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Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

bbc.com

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Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#31

Post by AlecSchueler »

xnorswap wrote: post #29
tialaramex wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, and not obvious, because these two entities are distinct despite occupying the same site: they're not always open at the same time. So if you want to see both, even if you plan to spend more time at one than the other, check they're both open. Whether something is the first computer is - inevitably - a definitional argument, but TNMOC has several candidates (though not all of them) including (a modern reproduct…

We have a few such odd arrangements, such as the "London Bus Museum", which isn't in London but is in fact entirely within a completely different museum, the Brooklands museum. Operationally independent, although they have been considerate enough to synchronise their opening hours. If you're interested in London Buses however, I'd actually recommend the (also unrelated) London Transport Museum, as this one is located…

Is Brooklands the place where the corner at the Silverstone racing circuit is named after? It's also known for its aviation history of course.

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#33

Post by MrMcCall »

I really like the four-part documentary series called "Staion X" which was all about Bletchly Park. It has numerous interviews with the folks that worked there -- they were a bunch of excellent oddballs, for sure.

It's a really fascinating perspective on WWII and how crap Monty was at being a general; he was reading the Germans' messages and still couldn't defeat Rommel. Only when the Med fleet intercepted and sank all his resupply ships did Rommel's crew finally lose.

The Germans' overconfidence in the Enigma machine was a big part of their downfall, especially once America's resources came to bear. Of course, that's what they deserved for having a leader speedballing meth and morphine.

All that said, the interesting historical twist is that no WWII history before the 1970s is accurate because all the Bletchly work was completely classified until one of their officers wrote a book about it. They cover that in the documentaries, too. There were men and women who had never told their families about what they did during the war, until the news finally broke. One mentioned how her daughter wondered why her mom knew that 'M' was the 13th letter.

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#34

Post by tialaramex »

xnorswap wrote: post #29
tialaramex wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, and not obvious, because these two entities are distinct despite occupying the same site: they're not always open at the same time. So if you want to see both, even if you plan to spend more time at one than the other, check they're both open. Whether something is the first computer is - inevitably - a definitional argument, but TNMOC has several candidates (though not all of them) including (a modern reproduct…

We have a few such odd arrangements, such as the "London Bus Museum", which isn't in London but is in fact entirely within a completely different museum, the Brooklands museum. Operationally independent, although they have been considerate enough to synchronise their opening hours. If you're interested in London Buses however, I'd actually recommend the (also unrelated) London Transport Museum, as this one is located…

Although the London Transport Museum is fun (some years back I decided to spend a week in my own capital city as a tourist, staying in a hotel in the centre, all day looking at stuff with tourists - and LTM is one of the things I decided to do) like most museums it does have a lot of stuff it can't display - but unlike most museums those things are sometimes huge like a bunch of buses, so they're not in a back room they're an entire other site, in Acton IIRC, the Depot, which is in fact open this weekend: https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/depot-open-days

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#35

Post by andrepd »

icosian wrote: post #23

Only about a dozen years ago Bletchley was inviting former codebreakers back for an annual reunion. I used to go along to hear the talks, meet some of them and get books signed, including by Betty Webb. I'm glad they eventually got the recognition they deserved. We have almost lost the chance now to hear personal testimony of WWII. I've met several Battle of Britain pilots too, but the last died in Dublin recently: h…

It's insane how the largest conflict in human history is just now passing out of living memory. It's also insane how 1 in 4 Americans under 40 believe the holocaust is a fabrication or exaggeration.

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#36

Post by sys32768 »

icosian wrote: post #23

Only about a dozen years ago Bletchley was inviting former codebreakers back for an annual reunion. I used to go along to hear the talks, meet some of them and get books signed, including by Betty Webb. I'm glad they eventually got the recognition they deserved. We have almost lost the chance now to hear personal testimony of WWII. I've met several Battle of Britain pilots too, but the last died in Dublin recently: h…

Two years ago my mother's memory care home had an American Battle of the Bulge veteran and Bronze Star winner who was sharp as a tack.

He was 99 and said he just wanted to live to be 100, but sadly he didn't make it.

I remember my late grandmother telling us they had made mittens for my great uncle, but he died in that battle before the mittens arrived.

Crazy to think I passed up my chance to have a cup of coffee with a man who might have fought beside my great uncle.

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#37

Post by 369548684892826 »

AlecSchueler wrote: post #31
xnorswap wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a few such odd arrangements, such as the "London Bus Museum", which isn't in London but is in fact entirely within a completely different museum, the Brooklands museum. Operationally independent, although they have been considerate enough to synchronise their opening hours. If you're interested in London Buses however, I'd actually recommend the (also unrelated) London Transport Museum, as this one is located…

Is Brooklands the place where the corner at the Silverstone racing circuit is named after? It's also known for its aviation history of course.

Yes, there was a race track at Brooklands. Some sections of it are still there including some steep banked track.

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#38

Post by 0xEF »

lenerdenator wrote: post #8

It hurts to see the generation that won WWII pass, not the least bit because we seem to have forgotten the lessons from their struggle.

Indeed, it is very easy to forget the struggle when one has sacrificed nothing to achieve it.

At least WWII, unlike those preceding it, has a vast well of literature to draw those lessons from. The trouble, however, is not just getting younger people to sit, read and analyze it, but also to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, with all the propaganda and misinformation to be had these days about the events of WWII, the Holocaust, Hiroshima/Nagasaki and so many other things that would make this list exceptionally long.

Books, are not the same as having lived it, of course. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn put it best in The Gulag Archipelago.

“If it were possible for any nation to fathom another people's bitter experience through a book, how much easier its future fate would become and how many calamities and mistakes it could avoid. But it is very difficult. There always is this fallacious belief: 'It would not be the same here; here such things are impossible.'

Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.”

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#39

Post by zeke »

icosian wrote: post #23

Only about a dozen years ago Bletchley was inviting former codebreakers back for an annual reunion. I used to go along to hear the talks, meet some of them and get books signed, including by Betty Webb. I'm glad they eventually got the recognition they deserved. We have almost lost the chance now to hear personal testimony of WWII. I've met several Battle of Britain pilots too, but the last died in Dublin recently: h…

In 2001 in the small town of Hartsville SC, one of the youngest code breakers gave his last two public talks. He had been hired by Turing because he was one of the few studying both math and German at the start of the war.

Besides being very interesting it felt odd to hear all this in such an out of the way place. Well after the war he collaborated on some books with a professor teaching at the college there.

Re: Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

#40

Post by dylan604 »

andrepd wrote: post #35
icosian wrote: post #23

Only about a dozen years ago Bletchley was inviting former codebreakers back for an annual reunion. I used to go along to hear the talks, meet some of them and get books signed, including by Betty Webb. I'm glad they eventually got the recognition they deserved. We have almost lost the chance now to hear personal testimony of WWII. I've met several Battle of Britain pilots too, but the last died in Dublin recently: h…

It's insane how the largest conflict in human history is just now passing out of living memory. It's also insane how 1 in 4 Americans under 40 believe the holocaust is a fabrication or exaggeration.

the power of disinformation on social media platforms is apparently stronger than classroom teaching. it doesn't help that what is taught in classrooms is just getting worse for $reasons which is only going to get worse now that states are going to do whatever they want with schools now.
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