E105 - Plunder on the Rhine

March 2020  As 1945 began, the Germans’ last roll of the dice in the Ardennes has failed. They were left to face the overwhelming force of men and materiel of the Allied armies approaching the Fatherland from all directions.  For the Allies in the west, the natural barrier of the Rhine River was all that lay between them and the open plains of Germany, and the last phase of the war in the west.  Meanwhile the Government Code & Cypher School at Bletchley Park were producing more intelligence than ever before, but for how much longer? We’ll find out how it was at this point that the Germans challenged the Codebreakers like never before.  In this It Happened Here episode our Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham will take us through the action on the front line and reveal just how difficult it was becoming to keep supplying actionable Intelligence in the last year of the war. As usual special thanks go to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents. In memoriam, Eileen Younghusband BEM  (1921-2016) WAAF Section Officer Image: US Army Green Books