Photo credit: “Share” by AJ Cann via Flickr CC
A key factor to Bletchley Park’s success was the collaborative efforts that were used in order to crack Enigma time and time again. After reading Singh’s chapter in The Code Book that discussed Bletchley Park, one might get the idea that Alan Turing was the key to the Allied success. Alan Turing was, no doubt, a key player in the cryptanalysis that led to the Allied success. However, there were thousands of other men and women that aided in the breaking of Enigma and deciphering German messages.
One image that stands out to me that Singh wrote of were the huts in Bletchley Park. Singh illustrates these huts as hubs of collaboration between some of the brightest minds in their given field. If a cryptanalyst was working on a cipher or encrypted message and was stumped, he would pass it to another cryptanalyst. A single message could make its way around the hut numerous times, with each cryptanalyst getting one step closer to the solution until it was solved.
Within each hut there was a clear sense of teamwork, but from hut to hut there was a similar sense as well. Each hut had a specific purpose, so once one hut had done its job with a message, it would be handed over to the next hut for the next step. This ensured that each member of Bletchley Park was doing what he or she thrived at, leading to maximized efficiency as well as an overwhelming necessity and use of communication and teamwork.
