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Last Bletchley Park codebreaker Jerry Roberts dies, aged 93 | Last Bletchley Park codebreaker Jerry Roberts dies, aged 93 |
(35 minutes later) | |
Raymond "Jerry" Roberts - the last of a top World War Two codebreaking team at Bletchley Park - has died, aged 93, following a short illness. | Raymond "Jerry" Roberts - the last of a top World War Two codebreaking team at Bletchley Park - has died, aged 93, following a short illness. |
Captain Roberts, from Liphook in Hampshire, was part of a group that cracked the German High Command's Tunny code at the British listening post. | Captain Roberts, from Liphook in Hampshire, was part of a group that cracked the German High Command's Tunny code at the British listening post. |
Their decrypts made it possible to read Hitler's own messages during the war. | Their decrypts made it possible to read Hitler's own messages during the war. |
The team is credited with helping to shorten the war by at least two years. | |
Hitler's top generals | Hitler's top generals |
Capt Roberts joined Bletchley Park, in Buckinghamshire, as a German linguist and was among four founder members of the Testery section - named after its head Ralph Tester. | |
Their target was to crack a system known as Tunny, which carried the messages of Hitler's top generals and even the Fuhrer himself. | |
The system used four times as many encryption wheels as the famous Enigma machine - which carried military communications. | The system used four times as many encryption wheels as the famous Enigma machine - which carried military communications. |
Reminiscing years after WW2- when he could finally talk about his work - Capt Roberts said he had taken delight in reading Hitler's messages, sometimes even before the intended recipient. | |
He described the intelligence the team had gathered as "gold dust" in a 2013 BBC interview. | |
It was "top level stuff" referring to the movement of entire armies, he said. | It was "top level stuff" referring to the movement of entire armies, he said. |
This stream of intelligence proved vital in the Allied D-Day invasion and helped save many lives. | This stream of intelligence proved vital in the Allied D-Day invasion and helped save many lives. |
'Exciting time' | 'Exciting time' |
"We were breaking 90% of the German traffic through '41 to '45", Capt Roberts recalled in one interview. | "We were breaking 90% of the German traffic through '41 to '45", Capt Roberts recalled in one interview. |
"We worked for three years on Tunny material and were breaking - at a conservative estimate - just under 64,000 top-line messages." | |
He added it had been "an exciting time" whenever the team "started getting a break on a message and seeing it through". | |
Capt Roberts later received an MBE and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served in secret. | Capt Roberts later received an MBE and became a tireless ambassador for the memory of those who had served in secret. |
He spent years campaigning for greater acknowledgement of his colleagues, including Alan Turing, who broke the naval Enigma code. | |
'Unique time' | 'Unique time' |
And he argued the Testery group as a whole should he honoured for its work - including Bill Tutte, who broke the Tunny system, and Tommy Flowers, who designed and built the Colossus - which sped up some stages of the breaking of Tunny traffic. | |
Capt Roberts said the work done at Blechley Park had been "unique" and was unlikely to happen again. | Capt Roberts said the work done at Blechley Park had been "unique" and was unlikely to happen again. |
He said: "It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing, and that was thanks to Alan Turing, who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941." | He said: "It was a war where we knew comprehensively what the other side were doing, and that was thanks to Alan Turing, who basically saved the country by breaking Enigma in 1941." |
Capt Roberts worked at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, until the end of the war before spending two years at the War Crimes Investigation Unit, and then moving on to a 50-year career in marketing and research. | Capt Roberts worked at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, until the end of the war before spending two years at the War Crimes Investigation Unit, and then moving on to a 50-year career in marketing and research. |