Idea Transcript
The Cryptanalysis of World War II: Deciphering the Enigma Code
Emma Brashaw Junior Division Historical Paper Words 2,026
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Many people believe that the Allied Forces were at war with Germany during World War II. In reality, they were at war with the clock. German Enigma was a secret device used by the German military to encode messages before and during the Second World War. These messages needed to be broken in order for the Allied Forces to gain vital information about Germany’s top secret war plans. Cryptanalysts of the Allied Forces worked vigorously to win the game of cracking the Enigma Code before time ran out. Very few people knew that decrypting the Enigma Code was one of the main factors that led to the Allies’ victory. The code, and the breaking of it, remained unknown to the public for 50 entire years after the war. History’s encounter with the Enigma Code allowed the Allies to explore and decipher Germany’s undisclosed strategic war messages. This eventually led to an exchange of information that saved lives and created a pathway to today’s computer technology. Encountering Enigma
The encounter of Enigma came about in the 1920’s, with the invention of the rotorbased cipher machine. Officially, the Enigma machine became the brainchild of Arthur Scherbius in 1918, right after World War I. After several years of improving his invention, the first machine to become publicly known was in 1923. Arthur Scherbius invented it with the hope of selling it to commercial companies that dealt in secure communications. He tried to sell his invention to the German military.1 The German military used a variety of ciphers to encode their communications. The one that proved to Leavitt, David. The Man Who Knew Too Much . London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print. Great Discoveries. 1
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be most difficult to decrypt was, in fact Enigma.2 When branches of the German military began to utilize his device, a cipher machine corporation was set up to manufacture his product. His invention became the start of the secure communications industry.3 Arthur Scherbius’ device started off as a complex typewriter, but became more and more intricate as time allowed him to make improvements. The basic Enigma machine consisted of a keyboard, an output box, glow lamps, and a stecker board. The plugboard, reflector, and wheels were features specifically added to the Enigma machines used by the military.4 All in all, there were 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 (about 159 quintillion) different Enigma settings used to encode messages. A new setting was used each day, making it nearly impossible to crack the codes. The Germans were convinced that Enigma was impossible to break!5 The Secret Allied Weapon Enigma became a very useful way of communication for the Germans as World War II moved forward. As the machine began to advance, Germans did not hesitate to use the device for encoding messages. Spies, soldiers, members of Secret Services, and members of the Navy used the code in many battle related circumstances. The German military used it for almost all communication that they wanted kept confidential during the war.6 This was their big mistake. Little did they know that a classified group of
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“Enigma." Encyclopaedia Britannica . Encyclopedia Britannica, Incorporation, 13 Oct. 2015. Web 3
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Ibid., Leavitt, 146.
Enigma Machine. The History Blog . WordPress, 7 Nov. 2012. Web.
