Priority booking for Rep Patrons, Gold & Silver Friends and Access Register:
Opens Tue 21 Jul at 12 noon

Priority booking for Rep Bronze Friends and 16 – 25:
Opens Thu 23 Jul at 12 noon

Public booking:
Opens Fri 24 Jul at 12 noon

In this entertaining and instructive show, Dr Mark Baldwin tells one of the Second World War’s most fascinating stories, that of the Allied Codebreakers who deciphered the Enigma machine.

The Germans had entrusted their secret communications to an ingenious ciphering machine – the Enigma – which was portable, easily operated, and could be set up in millions of ways. The codes were changed every 24 hours.

On cracking it’s code the Allies gained invaluable information about troop and aircraft dispositions, orders of battle, U-boat movements, technical development, military intentions and tank and artillery strengths. It is generally reckoned that the intelligence from Enigma shortened the war by about two years.

Dr Mark Baldwin has made a detailed study of the Enigma machine, the code-breaking work at Bletchley Park, and U-boats and has built up a unique collection of slides which illustrate the main features of those important facts of the Second World War.

The show is divided into two parts. It is followed by an opportunity for questions, then a hands-on demonstration of one of the very few surviving Enigma machines.