World War II Communications:
European Decoding of Nazi Messages
BLETCHLEY PARK
"Few realized the significance of the work going on at Bletchley Park" [Lycett]
When England discovered Enigma it was decided that the breaking of the code would take place at Bletchley Park. The British were extremely protective about keeping Bletchley Park secret leading to the installation of the following rules:
" 1. The existence of Bletchley Park was to be totally secret and no Bletchley Park employee was allowed to be in circumstances that could possibly lead to capture by the Germans.
2. The unauthorized use of the code word ULTRA was strictly forbidden.
3. The list of the recipients for Enigma information was strictly limited to a grand total of nine:
a. The Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Air Force, and Navy.
b. The Chiefs of Intelligence of the Army, Air Force, and Navy.
c. The Chief of Fighter Command
d. The Chief of the Home Guard
e. The Prime Minister
4. The dissemination of information was to be handled only by the Special Liaison Units (SLU) attached to Bletchley Park and respective recipients or by secure links. The recipient would be given the information by an SLU officer and at that time all the recorded information would be destroyed to prevent any dissemination to any person not on the list.
5. The dissemination of the information was to be controlled by the intelligence section which would have the authority to translate messages, sort them into categories, make comments and assign priorities. " [Dabrowa]
Bletchley Park became increasingly important through World War II. "The Bletchley Park operation started at the beginning of the war with 200, reached 1,550 by the end of 1942 and peaked at over 6,000 by the end of the war." [Dabrowa] All of the German communications intercepted were transferred to Bletchley Park to be decrypted. Not all of the information given to Winston Churchill, from Bletchley Park, was utilized in order to keep the Germans from figuring out that their code had been broken.