Despite its widespread use in the war, the Enigma machine was actually invented years before the war in the 1930s. This early form of the machine created its codes based on three rotors in it. These rotors could be rotated to create hundreds of millions of different possible codes. As a result, the Germans began to believe that the code was unbreakable.
Unfortunately for the Germans, the code would soon be broken by a team of Polish mathematicians consisting of Jerzy Rozycki, Henryk Zygalski, and Marian Rejewski. Together, they were able to break the code despite neither the French nor British being able to. The key was that the Polish were able to break it down using math, while the British and French were focused on using linguistics to break the code.
Eventually, the Germans found out their code had been broken so they made it more complex at the start of World War II. In addition to adding a fourth rotor and thus creating millions of new possibilities, they also started switching the code every day and limiting the amount of time the Allies had to crack it.
In order to try and decipher the new, more complex code, the British government secretly assembled a team mathematicians, led by Alan Turing. Because each code was virtually impossible for humans to crack within a mere day, Turing's team had to create a machine that could break it within a reasonable amount of time. Using the foundations provided by the Polish years before, Turing and his team created the "Bombe", nicknamed for the ticking sound it made.
The Bombe would prove invaluable to the Allies during the war and was key in helping the Allies win the Battle of the Pacific. Since the German U-boats were dependent on radio transmissions for communication, by intercepting and decoding these messages, the Bombe was able to stop countless U-boat attacks. And so, despite his treatment after the war due to his homosexuality, there is no doubt that Turing's work shortened the war by years and saved millions of lives.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28167071
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-alan-turing-cracked-the-enigma-code
After hearing about the enigma code in the documentary, I was interested in learning more, so thank you for this post Charles! I had always assumed that the machine had been built in response to the war, not prior to it in the 1930's. Understanding the enigma code was crucial to Operation Mincemeat, as it allowed British officers to ensure their plan was working (that Hitler believed the Allied forces would attack Greece, not Sicily). The following article includes brief insight into how the enigma code was used during this mission: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11887115
ReplyDeleteSomething interesting that I found is that the breaking of the enigma code indirectly lead to the founding of the CIA in America. During WWII, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services and precursor to the CIA). In response to the breaking of the code, the OSS set up an office to handle the new information coming from the decoded enigma machine. This department became known as the Secret Intelligence Branch.
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2015-featured-story-archive/the-enigma-of-alan-turing.html
Your post is very informative on the topic of encoded messages in WWII. I watched the movie "The Imitation Game," which came out in 2014, about the work of Alan Turing in decoding Enigma. It's interesting to think how their one machine was able to save thousands of lives out on the battlefields, that by decoding the messages Germans sent, they could accurately predict upcoming attacks on Allied forces. If they weren't able to crack the code, who knows how many more lives could have been lost. In fact, his Bombe was able to save the battle of the Atlantic, as the U-boat Enigma which was used to communicate with submarines was deciphered. His machine is actually considered an early predecessor to the modern computer, and he's considered the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article040101.html
http://www.turing.org.uk/
It was hugely advantageous to the Allies that the British cracked the Enigma code, but they were not the only ones who succeeded in decryption. The US was able to gain a considerable upper hand over Japan by breaking Japanese codes. The Japanese implemented multiple codes: first, they had a code that the US dubbed "red." This was not actually broken by the US, but a codebook was found that allowed the US to translate the code. Then, Japan made a more complec code, which came to be called "blue." The US cracked this after about 2 years. Then, when Japan became allies with Germany, the Germans gave them some of the Enigma technology, and developed a new code (called "Purple"). "Purple," like the Enigma code itself, was the hardest to break because it was a machine based code that could only be broken by machines. Once the US and British realized this, they both changed their strategies on code breaking.
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http://codenames.info/operation/magic/
Your post is very interesting. The Enigma machine was possibly the earliest form of a computer. The word enigma itself means a puzzle or difficult to understand. This encoding messages were challenging but also captivating to solve. This intelligent mind play of encoding and solving messages encouraged mathematicians and problem solvers to out due each message to be deciphered and more complex messages to be created. This complex thinking eventually led to the modern day computer. If only the US had invented the computer back then.......
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