Use of the enigma code and machine
During WWII, most German communications were enciphered on the Enigma machine.This electro-mechanical rotor cipher machine, first patented in 1919, was adopted by the German Navy in 1926, the Army in 1928, and the Air Force in 1935. The ciphers produced were supposed to be unbreakable even by someone in possession of the machine.
The Enigma machine enabled its operator to type a message, then ‘scramble’ it using a letter substitution system, generated by variable rotors and an electric circuit. To decode the message, the recipient needed to know the exact settings of the wheels. During the pre-war years the German code experts added new plugs, circuits and features to the machine, but its basic principle remained the same.
The Enigma machine enabled its operator to type a message, then ‘scramble’ it using a letter substitution system, generated by variable rotors and an electric circuit. To decode the message, the recipient needed to know the exact settings of the wheels. During the pre-war years the German code experts added new plugs, circuits and features to the machine, but its basic principle remained the same.
In 1939, the British established the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. Mathematicians and intelligence experts, with the help of primitive early computers, began the complex task of cracking the Enigma code. One of these brilliant mathematicians entrusted with this task was Alan Turing.