“ The Enigma Machine.” Ellsbury. Graham Ellsbury. Web 6 “Code Breaking.” History. AETN UK, 2015. Web 5
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cryptologists working at Bletchley Park under the name of Ultra were decoding Germany’s messages and using the decoded messages against them. Despite common belief, Enigma actually helped the Allied Forces and did more harm to the Axis powers.7 If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again During World War II, the Allied Forces worked vigorously to decipher the German Enigma. Hans Thilo Schmidt, a German spy, stole an Enigma device and classified documents for the French and Polish governments. Because Enigma was such a secretive subject, he was interrogated and shot for transmitting the furtive information.8 The French were not able to make headway in breaking Enigma, but the Polish were able to decode it for a short period of time. A mathematician named Marian Rejewski deduced how the internal wiring and rotors worked. This enabled the Polish to construct a copy of the German enciphering machine, thus allowing the Poles to decipher the Enigma. As fate would have it, there was an error in the Enigma. Unfortunately, when the Germans corrected this error, the Poles’ machine was rendered useless.9 The Polish cryptanalysts used a form of mathematics known as the Group Theory. With the information obtained from spies, guesswork, and Marian Rejewski’s knowledge, the Poles made discoveries about the encoded messages.10 They learned that Enigma would never decode a letter as itself, and that the Germans included clues to ensure that the message’s intended recipient had the correct rotor setting. Cracking the Enigma Code was a necessity, so the Poles Welchman, Gordon. The Hut Six Story Breaking the Enigma Codes. Toronto: McGraw Hill, 1982. Print. Ibid., The Enigma Machine. 9 H odges, Andrew. Alan Turing the Enigma . Centenary ed. New Jersey: Princeton 7 8
University Press, 2012. Print. 10 Copeland, Jack. “Alan Turing”. Rutherford Journal. Web
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passed on their findings and their useless machine to their British counterparts in hope that the British would succeed in unraveling the code.11 Passing on this crucial information eventually allowed British cryptologists to crack Enigma with a new method and shorten the war. Ultra was a code word for a group of people of extreme intelligence who deciphered highlevel enemy communications. This group was handpicked by Alfred Dillwyn Knox (“Dilly” Knox), Chief Cryptographer of the Government Code and Cipher School at the end of World War I.12 Together, they worked in underground huts in Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, England. The team, working for Dilly Knox, included three famous mathematicians: Alan Turing, John Jeffrey, and Peter Twinn. The three of them led a group of others working at the park, and together they were able to unravel the German Army administrative key.13 Alan Turing helped adapt a decoding device originally developed by Poland in order to create the bombe, an electromechanical decrypting machine that would decipher Enigma codes. It took four years for Alan Turing to successfully complete his machine. The method used for cracking Enigma with Turing’s machine became known as Turingery.14 Turingery transformed Bletchley Park into a codebreaking factory.15 In 1940, Ultra only decoded 273 German Enigma messages. The decoding device allowed Enigma to be broken much faster and more efficiently with highly detailed knowledge of German
K ahn, David. The Race to Break the German UBoat Codes, 19391943 . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. Print. 12 Corrigan, Jim. Profiles in Mathematics Alan Turing. Greensboro: Morgan Reynolds, 2009. Print. 13 “Breaking Enigma." Bletchley Park . Bletchley Park Trust, 2015. Web. 14 "Alan Turing Biography." Biography . A&E Television Networks. Web. 15 Hinsley, F. H., and Alan Stripp, eds. Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 11
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strategy. The number of decoded messages grew to a stunning 4,655 in the year of 1942!16 Despite the cryptanalysts’ excitement of breaking Enigma, their discoveries had to remain unknown to the Germans.17 Concealing the Code Secrecy shrouded the fact that the German Enigma Code had been unraveled. If the Germans knew that the British had broken Enigma, they would have modified their Enigma Machine or designed a new way to intricately communicate. To hide the fact that the British even knew about Enigma, they nicknamed Enigma messages “Tunny Messages.” Using this sobriquet allowed members of Ultra to converse about Enigma without Germany discovering their secret. 18 Britain created an imaginary network of agents that worked in Germany, because they could not act upon their deciphered messages without the Germans discovering that they had deciphered Enigma. These “agents” acted as British spies and supposedly replayed information about German war plans. However, there was an actual British network, known as the YService, monitoring Germany’s every move. It was a chain of wireless intercept stations across Britain that sent Enigma messages back to Bletchley Park to be deciphered.19 If Germany had changed the Enigma Code, Ultra would not have
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Lycett, Andrew. “History.” BBC. BBC. Web. Murray, Williamson. "The Misunderstood Allied Secret Weapon." HistoryNet . HistoryNet, 12 June 2006. Web. 18 Ibid., Murray. 19 Griffiths, Kate. "RAF West Kingsdown Y Station." Bletchley Park Research . Bletchley Park Research, Oct. 2012. Web. 17
