Dr Mark Baldwin's illustrated talk on the Codebreakers - the story of the Enigma and Bletchley Park's role in the Second World War, fascinated an audience of some 70 people on Sunday 9 January. The event hosted by Kidderminster & District Soroptimists was held at Baxter Church.

Dr Baldwin gave a brief history of the development of wireless technology in Britain led by Marconi in the early 1900s as an alternative communication system to the wired cables in use since 1901.

The first cipher machines were used by the German military in the First World War and they took over the manufacture of the Enigma machine in the late 1920s. Dr Baldwin clearly described the workings of the machine and stated the number of combinations provided by a three-rotor machine is a very big number, greater than the number of known atoms in the observable universe. He paid special tribute to the tremendous efforts of three Polish mathematicians who broke the codes in 1932 and that they passed that information onto the British in 1939. This enabled the teams at Bletchley Park to decipher intercepted messages. The importance of this was clearly illustrated through the impact on the Battle of the Atlantic in significantly reducing the loss of merchant ships bringing vital food supplies to the UK.

One of the highlights for many was the hands-on denonstration of a surviving four-rotor Enigmna machine. For those who have not yet visited Bletchley Park, we felt imspired to do so.

Proceeds from the evening will go towards local charities supported by the Club.

Visitors are always welcome to join our meetings and for more details regarding the activities and membership of the Club, email on kidderminstersorop@gmail.com or look at our website link http://soroptimist-gbi.org.