Bletchley’s influence on war ‘overrated’, claims author
BLETCHLEY PARK’S contribution to the Allied victory during the Second World War is often overrated by the public, a new book has claimed.
The code-breaking hub is not the “war winner” it is presented as, argues Prof John Ferris, from Calgary University in Canada, in Behind the Enigma.
Bletchley Park’s story has featured regularly in literature, film and television, such as The Imitation Game, the 2014 Oscar-winning film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, Enigma, a 2001 film starring Kate Winslet, and ITV’S crime drama The Bletchley Circle.
However some of the mythology surrounding it has masked the reality, the new book claims. Released this week, the book is the first authorised biography of GCHQ and is based on access to top secret files at the UK spy agency.
“Bletchley is not the war winner that a lot of Brits think it is – intelligence never wins a war on its own,” Prof Ferris told the BBC.
He claims Nazi Germany had the advantage in deciphering messages in the first half of the war as Britain’s own communication security was so poor.
He said Bletchley’s success was remarkable, but it did not shorten the war by as much as people said, whereas the contribution of GCHQ was often understated.
Prof Ferris argued the agency’s contribution was particularly important in the 1982 Falklands war. “I don’t think Britain could have won the Falklands conflict without GCHQ,” he said.
He said because the agency was able to intercept and break Argentine messages, British commanders were able to know within hours what orders were
‘Bletchley is not the war winner a lot of Brits think it is – intelligence never wins a war on its own’
being given to their opponents, which offered a major advantage in the battle at sea and in retaking the islands.
GCHQ, known as Britain’s listening post, was set up on Nov 1 1919 as a peacetime “cryptanalytic” unit.
During World War Two, staff were moved to Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, to decrypt Germany’s messages including, most famously, the Enigma communications. The work was kept secret for decades but an official history of British intelligence in the war would later say it had shortened the conflict by two to four years and that without it the outcome would have been uncertain.