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Does reading about the female codebreakers make you want to learn more about what they did? Does it change your perspective on WWII and the role that Bletchley Park played?
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Yes. I do want to learn more about what the women did. For instance, I’d like to know more about the translation work. Osla translates German but it would be interesting to learn what other spy work was translated, for example Russian, French, Italian, and the women involved in that work – like what their backgrounds were. Also, it would be interesting to find out more about the development of the computers and machinery that helped crack the codes. I knew before the book that Bletchley played a role in cracking the Enigma, which was a big concern for the Allies,. but I’m sure they worked on other cipher devices. It would be interesting to learn if Bletchley’s women coordinated with any of the underground networks and spies in the field too. As an aside, at the end of the book Beth goes to work for GCHQ and that really piqued my interest in the women codebreakers that went to work for the spy agency after the war was over.
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It does, to the extent that I didn’t know women were so heavily involved. I did know that Alan Turing and other codebreakers at BP are thought to have helped shorten the war by several years because I watched the film The Imitation Game. But that film didn’t have a lot about the women’s roles. I just learned from the Book Club Friends email that 75% of the people working at Bletchley were women and that by 1945 there were 10,000 people working there. That surprised me. I wasn’t aware that so many people were involved in Bletchley Park, let alone service women and civilians! I also didn’t realize they had to keep their work secret for so, so long.
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