Hut 8 was a section in the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park (the British

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

codebreaking station, located in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

) tasked with solving German naval (

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

) Enigma messages. The section was led initially by

Alan Turing Alan Mathison Turing (; 23 June 1912 – 7 June 1954) was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. He was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer ...

. He was succeeded in November 1942 by his deputy, Hugh Alexander. Patrick Mahon succeeded Alexander in September 1944. Hut 8 was partnered with Hut 4, which handled the translation and intelligence analysis of the raw decrypts provided by Hut 8. Located initially in one of the original single-story wooden huts, the name "Hut 8" was retained when Huts 3, 6 & 8 moved to a new brick building, Block D, in February 1943. After 2005, the first Hut 8 was restored to its wartime condition, and it now houses the " Exhibition".

Operation

In 1940, a few breaks were made into the naval "Dolphin" code, but

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

messages were the first to be read in quantity. The German navy had much tighter procedures, and the capture of code books was needed (see ) before they could be broken. In February 1942, the German navy introduced "Triton", a version of Enigma with a fourth rotor for messages to and from Atlantic U-boats; these became unreadable for a period of ten months during a crucial period (see Enigma in 1942). Britain produced modified bombes, but it was the success of the US Navy bombe that was the main source of reading messages from this version of Enigma for the rest of the war. Messages were sent to and from across the Atlantic by enciphered teleprinter links.

Personnel

In addition to the cryptanalysts, around 130 women worked in Hut 8 and provided essential clerical support including punching holes into the Banbury sheets. Hut 8 relied on Wrens to run the bombes housed elsewhere at Bletchley.

Code breakers

* Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander * Michael Arbuthnot Ashcroft * Joan Clarke * Joseph Gillis * Harry Golombek * I. J. Good * Peter Hilton, January 1942 to late 1942 * Rosalind Hudson * Charlie Bierman * F Anthony Kendrick * Leslie Lambert (aka "A. J. Alan") * Patrick Mahon * Rolf Noskwith * Richard Pendered * John H. Plumb, moved from Hut 3; (later a historian) Briggs (2011) p.52 * Shaun Wylie * Leslie Yoxall devised ''Yoxallismus'' technique * Judith Irene Bloomfield

References

* * * Rolf Noskwith, ''Hut 8 from the Inside'' - pages 197-210 of ''Action this Day'', edited by Michael Smith & Ralph Erskine (2001, Bantam London) * (Updated and extended version of ''Action This Day: From Breaking of the Enigma Code to the Birth of the Modern Computer'' Bantam Press 2001) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hut 08 Cryptography organizations Bletchley Park Buildings and structures in Milton Keynes

Operation

Personnel

Code breakers

See also

References