Buckinghamshire Reflects

The RAFs Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) operates from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. Their mission is: "to maintain the priceless artefacts of our national heritage in airworthy condition in order to commemorate those who have fallen in the service of this...

THE CAPTURE OF U-110 AND THE ENIGMA DECRYPTION BREAKTHROUGH

Arnold Hargreaves, age 99, is the last surviving member of a boarding party from HMS Bulldog that in 1941 captured an Enigma machine from a stricken German U-boat. The information discovered from a…

THE HISTORY OF HURRICANES BUILT IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Buckinghamshire can be proud of its contribution to the WWII effort in so many ways: food and military equipment production, the secret war waged at some of Buckinghamshire’s stately homes, militar…

GCHQ HISTORIAN TONY COMER ON BLETCHLEY PARK’S LEGACY

Sat on the top floor of the Bletchley Park mansion, in the room next to where MI6 set up Station X at the start of World War II, we met with Tony Comer from GCHQ (Government Communication Headquart…

The Women’s Land Army (WLA) was originally formed during World War I and was re-established shortly before the outbreak of WWII to provide extra agricultural labour whilst the men were serving away at war. By 1943 there were 80,000 women working for the WLA, nicknamed...

THE STORY OF MARIE-FRANCE MacCARTHY 

Marie-France MacCarthy was brought up in the most rarefied French circles, becoming a fine singer; yet it was in action during the Second World War that she especially distinguished herself. Her ex…

BUCKS’ VC NAVAL HERO

Peter Scawen Watkinson Roberts was born at the family home in Chiltern Road, Chesham Bois in July 1917. After leaving school in 1935 he joined the Royal Navy and in 1936 was posted to HMS…

On 9th May 1941, the German submarine U-110 was captured by the Royal Navy after becoming seriously damaged by attacks from HMS Aubretia, HMS Broadway and HMS Bulldog. A boarding party from HMS Bulldog, featuring Buckinghamshire resident Arnold Hargreaves*, was able...

Tony Comer is the historian for GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters) and a world expert on the Bletchley Park story. GCHQ needs a historian as technology moves so rapidly that the organisation needs to be able to keep hold of its foundations, that knowing...

Buried deep in the secret archives of the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ), was a map that shows a different perspective of the Bletchley Park story to those reported and dramatised in books, films and documentaries. The map shows cycle and foot routes,...