Yarn bombers commemorate secret WW2 work

Yarn bombers have created a tribute to World War Two codebreakers in Buckinghamshire

A World War Two codebreaking machine and its Royal Navy operators have been commemorated in wool.

Yarn bomber Clare Reeves, who works at Bletchley Park's learning centre, crocheted and knitted the postbox topper with a friend. It depicts a Bombe machine and its operators saluting in their Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) uniforms, adorned with poppies.

Ms Reeves, who was taught to knit and crochet by her grandmother, said it was their third Bletchley Park-inspired yarn bomb scene and it was placed outside the venue.

She said she felt it was important "to make sure that the country remembers to remember".

The wires protruding from the back of a Bombe machine have been recreated in wool

Details in the knitted scene include the mass of red wires protruding from the back of the machine, which was developed by codebreakers Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman.

They used the machine to speed up the painstaking process of breaking into German military messages, enciphered using Enigma machines.

The invention was said to have been one of the biggest contributions towards the Allied victory in World War Two.

Bombe machines were used to crack the German Enigma code

The knitted Bombe machine emits the sound of the rotors turning at speed

To mark last year's Remembrance Sunday, Ms Reeves and her friend made a scene featuring a Lancaster bomber surrounded by WRNS members and civilians, many of whom worked at Bletchley Park during the war.

For the 80th anniversary of VE Day in May, the pair collaborated to create an effigy of the wartime prime minister Winston Churchill, surrounded by cupcakes containing small speakers which played his VE Day speech.

The WRNS in the Bombe yarn bomb are recycled from last year's Lancaster bomber scene, "hence the salute," said Ms Reeves. Their poppies are a fresh addition.

Ms Reeves said she had crocheted and knitted at home while watching television, and it was "lovely to share the results with everyone else".

Rebecca Foy, director of public engagement at the Bletchley Park Trust, said: "We were all wonderfully surprised when this colourful and beautiful yarn tribute appeared.

"It's a wonderful way to honour the incredible work of the women and men who served here and beyond."