Bletchley Park has just announced the opening of a new exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary of the capture of an Enigma machine and codebooks from the German U-boat 110.
The exhibition, which marks the first time all known photos of the capture have been displayed together, was created with the help of historian Hugh Sebag-Montefiore. It contains the first hand account of the 20 year old 2nd Lieutenant (still alive today) who climbed into the U-boat to seize the documents, as well as stories from some of the German U-boat survivors.
As well as being a dramatic event, the capture of the U-110 is noteworthy for its significance in breaking the naval Enigma code. Few people realise that Alan Turing and his Bletchley Park codebreakers were initially unable to break the naval Enigma code used by Germany’s U-boats and were crying out for the codebooks to be captured. On 7 May 1941, some codebooks were seized from a weather forecasting ship, but there were significant documents still missing, and these were captured from the U-110.
A special 70th anniversary edition of Sebag-Montefiore’s acclaimed book, Enigma: The Battle for the Code, has also been released, featuring new revelations based on hitherto secret files.
The exhibition is scheduled to open on Monday, 9 May. More details are available from Bletchley Park on 01908 640 404
