Exterior view from the south of Hut 8 at Bletchley Park
- Date:
- 5 Sep 2023
- Location:
- Bletchley Park, Hut 8, Sherwood Drive, West Bletchley, Milton Keynes
- Reference:
- DP435668
- Type:
- Photograph (Digital)
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Description
Hut 8, constructed some time late in 1939, was occupied by the section of the name from early 1940 until February 1943. It was responsible for decoding Naval Enigma traffic - the most difficult to break - including U-boat ciphers. It was headed first by the famous mathematician Alan Turing (1940-Nov 1942), next by the former British chess champion Hugh Alexander (to December 1944), and then by A.P. Mahon. Its senior staff peaked at 16 at the end of 1941, falling to four by March 1944. At the heart of the hut was the `Big Room' which occupied the north end of the hut where intercept traffic was prepared for the `Banburists', the mathematicians who began the process of analysis which reduced the number of code variables which had to be tested for. Also carried on in the Big Room was testing of results generated by bombes (the purpose-built electromagnetic machines which were used to break the daily Enigma keys), the decoding of traffic, and routine clerical work. The decrypts of the German Enigma traffic were sent to the Naval Section (Hut 4) and thence, as Z material, to the Admiralty.
In early 1943 the section moved to Block D. The hut was renamed Hut 18 and occupied by ISOS which dealt with Abwehr (German Secret Service) Enigma traffic, followed by Naval Section V Training School. It was converted to an intercept station for `Operation Overlord', the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Finally, in July 1945, the hut was taken over by those delegated to write the wartime history of Bletchley Park. In 1978 it became a GCHQ canteen.
Content
This is part of the Job: 2K/32376 Huts 8, 11 and 11A at Bletchley Park, Sherwood Drive, Bletchley; within the Volume: VF000197 Historic Building Survey, Planning, Advice and Listing; within the Series: HEC01/026 Historic Building Survey, Planning, Advice and Listing; within the Collection: HEC01 Historic England
Rights
© Historic England Archive
People & Organisations
Photographer: Davies, James O: Historic England
Keywords
Second World War Hut, Second World War
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