Bletchley Park

[bugbear]

This was well into the late sixties BB when the story first began to break, and I think you missed what I said. The chap I knew was never at BP, the men at Dollis Hill must have had a fair idea what they were working on, sfter all, they can't have been complete idiots!

I didn't think anyone talked to anyone about Ultra until the mid 70's.

BugBear

 

[Digit]

IIRC the first 'official' comments were '72, which told part of the story of BP on BBC TV.
Even now we may not know the whole thing. For example, in the programme the other evening they stated that the machines were not broken up after WW2 but continued in use till '56, all previous accounts state that they were destroyed on the orders of Churchill.

Roy.

 

[Mark A]

Boss - My grandfather was a POW for almost 4 years. I know that he captured in Java, then was transported to Changi in Singapore and later transported on a hellship to Osaka #4 camp in Japan as slave labour for the Mitsubishi Copper Mining Company. We don't know much else as he really never spoke about his experience as a POW, which is testament to the horrors he witnessed and the treatment he received.

There is a fantastic book called "Surviving the Sword" by Brian MacArthur which I highly recommend if anyone is interested. It focusses heavily on the Thailand-Burma railway but is FAR more horrific than what was portrayed in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Mark

EDIT - just googled the above book and found a short video with the author http://www.meettheauthor.com/bookbites/610.html

 

[Digit]

I once got stuck with the task of dealing with a Japanese engineer.
It wasn't my job, but the company exec had served in Burma and catorgorically refused to meet him.
The MD said, 'Come off it Nobby, the war's been over for thirty years!'
Norman looked at him and stated very firmly, 'For you, yes, not for me!'
Men I met fought the germans and respected, even got to like them, the japs, no!

Roy.

 

[Mark A]

Exactly. My grandfather boycotted everything Japanese, so you can imagine how he felt when his son bought a Yamaha scooter in the 60's!

 

[Digit]

My Father in law was the same. He served through the Burma campaign and ended up in Rangoon, like your grand pa he spoke only when I had bought him a few, and with great bitterness.
One chap I knew I expressed surprise at his hatred, he told me he saw them as soldiers, till one day he and his unit took the surrender of some Japs in a bunker, they came out throwing grenades.
He simply stated, 'We took no prisoners after that!'

Roy.

 

[adidat]

my grandad was in burma with the RAF, its the same as you lot say when it comes to telling stories.

back to the original topic my father owned an enigma machine it was a nema, about 10 years ago a famous one was stolen. so he got his one out in his tea room and his staff started looking over it. he then told them that he had bought it off someone in a pub the night before for £50.

then to his pleasure watched as the staff frantically buffed their fingerprints off it. :lol: :lol:

adidat

 

[Digit]

Great! :lol:

Roy.

 

[RogerM]

There's another fascinating tale of such recounted by Neville Shute as to how the allies sank U-Boats with concrete warheads!

Roy.

I do know for sure that during the fifties, the Americans refused to accept the potential of the 'Limbo' anti-sub mortar. (The successor, to the Hedgehog and the Squid weapons.) They believed they could evade our detection systems and the 'gauntlet' was thrown.

Their submarine limped back to Portland with a concrete filled, anti-sub depth-bomb embedded in the casing! 8)

The photograph was in HMS Vernon for years. I often wonder what happened to it!

John

How I love stories about how we "put one over" on our transatlantic cousins.

In the early 1960s the yanks were in the habit of overflying the UK with U2 spy planes on their way to Russia. They were asked politely to at least ask our permission first as it was only good manners, but they just said that as there was nothing we could put up that could even approach the operating altitude of a U2 they would continue to over fly without prior announcement. The RAF had just taken delivery of Lightnings, so they stripped one down, emptying it of all armament, radar, and even removing the ejection seat and replacing it with a lightweight seat so there was was just the lightest possible airframe remaining. The engines were "tweaked" a bit, and after filling it with the minimum of fuel, put their lightest pilot in it and waited.

The next time a U2 was spotted on radar, the modified lightning was scrambled and made a dummy attack on the U2 from above, filming the entire sequence through a camera gun. One engine was then shut down, the other reduced to idle and it had just enough fuel to land. After that the yanks always requested permission, which we of course graciously gave.

 

[Digit]

Love that. But it was two way as well.
Some years ago a Lightning formed up on a Tupolev Bear and as the pilot looked across at the Russian crew one of them held up a copy of Playboy and grinned!
Another occasion a Bear was heard broadcasting to base, 'I'm being photgraphed! What should I do?'
'Smile!' was the reply!
During WW2 a wooden gun was constructed on the south coast to deter German vessels transitting the Channel. The Luftwaffe dropped a wooden bomb on it!

Roy.