Source G says that the codes they were breaking were not just in German, but also in Italian and Japanese, this shows that Bletchley Park were dealing with important information that was to do with the war effort as a whole, they were dealing with all aspects with the war, not just a small part of it.
Bletchley Park provided very important to Admiral Cunningham which enabled him to win the Battle of Matapan. Bletchley Park decoded a message which said that there was a fleet of Italian ships waiting to ambush the British fleet. Bletchley Park tipped off Admiral Cunningham about the attack. This was all they were able to do though, it was up to Admrial Cunningham to act upon the information given to him, which he did. During the day he pretended to go to golf, but late at night he snuck back to his fleet and destroyed the Italian fleet without loss. This shows that the information Bletchley Park provided was very useful, but it required the military to act upon the information given to them if it was the information was to be used successfully.
North Africa was very important to the war effort as if North Africa was under your
control then you would control the Suez Canal. This was important becuase it means that the upplies going to India did not have to go all the way around the bottom of Africa. The Battle of El Alamein was the final battle in North Africa in which the Allies gained control of North Africa. Blectchley Park helped to win this battle because they decoded messages which revealed Rommel’s battle plans and supplies so the Allies were able to out-wit him. They were also able to provide information which enabled the Allies to sink the U Boats in the Mediterranean which were trying to stop the Allies supplies from reaching North Africa. They also told that Allies when and where the German final attack would be so the Allies were prepared for the attack in the right place.
Controlling North Africa was also very important if D Day was going to take place.
This is becuase in order to launch D Day successfully they needed to concentrate all
the Allied troops on West Europe. This means they couldn’t launch the invasion until
the war in North Africa was over.
By decoding messages Bletchley Park found out that the German’s were expecting the
main attack to come at Calais and they thought any other attack would be a diversion.
The Allies used this to their advantage by fooling the Germans in to thinking that the
attack was coming at Calais, they did this by making fake radio messages and by
making it look like large amounts of ships were heading for Calais. Bletchley Park
also provided locations for 56 out of the 58 German Army Divisions that were
stationed around Normandy. Had Bletchley Park not provided this information then
the D Day landings may not have been successful.
However, there were other crucial events that Bletchley Park had little or no impact
on, for example, the war in Japan, Battle of Britain, the Russian Front and Allied
bombings. This shows that the Allies were capable of winning battles without the help
of Bletchley Park. Also the German’s themselves were also partly responsible for
them losing the war. By the end of the war they were fighting on three fronts in
Europe, this split up the German forces and meant that they were not as strong as they
could have been when fighting. Also, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour they
brought America into the war, tipping the balance int the favour of the Allies. Also,
Bletchley Park had nothing to do with America dropping the atom bomb on Japan.
This event was seen as to shorten the was as it forced Japan into submission.
However, it was not just Bletchley Park and the Allies actions that shortened the war.
The decisions Hitler made may have also contributed to the end of the war. By the
End of the war Hitler was fighting on three fronts – the Western Front, the Russian
Front and in Italy. This meant that Hitler’s forces were split and so not as strong as
they could have been, making it easier for the Allies to defeat them.
Despite of this, the importance of Bletchley Park is undeniable. When information
provided by Bletchley Park was ignored there was Allied losses, for example, the
sinking of the HMS Glorious. Also, when Bletchley Park was able to crack the naval
code the losses of Allied hipping was much lower than when they were unable to
crack the code. The information Bletchley Park provided helped the Allies to win key
battles, however, it alone did not win the battles, the military still had to win the
battle.
Overall, I do think that Bletchley Park shortened the war, they helped the Allies to
win key battles that they may have not won without the information. Also, D Day
may not have gone ahead if it wasn’t for Bletchley Park, meaning that the German’s
would have been able to continue their development of the V1, V2 and nuclear
warheads, this would have made the war go on a lot longer. However, Bletchley Park
alone did not shorten the war, the military were still needed to act upon the
information they were provided with, if they hadn’t then Bletchley Park would have
been useless.