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been able to learn about the Italian Naval plans for the Battle of Cape Matapan, decipher coded messages by the Rommel Panzer Army, or decode messages sent by German Uboats.20 In keeping their codebreaking a secret, it proved to be a strategic plan in defeating the Axis Powers. The Naval Enigma “The only thing that ever really frightened me during the war was the Uboat peril,” states Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 19401945.21 The Battle of the Atlantic consisted of thousands of German Uboats and Italian submarines that stretched across the Atlantic attacking Allied ships that transported military equipment and supplies. The boats had great success at sinking Allied convoys and merchant ships with torpedoes.22 During the Battle of the Atlantic, transmissions sent to and from German Uboats and Italian submarines received the highest priorities from cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park. In 1941, the advantage point shifted from the Germans to the British. Due to a deciphered Enigma message, Allied Forces were able to find and capture U110, a German Uboat. Key setting sheets, known as Enigma Code Books, were found on U110.23 These books contained the daily rotor settings for the Enigma machines. If the rotor settings were accessible, Enigma did not need to be deciphered by the Turingery Machine.. British cryptanalysts could just enter the letters into the Enigma machine and receive the original
"Battle of the Atlantic." History . AETN UK, 2015. Web. I bid. 22 J ames. "Enigma Machine:Facts and Information." Primary Facts . Primary Facts, 4 20 21
Dec. 2014. Web. 23 Kahn, David. The Race to Break the German UBoat Codes, 19391943 . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. Print.
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message. The use of the books allowed Ultra to read Enigma messages and track the movements of other Axis boats.24 This aided Allied forces in avoiding the attacks from the Axis powers and to retaliate. Thanks to the capture of U110, the British were reading German naval messages practically as fast as the Germans themselves. Cracking Enigma and locating German Uboats and Italian submarines also made a huge contribution toward winning the war and helped lead the path to success.25 Turingery and its Exchange on the Modern World Alan Turing’s invention and Ultra's ability to decode Enigma, without a doubt, has made an immense impact on today’s society. Britain’s ability to crack German Enigma shortened World War II by an estimated two to four years. Each year of fighting in Europe brought on an average of seven million deaths. If German Enigma had not been broken, and the war had continued for another two to four years, 1428 more million people may have been killed. The significance of Turing’s contribution can be quantified in terms of the number of additional lives that would have been lost if he had not achieved what he did .26 Breaking Enigma helped the Allies shorten the war, save lives, and pave the way for the technological future of the world. Alan Turing’s bombe, which was used to crack the encrypted signals of the German military, also impacted today’s technology. It was the base of the modern day computer.
Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing the Enigma . Centenary ed. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012. Print. 24
Ibid., Kahn. C opeland, Prof. Jack. "Alan Turing: The Codebreaker Who Saved 'Millions of Lives.'" BBC News. BBC, 19 June 2012. Web. 25 26
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The Turing machine was used to classify problems and had an influence on how computer scientists approach problem solving today. His machine was similar to John von Neumann’s operational computer, one of the first computers ever built. Neumann’s computer architecture is the model for all computers today. Turing’s decoding machines have the same fundamentals of how computers operate; however, a computer is able to perform more tasks.27 Eric W. Brown, Director of Watson Technologies at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, comments, “Turing is so fundamental to so much of computer science that it is hard to do anything with computers that isn’t somehow influenced by his work.” 28 Without Turing’s decoding machine, the entire course of computing would have been delayed, or at least really difficult. Turingery was a seed that was subsumed into the first extensive electronic computer. The Enigma machine itself had the ability to transmit messages without having a connection to another machine. It foreshadowed today's phone networks. Phones can now contact one another without having a direct tie. Today’s computers use binary logic (algorithms that a compiler converts into a series of ones and zeros). Turingery also used similar algorithms to those that computers use.29 Alan Turing’s bombe used the basic fundamentals of a computer that allowed society to make technological improvements in the modern day. In final analysis, cracking the Enigma Code greatly affected the outcome of World War II. Tunny messages that came from a complex machine used by the Germans were able
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Cerf, Vint. "Alan Turing: Why the Tech World's Hero Should Be a Household Game." BBC . BBC, 18 June 2012. Web. 28 Jackson, Joab. "How Alan Turing Set the Rules for Computing." Computerworld . Computerworld, 22 June 2012. Web. 29 Ibid
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to be cracked by the secret group Ultra. Ultra used the important information collected from the deciphered messages to help aid Allied Forces to win and shorten the war. The machine used to decode Enigma further aided the enhancement of technology as it is seen today. Because the German military encountered Arthur Scherbius’ Enigma Machine and failed to fully protect its secrecy, cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park were able to explore and decrypt the classified codes. The success of Alan Turing and his team proved to be a key factor in the exchange of information that lead to the end of World War II, thus saving millions of lives and influencing the beginning of computers. Remember to change and add the citations. Remember to change the navel paragraph and add to it. Remember to
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Appendix I
Wordsworm, Mark. Turingery Machine. Travelling Worm . WordPress, 18 Nov. 2012.
