On the night of 2/3 June 1944 a Lysander aircraft of No 161 (Special Duties) Squadron, flown by Flying Officer ‘Alex’ Alexander picked up a French Colonel, Gustave Bertrand, and his wife from a field near Orleans in the Loire Region of France and brought them back to RAF Tangmere and safety.
A temporary exhibition is being held in the Museum’s Merston Hall adjacent to the full-size Lysander replica aircraft from I July until 2 September 2023. The exhibition covers how three Polish mathematicians broke the encoded messages of the German Military Enigma cipher machine and Bertand’s connection with these code breakers. The exhibition also has on display a replica Enigma machine built in-house by the Museum’s Engineering Special Projects Team.
Entry to the exhibition is included in the normal Museum entrance fee
