on video How did the Enigma Machine work?

 

Enigma, device used by the German military command to encode strategic messages before and during World War II.

Enigma machine explained

Enigma machine explainedSee all videos for this article

The Enigma code was first broken by the Poles, under the leadership of mathematician Marian Rejewski, in the early 1930s. In 1939, with the growing likelihood of a German invasion, the Poles turned their information over to the British, who set up a secret code-breaking group known as Ultra, under mathematician Alan M. Turing. Because the Germans shared their encryption device with the Japanese, Ultra also contributed to Allied victories in the Pacific. See also Cryptology: Developments during World Wars I and II.

Bletchley Park, British government cryptological establishment in operation during World War II. Bletchley Park was where Alan Turing and other agents of the Ultra intelligence project decoded the enemy's secret messages, most notably those that had been encrypted with the German Enigma and Tunny cipher machines. Experts have suggested that the Bletchley Park code breakers may have shortened the war by as much as two years.

The Bletchley Park site in Buckinghamshire (now in Milton Keynes), England, was about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of London, and conveniently located near a railway line that served both Oxford and Cambridge universities. The property consists of a Victorian manor house and 58 acres (23 hectares) of grounds. The British government acquired it in 1938 and made it a station of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), designated as Station X. At the start of the war in 1939, the station had only 200 workers, but by late 1944 it had a staff of nearly 9,000, working in three shifts around the clock. Experts at crossword-puzzle-solving and chess were among those who were hired. About three-fourths of the workers were women.

 

Enigma, device used by the German military command to encode strategic messages before and during World War II.

Enigma machine explained

Enigma machine explainedSee all videos for this article

The Enigma code was first broken by the Poles, under the leadership of mathematician Marian Rejewski, in the early 1930s. In 1939, with the growing likelihood of a German invasion, the Poles turned their information over to the British, who set up a secret code-breaking group known as Ultra, under mathematician Alan M. Turing. Because the Germans shared their encryption device with the Japanese, Ultra also contributed to Allied victories in the Pacific. See also Cryptology: Developments during World Wars I and II.

Bletchley Park, British government cryptological establishment in operation during World War II. Bletchley Park was where Alan Turing and other agents of the Ultra intelligence project decoded the enemy's secret messages, most notably those that had been encrypted with the German Enigma and Tunny cipher machines. Experts have suggested that the Bletchley Park code breakers may have shortened the war by as much as two years.

The Bletchley Park site in Buckinghamshire (now in Milton Keynes), England, was about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of London, and conveniently located near a railway line that served both Oxford and Cambridge universities. The property consists of a Victorian manor house and 58 acres (23 hectares) of grounds. The British government acquired it in 1938 and made it a station of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), designated as Station X. At the start of the war in 1939, the station had only 200 workers, but by late 1944 it had a staff of nearly 9,000, working in three shifts around the clock. Experts at crossword-puzzle-solving and chess were among those who were hired. About three-fourths of the workers were women.