The above shows a Turingery machine, an electromechanical device used to decipher the Enigma code. Alan Turing’s bombe made an ingenious advance in technology. The function of this machine had the equivalence of 36 Enigma machines. Known phrases included in the messages, such as “Heil Hitler” or “The weather forecast for today” made the process of decrypting the daily settings go faster.30 This process took approximately two hours leaving the rest of the day to decode Enigma.31
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Ibid., Kahn Adams, Simon. World War II. Munich: Andrew Macintyre, Print. Eyewitness.
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Appendix II
Y Service. Bletchley Park . Web.
Members of the Y service collected messages from the German army, air force, navy, and other sources. They sent them to certain huts at Bletchley Park depending on from whom they had collected the encoded message.32 For example, a message from a Uboat would be delivered to Hut 8.33 People that worked for the Y service were men and women who were fluent in German and Italian.34 The work was arduous and difficult.35 Over 3,000 Enigma messages from the intercept stations across Britain were sent to Bletchley Park to be decoded.36 “YService”. Bletchley Park . Web. Ibid., Welchman. 34 Ibid., Hinsley. 35 Crossley, Geoffrey Ellis. "WW2 People's War." BBC . BBC, 15 Oct. 2014. Web. 32
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Ibid., YService.
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Bibliography
Primary Sources “Breaking Enigma." Bletchley Park . Bletchley Park Trust, 2015. Web.
This source provided information about how the Poles were able to crack the Enigma code for a short period of time. It also provided information about the leader and members of ULTRA. Bletchley Park is a now a museum that showcases the huts and buildings in which the members of ULTRA worked. This is the museum's official website which provides an overview of Enigma.
Copeland, Jack. “Alan Turing”. Rutherford Journal . Web.
Several interviews with a workers at the Bletchley Park Museum were included in this reliable essay written by Professor Jack Copeland. This provided a number of facts throughout the paper.
Crossley, Geoffrey Ellis. "WW2 People's War." BBC . BBC, 15 Oct. 2014. Web.
A memoir of a soldier during WWII was featured on this website. He was in military training and was hurt in combat. His new position after being injured was working for the Y Services. According to Geoffrey Crossley, much intelligence and brainwork were required. The work was hard and arduous. His memoir helped give me a better understanding of the Y Services and how they operated.
Enigma Machine. The History Blog . WordPress, 7 Nov. 2012. Web.
This source revealed a picture of an Enigma Machine being sold in an auction for the Bonhams Scientific Sale. It was one of the machines used in World War II. It provided a description of the parts included in an Enigma machine. This website also included the author’s inside story of their experience of visiting the Bletchley Park museum.
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Hinsley, F. H., and Alan Stripp, eds. Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. This source gave many descriptions of Bletchley Park and much information about the place. It contained a few diary entries from some of the women who worked their to help with the process of deciphering Enigma.
