Uploaded July 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
This is a story about a warship called HMS Aubrietia, sponsored in 1941 by the then largest village in Britain, called Horsforth, which forced a German submarine to surface and surrender in the North Atlantic Ocean. Below the decks they found the German Enigma machine, which was sent to Bletchley Park, allowing cryptanalysts to break the code.
This talk also covers how Hitler's second cypher machine ‘Lorenz’ was built for use by the German Generals, yet was also broken by the Bletchley Park cryptanalysts.
Our speaker, Jack Metcalfe, also relates personal anecdotes from his life including how he was trained in Morse Code signalling and Direction-Finding techniques at Bletchley Park in 1958, and how these skills were later applied in Germany in the 1960s during the Cold War years.
About the speaker:
Jack Metcalfe’s well-travelled life is filled with history and adventure dating back to 1958. During his three-year military service, Jack received extensive training in the Royal Air Force and at Bletchley Park, where he spent time researching the Bletchley codebreakers.
Since retiring from the Telecoms industry at the age of 50, Jack has become a leading practitioner of marquetry and has written three books on the subject.
Connect with Jack Metcalfe on:
horsforthhmsaubrietia.com
Recorded 19.06.24.
This is a story about a warship called HMS Aubrietia, sponsored in 1941 by the then largest village in Britain, called Horsforth, which forced a German submarine to surface and surrender in the North Atlantic Ocean. Below the decks they found the German Enigma machine, which was sent to Bletchley Park, allowing cryptanalysts to break the code.
This talk also covers how Hitler's second cypher machine ‘Lorenz’ was built for use by the German Generals, yet was also broken by the Bletchley Park cryptanalysts.
Our speaker, Jack Metcalfe, also relates personal anecdotes from his life including how he was trained in Morse Code signalling and Direction-Finding techniques at Bletchley Park in 1958, and how these skills were later applied in Germany in the 1960s during the Cold War years.
About the speaker:
Jack Metcalfe’s well-travelled life is filled with history and adventure dating back to 1958. During his three-year military service, Jack received extensive training in the Royal Air Force and at Bletchley Park, where he spent time researching the Bletchley codebreakers.
Since retiring from the Telecoms industry at the age of 50, Jack has become a leading practitioner of marquetry and has written three books on the subject.
Connect with Jack Metcalfe on:
horsforthhmsaubrietia.com
Recorded 19.06.24.
