The odds of winning the jackpot in the national lottery are approximately one in 14 million. The odds against cracking the Enigma code? 158 million, million, million to one. 

It was in late August 1939 that Captain Ridley and his shooting party first set foot in Bletchley Park, a country estate some 50 miles north-west of London – and changed the course of history. For the new arrivals were, in reality, a select band of mathematicians and code-breakers destined to crack the Nazi Enigma cypher, the backbone of German military intelligence.

This long-weekend course unravels the myriad clandestine stratagems dreamt up by British Intelligence during World War II. One of the highlights will be an extensive behind-the-scenes visit to the mysterious “Station X” – Bletchley Park, set up amidst the tightest secrecy to counter German intelligence. As well as witnessing a demonstration of the rebuilt Colossus machine, we will be able to examine at close quarters course director Mark Baldwin’s very own historic Enigma machine.

Our course also charts the history of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose tasks included supporting allied resistance cells, and Operation Carpetbagger, a secret USAAF campaign that dropped small combat teams behind enemy lines. The majority of SOE flights operated from RAF Tempsford, whilst Carpetbagger missions were masterminded from RAF Harrington – both of which we will visit.

The many highlights at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford include the newly-opened Airborne Forces Museum, which traces the history of the Parachute Regiment and recounts the dramatic but unsuccessful assault on Arnhem during Operation Market Garden.

We will be based throughout at the Moore Place Hotel in the village of Aspley Guise, Bedfordshire. A Georgian manor house built in 1786, this elegant three-star hotel was once used by the Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. Aspley Guise also hosted the secret headquarters of the Psychological Warfare Executive during World War II.