Alan Turing, the Bletchley Park codebreaker who played a pivotal role in the Allied victory over Nazi Germany, would have turned 100 on 23 June. To mark the occasion, the BBC has explored his many achievements, particularly his impact on the outcome of World War II.
Turing and his fellow codebreakers decrypted thousands of German messages daily, from top-level orders signed by Hitler to weather reports and supply inventories. Their work delivered fresh intelligence to Allied hands, sometimes within minutes. On one occasion, an intercepted Enigma message was read at the British Admiralty less than 15 minutes after the Germans transmitted it.
At Bletchley Park, Turing pitted machine against machine. His prototype anti-Enigma 'bombe', named Victory, was installed in spring 1940. By 1943, Turing's bombes were cracking 84,000 Enigma messages each month—two every minute. He personally broke the form used by U-boats preying on North Atlantic convoys, helping to dodge the submarines that threatened to starve Britain.
Turing also cracked the more sophisticated Tunny cipher machine, used by Hitler and his generals. His method, known as Turingery, provided the first systematic way to break Tunny messages, giving detailed knowledge of German strategy. This breakthrough later contributed to Tommy Flowers' Colossus, the first large-scale electronic computer.
Some historians estimate that Bletchley Park's codebreaking, especially Turing's work on U-boat Enigma, shortened the war by two to four years. Turing stands alongside Churchill and Eisenhower as a leading figure in the Allied victory, with many arguing he deserves a statue in London among Britain's war heroes.
