The only reason I know about him is because of the movie The Imitation Game and when I heard of the Turing test(from the movie Ex Machina). But never in my K-12 years have I even heard of Alan Turing discussed in class.
He seems like he was an absolute necessity for our victory against Hitler. So why was he ignored?
He seems like he was an absolute necessity for our victory against Hitler.
Because he wasnt...
Not only because of the massive number of people working on similar issues related to SIGINT, but because of the vastly more impact of things completely unrelated to his efforts.
Yes it is very nice to know the routes U-Boats are taking, and which convoys are targeted but by 1943 on each individual convoy was vastly better protected. Newer destroyers and more light escorts, advances in weaponry and SONAR, and especially patrol aircraft and escort carrier based hunter killer groups were the key to winning the battle of the Atlantic. Intercepts and ULTRA Intel just made it faster. And even then with German changes in cypher and models of Enigma meant whole months could go by when German Naval intercepts would dry up.
But even if U-Boats say had been 50 or even 75% more successful it doesnt change much, the US was simply producing so much shipping and the western Allies assembling such a force that so long as Russia did not capitulate Germany was in an untenable situation, and even then its iffy.
He was no more critical to the defeat of Germany than Rochefort was against Japan. Yes his work contributed to the massive victory at Midway but even a total reverse and Japanese victory doesnt change the underlying trends of the war. Within 2 years of war the US could have started from 0 ships and just using new builds had a larger fleet than Japan. At that point so long as political will doesnt collapse it is hard to resist such a force and better intel just becomes icing on the cake.
It may depend on where you take your history from.
Turing is taught in uk history classes on the second world war. The role of Bletchley park and the enigma code breaking is a key factor in understanding how the war progressed.
Turing is also used as an example in the history of oppression of Gay people, and, again this is commonly taught in uk schools.
Could it have been because, some of his contributions to WW2 were only recently declassified? I know some information was declassified in 2012, but I don't know the details. If someone can speak to this, it would be much appreciated.