We could assume it belonged to Station X and so that would be quite useful because it shows us all the different keys and mechanism’s. However it does not so it is more useless than useful. Overall I believe that Source D is more useful than Source E in telling us how Bletchley Park were able to crack the Enigma code.
- Source F suggests that Bletchley Park was very important to the war effort. It is a memo written by Winston Churchill (the Prime Minister at the time). In it he says, “Make sure they have all they want.” If the Prime Minister felt that the staff at Bletchley Park were very important then without doubt they must have been. He also says, “Extreme priority” and “Action Today” Churchill obviously saw them as being of greatest importance if Britain were to win the war.
Source G tells us about the hard work of the code breakers. The code breakers must have seen their jobs to be of great importance too. “Spend the whole night assuming positions.” If the people working at Bletchley Park had not have thought that what they were doing was important then they certainly would not have stayed up all night doing it.
From my own knowledge I can give examples of how Bletchley Park were important in giving vital information about events. Some of these events were:
In the Battle of Britain Bletchley Park were able to supply very valuable information about the number of German planes lost during the raids over Britain. Their most important influence on the Battle however was in September 1940 when Bletchley Park, decoded messages of extreme importance. They said that the Germans had given up Operation Sealion (their attempt to invade Britain) which meant the Armies could concentrate elsewhere. The code breakers none stop hard work paid off. This shows how important Station X was because if they had been unable to get the information about Operation Sealion then British would have kept their troops in Britain.
At the Battle of Matapan Bletchley Park played a major role in the success of it. They confirmed reports that had been received by agents about operations in the Mediterranean. Early in 1941 they were able to work out that the Italians were going to invade Yugoslavia. Because of information from Bletchley Park that was passed on to Admiral Cunningham, the commander of the Mediterranean fleet, there was success off Southern France. He was able to sink three heavy cruisers and two destroyers without any British losses. The information that Bletchley Park received and passed on, which led to the victory at Matapan, was from a few messages; one which read ‘Today’s the day minus three’. Bletchley Park was able to work that something was definitely going to happen and passed on the information. Another message, which was decoded successfully, told them all the battle orders how many cruisers there were, and how many submarines there were. The information given by Bletchley Park was invaluable. It definitely helped the British to win that battle.
At the Battle of Atlantic, they helped to defeat the attacks by German U-boats on the Atlantic convoys. Bletchley Park were able to break the German navy code ‘Dolphin’ in July which meant the number of boats sunk by the Germans went from 65 in June to 15 by the end of November. At that point the German U-boats decided to return to the Mediterranean to help the Italians.
Bletchley Park supplied a lot of detailed information of the invasion of Crete, information including the date of when it was to take place, which was 20th May 1941. Although the loss of Crete was described as a defeat for British forces, it was still seen as a great victory for the workers at Bletchley Park. It was seen as this, because Bletchley Park had done everything they could; they supplied all the information that the British forces needed to know.
This is another good example of how Bletchley Park was so important to the war effort. They worked very hard in cracking codes and then translating the messages and passing them on to British Forces; and supplying them with all the battle plans they could decode.
From the examples I have give above you can clearly see that Blecthley Park played a vitally important role to the war effort and in Britain succeeding.
- I agree with this to a certain extent but I do believe there were times when Bletchley Park had little impact on events that happened. At first the Admirals did not trust Station X’s information. This meant that however hard they tried they would have no impact on the outcome of the war. This happened many times at the beginning of the war. In April 1940 Denmark and Norway were invaded. The OIC refused to listen to Bletchley Park and as a consequence reserves sent to Norway were ill prepared. Likewise HMS Glorious 1940, the OIC did not want to look stupid by passing on messages to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow that may not be correct so they did not. As a consummation HMS Glorious and two escorts destroyers HMS Ascata and HMS Ardent were surprised attacked by German pocket battleships Scarnhost and Gnienseau. All three were lost and 1500 men were killed. Also at the Bismarck 1941 the British Admiral again did not trust information received by Bletchley Park which had said the Bismarck was going to France.
Sometimes Bletchley Park would loose the messages too. This was hugely inconvenient, as sometimes they could be important pieces of information. This happened at D-Day, one Panzer-which was a tank-Division was not tracked down and it helped the Germans to defend Caen on the days after the landings.
Bletchley Park would sometimes take too long decoding messages and would end up being received by the British Admiral after the corresponding event. This happened at North Africa where Station X were unable to crack the codes sent by the German army. Also the Germans would often change their messages at the last minute. This happened at the Battle of Britain and so therefore some pieces of information were inaccurate. Likewise Bletchley Park would occasionally be unable to decode the messages sent by the Germans. This happened in North Africa when Station X was unable to crack some important messages.
However Bletchley Park did have a great effect on parts of the war. Some examples are:
In the Battle of the Atlantic, about 65 ships a month were being sunk but when Bletchley Park cracked the naval code ‘Dolphin’ the number of ships being sunk a month dropped to about 15. The U-boats were withdrawn from the Atlantic.
Bletchley Park had a great impact on the outcome of this event because of their hard work in cracking Dolphin.
The Second Battle of the Atlantic 1942, Bletchley Park could not decode the messages until in December 1942 when their hard work paid off. They cracked Shark and the battle swung in the favour of the allies. With the information the allies were getting from Bletchley Park they sunk 100 U-boats in the first five months of 1943, and the U-boats withdrew. In the same month the allies sunk forty-seven U-boats.
The Battle of Britain, Bletchley Park was able to supply information about the number of German bombers, their fighter escorts and how many German aircraft’s were lost in raids over Britain. Bletchley Park decoded messages in September that the German’s had given up Operation Sealion, their attempt to invade Britain.
North Africa, the British Forces had difficulty in North Africa. In June 1942 Station X cracked the code. The information that was being supplied by Bletchley Park meant that the attacks on German and Italian convoys were more successful. A codebreaker described how Ultra was a positive affect to the outcome of the Second World War; and how it would not of been possible without the help of the hard work that went on at Bletchley Park.
These are just some of the events in which Bletchley Park influenced the outcome and therefore formed an important contribution to the outcome of WW2.
Some of the sources also agree with the statement too.
Source A suggests that Station X was very secretive. “Very, very departmentalised.” This meant that no German spies could have possibly known what was happening in the Park. So therefore it continued to be helpful towards the war and the outcome, because if the Germans had found out then there would be no way the British would have known so much about the battles etc.
Source G suggests that the codebreakers worked extremely hard for prolonged periods “Spend the whole night.” This was eminently helpful to the outcome of the war. This was because their hard work made breaking the codes quicker and information given to the Admirals quicker and so consequently the British being ready for any attacks by the Germans.
Source F is a memo written by Winston Churchill. He obviously felt that he needed Station X to win the war because he gave them extreme priority “Extreme priority” and whatever they wanted, “All they want.” If the Prime Minister felt Bletchley Park were vital in order to win the war there is little doubt they were.
Overall I feel that for certain Bletchley Park had a major influence on the outcome of WW2. The codebreakers worked their socks off for Britain and without their help the war could have gone on for a much longer period. However I also feel they did not always have a great impact on every event.
