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Martin Postranecky | 28 Mar 2013 13:17
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OBITUARY : John Wright

28 March 2013

OBITUARY : John Wright
----------------------

John Wright, wartime cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park

Wartime cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park who decoded the German high 
command's vital "Tunny" messages

One of the dwindling band of veterans of Bletchley Park who worked on the 
German "Lorenz" cipher, John Wright was a toiler at the coalface of 
intelligence gathering, deciphering encrypted German signals traffic at 
their highest level of command.

In early 1942, before Wright was diverted from the Royal Armoured Corps 
where he was a radio operator, the Lorenz cipher system - codenamed Tunny 
by the British code-breakers - had been cracked. The system was used to 
encrypt messages between the German Army HQ in Berlin and field commanders 
of huge forces on all the key battle fronts....../snip/

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article3724558.ece

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00398/124786243_Wright1_398865c.jpg

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00398/124792806_Lorenz_398867c.jpg
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Martin Postranecky | 28 Mar 2013 12:28
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The CONET Project: spy station recordings reissued (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------

*The **CONET** Project : spy station recordings reissued*
=========================================================

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/HRj9-kl14Pw/story01.htm

In 1999, I wrote an article 

<http://boingboing.net/spyvspy.html> 

for the bOING bOING Digital site about the CONET Project, a multi-CD 
collection of mysterious "numbers stations" heard on shortwave. For 
decades, intelligence organizations have reportedly broadcast one-way 
messages to their agents in the field via shortwave, and the transmissions 
happen to sound weirder than any Stockhausen score or minimalist 
electronica you've ever heard -- a child's voice, or the obviously 
synthesized intonation on what's known as the "Lincolnshire Poacher" 
station, named for the folk song accompanying the numbers. Wilco's album 
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is named for, and samples, a numbers station. The 
CONET Project has been available for several years for free download from 
various places online, includingArchive.org

<http://archive.org/details/ird059>

Now, the original compilers, Irdial-Discs MMX, have re-released The Conet
Project in a special CD edition that includes the four original discs plus
a fifth CD containing recordings of very strange "noise stations."

<http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm>
(Continue reading)

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Martin Postranecky | 16 Feb 2013 16:57
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OBITUARY : Sarah Baring

Saturday 16 Feb 2013

OBITUARY : Sarah Baring
-----------------------

Sarah Baring, who has died aged 93, was a leading light on the London        
social scene before spending three years at the top-secret code breaking 
establishment Bletchley Park; on VE-Day she met the heir to a viscountcy
and was engaged to him within a week.

She was born Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton on January 20 1920, the only
daughter of the filmmaker the 6th Lord Grantley and his wife Jean ( née
Kinloch ). Brought up mainly in Scotland, Sarah was educated by a
succession of disagreeable European governesses, but when she was 17 her
parents dispatched her to Munich to broaden her horizons and learn German.

In later life she reflected on her impressions of the Nazis : "Hitler and
his entourage used to take tea in the Carlton Tea Rooms in Munich, and my
girlfriend and I would sit at a neighbouring table and pull faces at him.
They knew us by sight and knew we were English, so they just pretended we
weren't there. We weren't arrested, because at that stage the Germans
were still being frightfully nice to us. All over the city there was a
terrible feeling of fear - you could feel it, sense it, almost smell it.
But by the time I left, I could speak German fluently, which was to have a
profound effect on my future."..../snip/


....After a few months at Hawker Siddeley, both Sarah and Osla received 
letters summoning them to a Labour Exchange in London, where they were 
tested in their skills in the German language ( Osla had been at finishing
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Martin Postranecky | 23 Nov 2012 13:00
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Call for Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the D-Day pigeon cipher

23 Nov 2012

Wanted for one last mission : 

call for Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the D-Day pigeon cipher
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Historians from GCHQ are appealing for the veteran codebreakers of 
Bletchley Park to volunteer for one last act of service for their country: 
cracking the D-Day carrier pigeon cipher that has stumped Britain's finest 
minds. 

By Hannah Furness

The coded message had been carefully filed in a small red capsule and 
attached to a carrier pigeon to be delivered 70 years ago.

But instead of arriving safely at its destination, the unfortunate bird 
got stuck in a chimney en-route and lost.

The message was found by homeowner David Martin, who ripped out a 
fireplace to find the skeleton while renovating his house in Bletchingley, 
Surrey.

Historians believe the bird was almost certainly dispatched from 
Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944, during the D-Day invasions.

The mysterious message, which was written in unfamiliar code, was passed 
to Government Communications Headquarter ( GCHQ ) in Cheltenham, Glos, in 
the hope a contemporary professional codebreaker could decipher the
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Martin Postranecky | 15 Nov 2012 00:00
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A German Enigma coding machine has sold for more than £85,000

14 November 2012

Rare German World War Two Enigma machine which scrambled the code broken
by Bletchley Park experts is sold for £85,000A keen buyer from the US
secured the historic machine

- A keen buyer from the US secured the historic machine
- The Enigma was the most advanced machine of it's kind
- Using a system of rotors, it sent encoded messages via Morse code

By Thair Shaikh

A German Enigma coding machine has sold for more than £85,000.
The rare device went under the hammer today and estimates expected it to
sell for £40,000 to £60,000.

