Editing Alan Turing (section)

==== Action This Day ====
{{main|Action This Day (memo)}}

By late 1941, Turing and his fellow cryptanalysts [[Gordon Welchman]], [[Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander|Hugh Alexander]] and [[Stuart Milner-Barry]] were frustrated. Building on the [[Biuro Szyfrów#Gift to allies|work of the Poles]], they had set up a good working system for decrypting Enigma signals, but their limited staff and bombes meant they could not translate all the signals. In the summer, they had considerable success, and shipping losses had fallen to under 100,000 tons a month; however, they badly needed more resources to keep abreast of German adjustments. They had tried to get more people and fund more bombes through the proper channels, but had failed.<ref name=":0" />

On 28 October they wrote directly to [[Winston Churchill]] explaining their difficulties, with Turing as the first named. They emphasised how small their need was compared with the vast expenditure of men and money by the forces and compared with the level of assistance they could offer to the forces.<ref name=":0">{{Harvnb|Hodges|1983|p=218}}</ref> As [[Andrew Hodges]], biographer of Turing, later wrote, "This letter had an electric effect."<ref name="Hodges 1983 221">{{Harvnb|Hodges|1983|p=221}}</ref> Churchill wrote a memo to [[Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay|General Ismay]], which read: "ACTION THIS DAY. Make sure they have all they want on extreme priority and report to me that this has been done." On 18 November, the chief of the secret service reported that every possible measure was being taken.<ref name="Hodges 1983 221"/> The cryptographers at Bletchley Park did not know of the Prime Minister's response, but as Milner-Barry recalled, "All that we did notice was that almost from that day the rough ways began miraculously to be made smooth."<ref>Copeland, ''The Essential Turing'', [http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/turingletter.pdf pp. 336–337] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218142127/http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~aar/turingletter.pdf |date=18 February 2015 }}.</ref> More than two hundred bombes were in operation by the end of the war.<ref name=codebreaker>{{cite web | last1 = Copeland | first1 = Jack | last2 = Proudfoot | first2 = Diane | author-link = Jack Copeland | title = Alan Turing, Codebreaker and Computer Pioneer | url = http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/Reference%20Articles/codebreaker.html | publisher = alanturing.net | date = May 2004 | access-date = 27 July 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070709065520/http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/Reference%20Articles/codebreaker.html | archive-date = 9 July 2007 | url-status = live }}</ref>