Bletchley Park's USA Day celebrates American culture (MILTON KEYNES, England)

Stars and Stripes ^ | August 21, 2004

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Bletchley Park's USA Day celebrates American culture


Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, August 19, 2004

MILTON KEYNES, England — Several events are planned to celebrate USA Day at Bletchley Park, the home of World War II codebreakers who cracked the complex German Enigma code.

The American Garden Trail at the park will be opened as part of the events that start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

In addition, baseball and American football — complete with cheerleading — will be played. And American food such as hotdogs and Cajun chicken will be available, along with buttermilk pancakes and popcorn.

The trail features several trees that are well-known to Americans. It starts at a giant sequoia tree, symbol of California, which was planted in front of the park mansion in Victorian times. The trail also features an orange tree from Florida and a lilac tree from New Hampshire.

American jitterbug dancers will perform, and American classic cars will be displayed.

The park was a vital part of the Allied victory during World War II. According to the park’s Web site, it was here that codebreakers, who were given no chance to break the code, used the world’s first computer to accomplish the impossible and shorten the war, historians believe, by two years.

Up to 10,000 people worked at the park during the war, but it was emptied by 1946.

More information is available at the Web site: www.bletchleypark.org.uk.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

MILTON KEYNES, England — Several events are planned to celebrate USA Day at Bletchley Park, the home of World War II codebreakers who cracked the complex German Enigma code...

 

~*~

 

 

 

Allied, ping!

[Alamo-Girl]

Bump!

[maestro]

.......American jitterbug dancers will perform ........

:-)

What a great 'gig'......

:-)

[Savage Beast]

Who was the Canadian Prime Minister who said:

"Canada has had access to American know-how, British political knowledge, and French culture. What it's wound up with is British know-how, French political knowledge, and American culture"
?

[Peter Libra]

Nice to hear about Bletchley Park. Good to see some people over there give- credit where credit is due. It could have been emptied in 1946, but only temporarily. Throughout the cold war there were various organizations there. Some were ordinary training groups such as the Post Office telephone systems trainees. As many as 300 young women. Other groups could be described as "classified".

There myself and six months training.(1951-1952) American equipment was used mainly. I still bear in mind the admonition- ten years durance vile, if you betray what you do. One clue though, the late Johnny Cash was interviewed by Larry King. Asked what he did in the American Army, Johnny said High Speed Morse Intercept Operator. Yep, that was it.

It was the ending of the cold war that made obsolete many of these establishments.

[blackie]

When I was a nipper I jitterbugged ~ the old joints would really howl if I tired it now. :):):)

Big Bump for some real fun!

[burlywood]

According to the park's Web site, it was here that codebreakers, who were given no chance to break the code, used the world's first computer to accomplish the impossible and shorten the war, historians believe, by two years.

According to the park's Web site?.. According to historical fact, despite what you may have seen in the movie U571 ;-)

http://www.nzgirl.co.nz/articles/827

[dfwgator]

at Bletchley Park, the home of World War II codebreakers who cracked the complex German Enigma code.

I didn't know Bletchley Park was in Poland.

[burlywood]

It is true that the Poles were first to be involved in deciphering the Enigma codes, but the ciphers they decrypted were from early machines not much different from the commercial versions on sale in the 1920's, which they had purchased. The machines used by the German navy and air force during WW11 were many magnitudes more difficult to crack. It was the work of the brilliant Alan Turing which ultimately proved successful and heralded the onset of the modern digital computer.