The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 9, Number 2, Fall 2020 | Page 17

Mair Thomas : Life at Bletchley Park
End . 19 Remembered as the Cable Street Battle , the event remained with Mair , leaving with her constant guilt over the persecution of Jews before and during the Holocaust .
After her two-year stint at Mount Hermon , Mair applied to Cardiff University in Wales to focus on a Bachelor of Music degree and German studies . 20 She enjoyed one year of peace at university before the war began . Mair vividly remembered Sunday , September 3 , 1939 , when Prime Minister Chamberlain announced Britain was at war with Germany following the invasion of Poland . The first year of the war went badly for the Allies , as the Battle of Norway and Denmark provided a considerable blow to the Allies ’ morale . German forces brutally marched across Western Europe at an accelerated speed unseen during the Great War . Belgium , Holland , and France fell to Hitler ’ s army , and allied forces were pushed back and surrounded at Dunkirk . Standing alone against Germany , Britain held back German forces from landing on her shores during the Battle of Britain . 21
Following the German failure in the Battle of Britain , the German Blitzkrieg campaign began against Britain . From September 7 , 1940 to May 1941 , the Germans moved from daytime raids to nighttime raids . 22 In January 1941 , Cardiff , where Mair attended university , was bombed , killing 165 , while another 427 received severe injuries . 23 Mair ’ s closest college friend died during the raid , and Mair realized it was her war now . 24 As March rolled around , Mair had two chance meetings that helped
Figure 1 : Bletchley code breaker Mair Russell Jones talks of War – BBC News . Accessed August 16 , 2020 https :// www . google . com / search ? q = https / www . bbc . com / news / ukwales-15525735 & client = firefox-b-1-d & sxs rf = ALeKk03RHSbVUc0PiFjF3WcLQ2Vm cVXlFA : 1597685676484 & tbm = isch & sour ce = iu & ictx = 1 & fir = iL-YjX2tvA _ QkM % 25 2CYpDm9aexmA262M % 252C _& vet = 1 & usg = AI4 _ -kTKw4bu5jNkTCXsq5QTYaNJ FGKSog & sa = X & ved = 2ahUKEwjSmNb54 qLrAhVDPawKHRwcAVgQ9QEwA3oEC AMQBw & biw = 1920 & bih = 938 # imgrc = iL- YjX2tvA _ QkM
decide her fate for the duration of the war . While studying for her final exams in the library , she was approached by a gentleman from the Foreign Office , most likely a recruiter sent to universities looking for people specializing in languages , such as German , Italian , and Japanese . The other encounter was a friend of Mair ’ s whom she met through a Christian event at Cardiff and who
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