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All true. And yet... No one monopolises D-Day. The US make a point to remark on the work of the Navajo code-speakers. Somehow, Battle of Britain is celebrated as a multi-national cooperation. But not Enigma-breaking, that was just plucky Brits in Bletchley Park.

I understand and respect national myth-building, equally I feel credit, in popular literature, is under-attributed.



> Somehow, Battle of Britain is celebrated as a multi-national cooperation.

Not that I've ever noticed. I don't think I learned until I was 17 or 18 that there were non-British pilots involved on the British side. And I live in England! We should know!

I'm glad the article isn't quite as blunt as the headline suggests. If GCHQ are saying that public perception of Bletchley's role is overrated... well, they're entirely correct about that. But if you actually go to Bletchley Park they're quite clear about the role of Polish intelligence in breaking the Enigma machine.


They weren't just "involved" - 5 of the top 10 aces were not from Britain (2 not even from Commonwealth)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Few#Leading_aces


As some other comments have mentioned, officially Brits didn't write off any polish contribution from any official or unofficial Documentation. And in all Historic account or documentary, Poland were often mentioned for their early effort in braking the enigma.

It is just the mainstream media never report it, for all sort of reasons. It is like Thomas Edison invented the Light bulb. Everything gets dumped down to easily understandable pieces for public consumption.


The Eastern Bloc was downplayed in the West thanks to the Cold War.

Codetalkers are remembered not out of respect but because it's a rare neat trick (and it feeds into American Exceptionalism in a fascinating way.)


Well, there was the notorious case of the Polish Spitfire on a BNP poster. https://www.theregister.com/2009/03/04/polish_spitfire/

Presumably the BNP didn't know about the multi-national bit.




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