Ruth Bourne
Ruth Bourne was one of the Women of Bletchley Park, recruited to help win World War II against the Germans from 1939-45. [1]. The Woman of Bletchley Park were a secret team put together by the government, made to sign a Secrets Act confirming that they would not tell anyone about their work there. During her time at Bletchley, Ruth Bourne's job was not only to work on the German code, but to be a bombe operator. She was one of the Wrens responsible for dismantling the bombes wire by wire after the war had ended in 1945. [2]
Recruitment and role
Aged 17 at the time, Ruth was a trainee Wren when she was told that she would be joining the Women of Bletchley Park. She was offered to sign a contract that tied her into endless hours of work, no social life and no way to exit once she had agreed. Ruth was recruited to be a member of the HMS Pembroke 5 team as part of the SDX special duties[3]. Bletchley Park workers consisted of two different teams the 'y station', the women responsible for picking up the German code and the 'x station', those who were responsible for bombe operation, like Ruth herself.
The job
The majority of the women recruited had no previous experience of bombe operation and were going in to the job blindsighted. The workers were only shown a few machines for training purposes on recruitment of the job. They were told not to ask any questions[3]. The role itself included "preparing the machines each day, turning the drums on the front and plugging up the boards at the back according to settings laid out in a menu"[4]. While Ruth was a checker she would be in charge of waiting for information to come through as 'confirmed'. When this happened she would then have to make a call to report the stop on the code menu which would be checked by other members of Bletchley. [5].
Ruth's job meant that she was on her feet all day and there was little time for breaks.[4]. There was a term 'mustard' [3], that meant the workers at Bletchley park were told what they was going to do without any discussion or choice of their own. From the very first day of her work as a bombe operator to when her time at Bletchley ended, Ruth did what she was told on demand [5]. Despite the little amount of agency the workers had at Bletchley, Bourne says herself that it was very satisfying to know that we were helping to break German codes. [6] Her work as a bombe operator began in early 1944 and continued until the end of the war in 1945.
After the war
In 1945 when World War II ended, all of the workers of Bletchley Park were told that they must continue to keep their work there a secret. It wasn't until 1974, when the book The Ultra Secret was published, that she, along with other Bletchley Park workers, were able to tell their families [7] about their involvement in bringing down Hitler. Ruth describes what it was like when the news finally broke saying that "you got so used to not talking to anyone"[8] that even after they were allowed to disclose their roles she still wouldn't talk about her experience in depth.
References
- ^ Black, Sue (1 June 2016). "The Women of Bletchley Park". ITNOW. 58 (2): 10–11. doi:10.1093/itnow/bww033.
- ^ "Enigma replica 'homage to heroes'". 6 September 2006 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ a b c "Video: The Women of Station X - Society - Subject areas - Publishing and editorial - BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT". www.bcs.org.
- ^ a b "Hacking the Nazis: The secret story of the women who broke Hitler's codes".
- ^ a b USEmbassyLondon (7 May 2015). "VEDAY70 - An interview with former Turing Bombe Operator Ruth Bourne" – via YouTube.
- ^ Addley, Esther (6 September 2006). "Back in action at Bletchley Park, the black box that broke the Enigma code". the Guardian.
- ^ "Bletchley Park: they also served". BBC News.
- ^ Stanford, Peter (5 February 2014). "Can you keep a secret? The Bletchley codebreakers 70 years on" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.