78 years on... return of the codebreakers
VETERANS who helped crack the Nazis’ Enigma cipher are reunited at our former codebreaking HQ yesterday.
The bash marked the 78th anniversary of Britain declaring war on Germany, and more than 100 vets gathered at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire.
Military historians believe that cracking Enigma was one of the Second World War’s major turning points.
Arthur Maddocks, 95, said: “The work was repetitive, like solving a puzzle over and over again, but you were sustained by remembering its vast importance.
“If it had been worked out correctly, out would come a stream of beautiful, clear German text. It was sensational, a revelation. I thought, ‘The war’s over, the Germans can’t possibly win’.” Mr Maddocks, who became a diplomat after the war, added: “It’s rather an exaggeration to be called heroes – the real heroes were the poor b **** rs doing the fighting.” Bletchley was chosen as the main intelligence site as cities were more likely to be bombed. It housed some of the world’s most gifted minds, including the computer scientist Alan Turing. Staff who worked in intelligence had to sign the Official Secrets Act and could not talk about their work for decades.