logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2014
9 m

Colossus: the World's First Electronic C...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

In February 1944, the world's first electronic computer began attacking encrypted Nazi messages, from the secret British codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park. Hear from one of the engineers tasked with building and maintaining Colossus during World War Two.

Up next
Sep 2025
The Chindits
During World War Two, an unconventional special force was formed. Known as the Chindits, they fought behind enemy lines in Burma, now Myanmar during 1943 and 1944 in the war against Japan.Their leader was the charismatic Orde Wingate, a British Army officer. This programme is mad ... Show More
10m 19s
Aug 2025
Nagasaki bomb
On 9 August 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing at least 74,000 people. It led to the end of World War Two in Asia, with Japan surrendering to the Allies six days later. The Nagasaki bomb, alongside the Hiroshima bomb on 6 August, remain the ... Show More
10m 29s
Jun 2025
World War Two’s Rome escape line
Between September 1943 and June 1944 in World War Two, the Italian capital Rome was occupied by German soldiers.Italy had surrendered and thousands of Allied prisoners of war had escaped from internment camps in the country. An Irish priest, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who was wor ... Show More
10m 31s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2023
Encore: The Bombe (noun) [Word Notes]
An electro-mechanical device used to break Enigma-enciphered messages about enemy military operations during the Second World War. The first bombe–named Victory and designed by Alan Turning and Gordon Welchman– started code-breaking at Bletchley Park on 14 March 1940, a year afte ... Show More
4m 15s
Sep 2025
Bletchley Park
During World War II, a country house in Buckinghamshire hosted some of the UK’s top minds as they worked to crack enemy communications, most famously the German Enigma cipher. It is estimated that breakthroughs at Bletchley Park shortened the conflict by at least two years, savin ... Show More
57m 32s
Jan 2023
How six women programmed the world’s first modern computer
During the Second World War, six talented mathematicians were brought together to make history. These women had one mission: to program the world’s first and only supercomputer. Speaking with Rachel Dinning, Kathy Kleiman explores the vital but overlooked role the “Eniac 6” playe ... Show More
30m 21s
Mar 2023
What does the Antikythera Mechanism do?
Daniel and Katie explore the puzzle of the "world's first computer", and what it might have calculated.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
47m 36s
Oct 2024
Technology and artificial intelligence
<p>We start with the world's first general purpose electronic computer, the ENIAC, built in 1946 by a team of female mathematicians including Kathleen Kay McNulty. We speak to Gini Mauchly Calcerano, daughter of Kathleen Kay McNulty, who developed ENIAC.</p><p>Then we hear about ... Show More
50m 52s
Jun 2018
SYMHC Classics: Alan Turing, Codebreaker
<p>This is a revisit of a Sarah and Deblina episode on Alan Turing, who conceived of computers decades before anyone was building one. He also acted as a top-secret code breaker during World War II. Despite his accomplishments, he was prosecuted as a homosexual by the British gov ... Show More
20m 33s
Sep 2012
Codes! Axis Cryptography in World War II
<p>In this special episode co-hosted by TechStuff's Jonathan Strickland, the focus is on the codes, cipher machines, and cryptologists of World War II. Tune in to learn more about the Enigma Machine, Alan Turing, Code Talkers and more.</p><p> </p> Learn more about your ad-choices ... Show More
45m 47s
Aug 2025
The Star Who Invented the Future
A goal of helping to fight against the Nazis during World War II leads a Hollywood star, known as the "most beautiful woman in the world," to invent the technology which changes the world. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our col ... Show More
37m 26s
Mar 2012
Alan Turing: The One Who Became a Zero
Andrew Hodges (author of Alan Turing: The Enigma) delivers a lecture on Alan Turing, the founder of modern computer science. This is the third annual lecture for LGBT history month. The British mathematician Alan Turing, whose centenary falls this year, was the founder of modern ... Show More
55m 10s
Apr 2024
Alan Turing | Cracking the Code | 2
The stakes are high for Turing and his team of codebreakers as they try to decrypt Nazi messages. Known as “Prof”, Turing and his eccentricities are central to life at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Will he and his team be able to turn the tide in Britain’s favour?Jo ... Show More
48m 13s