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{{Short description|Section of Bletchley Park codebreaking station, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
[[File:"Hut 8", Bletchley Park - geograph.org.uk - 1592862.jpg|thumb|Hut 8]]
{{EnigmaSeries}}
'''Hut 8''' was a section in the [[Government Code and Cypher School]] (GC&CS) at [[Bletchley Park]] (the British [[World War II]] [[codebreaking]] station, located in [[Buckinghamshire]]) tasked with solving German naval ([[Kriegsmarine]]) [[Enigma machine|Enigma]] messages.  The section was led initially by [[Alan Turing]].  He was succeeded in November 1942 by his deputy, [[Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander|Hugh Alexander]].  Patrick Mahon succeeded Alexander in September 1944.<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>

Hut 8 was partnered with [[Hut 4]], which handled the translation and intelligence analysis of the raw decrypts provided by Hut 8.

Located initially in one of the original single-story wooden huts, the name "Hut 8" was retained when Huts 3, 6 & 8 moved to a new brick building, Block D, in February 1943.<ref>[[Asa Briggs]] (2011), ''Secret Days: Code-breaking in Bletchley Park'', London: Frontline Books, p. 70 {{ISBN|978-1-84832-615-6}}</ref>

After 2005, the first Hut 8 was restored to its wartime condition, and it now houses the "{{HMS|Petard|G56|6}} Exhibition".<ref>{{cite magazine 
| title=Hut 8 Open Again
| magazine=Radio and Communications Monitoring Monthly
|date=April 2008
| volume=3
| issue=4
| issn=1749-7809
| page=12 }}</ref>

==Operation==
In 1940, a few breaks were made into the naval "Dolphin" code, but [[Luftwaffe]] messages were the first to be read in quantity.<ref>''Secret Days: Code-breaking in Bletchley Park'' by [[Asa Briggs]] (2011, Frontline Books, London) p 75 {{ISBN|978-1-84832-615-6}}</ref> The German navy had much tighter procedures, and the capture of code books was needed (see {{format link|Battle of the Atlantic#Enigma cipher}}) before they could be broken. In February 1942, the German navy introduced "Triton", a version of Enigma with a fourth rotor for messages to and from Atlantic U-boats; these became unreadable for a period of ten months during a crucial period (see [[Battle of the Atlantic#Enigma in 1942|Enigma in 1942]]).

Britain produced modified [[bombe]]s, but it was the success of the [[Bombe#US Navy Bombe|US Navy bombe]] that was the main source of reading messages from this version of Enigma for the rest of the war.{{Citation needed|reason=Unusual that this "fact" has never been mentioned in any documentary before if it is true|date=September 2013}} Messages were sent to and from across the Atlantic by enciphered teleprinter links.

==Personnel==
In addition to the [[cryptanalysts]], around 130 women worked in Hut 8 and provided essential clerical support including punching holes into the [[Banburismus|Banbury sheets]].  Hut 8 relied on [[Women's Royal Naval Service|Wrens]] to run the bombes housed elsewhere at Bletchley.<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>

=== Code breakers ===
* [[Alan Turing]]
* [[Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander]]
* [[Michael Arbuthnot Ashcroft]]<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>
* [[Joan Clarke]]<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>
* [[Joseph Gillis]]<ref>''Breaking Teleprinter Ciphers at Bletchley Park'', Biographical Notes (2015, Wiley-IEEE) p 547 {{ISBN|978-0470465899}}</ref>
* [[Harry Golombek]]
* [[I. J. Good]]
* [[Peter Hilton]], January 1942 to late 1942
* [[Rosalind Hudson]]
* Charlie Bierman
* F Anthony Kendrick<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>
* [[Leslie Lambert]] (aka "A. J. Alan")
* Patrick Mahon<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>
* [[Rolf Noskwith]]<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>
* Richard Pendered<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>
*[[John H. Plumb]], moved from [[Hut 3]];  (later a historian) <ref>Briggs (2011) p.52</ref>
* [[Shaun Wylie]]<ref name ="codebreakers.hut8">{{Harvnb|Noskwith|2011}}</ref>
* [[Leslie Yoxall]] devised ''Yoxallismus'' technique
* [[Judith Irene Bloomfield]]

==See also==
* [[Action This Day (memo)]]
* [[Banburismus]]
* [[Hut 4]]
* [[Hut 6]]
* [[Cryptanalysis of the Enigma]]
* [[Bletchley_Park#Huts|Huts at Bletchley Park]]
* [[B-Dienst]]
* [[OP-20-G]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation | last = Alexander | first = C. Hugh O'D. | author-link = Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander | date = c. 1945 | title = Cryptographic History of Work on the German Naval Enigma | url = http://www.ellsbury.com/gne/gne-000.htm | publisher=The National Archives, Kew, Reference HW 25/1}}
* {{Citation | last = Mahon | first = A.P. | title = The History of Hut Eight 1939 - 1945 | publisher = UK National Archives Reference HW 25/2 | year = 1945 | url = http://www.ellsbury.com/hut8/hut8-000.htm | access-date = 10 December 2009 }} 
* Rolf Noskwith, ''Hut 8 from the Inside'' - pages 197-210 of ''Action this Day'', edited by Michael Smith & Ralph Erskine (2001, Bantam London) {{ISBN|0-593-04910-1}} 
* {{cite book |last=Noskwith |first=Rolf  |author-link=Rolf Noskwith |editor-first=Ralph |editor-last=Erskine |editor2-last=Smith |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Smith (newspaper reporter) |title=The Bletchley Park Codebreakers |publisher=Biteback Publishing |year=2011 |pages=184–194 |chapter=Chapter 12: Hut 8 From the Inside |isbn=978-1849540780 }} (Updated and extended version of ''Action This Day: From Breaking of the Enigma Code to the Birth of the Modern Computer'' Bantam Press 2001)

{{refend}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hut 08}}
[[Category:Cryptography organizations]]
[[Category:Bletchley Park]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Milton Keynes]]