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And thanks to papers recently declassified, it is now known that during World War Two Elizebeth helped to smash a network of Nazi spies trying to foment fascist
by Mz 9y ago
And thanks to papers recently declassified, it is now known that during World War Two Elizebeth helped to smash a network of Nazi spies trying to foment fascist revolutions in South America – their ultimate goal being an attack on the US. Many of these spies were arrested as a direct consequence of her and her team’s work at the US Coastguard. However, for decades J Edgar Hoover and the FBI claimed more or less all the credit for this achievement. Elizebeth, sworn to secrecy and uninterested in publicity, stayed quiet.
Kind of what I figured. It isn't very wise or practical to loudly advertise who does secret work during their own lifetime.
I suspect we know as much as we do about Turing in part because he committed suicide at a relatively young age. When he was actually doing code breaking for the military and couldn't talk about it, other military units referred to his unit as "The Do Nothings" (IIRC).
- lostboys67 9y agoIts interesting that some of the volunteers in Belgium who worked with the Security Service in ww1 wanted and got recognition - unfortunately when ww2 happened the Germans rounded them up and sent many to the camps :-(
- wjnc 9y agoAgree. I recently visited Bletchley Park and one of the astonishing life stories was of Bill Tutte. He was as instrumental as Turing and became a professor in graph theory after WW2. Astonishing for me was that he had to 'restart' a career after the war in science, since nothing he did during the war counted as professional experience. Obviously he did very well, but I still felt for the people coming out Bletchley post-war. You had nothing of professional experience to show, while at least some did groundbreaking stuff. There must be untold stories of people whom did not become well-known.
- lostboys67 9y agoThis happened at los Alamos one famous music producer worked there but was unable to use what he had learnt to complete his PHD so he went and invented the modern recording studio set up and helped found Atlantic records