Chapter 423 Bletchley Park

Upon receiving the news that the German forces in Libya had begun their advance into Egypt, Churchill's first thought amidst his shock was that their intelligence had been leaked again.

The Germans must have learned of their discovery of the oil fields from Spain, fearing an attack on the oil fields, and thus they hurried to attack; otherwise, why would they not attack earlier or later, but precisely when he had issued the order to the British Middle East Command to destroy the Libyan oil fields?

"Where the hell is this bastard hiding?!" Churchill muttered through gritted teeth.

Following the clue of "Operation Catapult," the entire Naval Command was isolated for inspection, from the naval commander to the cleaning staff; it was as if only the cats and dogs of the Navy Department were left to be interrogated.

Such an inspection did indeed achieve some results, with the intelligence department identifying over forty suspects; however, the biggest reason these people were suspected was that their ancestors were of German descent.

Churchill couldn't help but laugh and cry when he received this report. Wasn't this nonsense? The largest German descent in Britain was the royal family itself. Could it be that the royal family should also be listed as suspects?

A senior intelligence officer, chastised by Churchill, said helplessly, "Prime Minister, we really can't find any other suspicious individuals."

"Not finding them simply means two things: one, these people are all innocent; two, the real culprit is hidden too well."

As Churchill cursed these damned spies, the German bomber squadron took off again; this time, the bombing formation was even larger.

Not only from across the Channel; a large number of bombers also took off from the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and even Iceland.

Dowding ordered the fighters to take off to defend London. As soon as a group of bombers approached, the British fighters would immediately pounce on them, and once the German bombers detected the approach of British fighters, they would veer off.

But then another group would slowly approach London, in a never-ending cycle. Therefore, Dowding could only have the fighters land at temporary airfields around London to refuel in turns, while the rest kept circling around London to ensure the safety of London's airspace.

Just as the day's bombing ended, Churchill received a call from Lord Adam, whose voice was filled with deep sorrow. "Prime Minister, Bletchley Park has been bombed by the Germans."

"What?!" Churchill nearly screamed.

Bletchley Park was a mansion located in the town of Bletchley, within Milton Keynes, England.

Just before the outbreak of World War II, the Polish Cipher Bureau disclosed to the British intelligence services the techniques for breaking the German Enigma cipher machine, and the British government launched operations to decipher Enigma signals based on this intelligence. The Government Code and Cypher School moved into Bletchley Park, where the school's naval, military, and air force sections occupied the entire ground floor of the mansion, while the top floor was occupied by MI6.

In addition, the mansion housed the telecommunications department, teletypewriter rooms, kitchens, and dining rooms for all staff to use.

In the early days, Bletchley Park's water tower was converted into a radio room, named "Station X." Although this name was later used as a nickname for Bletchley Park, in fact, due to the many long antennas protruding from the radio room, it was soon moved away from Bletchley Park to avoid arousing suspicion.

Bletchley Park's wartime work mainly involved analyzing data collected from enemy countries by national listening stations. Generally, the initial data collected by the listening stations were quickly delivered to Bletchley Park by intelligence officers on motorcycles, and later, the listening stations could directly transmit data via teletypewriters.

Bletchley Park's most well-known "achievement" in later times was its successful cracking of the German Enigma cipher machine's code system; but perhaps Bletchley Park's greatest accomplishment was its decryption of the German Fish high-level teletypewriter cipher.

The intelligence derived from Bletchley Park's decryption, codenamed "Ultra," significantly helped the Allies sink multiple U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic and laid the foundation for the Royal Navy's victories in the Battle of Matapan and the Battle of Cape North.

Moreover, after the United States entered the war, British Prime Minister Churchill agreed with President Roosevelt to share resources between the two countries. Against this backdrop, many American cryptanalysts came to Bletchley Park to work alongside British experts. At that time, British experts mainly focused on German codes, while American experts primarily worked on deciphering codes used by Japan.

The secrecy of the estate was well maintained, and throughout World War II, Bletchley Park was only directly bombed once. On November 20-21, 1940, the enemy dropped three bombs over the estate. However, the real target of those three bombs was actually the nearby Bletchley railway station. One of the bombs exploded near the entrance for messengers at the mansion, causing a slight shift in the adjacent Hut 4 (belonging to the school's naval intelligence section). However, since these huts were built on brick pillars, the engineers were able to move the hut back to its original position while the people inside continued to work.

At the peak of the decryption operation, there were about 9,000 people working at Bletchley Park, and during the war, as many as 10,000 worked there. Those recruited generally possessed unique talents, such as being chess champions, crossword puzzle experts, polyglots, or authorities in mathematics.

Among the most famous examples, Bletchley Park authorities once used the Daily Telegraph's crossword puzzle as an interview test, requiring candidates to complete the puzzle within 12 minutes. In addition, the newspaper was also asked to hold crossword competitions, then recruit the winners to participate in "a special job that would contribute to the war effort."

At the end of World War II, most of the equipment and blueprints inside Bletchley Park were destroyed. And although thousands had participated in the decryption work there, they all remained silent after the war, until the 1970s when Bletchley Park's wartime role as a decryption base was finally revealed to the outside world. After the war, Bletchley Park was occupied by various organizations, including British Telecom, the Civil Aviation Authority, and PACE (a civilian real estate property consultancy). Moreover, until 1987, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, the reorganized Government Code and Cypher School) still had a training facility at Bletchley Park.

"Was it a mistaken bombing? Were there any casualties?" Churchill's voice trembled slightly.

"It's clear that the Germans' target was Bletchley Park. The Germans dropped a large number of incendiary bombs, and the entire estate burned for hours, with no survivors."

Churchill slumped in his chair, his face ashen. After a long while, he screamed hysterically, "How did the Germans know?! It's a spy!! It must be a spy!!"