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Mavis Batey, Bletchley Park code breaker in World War II, dies at 92
Washington Post ^ | November 19, 2013 | Emily Langer

Posted on 11/23/2013 7:29:30 AM PST by NYer

Mavis Batey was a British student of 19, midway through her university course in German Romanticism, when she was recruited for a top-secret assignment during World War II.

“This is going to be an interesting job, Mata Hari, seducing Prussian officers,” she recalled thinking years later. “But I don’t think either my legs or my German were good enough because they sent me to the Government Code and Cipher School.”

In May 1940, Mrs. Batey — then the unmarried Mavis Lever — joined the team of code breakers at Bletchley Park, the British cryptography headquarters. Trained in the enemy’s language and endowed with a facility for words, she became a key contributor to a wartime project that remained classified for decades.

But by the time of her death on Nov. 12 at 92, Mrs. Batey was regarded in England as a national heroine. Working with Alfred Dillwyn “Dilly” Knox and other celebrated code breakers, she learned to decipher what she called the “utter gibberish” of encrypted German communications.

Battling the Enigma

Like many of her colleagues, Mrs. Batey worked on a “need-to-know” basis and did not understand at the time the significance of her efforts. In recent years, with the release of British wartime records, it was revealed that her code-breaking helped the Allies cripple the Italian navy in 1941 and assisted the 1944 Normandy invasion.

Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime prime minister, was said to have called the Bletchley Park code breakers his “geese that laid the golden eggs but never cackled.” Fueled by what Mrs. Batey described as “ersatz coffee,” they toiled in secrecy to decipher the encoded messages spat out by the Axis powers’ Enigma machines.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: espionage; normandy; wwii
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1 posted on 11/23/2013 7:29:30 AM PST by NYer
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To: SunkenCiv; GreyFriar

The plugboard (Steckerbrett) was positioned at the front of the machine, below the keys. In the above photograph, two pairs of letters have been swapped (A↔J and S↔O). During World War II, ten leads were used, leaving only six letters 'unsteckered'.

Cryptanalysis of the Enigma

2 posted on 11/23/2013 7:30:55 AM PST by NYer ("The wise man is the one who can save his soul. - St. Nimatullah Al-Hardini)
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To: NYer

The entire story around Enigma is fascinating. I hope to visit Bletchley Park next year.


3 posted on 11/23/2013 7:49:01 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: NYer; All
Somewhat unrelated, but you all might enjoy "The Bletchley Circle a BBC series, set 10 years after the war,about 4 former codebreakers who solve a series of murders. It's superbly done, as only the Brits can do it..and best yet, they've just announced that they'll be doing a second season.
4 posted on 11/23/2013 8:06:17 AM PST by ken5050 (Benghazi investigation update: "The plot thickens, like Hillary Clinton's ankles.." (longfellow")
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To: NYer

Alan Turing was a genius. They’re currently filming a big budget biopic..


5 posted on 11/23/2013 8:08:19 AM PST by ken5050 (Benghazi investigation update: "The plot thickens, like Hillary Clinton's ankles.." (longfellow")
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To: ken5050

I’ll look for it, thanks!


6 posted on 11/23/2013 8:33:28 AM PST by null and void (I'm betting on an Obama Trifecta: A Nobel Peace Prize, an Impeachment, AND a War Crimes Trial...)
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To: ken5050

No doubt totally focused on his sexuality, not his genius.


7 posted on 11/23/2013 8:34:15 AM PST by null and void (I'm betting on an Obama Trifecta: A Nobel Peace Prize, an Impeachment, AND a War Crimes Trial...)
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To: ken5050; null and void

It’s on Netflix Streaming!

“Frank, I know what we’re going to do this afternoon!”


8 posted on 11/23/2013 8:35:54 AM PST by Tax-chick (It's like everyone has Attention Deficit Disorder, except for me.)
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To: Tax-chick

Let me know if you enjoy it..


9 posted on 11/23/2013 8:38:24 AM PST by ken5050 (Benghazi investigation update: "The plot thickens, like Hillary Clinton's ankles.." (longfellow")
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To: NYer


10 posted on 11/23/2013 8:42:01 AM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: ken5050

You bet!


11 posted on 11/23/2013 8:45:33 AM PST by Tax-chick (It's like everyone has Attention Deficit Disorder, except for me.)
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To: JoeProBono; All

Although the Brits did superb work at Bletchley, much of the early efforts at cracking Enigma were done by Polish cryptographers, in the months before the Nazi blitzkreig. Several of them escaped, and their work was turned over to the Brits at the embassy in Paris..The Poles have never been credited for their ground breaking work..


12 posted on 11/23/2013 8:49:12 AM PST by ken5050 (Benghazi investigation update: "The plot thickens, like Hillary Clinton's ankles.." (longfellow")
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To: ken5050
The Poles have never been credited for their ground breaking work..

Sure they have... or you would have never heard of it.
13 posted on 11/23/2013 8:53:52 AM PST by TalonDJ
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To: ken5050

There’s a LOT of things the Poles didn’t get credit for.


14 posted on 11/23/2013 8:54:44 AM PST by dfwgator (Fire Muschamp.)
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To: dfwgator
I like the new tagline....

BTW..did you see that Jerry Jones wants to be the Cowboys's GM for another 15 years..ain't no SB in that team's future..

15 posted on 11/23/2013 9:28:44 AM PST by ken5050 (Benghazi investigation update: "The plot thickens, like Hillary Clinton's ankles.." (longfellow")
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To: NYer; Interesting Times; zot; 2ndDivisionVet

Thanks for the Enigma code breaker post


16 posted on 11/23/2013 10:17:44 AM PST by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: NYer

thanks NYer.


17 posted on 11/23/2013 10:58:26 AM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: ken5050

Indeed. See “Enigma: How The Poles Broke The Nazi Code,” by Wladyslaw Kozaczuk and Jerzy Straszak, Hippocrene Books, 2004.

Of course one should also remember Alan Turing, and his pioneering cryptanalytical work at Bletchley Park. There, he improved on the Polish Bomba Kryptolgiczna, and made at least four additional significant advances in code breaking. Dr. Turing was rewarded for his innovative patriotic contributions with a criminal prosecution, and conviction for gross indecency, based on a homosexual relationship.


18 posted on 11/23/2013 11:00:50 AM PST by Unknowing (Now is the time for all smart little girls to come to the aid of their country.)
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To: NYer
...code breakers at Bletchley Park..

An amazing group - easy to get shivers thinking about their sacrifice.

19 posted on 11/23/2013 11:03:00 AM PST by GOPJ ("Knockout game' - newest reason NO OTHER RACIAL group wants to live near blacks.)
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To: ken5050

The first episode was very good. I was afraid there was going to be a sudden, unrealistic wrap-up, but there wasn’t. Of course, now I have to watch the next episode!


20 posted on 11/23/2013 12:12:16 PM PST by Tax-chick (It's like everyone has Attention Deficit Disorder, except for me.)
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