‘A person or thing that is mysterious or difficult to understand.’
Jack and Alastair made their way out of Bletchley Park’s main entrance walking down a gravel path with timber huts on either side.
‘As you can see, Jack, the grandiose mansion overshadows the huts where the actual work is done. Let me briefly explain what is taking place in each hut.’
Hut 1
Function:
‘We have developed our first bombe (computer) in there. We aptly called it ‘Victory’. This is where Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman weaved their magic initially. I will introduce you later on.’
HUT 2
Function:
Recreation Hut, serving provisions and luncheon vouchers.
HUT 3
Function:
‘Hut 3 is responsible for the intelligence analysis through translation, emendation and sorting of the decrypted Army/Air Force material from Hut 6. It’s disseminated to appropriate commands and ministries, and to units in the field.
‘The hub of operations in Hut 3 is the Watch Room, where the Watch and Naval, Army and Air advisors work in close liaison. The Central Intelligence Section is responsible for the study and solving of longer-term and highly complex intelligence.’
HUT 4
Function:
Hut 4 houses the section responsible for the intelligence analysis of the decrypted material from the German Navy sourced from Hut 8. Currently occupied by the German naval section as well as the Italian and Spanish naval sections. The processes of Hut 4 are very similar to those of Hut 3 with the decrypted messages being passed through the various stages of emendation, translation, evaluation, commenting and sign drafting.
‘We will look at the other huts tomorrow, Jack, but I do want to show you Hut 8. That’s where you will be working with Alan Turing. He is a brilliant fellow. He’s been working on the naval Enigma which by all accounts is the most difficult to crack. He has developed the most advanced bombe to date. I am sure he would be more than happy to demonstrate it to you.’
Alistair and Jack entered Hut 8. It was a hive of activity with WRENs (Women’s Royal Naval Service) everywhere typing and analysing documents.
Alistair approached a man with a shaggy tweed coat and hair that could only be described as unkempt.
‘Hello Alan, I would like you to meet General Jack Doherty. He’s been assigned to ‘Ultra’ to assist your project with anything America can provide.’
‘Pleased to meet you, General.’
‘Please call me Jack. Yes, the President and the Under Secretary of the Navy have made it very clear to me that I should do anything I can to assist you.’
‘That’s nice. Would you like to see our baby?’
‘Baby?’
‘Our Bombe, General.’
‘Oh, of course. Yes! I would love a demonstration.’
‘Follow me.’
Turing led them through to another room attached to the hut. There, sitting proudly with its cogs spinning and whirring was Turing’s bombe.
‘So, here she is, the machine that is cracking the naval Enigma codes and putting German U-boats where they belong - on the bottom of the ocean,’ boasted Turing.
‘I’m not a mathematician by any stretch of the imagination Alan, but it does look impressive. How can we help?’
‘You have a company in America. NCR. I believe this company could build a bombe to our specifications, yet still improve on our design.’
Jack returned to the United States in April 1942 and while there visited the US Navy cryptanalysis office.
At his meeting with the Under Secretary he stressed the importance of tracking German U-Boat traffic. He highlighted the urgent need for an Enigma-cracking machine. Jack divulged his doubts about the size of the British engineering workload resulting in slow progress. He prompted the US to start investigating designs for a Navy bombe, based on the full blueprints and wiring diagrams received by US Naval Lieutenants Robert Ely and Joseph Eachus at Bletchley Park in July 1942.
Funding for two million dollars for a Navy development effort was requested on 3rd September 1942. It was approved the following day.
The US Navy Bombe contained sixteen four-rotor Enigma-analogues and was much faster than the British three-rotor bombes, even for a three-rotor task.
Commander Edward Travis, Deputy Director and Frank Birch, Head of the German Naval Section travelled from Bletchley Park to Washington in September 1942. With Carl Frederick Holden, US Director of Naval Communications they established, on 2nd October 1942, a UK US accord. This established a relationship of ‘full collaboration’ between Bletchley Park and OP-20-G.
An all-electronic solution to the problem of a fast bombe was considered but rejected for pragmatic reasons, and a contract was let with the National Cash Register Corporation (NCR) in Dayton, Ohio. This established the United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory.
Jack returned to Bletchley Park continuing his high level collaboration with his British counterparts. Over the next few years they achieved great results saving the lives of thousands of Allied forces.