Grace Morris
May 8, 1945 – 3:00 PM
At this hour, exactly 80 years ago, Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed the nation to declare victory in Europe. The Second World War had ended on the continent.
Today, as we reflect on the immense sacrifices that led to this moment of peace, Naglotech also pay tribute to a pivotal piece of technology that helped make that day come sooner: Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic computer.
Developed in secrecy at Bletchley Park, Colossus played a critical role in decrypting German military communications, most notably the Lorenz cipher, used by Hitler and the High Command. By rapidly processing thousands of characters and testing logical patterns, Colossus helped the codebreakers at Bletchley intercept strategic messages in near real time.
It’s widely believed that this breakthrough shortened the war in Europe by months, saving countless lives.
As an IT solutions company, we are inspired by this legacy of innovation. Colossus didn’t just change the war, it changed the world, laying the foundations for modern computing. On this day, we honour the engineers, mathematicians, and service members who made this moment possible and the technology that helped secure peace.
Read below to find out more about the individuals involved in establishing computing as we know today:
Name: Alan Turing
Field: Mathematics, Cryptanalysis, Computer Science
Contribution: Turing worked at Bletchley Park, where he led efforts to break the German Enigma cipher.
He helped develop the Bombe machine, which significantly accelerated codebreaking efforts.
His theoretical work laid the foundation for modern computing and artificial intelligence.
Name: Tommy Flowers
Field: Electrical Engineering
Contribution: Designed and built Colossus, the world’s first programmable electronic digital computer, used to break the German Lorenz cipher messages.
Worked at the General Post Office Research Station, applying telephone switch technologies to computing.
Name: Max Newman
Field: Mathematics
Contribution: Helped design and implement early computing machinery at Bletchley Park.
Played a key role in overseeing the development of Colossus and supported Turing’s early ideas on automation.
After the war, he helped to establish computing research at the University of Manchester.
Name: Joan Clarke
Fields: Mathematics, Cryptanalysis
Contribution: One of the few women at Bletchley Park in a senior cryptanalyst role.
Worked closely with Turing on breaking Enigma codes.
Noted for her brilliance in combinatorics and logical reasoning.
Name: Donald Mitchie
Field: Artificial Intelligence
Contribution: Worked on breaking German teleprinter ciphers at Bletchley Park.
Later became a pioneer in AI, contributing to machine learning research.
This is only a foretaste of what is to come and only the shadow of what is going to be.
