Secret Postings: Bletchley Park to the Pentagon

Secret Postings: Bletchley Park to the Pentagon by Webb, Charlotte. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780955716478.

* New Extended Edition to be Published 2023.* Publication of this edition has ceased in preparation of a new edition coming May 2023 in celebration of Bettys 100th Birthday. Bettys war-time story at Bletchley Park and the Pentagon has been substantially extended. In 1941 Charlotte Vine-Stevens (Betty) left her domestic science college course and volunteered for the Auxiliary Territorial Army (ATS), the Womens’ Army. Like many 18-year-olds, she was eager to do her bit for the war effort. After all, anything would be better than cooking up lack-lustre dinners using rationed goods. Betty threw herself into basic training, and after a career aptitude test, she found herself at Euston Station with her kit bag, a travel warrant in her pocket and instructions to get off the train at Bletchley Station. It was once an Army officer pushed the Official Secrets Act across the desk in an office within Bletchley Park’s mansion house and asked her to sign did she realise she was going to be part of something secret. Between 1941 and 1945 Charlotte worked at the Government Code & Cypher school’s code breaking operation at Bletchley Park. At first Charlotte worked with Major Ralph Tester on the first floor of the mansion where she registered details of undeciphered German Enigma messages on index cards. Later she moved to the Japanese Section in Block F to paraphrase deciphered Japanese messages.In 1945, while other members of the forces return home after the war in Europe, Charlotte flew to America to carry out the same paraphrasing duties at The Pentagon. It was a war time adventure that changed Charlottes outlook on life forever and has earned her an MBE.Secret Postings is a personal memoir following Charlottes life from a childhood in rural Shropshire to a turbulent and oppressive pre-war Germany, and a Second World War adventure at Bletchley Park, the Pentagon and beyond.