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www.southgatearc.org
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Amazing wartime secret of Teesside woman who helped defeat HitlerThis is the never-before-told story of one of the Secret War heroines of World War Two. Stockton-born Margaret Fick, who is among a handful of surviving British codebreaker operatives from the world famous Bletchley Park Ultra Secret project. Margaret was banned from talking about her key role for 50 years... until now. PRIME MINISTER Gordon Brown has bestowed a very special honour on one of Britain’s last surviving Second World War secret code- breaking operatives – Teesside’s Margaret Fick. During the war, Margaret, 85, of High Street West, Redcar, joined the secret German Intercept Service, based at what is now Menwith Hill listening station, near Harrogate. She intercepted countless German coded messages from all over Occupied Europe, producing, along with her colleagues, vital intelligence which helped the High Command outwit the Nazis. Then for the last six months of the war, she was seconded as an ATS sergeant operator to the now world-famous Bletchley Park - Churchill’s Secret Intelligence and Computers HQ, near Milton Keynes. It was here at the top-secret 'Station X' that captured German Enigma cypher code machines were brought and leading boffins like Alan Turing and his staff cracked the codes which experts now say shortened the war by at least two years and saved thousands of lives in the famous Ultra Secret operation. Margaret says the Germans never learned the British had copies of their most secret messages transmitted to their army, navy and airforce just hours after they were sent. No wonder Churchill was a regular visitor to the war’s best kept secret. Margaret said: “I met him once while I was there. He was a tremendous inspiration.” For 50 years she and the others were strictly gagged by the Official Secrets Act from talking about their vital part in the war effort. But now Gordon Brown has sent a special scroll of thanks and rare gold and blue enamel badge to the lively octogenarian. You can read the full 'gazettelive' article with pictures at
Our thanks to Lee, M0HOK for spotting this item
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