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(17,335 posts) Wed Apr 24, 2024, 12:33 AM Apr 24

Secret UK women's codecracking army gets belated recognition for WWII work

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/secret-uk-womens-codecracking-army-052759519.html

During World War II, dozens of women Cambridge University students worked around the clock in complete secrecy to crack Nazi codes, but only now are the unsung heroes getting recognition.

At least 77 women from the women-only Newnham College were drafted to Bletchley Park, the code-breaking centre north of London, during the conflict.

It was there that mathematician Alan Turing decoded messages encrypted by the Nazis' Enigma machine, in particular those sent by German U-boats submarines in the North Atlantic.

Historians widely acknowledge that Bletchley played a key role in bringing down Adolf Hitler.

But the story of the Cambridge women has only recently been revealed thanks to research started by Sally Waugh five years ago.

The 69-year-old former Newnham student and teacher said she wanted to highlight the role of women in this period, often ignored in history books.

"Nobody was ever able to say thank you," she told AFP.

"I had no idea that people from Newnham went to work at Bletchley Park".

Then one day, she came across an article mentioning the name of an old friend, Jane Monroe, who died in 2005.

When Monroe, a mathematician from Newnham, was asked what she had done during the war, she replied unfazed: "Oh, I made tea," said Waugh.

"She was in reality a code breaker. She was a friend but she didn't tell me."

Monroe was unable to talk about her role as she had signed the Official Secrets Act, which restricts the publication of government information deemed sensitive.