New job day! Very exciting, and not much walking or codebreaking! But I had a codebreaking session yesterday, with lots of help from Mum, and we cracked quite a lot. A walk late afternoon a few days ago to see the starling murmurations helped a lot with getting to the walking targets.
The Fundraising
Operation Bletchley is raising money for ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, the National Charity of the British Army and you can make a real difference. Established amongst the planning for D-Day in 1944, the charity was created to ensure that every soldier, veteran and family member in need receives the help they require.
You can contribute by sponsoring me: https://events.soldierscharity.org/fundraisers/RuthWillmore/operation-bletchley-balkans The codes will be available to purchase once the challenge has finished too.
Stories below are all courtesy of Operation Bletchley and ABF The Soldiers’ Charity, not my own work.
Berlin : 40 Miles
32 miles – Hiding in Plain Sight
The 903 FSS agents directed me to my next destination: the Friedrichstraße S-Bahn station. I was dropped off at the Tiergarten, only this time I was equipped with false residence papers, so I managed to pass through the Brandenburg Gate in the Soviet zone without any trouble.
I walked two miles to the rendezvous, where I was suddenly accosted by border police of the Hauptabteilung Grenzpolizei und Bereitschaften. I noticed that they all looked clean, healthy and well-fed. Just as planned, one of the policemen made an extravagant display of roughing me up and checking my papers before forcing me to pay a fine. He then handed me a receipt and sent me on my two mile journey back to the pick up point.
The receipt was a coded message about the border police. It confirmed that the Soviets have been trying to keep them loyal to stop a flood of refugees moving from East to West. It seems that Soviet efforts to damage the West are being disrupted by their own problems.
Back at HQ, I find a second coded message in myback pocket. The policeman must have dropped it in without me noticing.
| Day 21 | 21st January 2022 | 2.26 miles walked |
| Day 22 | 22nd January 2022 | 3.06 miles walked |
| Day 23 | 23rd January 2022 | 1.54 miles walked |
| Day 24 | 24th January 2022 | 2.07 miles walked |
42.04 miles walked 0 miles to go
| Code | Junior | Codebreaker | Cypher Expert |
| 1 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 2 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 3 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 4 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 5 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 6 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 7 | Solved | Solved | Received |
| 8 | Received | Solved | Solved |
| 9 | Solved | Solved | Puzzling…. |
| 10 | Will receive tomorrow | Will receive tomorrow | Will receive tomorrow |
The Balkans : 80 Miles
80 miles – The Home Straight
Blighty beckoned. It had been a cold, arduous journey through war-torn Yugoslavia. Now I had to race to deliver Fungus’s intel.
The airstrip is north of enemy-occupied Glamoč at Opačić. So I found a meandering route through the mountains to stay out of sight. The sun continued to shine across the region, turning the snow to slush. At one point, I leapt to the side to dodge a Ustashi patrol and ended up face down in an ice-cold pool of snow melt. So I moved faster than ever to keep my body warm.
Things didn’t get much better when I reached the airstrip. I was held at bayonet-point by a nervous partisan teenager. But the person in command quickly came to diffuse the situation. It was none other than the partisan leader, Tito. He outlined his offensive plans throughout the spring before giving me another coded message to solve on my journey home.
DELIVERING THE MESSAGE
I flew to the island of Vis on a Lysander before boarding a Halifax bomber to Marrakech via southern Italy. It was the warmest I’d felt in days! I was swiftly escorted to meet with the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, who was recovering in his bed after falling ill in Tunis. Churchill explained that he’ll be flying to Gibraltar shortly, before attending Prime Minister’s Question Time. So the intel I gathered in Yugoslavia will be essential to his plans.
Question is: have I managed to crack all the codes so I can deliver the final message to Winston Churchill?
Answer is: Junior and Codebreaker – Yes. Cypher Expert – Still working on it!
| Day 21 | 21st January 2022 | 3.78 miles walked |
| Day 22 | 22nd January 2022 | 4 miles walked |
83.25 miles walked 0 miles to go
| Code | Junior | Codebreaker | Cypher Expert |
| 1 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 2 | Solved | Solved | Mum got it! |
| 3 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 4 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 5 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 6 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 7 | Solved | Solved | Solved |
| 8 | Solved | I have the answer but don’t understand how! | Solved |
| 9 | Solved | Solved | Received |
| 10 | Solved | Solved | Received |
The walking is done, I hadn’t realised that over half of my steps come from “incidental” walking rather than my daily walk and Pokemon Go playing. Those Cypher Expert codes are really difficult this time. Two out of six messages delivered, and a week to go. Apparently there is a Super-Cypher at the end too!
What have I learned in August?
Pharos Intermediate Certificate I passed the final courses for the certificate, Military Records with a pass at 73% and Victorian Crime and Punishment with a distinction at 82%. I now actually have a qualification in genealogy and feel a little less of a fraud. Strathclyde’s Post Graduate Certificate in Genealogy, Heraldry and Palaeography I am […]
What have I learned in July?
Pharos Intermediate Certificate I passed the one of the two final courses for the certificate, Military Records with a pass at 73% and I’m now just wating for my marks for Victorian Crime and Punishment. Strathclyde’s Post Graduate Certificate in Genealogy, Heraldry and Palaeography I intend to spend some of the summer catching up on […]
Operation Bletchley: Day 31 Mission Accomplished
In the end I walked over 110 miles in January, including a couple of walks over three miles. I have seen starling murmurations, and wandered around both Criccieth and Porthmadog. I have caught plenty of Pokemon, and seen signs of spring. The Fundraising You can sponsor me until the end of February 2022. https://events.soldierscharity.org/fundraisers/RuthWillmore/operation-bletchley-balkans If […]
Rhos Helyg Family History Services 