NYT: Jane Fawcett, British Decoder Who Helped Doom the Bismarck, Dies at 95

[Omaha Steve]

Jane Fawcett during or immediately after World War II.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/obituaries/jane-fawcett-british-decoder-who-helped-doom-the-bismarck-dies-at-95.html?emc=edit_th_20160530&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=58529908&_r=0

By BRUCE WEBERMAY 28, 2016

Jane Fawcett, who was a reluctant London debutante when she went to work at Bletchley Park, the home of British code-breaking during World War II, and was credited with identifying a message that led to a great Allied naval success, the sinking of the battleship Bismarck, died on May 21 at her home in Oxford, England. She was 95.

The death was confirmed by her son, James Fawcett.

After the war, Ms. Fawcett had a career as a singer, and later as a preservationist. But she played her most significant historical role as an eagle-eyed decoder in British wartime intelligence.

In May 1941, the Bismarck, Germany’s mightiest warship, had become a prime target after it sank one of England’s most powerful vessels, the battle cruiser Hood, in the battle of the Denmark Strait, between Iceland and Greenland. Much of the British fleet was in search of the Bismarck, which was presumed to have withdrawn to the North Atlantic around Norway.

FULL story at link.

[Chasstev365]

1. RIP Ms. Fawcett! Not many of the "greatest generation" left.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. She talked to the Bletchley Park podcast just this month

https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/podcast/932393/The_Bismarck.html

The Bismarck section starts at 25:00 - she is from 34:20 onwards.