Registered Charity Number 1044195

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Code Name: Santa Fe

The Secret Wartime History of Hall Place

An Exhibition at Hall Place

13 September 2014 - 15 March 2015

Hall Place held an important secret 70 years ago. During the Second World War it was a Y station, code name Santa Fe, where nearly 200 US soldiers, or GIs, worked day and night to intercept the German Military's coded messages. The GIs arrived in Bexley in late 1943 as part of the Allied build-up to the Normandy landings and the subsequent liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation. The men of the US Army Signal Corps stationed in Bexley played a vital role capturing the scrambled messages that were then sent to Bletchley Park known as Station X. The success of the D-Day landings in June 1944, vital if Hitler was to be defeated, depended on good intelligence about the enemy's activities. Hundreds of men and women were involved in what was known as Operation Ultra. This exhibition is a tribute to the US soldiers who worked exhausting hours in top secret at Hall Place. Several veterans and their families have kindly lent objects and images so that their remarkable story can be told. A group of Bexley u3a members under the guidance of Priscilla Macpherson is proud to have assisted the curator, Kirsty Macklen, to assemble some of the background material for this exhibition. It was a u3a shared learning project and involved archival research and a very enjoyable visit to Bletchley Park earlier in the year.

See the background to the research leading up to the exhibition

Pictures of the exhibition at Hall Place

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Hall Place

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HALL PLACE EXHIBITION

Registered Charity Number 1044195

Hall Place held an important secret 70 years ago. During the Second World War it was a Y station, code name Santa Fe, where nearly 200 US soldiers, or GIs, worked day and night to intercept the German Military's coded messages. The GIs arrived in Bexley in late 1943 as part of the Allied build-up to the Normandy landings and the subsequent liberation of Europe from Nazi occupation. The men of the US Army Signal Corps stationed in Bexley played a vital role capturing the scrambled messages that were then sent to Bletchley Park, known as Station X. The success of the D-Day landings in June 1944, vital if Hitler was to be defeated, depended on good intelligence about the enemy's activities. Hundreds of men and women were involved in what was known as Operation Ultra. This exhibition is a tribute to the US soldiers who worked exhausting hours in top secret at Hall Place. Several veterans and their families have kindly lent objects and images so that their remarkable story can be told. A group of Bexley u3a members under the guidance of Priscilla Macpherson is proud to have assisted the curator, Kirsty Macklen, to assemble some of the background material for this exhibition. It was a u3a shared learning project and involved archival research and a very enjoyable visit to Bletchley Park earlier in the year. You can see more about the exhibition plus photos of the event on the desktop version of our website.

Bexley u3a