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SCHOOLDAYS 27
captured traffic. Meanwhile the three armed services were themselves
vying for increased control over who received the output
from GC&CS. This was precisely the kind of complex organisational
puzzle that Menzies was ill-equipped to deal with. Matters
reached a head in the autumn of 1941, forcing Menzies to
appoint a Joint Committee of Control, which included members
of both SIS and GC&CS. However, as the historian Philip Davies
observes, 'Like so many of Menzies' administrative initiatives,
the committee proved unequal to the task: 34 There was also a
general resources problem. Having made significant inroads into
German Enigma traffic, there were simply not enough staff at
Bletchley Park to process the vast torrents of accessible German
communications. Neither Alastair Denniston nor his deputy,
Edward Travis, had the pull in Whitehall to overcome the
shortage. 35
Churchill was not ignorant of this state of affairs for long.
Recalling the Prime Minister's kind words during his recent visit,
the code-breakers resolved to go straight to the top. On 21
October 1941, four of the most brilliant minds at Bletchley Park,
Hugh Alexander, St!.lart Milner-Barry, Alan Turing and Gordon
Welchman, wrote directly to Churchill to beg for more resources,
explaining that their work was so secret that it was hard to
explain their requirements to those who controlled personneU 6
So secret was their missive that Milner-Barry took the train to
London and delivered it personally to 10 Downing Street.
Churchill was shocked by these revelations, and demanded
'Action This Day'. He ordered his military assistant, General
Hastings 'Pug' Ismay, to ensure that GC&CS had everything it
needed, and to report that this had been done. 37 As a result,
Bletchley Park underwent a further expansion, and more importantly
a major reorganisation. 38
GC&CS was now divided into two distinct parts, civil and
military. The end of the Blitz meant that the civil side, which
dealt with economic and diplomatic traffic, could be sent back
to London with relative safety. It took up residence in Berkeley
Street, partly because the work of attacking diplomatic codes