The Saber and Scroll
women dedicated long hours and years of their lives in service to their nation , including breaking the codes , thereby shortening the war . Intelligence played a significant role during World War II , and secrecy was paramount . One of those people , Mair Thomas , kept her work on the codes at BP secret for close to sixty years and only recently decided to tell her story of spending four years of her life in Hut Six , working on breaking codes of the German army and air force . 1
Intelligence War
Intercepting German intelligence
was a crucial component in the war effort , piggybacked from Y stations , where messages were overheard and documented , then passed to Station X , BP for decrypting . Decoded messages were then passed to the Foreign Office under the code name Ultra . Ultra enabled British and Allied forces to plan and maneuver against Germany and the Axis . In the 1920s , Germany developed a system called an Enigma machine , used for commercial , military , and government communication . The machine was complicated , using rotors , keyboard , and plugboard to change settings daily . Polish cryptologists had worked for years on decoding German messages including building a bombe machine , which enabled the ability to search for rotor settings .
Frederick William Winterbotham ( 1897 – 1990 ), Group Captain in the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) and head of aerial intelligence in MI6 , oversaw the distribution of Ultra Intelligence during
World War II . His book , The Ultra Secret , first published in 1974 , was the first book in English to reveal Britain ’ s success in breaking the German Enigma codes . 2 The term Ultra is the code name used for all intelligence received from BP concerning cryptographic intercepted messages . Winterbotham ’ s book was written from his memory alone . His story shocked the English-speaking world when first released ; Winterbotham opened the door for others , including Gordon Welchman , to break their sworn silence and tell their story of breaking the codes .
Gordon Welchman ( 1906 – 1985 ), in his book , The Hut Six Story , provides details of the operation in Hut Six and the development of the Secret Intelligence Service ’ s move to BP . He explains that due to the buildup of war in Europe and the fear of a possible bombing of London once the fighting began , the Government Code and Cypher School ( GC & CS ) was moved to BP in August 1939 , just weeks before Britain declared war on Germany . Admiral Sinclair purchased BP to transfer the GC & CS out of the Foreign Office in London , and the name of GC & CS was changed to Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ). The estate was a prime location just forty-seven miles outside of London , with a railway junction making for easy access to Cambridge and Oxford . 3
Commander Alastair Denniston was head of the GC & CS and began prepping BP with several outbuildings known as huts for the upcoming war with Germany . Denniston had also contacted leading mathematicians and
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