The Wider View: Nazi Codebreaker Which Shortened The Second World War By Two Years

Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | March 28, 2009

[Steelfish]

The Wider View: Nazi codebreaker which shortened the Second World War by two years

By MAIL ON SUNDAY REPORTER 28th March 2009

The rows of silver dials and tangle of scarlet wires look more like a telephone exchange.

But this is the inside of the Turing Bombe, the part-electronic, part-mechanical code-breaking machine and forerunner of the modern computer, which cracked 3,000 messages a day sent on Nazi Enigma machines during the Second World War.

There were 210 such bookcase-like Bombes that gave Britain advance warning of Hitler’s plans and shortened the conflict by two years.

[Fiddlstix]

WOW! That's some machine.

[iowamark]

The machine was named after an earlier Polish code-breaking machine called a Bomba.

The key work on breaking Enigma was done by the Poles before the war. Despite receiving no military assistance from the British or French, they passed this work on to the British.

Also, Polish pilots flying for the RAF, ten percent of the RAF's fighter pilots, played a critical role in the Battle of Britain.

[iowamark]

All were destroyed for security reasons on Churchill’s orders after the war.

Unlikely. Several nations used the Enigma machine for decades after the war and Britain kept reading their traffic until the 1970's when the Enigma cipher breaking became public.

[TomasUSMC]

cracked 3,000 messages a day sent on Nazi Enigma machines during the Second World War.
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Sheeez, you’d think that would have won the war in a week.

[Ahithophel]

Good point, I agree. And how do they know the war was shortened by two years? Not 22 month or 30 months, but two years. Amazing.

[Does so]

"...Britain kept reading their traffic until the 1970's when the Enigma cipher breaking became public..."

New York Times?

[Domangart]

Wrong machine. They used the bomba to get three them four letter code group for the day. American WAF or Wave built the code wheels in large amount before going into business. The Loraine machine had 16 wheels and was the third prize of the set. They are attempting or have rebuilt a bomba.

[jamaksin]

See:

BOMBE! "I could hardly believe it", Robert I. Atha, Cryptologia, Volume 9, Number 4 (October 1985), pages 332-336

"From the Archives: The Last Bombe Run, 1955", Colin Burke, Crypologia Volume 32 (2008), pages 277-279

"CANTAB" (aka 6/6502) Project - British Tabulating Machine Company, Ltd., Icknield Way, Letchworth, Great Britain.

US Navy "Bombe" - NCR, Dayton, OH

[jamaksin]

There is a publication - CACM - "Communications of the ACM" - the "M" stands for machinery.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Of course, the war would have ended in August 1945 anyway . . .

[Roscoe Karns]

[Hootch]

Yeah, but some of them were things like, “Adolph, please pick up some Schnitzil and milk on the way home, Love Ava.”...

[TomasUSMC]

True. LoL

[iowamark]

Frederick Winterbotham’s book: The Ultra Secret.