
Wartime Britain - Dogfights & Double Agents
Summary
The inside story of the code-breakers and the Battle of Britain
Much of the Second World War was fought on the Home Front, whether it was protecting the skies during the Battle of Britain or fighting the much more covert war of espionage and code-breaking.
This tour explores nerve centres of the Battle of Britain, at the headquarters of RAF Fighter Command, Bentley Priory and the Uxbridge Bunker from where Air Vice-Marshal Park controlled the fight to protect London and the South-East of England. But we start with the ultra-secret Government Code and Cypher School on our Bletchley Park tour to learn how German agents were turned to double-cross their paymasters in Berlin. These ‘doubles’ then sent radio messages to Berlin with only information that Britain’s Security Service, MI5, wanted the Germans to know. Nothing more. Their success was measured by Bletchley Park’s code breakers as the Germans crowed about their agents’ successes often to Hitler himself.
Bletchley Park not only confirmed that the false stories had swallowed whole by the Germans but by cracking the German top-secret codes allowed British intelligence to have advance warning of German strategic intentions. The work at Bletchley saved thousands of lives. Your expert Guide Lecturer will also recount the amazing story of double agents. Without these brave people and their imaginative controllers in MI5, the D-Day Landings would have been much harder and may not even have happened at all. For decades, the heroics of double agents and code-breakers were unknown and went unrecognised. Now we can tell their story.
Tour highlights:
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Tour dates & prices
Included in your cost:
- Expert Guide Lecturer
- Professional Tour Manager
- Local travel aboard a private air-conditioned coach
- Accommodation
- Meals as per the itinerary, wine and tea or coffee with dinner
- Entries to all sites as per the itinerary
- Field notes
- All taxes & gratuities