Bletchley Park was the top secret headquarters used for breaking German codes, providing the allies with vital information. Bletchley Park is 50 miles North-West of London, and played host to a large variety of code breakers. Among the ciphers that were broken were Enigma and Lorenz. 

Amazingly, the code breakers devised methods of reading enemy codes, often within a few hours of the messages being received. Technology was invented to automate the deciphering of messages. Colossus, the world’s first semi-programmable computer was invented at Bletchley Park to aid the decoding of Lorenz ciphers. Lorenz ciphers were used by the Germans to send their most highly-classified and important communications.

 

The German military used the Enigma cipher machine during WW2 to keep their communications secret. The machine was available commercially during the 1920s, but the military potential of the device was quickly realised and the German army, navy and air force all used a more technically enhanced model to encipher their messages believing that they would be secure.

 

With the help of Polish mathematicians who had managed to acquire a machine prior to the outbreak of WW2, British code breakers at Bletchley Park exploited weaknesses in the machine and cracked the Enigma code. Breaking the Enigma ciphers gave the Allies a key advantage, which, according to historians, shortened the war by two years thus saving many lives.