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Yesterday I spoke with Lorna Cockayne, one of the last surviving people who ran the first computers in the world--the Colossus computers at Bletchley Park. 
Lorna is in her 90s but still vividly recalls the (often tedious) work. Her job as a Colossus operator was to crack the encryption, which changed every day, for Lorenz--the code used for German high command to receive their marching orders. It was far harder to crack than Enigma.
Lorna's machine was Colossus II, which was brought into operation just before D-Day. The information unlocked by Lorna & the other women working in round-the-clock shifts on this machine was make-or-break for the success of the D-Day landings (as I talk about in @proginequality)
