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SCHOOLDAYS 23
main body of GC&CS was initially broken up into NavaL Military
and Air Sections and allocated to the ground floor of the main
house, while SIS was given the top floor, indicating that it still
ruled the roost. On the periphery, an ever-growing collection
of numbered wooden huts - including the famous Hut Three
and Hut Six - were being constructed. Particular activities were
associated with each hut: typically, the core of the Enigma
problem was worked on in Hut Six, while its exploitation for
intelligence purposes was undertaken in Hut Three. One former
code-breaker recalls that the main house was soon 'too small
for more than a handful of top brass and their immediate
acolytes'. So Bletchley Park's considerable garden, with its
rosebeds and delightful maze, gradually disappeared beneath
the expanding penumbra of temporary structures. 19 The shadow
of the bomber even reached out to Bletchley Park. The radio
transmission infrastructure involved elaborate aerials which had
the potential to give away the site's location from the air.
Accordingly, Bletchley Park's own radio station was moved to
nearby Whaddon Hall. As the operation gained momentum,
other nearby premises were absorbed. EImers School, a neighbouring
boys' boarding establishment, was requisitioned for the
GC&CS Diplomatic Sections.
Bletchley Park was Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair's last bequest
to Britain's sigint community. Through the early autumn of
1939 it was clear that he was terminally ill with cancer. His
deputy and heir apparent, Stewart Menzies, was not regarded
as a great brain, and indeed despised intellectuals. Sir Alexander
Cadogan, the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office,
vigorously resisted the idea that Menzies might succeed Sinclair,
and argued for someone from outside SIS to shake the organisation
up. Senior SIS officers, however, did not want 'a new
broom at this critical stage'. 20 Cadogan noted in his diary, 'I am
not satisfied that Menzies is the man,' but Menzies did have a
crude talent for furthering his own ambitions, which he soon
demonstrated. On Sunday, 5 November he came to see Cadogan
bearing the sad news of the death of Sinclair the previous day.