
The Women of Bletchley Park (audio) - DanBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b062ktlf
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DanBC
> For decades it was Britain's best kept secret, the huge codebreaking
> operation centred around a Victorian mansion in Buckinghamshire, Bletchley
> Park. Despite the fact that at least 8000 people worked at Bletchley, and
> many others in listening and codebreaking centres across the country, no-one
> gave the secret away. And when the story did eventually begin to emerge, the
> star-studded heroes of Bletchley's narrative were men, led by the most
> famous cryptanalyst of them all, Alan Turing. In recent years, Hollywood
> blockbusters have cemented the reputation of those clever boffins, who have
> been credited with shortening the Second World War by many months.

> However, if you walked through the gates of Bletchley seventy years ago, you
> would have been struck not by the number of men working there but the number
> of young women. That's because by 1944 three quarters of Bletchley's
> workforce was made up of very young women, or girls, often just out of
> school.

> Tessa Dunlop speaks to some of those Bletchley girls, now in their late 80s
> and 90s, about their stories. Who were they and what did they do? Why were
> they selected to work in Britain's most secret organisation and what impact
> did Bletchley have on the rest of their lives?

