Bletchley Park30 Apr 2021

E123 - Oral History Special No. 6

April 2021 Patricia Johnston’s idyllic childhood in Rangoon came to an abrupt end on the 7th of December 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbour. In early 1942 with the Japanese invasion getting ever closer she was flown out with her siblings and arrived in India, without her parents. After settling her two brothers in boarding school Patricia’s war really began. She realised after completing her training that nursing wasn’t for her and transferred to the recently formed Women's Auxiliary Corps. Following a first posting in a Camouflage School and receiving a commission, her link to Bletchley Park began when she joined an SLU Unit as an Intelligence Officer. Based at military command posts around the world Special Liaison Units received Ultra reports via secure links run by Special Communication Units. They then passed this intelligence directly on to the commanders in the field to ensure the Ultra secret was protected. Oral History Volunteer Mike Chapman joins Pat to travel back 75 years to map out not only Pat’s wartime service but also that of her husband and fellow Bletchley Park Veteran, Bill Sanglier. We hear of her embarrassment of paying school fees with damp money, the Japanese pilot she said a prayer for, how an infamous Cold War Russian spy was taught to cook curry by Pat’s mother and how working in Military Intelligence could at times feel like living in cloud cuckoo land. Image, courtesy of Mrs Patricia Johnston. #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #OralHistory,

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(292)

E191 - Music at Bletchley Park

May 2026Against the backdrop of war and secrecy, the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park were often able to enjoy comfort in music. From choirs to orchestras, gramophone evenings to opera, music appears ag...

29 Maj 58min

E190 - Focus On: Josh Cooper

April 2026Thriving in the world of wartime codebreaking took more than just smarts and skill.Tact, diplomacy and organisational talent were needed to achieve results and navigate the fractious politic...

24 Apr 53min

E189 - Dilly and his Girls

March 2026The 28th of March 2026 will be the 85th anniversary of the naval Battle of Cape Matapan, fought by the Royal Navy against the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean. The battle was a significan...

27 Mars 59min

E188 - Focus On: Emily Anderson

February 2026Even amongst the distinguished ranks of WW2 codebreakers, Emily Anderson stood out. Recruited into military intelligence during WWI, her stellar career in diplomatic codebreaking lasted i...

27 Feb 1h 3min

E187 - Codebooks, Diplomats and Diamonds

January 2026Rome: the 1930s, and the Italian secret services were having extraordinary success in reading the messages sent by rival countries’ diplomats from their embassies in the ‘Eternal City’. Wi...

23 Jan 54min

E186 - Top Secret Misinformation - Part 5

December 2025 This is the fifth instalment of our annual episode where we celebrate the oncoming festivities of the snowy season - religious or secular - with a surfeit not of turkey and roasties but...

19 Dec 202552min

E185 - Reaping the Whirlwind

November 2025 During the second half of World War 2, the Allied air forces launched a large-scale heavy bomber offensive against German cities and war industries. This was designed to damage Germany'...

21 Nov 202559min

E184 - The SIS at BP

October 2025 Today GCHQ is an independent British intelligence organisation. However during World War 2, GC&CS, as it was then called, continued to be subordinate to the British Secret Intelligence S...

24 Okt 20251h