103-Year-Old World War II Codebreaker Honored Decades After Wartime Service
Fred Vanke's crucial role in cracking German codes at Bletchley Park was kept secret for decades, even from his family.
Fred Vanke, a 103-year-old who served as a codebreaker during World War II, is finally being recognized for his vital contributions to the Allied war effort. For decades, his work at Bletchley Park, the secret headquarters of Britain's Government Code and Cypher School, was kept under wraps due to wartime secrecy, preventing him from sharing his experiences even with his wife and family.
Born Ferdynand Stanislaw Vanke in Krakow, Poland, he fled the Nazi invasion in 1939 at the age of 16. After making his way to British-controlled Palestine, he joined the Carpathian Rifle Brigade. His aptitude for cracking codes was discovered when he was recruited to work at "The Arches," a Polish signals intelligence station supporting Bletchley Park. Despite being significantly younger than his colleagues, Vanke's skill in deciphering German signals proved invaluable.
While working at The Arches, Vanke and his team listened to German signals and worked to decode them. The nature of his work meant he could not discuss it with anyone outside of his operational circle, leading to his wife's longtime complaint that he never shared stories like his friends did. "My wife died and she still didn't know what I was doing. I never told anybody," Vanke recounted.
Research efforts have identified Vanke as one of approximately 100 Poles who worked on behalf of Bletchley Park between 1940 and 1945. His story has contributed to adding the names of 27 Polish codebreakers and signals intelligence personnel to the Bletchley Park Roll of Honour. This expansion represents a significant update to the documented Polish contribution to Britain's wartime codebreaking, offering a clearer picture of the intelligence partnership between Britain and the Polish government-in-exile.
Among those identified through similar research are Marian Rejewski and Henryk Zygalski, the Polish mathematicians who, along with Jerzy Różycki, first broke the German military Enigma cipher before the war. Their pioneering work was shared with British counterparts at the Pyry Conference in 1939, laying crucial groundwork for the Allied efforts against Enigma. Dr. David Kenyon, research historian at the Bletchley Park Trust, noted the importance of this meeting in fostering the British-Polish partnership.
After the war, Vanke settled in Nottingham, England, where he started a photography business and met his wife, Patricia. He believes he is now the last surviving Polish codebreaker, given his age and that he was the youngest of his unit.
Caroline Whelan, Vanke's daughter, expressed her joy that her father is alive to witness this acknowledgment. "He's one of the people that you never get bored of talking to, and he's always got a story to tell now," she said, reflecting on his previously untold wartime experiences.
The recognition of Vanke and other Polish codebreakers aims to highlight their often-overlooked contributions to the Allied victory in World War II. Rafał Wiśniewski, Chargé d'Affaires a.i. at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London, emphasized that the work of Polish cryptologists was instrumental in cracking the Enigma cipher and played a vital role in saving lives.