Backing Bletchley

The Codebreaking Outstations, From Eastcote to GCHQ

By Ronald Koorm

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This new hardback book, Backing Bletchley, takes an entirely new view of the WWII codebreaking operations - the rarely told story of the outstations that supported and complemented Bletchley Park. Well known for his codebreaking lectures, author Ronald Koorm explores the Y-stations, Wavendon, Gayhurst Manor, Adstock, Drayton Parslow, Letchworth, Stanmore and Dollis Hill that, after the war, evolved into today's GCHQ .

Backing Bletchley explores the complex relationship between Bletchley Park and its support codebreaking outstations, the background to the Enigma encoding machine and how Eastcote became the largest codebreaking outstation during the war. He analyses the development of improvements on Alan Turing's Bombe machine, the contribution of the WRNS (Wrens) in operating the machines and some of the social history showing how those Wrens, from varying social backgrounds, displayed outstanding teamwork under immense pressure at the codebreaking sites.

Post-war, Eastcote became GCHQ prior to moving to Cheltenham, and there were multiple uses of the site, including Cold War counter-inelligence operations. The author explores the link between Alan Turing and others in terms of the quest for Artificial Intelligence, and how talented individuals during the war helped shape the future. Backing Bletchley includes previously unpublished diagrams, charts and illustrations of the story of the outstations, which shed further light on the extraordinary historic events that occurred at them.

Backing Bletchley sets out, in a clear and very readable fashion, the complex interrelationship between Bletchley Park, its outstations and supporting infrastructure. It is a treasure-trove of information and thoroughly recommend for those interested in WWII code breaking.

156x234mm, 288 pages ISBN: 9781 4456 9652 2