Sir, It is unfortunate that the article “Scientists send clear message: save Bletchley Park” (July 24) repeats the canard that Churchill ordered “all evidence” of its wartime code breaking programme to be destroyed “after the war”.

In fact, at least 16 bombes (electro-mechanical key-finding aids for solving Enigma) were used until late 1945 and GCHQ used two Colossus electronic computers (which solved messages on the even more complex Tunny teleprinter cipher machine) until about 1960. Literally millions of Bletchley’s codebreaking documents are accessible in the UK National Archives, Kew.

Some machines were indeed destroyed as no longer needed. Junior staff were told that this was on Churchill’s orders, to spur them on. Thomas Flowers, the inventor of Colossus, even described the alleged order as “a criminal act”.

But clearly no one would have bothered Churchill, who left office before the war ended, with a decision to destroy only some equipment. Moreover, to have ordered the destruction of all the bombes would have been folly. Similar US navy bombes were still being used in 1956 to solve East German police traffic in case it revealed intelligence about the CIA’s Berlin Tunnel.

Ralph Erskine
Comber, Co Down

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