Fireside Chat | The Codebreakers, Part 1: Bletchley Park and the Brits who Broke the Code

• Sunday, October 25 @ 5:00 pm
• Lewes Public Library, Lewes, DE

Join us in-person in the library or online for a presentation by Fireside Chat host Paul Sparrow and Science & Society's Fred Dylla.

Behind the ornate exterior of a beautiful country estate in Buckingham Shire, a top secret team of men and women broke the Nazi codes and helped win the war for the Allies. Working tirelessly for years, they built the world's first digital computer, decrypted Hitler's Enigma machine, and gave Winston Churchill vital intelligence on German military plans. The "dark art" of writing in code dates back to the ancient Egyptians and Romans. And the efforts to break those codes go back just as far. Codebreaking was a vital weapon used in the Napoleonic Wars, the American Civil War, World War I and II, and through the Cold War right up to today.

Bletchley Park was the epicenter of British Intelligence codebreaking, and 75% of the people doing the work were women. They worked in top secrecy, and many of them were never able to reveal their contributions to winning the war due to the Official Secrets Acts. Some of the most brilliant mathematicians and electrical engineers in the world were pitted against each other - working to create unbreakable codes, while at the same time trying to decipher their enemy's unbreakable codes.

Sparrow and Dylla will present a detailed exploration of Bletchley Park during the darkest days of World War II, the impossible task that the codebreakers faced, and how they were able to change the course of the war. Part 2 will be presented on Sunday, November 8, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET. 

NOTE: this session is available to attend in-person or through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER and indicate which you prefer.

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