ever having seen the machine itself. 

The machines will be arriving from museums and private and government collections all around the world, including the UK’s own Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the USA’s National Cryptologic Museum and military museums in Scandinavia and Europe.  Some of the machines have never before been publicly shown in the UK – such as the Enigma KD, Swiss K, T and other interesting machines that are still under wraps until this event opens.

Based on the same general principles, these Enigma models were developed for specific purposes and users:  the Enigma T was made in Germany for the Japanese to encipher messages but only a few ever arrived at their destination, as many were intercepted or destroyed in convoy by the allied forces; Enigma K was an early commercially available version - originally the Enigma machine was designed for the banking industry and only later put to military use by the Germans.

Simon Greenish, director of the Bletchley Park Trust said, “We are extremely privileged to be hosting this event with the support of GCHQ.  It promises to be an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see such a large number of the world’s incredibly rare cypher machines in one place.  The fact that we will also be in the presence of so many of Bletchley Park’s exceptional wartime veterans will make it a truly phenomenal occasion.”

Other highlights of the Event will be special talks by VIP guest speakers, a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast by a Lancaster on the Saturday, a World War Two RAF plotting table, World War Two re-enactors and the opportunity for the children to have a go at making and breaking codes in Spy Workshops.