Oving to Milton Keynes

(Sorry for the late post, I did start this last night, but got caught up in conversation with others in the hostel)

Though I've had a long day, and have much to write about, I feel I must make a mention of my accommodation last night. Oving's old Schoolhouse was still being used as a school up to just 40 years ago, before being converted into a home, and more recently internally renovated. The building itself dates to 1839, which I believe makes it officially the oldest building I've slept in.

On my hosts suggestion I endeavoured to make it to Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, but with 22km to walk I wasn't sure I'd make it with enough time to enjoy the experience. In the end I got to the edge of Milton Keynes and then took an Uber to Bletchley. (This is not cheating my hike, as I then had further to go to get to my hostel).
Bletchley was well worth the visit, though I was almost too tired to take it in properly, especially on limited time.

Bletchley Park and Manor was purchased for the intelligence services shortly before WW2. It was an ideal site as it was situated near a train station with a line to London, and on the line from Oxford to Cambridge (where many of their recruits were from). It was also near the main north-western roadway, and a telephone line. Most importantly it had space and it was for sale.

Though Bletchley Park started with only 200 employees, by the end of the war they had nearly 10,000, most of whom kept the secret of what work they actually did there until many years after the war, some taking their stories to the grave.

With little reward and even less acknowledgement, they quietly changed the course of history.

The beautiful Manor house contrasts with the austere hallways of Hut 8 (below)

Alan Turing's office

Engineers make a physical reality of Turing's mathematics - the Bombe decryption machine blueprints

Messages to be decrypted came in blocks of 5 letters, in encrypted German (or other languages). Each network in the German forces had their own monthly-issued book of enigma machine settings. By the end of the war they were sending messages on 140 different networks, all of whom changed their settings daily. Factor in the inevitable errors as the morse code was overheard and it's a wonder they could decrypt anything at all.

One method of decryption called "cribbing" uses common phrases such as "wetter" (German for weather) sent out daily in a report, to start the process of elimination. Added to this is the fact that no letter will encrypt as itself. I still don't understand how they do it.

Cryptanalycist makes notes on what "cribs" they think may fit this message.