Revisiting the secret WWII codebreakers
Cambridge
and Great Eastern (CaGE) Regional Group
visit to Bletchley
Park, May 2006
 Bletchley Park, near Milton
Keynes, UK, was the secret
countryside location for an
army of allied code breakers
who worked around the clock,
intercepting and decrypting the
German military’s radio signals.
During the second world war, 12,000 people worked in and
around Bletchley Park, yet it
remained a well-kept secret
until the 1970s. Sworn to secrecy
and all the computers and
bombes (used in encrypting and
decoding) were destroyed after
the war on Churchill’s orders.
Members of the Cambridge
and Great Eastern (CaGE) Regional Group
of SCI toured the Bletchley
Park heritage centre on 13 May.
As well as enjoying a fascinating
tour of the site, members
were given the opportunity to
crack some encrypted messages,
composed by CaGE committee
member Doug Prain. So
if you’re sick of sudoku or have
square eyes from the World
Cup or crosswords, why not try
your hand at these? They are tough, but think of
chemicals and computers.
In
increasing order of difficulty:
- The first puzzle was 47-3-18-
10—22-92-45-53-28-84.
- The second was Li-P-Sc-Si-Ca-
B-K-K-Co-Mg-P-Ti-B-Mg-H-Li-B.
- The third was Li-Mg-He-H-/-OB-
H-N-/-H-K-He-B-/-Ar-Co-He-Co
CaGE warmly recommends
other SCI members to visit
Bletchley Park (Bletchley Park,
Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK3
6EB, T: +44 (0)1908 640404, www.bletchleypark.org.uk).
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