Alan Turing the Imitation game

LCPete

LCPete

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Has anyone seen this its an amazing film, completely changed the way I think about world was 2
Apparently they could decode all of the Nazi communications but could only act on a percentage of the information because they couldn't risk the Nazis knowing that they could decode the messages
must have been hard deciding which ones to act on
 
LCPete said:
Has anyone seen this its an amazing film, completely changed the way I think about world was 2
Apparently they could decode all of the Nazi communications but could only act on a percentage of the information because they couldn't risk the Nazis knowing that they could decode the messages
must have been hard deciding which ones to act on
Click to expand...

Kind of oversimplified summary, Pete. :)
The story of Bletchley Park has been the subject of numerous books over many years (fascinating if you are interested in such things). Little new has been revealed about it in recent years (and some things still remain secret). All German communications could not be decoded. Many could, but gaps occurred when the enemy changed their codes or configuration of Enigma machines. That brought periods when some codes (esp. German Navy codes) could not be broken and very heavy losses occurred during such times.
It is part and parcel of all such work that a balance has to be struck between what decoded information is acted upon and what is not. It is also the case that much radio traffic was decoded, but too late to be used. Sometimes the opposite was true and daily information was gleaned in time for it to be immensely important (e.g. the battle against Rommel in North Africa).

The USA successfully broke Japanese naval codes from 1942 onwards.

It is all still going on. More high tech now, but the search for finding out the other guy's intentions and capabilities never stops.
 
arclight said:
Kind of oversimplified summary, Pete. :)
The story of Bletchley Park has been the subject of numerous books over many years (fascinating if you are interested in such things). Little new has been revealed about it in recent years (and some things still remain secret). All German communications could not be decoded. Many could, but gaps occurred when the enemy changed their codes or configuration of Enigma machines. That brought periods when some codes (esp. German Navy codes) could not be broken and very heavy losses occurred during such times.
It is part and parcel of all such work that a balance has to be struck between what decoded information is acted upon and what is not. It is also the case that much radio traffic was decoded, but too late to be used. Sometimes the opposite was true and daily information was gleaned in time for it to be immensely important (e.g. the battle against Rommel in North Africa).

The USA successfully broke Japanese naval codes from 1942 onwards.

It is all still going on. More high tech now, but the search for finding out the other guy's intentions and capabilities never stops.
Click to expand...

Thanks Doug what you're saying makes complete sense I always believed that the code breakers could only decode some of the German messages
the film gave the impression that they were decoding all of them and were almost playing god deciding who lived and who died
 
LCPete said:
Thanks Doug what you're saying makes complete sense I always believed that the code breakers could only decode some of the German messages
the film gave the impression that they were decoding all of them and were almost playing god deciding who lived and who died
Click to expand...

Yip, the truth is never dramatic enough, but in all fairness compromises have to be made when a story is compressed into a couple of hours without losing audience interest. However, the film will have made many people aware of the work of the codebreakers. BTW, they were (and probably still are) a fascinating bunch of people. Clearly their thought processes were a bit out of the ordinary.
 
arclight said:
Yip, the truth is never dramatic enough, but in all fairness compromises have to be made when a story is compressed into a couple of hours without losing audience interest. However, the film will have made many people aware of the work of the codebreakers. BTW, they were (and probably still are) a fascinating bunch of people. Clearly their thought processes were a bit out of the ordinary.
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Yes it was an excellent film and as you say raised awareness of what they did
the codebreakers undoubtedly saved a lot of lives and shortened the war
14 million lives and shortened the war by two years according to the end credits
 
I only live a stones throw from Bletchley park, and in all the years I've lived here,
a couple of years ago, was the first visit I'd ever made.
Its a fascinating place.

There was a bomb dropped in the grounds, but the general consensus seems to be it was "an accident"
It appears to have been the only one drooped in the area, had it exploded, well they may have been a different outcome to the story ;)

I've not seen the film yet though, but its on my to see list.
 
The film is definitely on my To See list. I also live very close to Bletchley Park and have only visited once which was over 10 years ago!

T&hat said, we were lucky enough to have someone from there give a talk to our photographic club a couple of years ago and he brought an Enigma machine with him so we got to have a close look at it. Fascinating piece of machinery.
 
Cobra said:
I only live a stones throw from Bletchley park, and in all the years I've lived here,
a couple of years ago, was the first visit I'd ever made.
Its a fascinating place.

There was a bomb dropped in the grounds, but the general consensus seems to be it was "an accident"
It appears to have been the only one drooped in the area, had it exploded, well they may have been a different outcome to the story ;)

I've not seen the film yet though, but its on my to see list.
Click to expand...

I believe there is a lot of renovation work going on. Some of it had been allowed to fall into a disgraceful state.

A few of the Urbex folks have been in there:-
http://www.ukurbex.com/index.php?/topic/3718-block-g-bletchley-park-jan-2013/
 
Apparently they could decode all of the Nazi communications but could only act on a percentage of the information because they couldn't risk the Nazis knowing that they could decode the messages
must have been hard deciding which ones to act on
Click to expand...

Much the same thing has applied throughout history and not just in relation to warfare.

X finds out what Y is doing whatever through code breaking, spying, blackmail or turning trusted sources, same principle is used in Crime, Terrorism, industrial espionage as well as wars. Yes, you can kill off your source if you act on everything, but there's ways round that.
 
arclight said:
I believe there is a lot of renovation work going on. Some of it had been allowed to fall into a disgraceful state.

A few of the Urbex folks have been in there:-
Click to expand...
A lot of the old huts and buildings are now no more, a college and flats have been built on the land, for some years past.
As for the rest, as Ruth said the main area has been now revamped and its now in the hands of, well I'm not sure TBH,
but there was a hell of a stink recently, when all the volunteer guides were "sacked"
 
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