E138 - SIXTA

Bletchley Park

May 2022

The way in which the secrets of Bletchley Park were finally revealed to the world, bit by bit and now over the course of nearly four decades have meant that many myths and misunderstandings have become embedded in the story. One of our goals with these podcasts is to tell the full story of the Codebreakers and along the way hopefully correct some of those errors.

So in this ‘It Happened Here’ episode we will take a deep dive into Traffic Analysis, a topic that we have mentioned in many episodes and for years has been thought of as just another step in the ‘path of breaking a message’. Our research officer, Dr Thomas Cheetham, will argue that in fact it was a fully-fledged source of intelligence in its own right. He will guide us through not only the history and processes of Traffic Analysis but also those of SIXTA, the section at Bletchley Park most famously known for producing it.

Very special thanks go to Dr Ben Thomson and Owen Moogan for voicing our archival documents.

This episode features recordings of SIXTA Veteran, Jimmy Thirsk, from both our Podcast and Oral History Archives.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2022

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