Enigma Station X - The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park

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History, War Documentary published by Channel 4 in 1998 - English narration

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It was almost 30 years after the end of the second world war before the wartime codebreakers of Bletchley Park were allowed to break their cover and recount what is now recognised as the greatest single British contribution to the Allied victory.
It was the obsessive and instinctive guardedness of this kind that allowed the almost miraculous preservation of Bletchley's secret source of information throughout the war.
They were helped by the unshakeable German conviction that the Enigma codes - several variants were used by each of the three armed services - were impossible to break.
Ultra's contribution did not begin until the spring of 1941, as the Enigma cipher was progressively decoded. The effect was powerful, if not always decisive, in the fluctuating north African campaign.
By the time of the battle of Alamein, Ultra's influence was less powerful than the decisive superiority - 5 to 1 - in tanks and airpower enjoyed by the Allies. The disappointment felt at Bletchley was that, given the constant stream of intelligence being supplied to Montgomery at the time, he was not able cut off Rommel's retreat before he reached Tunisia.
Its influence in the war against the U-boats - where the naval Enigma was broken from the second half of 1941 - helped provide the information about U-boat locations to re-route convoys to safety. It has been calculated that about 1.5m tons of shipping were saved and valuable time was bought to build new ships and develop more effective anti-submarine defences.