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Bletchley Park is an estate in the town of Bletchley, Milton Keynes (UK).
During WWII, Bletchley Park, or BP for short, was the UK's main
code breaking site.
The codes and ciphers of many countries were decrypted here, such as
the ciphers from the German Enigma
and Lorenz machines.
It's the place where people like Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Dylwyn Knox
and about 12,000 others worked day and night during the war.
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BP is now a museum that is open to the public every day.
If you are interested in the history of code and ciphers,
BP is well worth a real-life visit.
Many war-time buildings, such as the mansion, the cottage,
the stableyard, H-Block, B-Block and some huts are still
in existence.
The image on the right shows the Mansion, which is one of the most
famous buildings on the site. But there is much more to see.
BP has an interesting collection of cipher machines, such as
Enigma, Lorenz, Siemens Geheimschreiber and much more.
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Furthermore, BP is also the home of Colossus,
the first programmable electronic computer, that has now completely
been rebuilt.
And not to forget the Bombe, the machine that helped breaking the
Enigma codes. Another rebuild project that has been completed successfully.
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Apart from code-breaking related activities, BP is also the home of
some smaller museums and organisations that can be visited whilst at the
park.
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- Hut 1 - Diplomatic Wireless Service
Hut 1 was the first hut to be built at BP in 1939. It has now fully been
restored and houses the beautiful collection of Diplomatic Wireless
equipment of David White. On display are war-time receivers, spy radio sets,
cipher machines and much more.
Open on weekends only.
- The National Museum of Computing (H-Block)
Probably one of the largest collections of computers is on display in H-Block,
one of the former war-time buildings. The museum shows the full history of
computing and many of their machines can actually be operated. You will
certainly recognise some old friends here.
- Enigma & Friends (part of B-Block exhibition)
A beautiful collection of cipher machines other than
Enigma,
such as Hagelin, the
Russian Fialka
and much more.
- The Colossus Rebuild Project (H-Block)
Colossus was the first programmable electronic digital computer,
developed at BP during WWII to break the German Lorenz cipher.
After the war, Colossus was kept secret for many years and all
machines were destroyed. In 1994, a team led by Tony Sale started
the reconstruction of a Colossus. An ambitious task that was completed
in 2006. The machine is now fully operational.
- Bombe rebuild project
Another ambitious task carried out at BP is the rebuild of a Bombe;
the machine that was used to break the German Enigma messages during
WWII. Started around 1995, this task was completed in 2007.
The machine is now operational and is demonstrated to the public
regularly.
- Bletchley Park Post Office
- Bletchley Park Garage
- The Churchill Collection
- Home Front Display (part of B-Block exhibition)
- Maritime Display
- Milton Keynes Amateur Radio Society
- Model Railway
- Light Infantry at Pegasus Bridge
- Pigeons at War
- The Projected Picture Trust
- The Toys and Memorabilia Collection
- 65th Nachrichten Abteilung
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Below is a map of Bletchley Park in the UK.
The map can be downloaded
as a PDF file at the bottom of this page.
You may also click on the map to view it at a larger scale.
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