It is a true honor to welcome our guest for episode 12, Ms. Betty Webb. Our mission at Walk Among Heroes, is to provide first-hand accounts from various aspects of the largest (and most important) war in the history of our world. This week, Ms. Webb tells us about one of the most secretive aspects of the war, the Government Code & Cypher School’s codebreaking operation at Bletchley Park.
Located approximately seventy miles outside of London in Milton Keynes, Bletchley Park was a classified, top secret campus that housed the groundbreaking intelligence operation, codenamed ‘Ultra.’ During the peak of World War II, nearly 10,000 personnel worked at Bletchley Park, with approximately three quarters being women. The codebreaking work at Bletchley Park remained classified until the mid-1970’s, and many historians believe that the work accomplished at Bletchley Park shortened the war by 2-4 years. Think about how many lives were saved by their incredible work!
At eighteen, Ms. Webb left college and volunteered for the ATS, Auxiliary Territorial Service, or women’s branch of the British Army. After basic training, she was given a travel warrant with orders to report to Bletchley Station. Between 1941 – 1945, Ms. Webb was stationed at the Government Code & Cypher School’s codebreaking operation at Bletchley Park. She worked initially for Major Ralph Tester in the main mansion before moving to Block F, which focused on paraphrasing deciphered Japanese messages. In 1945, she travelled to the United States to work at the Pentagon to assist in de-coding Japanese intelligence in the Pacific Theater.
Ms. Webb actually decoded/translated messages that first revealed the Nazi atrocities conducted at the concentration camps, before anyone in the world knew about them. Today, at age 97, she is one of the few surviving codebreakers of Bletchley Park, and she continues to tell their incredible story. She was featured this past year in National Geographic, and she has also written a book, ‘Secret Postings: Bletchley Park to the Pentagon,’ by Charlotte Webb, which is available at Amazon.com.
An amazing woman, we are incredibly honored to meet her. Thank you, Ms. Webb, for choosing to share your story with us.
Thank you, Shreyas Ganesh, for volunteering your time as sound engineer.
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