To commemorate the invention of the device’s 80th anniversary, the intelligence agency is publishing them.
Many people believe that Colossus was the first digital computer ever created, and it says that they “shed new light” on the “genesis and workings of Colossus”.
Its presence was totally concealed until the early 2000s.
The images served as a reminder of the “creativity and ingenuity” needed to keep the nation safe, according to GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler.
“Technological innovation has always been at the centre of our work here at GCHQ, and Colossus is a perfect example of how our staff keep us at the forefront of new technology – even when we can’t talk about it” , she stated.
Early in 1944, the UK’s codebreakers were based at Bletchley Park, where the first Colossus started operations. By the time the war ended, ten computers were involved in the deciphering of Nazi messages.
With 2,500 valves and a height of over two meters, Colossus needed a group of knowledgeable operators and technicians to operate and maintain.
Frequently, they belonged to the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens); one of the recently released pictures depicts Wrens operating the device.
For the first time, the machine’s internal blueprints, an audio recording of it in operation, and a letter mentioning “rather alarming German instructions” that Colossus intercepted have all been made available to the public.
The 550 workers on the computers had decrypted 63 million characters of high-grade German messages by the end of the war.
Helping the Allies realize that Hitler had fallen for the trick that the D-Day landings in June 1944 would take place in Calais rather than Normandy was one of its noteworthy achievements.
According to historians, computers helped to shorten the war and preserve many lives.
