The Debs of Bletchley Park and Other Stories Read Free Page A

wasn’t just Phoebe who was promised they weren’t going to be at Bletchley for very long. Barbara was told not to bring any more clothing than she would need for a two-week
stay.
    ‘It was pretty well organised. I was in the Bridge Hotel, Bedford. None of us quite knew what would happen next. War had not been declared and most people thought and hoped that nothing
would happen and we would all go back to London.’
    The Naval Section moved into the library and the loggia, a conservatory on the left-hand side of the mansion as you looked at it from the front. Phoebe’s German section was in a corner of
the library with two tables, a steel locker and a telephone with a direct line to the Admiralty. There were just two chairs, one each for her and Commander Crawford, but with the work piling up she
soon had reinforcements.
    ‘On 28 August 1939 we were joined by Misses Doreen Henderson and Cherrie Whitby and I need hardly say how welcome they were, for up to this time, we had only beenhelped by casual labour, some of it of the most doubtful kind, so that when they came we breathed a sigh of relief. Miss Whitby was as dark as Doreen was fair and they formed absolute
contrasts to each other in appearance. Doreen came to help me with the registering and we became submerged under the spate of German intercepted signals which came pouring in, whilst Cherrie Whitby
worked with Mrs Edwards, who was one of the temporary helpers. Both Doreen and Cherrie were excellent workers and were of great value to the section. We were very lucky in having such
help.’
    Admiral Sinclair paid for a good chef from one of the top London hotels to cook for them in the mansion and ensure they were properly fed. Despite concerns over her mother, Phoebe loved the
‘wonderful lunches’ the chef provided. ‘Bowls of fruit, sherry trifles, jellies and cream were on the tables and we had chicken, hams and wonderful beef steak puddings. We
certainly couldn’t grumble about our food.’
    Most of the codebreakers were from upper-class or upper middle-class backgrounds and were used to the fine dining and relaxed well-to-do atmosphere of the country estate. But for young women
like Barbara, who by the standards of the day came from a relatively well-off family, it was a completely new experience, something she’d only read about in Agatha Christie novels.
    ‘It was beautiful: lovely rose gardens, amaze, a lake, lovely old building, wonderful food.’ For those brief two weeks in August 1939, Bletchley Park really did have the relaxed air
of a weekend party at an English country mansion.
    Then on Friday 1 September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland on the pretext of retaking German territory lost in the Great War and the Second World War began. Britain was not yet
at war with Germany. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain mobilised British troops and gave Hitler an ultimatum. Withdraw from Poland or Britain would declare war. Hitler had until eleven
o’clock on the morning of Sunday 3 September to respond. At a quarter past eleven that Sunday morning, the codebreakers clustered around the wireless set in the mansion dining room to listen
to what Mr Chamberlain had to say. He informed the nation that he was talking to them from the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street.
    ‘This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11am that they were prepared at once to withdraw their
troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.’
    The Prime Minister told the nation that he had fought for peace but Hitler wasn’t interested in peace, only in the use of force, and as a result force was the only way to stop him. The
situation in which no people or country could feel themselves safe in the face of German aggression had become