The Imitation Game | Fiery Secrets


Reviews of the movie ‘The Imitation Game’ about Bletchley’s code breakers, Alan Turing and the Enigma machine have been very positive in raising understanding of those who toil without recognition on work that, for its purpose to be fulfilled, must remain hidden from view.

Given the media publicity it is not surprising that new information comes to light, in this instance photographs that have cast doubt on the belief that Bletchley’s secrets were purposely destroyed in a fire on the site in 1945.

It appears the fire may have been part of an elaborate conspiracy by a group that fabricated information about the escape of political prisoners from a Siberian Gulag in a 4000 mile walk to freedom in India in 1942.

Workers apparently creating a floating ice sheet

One photograph shows workers atop an imitation ice flow, and it is known that an ice crossing was central to written accounts of the escape of Gulag prisoners near Lake Baikal in 1941.

The ice sheet in place, close to Lake Baikal in the south of the Russian region of Serbia.

British authorities have been quick to point out that the Bletchley photographs cannot be real as that would indicate a conspiracy requiring ‘hundreds of people to be involved’.

The Bletchley photographs are difficult to dismiss as fakes, especially given the account from groundsman Eric Stanley of Brinklow, Warwickshire, British Legion and Home Guard.

‘I remember pushing my bike past the furniture and papers piled for burning on the Tuesday. I shouted that they were going to melt the road setting a fire on it, and that they were ruddy stupid lighting it under the trees, but they just piled it up anyway.’

Bletchley workers close to the blaze, which is clearly sitting as witness stated on the roadway under trees. The large white rectangles are assumed to be lights, the presence of which raises further questions as lights were not mentioned in witnesses reports.

‘Wednesday morning I cycled back up that road and there wasn’t a trace of a fire. No ash, no melted road, no singed trees. I just assumed the boffins had moved the fire as I’d suggested and I thought nothing more about it.’

There’s little doubt that a fire was lit as other Bletchley workers reported the fire blazing on the road and according to witness timings, it must have burned for well over 3 hours. So why did a fire of such duration and intensity leave no trace?

This photograph appears to show the fire from the roadway itself, looking toward the trees and location of the standing workers in the first photograph. Note the position and angle of the file cabinet and furniture.

The Bletchley photographs seem to support theories that in fact no paper secrets were destroyed as this was an orchestrated display using a rigged fire, to provide plausible deniability of the continuance of work started at Bletchley.

This burning file cabinet seems to be the same as the one in the Bletchley site photograph. Moreover, items seem propped and supported on a wooden platform, burning without any solid fuel supply but with gas canisters visible. It has been suggested that the stonework to the rear is typical found in the neighbouring county of Oxfordshire, rather than Buckinghamshire itself.
Another view of the burning file cabinets, this time at an angle very much similar to the photograph of the blaze at Bletchley.

Mysteriously, furniture clearly burning in the Bletchley fire also appears ablaze on a wooden platform at a different location entirely, apparently without damage.

Conspiracists suggest the secrets were too valuable to lose and were retained for recovery and reparation actions after the war.

A renowned detective with links to the secret service had been observed at the scene and when pressed, stated a plot was ‘seemingly impossible’ considering the nature of work at Bletchley and confines of the Official Secrets Act.

‘Individuals capable of global frauds involving fabrication of ice platforms and the fake burning of secrets would need to be masters of The Imitation Game.’

For all the official damping down, these newly discovered photographs have fanned the flames of curiosity of another enigma in Bletchley’s secret past.

The author wishes to express their grateful thanks to Agog Special Effects for their considerable input on what is possible when no one is looking.