Engineers & Cracking Codes
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Engineers working for the GPO, or who trained in it before joining the services, played a key role in developing, installing and maintaining communication systems vital to victory. These included military and civilian telephones, telegraphs and radio communications.
Their work in linking Anti-Aircraft Command to observation posts, batteries and searchlight posts, was crucial to the home defence system.
During the Battle of Britain GPO engineers maintained essential links between Fighter Command and its airfields, working around the clock to restore communication in the wake of enemy attacks.
Led by Tommy Flowers, engineers from the GPO helped to design and build the first electronic computer ‘Colossus’. Colossus was used primarily to decipher the Nazi Lorenz codes (these were high-level encryptions used by Nazi senior personnel, rather than the more famous, but lower-ranking, Engima codes). Colossus was built at the GPO research centre at Dollis Hill, and then transferred to the codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park.