However, a lively bidding session at Bonhams in Knightsbridge saw it fetch
an impressive £85,250.

Auction officials said there was a lot of interest with a large number of
online and phone buyers joining those bidding in the auction room.
A keen buyer from the US made the final bid and secured the historic machine.

Built by Heimsoeth and Rinke in 1941, the oak-encased machine, which
encrypted German codes during the Second World War, is the three-rotor
version, used between 1938 and 1944.
Patented by HA Koch at the end of the First World War, the device was
intended for commercial purposes but by 1939 the majority of Enigma
machines had been appropriated for German military use..../snip/
(Continue reading)

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Martin Postranecky | 6 Nov 2012 19:08
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Left on the floor of a Fleet St pub, Britain's greatest Cold War secret

05 Nov 2012

Left on the floor of a Fleet St pub, Britain's greatest Cold War secret
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The leaking of one of Cold War Britain's greatest state secrets was foiled 
when a journalist's notebook was left lying on the floor of a London pub.

By Lucy Kinder

The notebook contained never before seen details of Britain's top secret 
code-breaking site Eastcote, which was later to become the Government 
Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ).

Eric Tullett, a Sunday Express journalist, had been passed the explosive 
information detailing Britain's operation to intercept and decode Soviet 
signals by Arthur Askew, the Foreign Officer's former head of physical 
security.

But his extraordinary scoop was lost when he left his notebook on floor of 
the Old Bell pub, on London's Fleet Street.

At the time the public were in the dark about the Cold War cipher work 
being carried out at Eastcote. Nor did they know about Bletchley Park, the 
wartime cryptography site which pioneered the art of using early computer 
technology to break encrypted messages.

The secret survived for another 23 years until the existence of GCHQ was 
finally revealed in the mid 1970s.
(Continue reading)

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Martin Postranecky | 21 Oct 2012 17:15
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Campaign for Recognition of Polish Enigma Codebreakers (fwd)

Saturday, 20 October 2012

Campaign for Recognition of Polish Enigma Codebreakers
------------------------------------------------------

Poland's parliament has launched a campaign to restore justice to the 
Polish men and women who first broke the Enigma codes, but who have tended 
to be overlooked with the limelight going to the Bletchley Park 
codebreakers.

Historians tend to agree that World War II was shortened in Europe by 
perhaps two years due to the Allies' ability to eavesdrop on German coded 
communications. However, thanks to media exposure - in the blockbuster 
movie Enigma, Alan Turing Year and even I-Programmer's coverage of Queen 
Elizabeth's visit to  Bletchley Park - credit for cracking the codes is 
often accorded only to the work of British cryptologists..../snip/


http://en.poland.gov.pl/Marian,Rejewski,Jerzy,Rozycki,and,Henryk,Zygalski,Enigma,or,the,Biggest,Secret,of,World,War,II,1978.html

http://www.i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/4958-campaign-for-recognition-of-polish-enigma-codebreakers.html

http://www.i-programmer.info/images/stories/News/2012/OCT/B/polishcodebreakers.jpg
http://www.i-programmer.info/images/stories/News/2012/OCT/B/bomba.jpg
http://www.i-programmer.info/images/stories/News/2012/OCT/B/polishenigma.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5nK_ft0Lf1s
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Bill Ridgeway | 21 Oct 2012 12:52
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Bletchley Park List

I am subscribed to this Bletchley Park List but need to make a change to my account.  Would the List Master (or
whoever runs the List) please email me how to do this please?

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway
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Bill Ridgeway | 21 Oct 2012 12:45
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Bletchley Park List

I am subscribed to this List but need to make a change to my Bletchley Park List account.  Would the List Master
(or whoever runs the List) please email me?

Thanks.

Bill Ridgeway
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Bill Ridgeway | 15 Oct 2012 21:07
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List

I need to make a change to my Bletchley Park List account.  How can I do this please?

Regards.

Bill Ridgeway
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Martin Postranecky | 15 Oct 2012 19:53
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Fearless World War Two woman spy who slipped into occupied Norway

15 October 2012

Fearless World War Two woman spy who slipped into occupied Norway aboard a 
submarine before becoming Bletchley Park codebreaker dies aged 91

- Received Bletchley Park Badge and The Freedom of Bletchley Park honour 
  for her 'vital work' in Second World War
- Kept code-breaking work secret - even from her family - until last 
  year
- Operations helped famous sabotage attack by 'Heroes of Telemark', 
  immortalised in 1965 film
- After mission was over Sigrid Green walked from Norway to Sweden
- Escaped back to Britain in empty bomb bay of Mosquito aircraft 

By Amy Oliver

Sigrid Green led an ordinary life in Darwen, Lancashire. She had been 
active in the local Conservative party and had volunteered at her local 
hospital.

Few knew the 91-year-old had spent the Second World War infiltrating 
German sea patrols before cracking codes at Bletchley Park - home of the 
Enigma decoder.

Miss Green, who died on Friday, was so determined to keep that 'difficult' 
part of her life private, even her parents and two brothers, one of whom 
was an RAF pilot, died without ever knowing the truth about her wartime 
experiences. 

But last year Miss Green decided to reveal her extraordinary story after
(Continue reading)

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Gmane