The Colossus of Rhodes The Colossus was a WWII electronic digital computer made up of approximately 1700 valves (tubes). It was used to crack the codes of the German High Command's Lorenz SZ-40 cipher machine. The Colossus is known as the world's first fixed-program, digital, electronic computer. It was built by Alan Turing at Bletchley Park with financial backing from Winston Churchill. The project was kept secret until 1951 when it was revealed in a book by John Brooks. Alan Turing was born on June 23rd 1903 in London, England as Alan Mathison Turing. He was an English mathematician who worked on problems related to computation and intelligence. His work led to him being known as the father of computer science. Turing graduated from King's College Cambridge with a degree in mathematics in 1926. But due to poor health he had to leave the university before completing his studies. He then went to Stamford Bridge School in Surrey where he met his future wife, Joan Clarke. They married in 1931 and had a son together named Michael. In 1933, Turing began working for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park near Milton Keynes. The job came with good pay but also involved taking part in decryption exercises every day. This gave Turing time to think about other interests besides coding and decoding messages. He invented a new type of computing machine called a "computer" that could solve complex equations.