Unsung Hereos: The story of Bill Tutte
Computer Weekly went to Station X, Britain\u2019s top secret World War 2 code breaking headquarters, to discover the story behind Colossus, the world\u2019s first programmable electronic computer.\n\nSenior reporter Ian Grant spoke to cryptographer Captain Jerry Roberts about the origins of Colossus.\n\nRoberts worked in the Testery, the part of Station X devoted to cracking Tunny, the code used by Hitler and his top generals. His colleagues included Alan Turing and Bill Tutte, the man responsible for working out how the Germans encrypted their messages.\n\nAs Roberts makes clear, without Tutte, Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers could never have invented Colossus, the first digital programmable electronic computer, thus laying the foundation for all electronic computers.\n\nAnd as Roberts makes equally clear, Tutte and Flowers have never received popular recognition of their roles as pioneers of the computer age.