Hut 11A: The Bombe Breakthrough

A permanent exhibition that tells the story of the Bombe machines in the actual location that housed the machines which broke Enigma.

Hut 11A: The Bombe Breakthrough explains in detail the challenges posed by Enigma and explores how Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman and others devised a machine to help solve it. Using the museum’s Oral History archive and historic objects, it also considers how this contribution to the success of Allied signals intelligence had a significant impact on the course of WW2.

Wartime objects on display include original blueprints and components, decrypted Nazi messages and the W.R.N.S visitors’ book signed by key figures in the Bletchley Park story, including the GPO engineer Tommy Flowers. Some of the documents in the exhibition have never been seen by the public before. Huts 11 and 11A were amongst several wartime buildings that housed Bombe machines, but they are the only ones located within the Bletchley Park site.