OBITUARY : Jane Fawcett, Bletchley decoder

Wednesday 25 May 2016

OBITUARY : Jane Fawcett, Bletchley decoder
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Jane Fawcett. who has died aged 95, played a key role at Bletchley Park=20
in the sinking in May 1941 of Bismarck, and went on after the war to=20
save St Pancras and its Gothic Midland Hotel from the modernisers of=20
British Rail.

As one of the very first debs recruited to work at Bletchley Park, Jane=20
Hughes, as she then was, was put to work in Hut 6, where the German Army=20
and Luftwaffe Enigma ciphers were broken and where her knowledge of=20
German would help in decoding the enemy=92s messages.

On May 25 1941, with the Royal Navy hunting down Bismarck in the North=20
Atlantic, she was one of several staff briefed on the latest situation=20
as they came on shift : =93We all knew that we=92d got the fleet out in t=
he=20
Atlantic trying to locate her because she was the Germans=92 most=20
important, latest battleship and had better guns and so on than anybody=20
else, and she=92d already sunk the Hood. So it was vitally important to=20
find where she was and try to get rid of her.=94

Just over an hour into her shift, she was typing out a Luftwaffe Enigma=20
message on the specially adapted British machines which were designed to=20
replicate the German Enigma device. As she typed out the message she=20
realised that it was from Luftwaffe headquarters in Berlin telling=20
somebody important that Bismarck was heading for the French port of=20
Brest......


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/05/25/jane-fawcett-bletchley-d=
ecoder-obituary/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2016/05/25/53787438__Ja=
ne-Fawcett-young-OBITS-xlarge_trans++hJpcTaDycYqZzDAOAUJ79c9dYnr0ptv4PRBB=
4Y-i9ow.jpg

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2016/05/25/53787291_Jan=
e-Fawcett-old-OBITS-large_trans++Um9QQSHK_tT3NpGr0Hsn0XH71QagL0DhNvdaeGCg=
yJw.jpg


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-30222236

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/11337465/The-Deb-of-Bletchley-Park-There=
-was-always-a-crisis-a-lot-of-stress-and-a-lot-of-excitement.html