Kahn, David. The Race to Break the German UBoat Codes, 19391943 . Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991. Print. “Known phrases included in the messages, such as “Heil Hitler” or “The weather forecast for today” made the process of decrypting the daily settings go faster.” This specific fact along with the one on how there were clues within the messages could be found in this source.
Welchman, Gordon. The Hut Six Story Breaking the Enigma Codes . Toronto: McGraw Hill, 1982. Print. The author, Gordon Welchman, was actually one of the people that worked at Bletchley park. He later wrote an entire book about the whole experience. A lot of fact ranging from boat U10 to the Poles work was to be found in this book. The main fact that was pulled from this source was information on each hut of Bletchley park.
Wordsworm, Mark. “Turingery Machine”. Travelling Worm . WordPress, 18 Nov. 2012.
A tourist that visited Bletchley Park took pictures of some of the exhibits featured at the museum. One of the photographs of a Turingery machine provided a lot of detail of all its intricate features. The machines showcased at Bletchley Park show how intricate the machines looked and gave a better understanding of how the bombe was really advanced for it’s time.
“YService”. Bletchley Park . Web. A picture taken in World War II of people working for the Y Services was included in this source of information. The people are all in deep concentration copying down messages on multiple sheets of paper. This source relates to information provided in other texts that mention how working for the Y Service was not easy work. The website also explained how messages collected from different groups were sent to different huts at Bletchley Park.
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Secondary Sources "Alan Turing Biography." Biography . A&E Television Networks. Web.
The biography of Alan Turing supplied information about his later life and death. The text provides information about how he was convicted of homosexuality and the cyanide found in his half eaten apple.
"Battle of the Atlantic." History . AETN UK, 2015. Web. The information provided in this text included details as to how many German Uboats and Italian submarines there were in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. It also mentioned the capturing of Uboat 110 and how that aided cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park to decipher Enigma. There were quotes provided by intellectual people such as Winston Churchill.
Cerf, Vint. "Alan Turing: Why the Tech World's Hero Should Be a Household Game." BBC . BBC, 18 June 2012. Web. This source dispensed information about binary code and modern computers. Information in my paper regarding Alan Turing’s impact on modern computers came from this source and others that contained similar information.
“Code Breaking." history . AETN UK, 2015. Web.
Military positions in which Enigma was used are mentioned in the text. The advancement of Enigma and some of ULTRA’s work were also found in this text. Some successes that followed the breaking of Enigma were documented in the data found in the database.
Copeland, Prof. Jack. "Alan Turing: The Codebreaker Who Saved 'Millions of Lives.'" BBC News . BBC, 19 June 2012. Web. This website focuses on the impact that breaking Enigma has had on the modern world. Information in my article pertaining to today’s phone networks and the numbers of lives saved due to the shortened war came from this reliable professor’s essay.
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“Enigma." Encyclopaedia Britannica . Encyclopedia Britannica, Incorporation, 13 Oct. 2015. Web A short overview of Enigma and the breaking of it were uncovered in this web page. This really helped me grasp the concept of the Enigma machine and its code before I wrote this paper and assisted me in writing my introduction paragraph. The fact that the Poles passed on information of the Enigma machine was also included in this source.
"The Enigma Machine." Ellsbury . Graham Ellsbury. Web. Details about the Enigma machine’s construction, operation, and complexity were found in this source. It helped me comprehend how the Enigma machine was really complex for its time and still is today. Information about the spy, Hans Thilo Schmidt, was also uncovered in this source of information.
Griffiths, Kate. "RAF West Kingsdown Y Station." Bletchley Park Research . Bletchley Park Research, Oct. 2012. Web. Facts about Y Service members were covered topics in this website. The information about the job requirements and the hardships of working at a Y Service helped me comprehend more about what the Y Service really was.
Jackson, Joab. "How Alan Turing Set the Rules for Computing." Computerworld . Computerworld, 22 June 2012. Web. This website offers information of Alan Turing’s legacy and his impact on modern day technology. Unlike other sources of information that contain similar information, this source had many quotes by professors that were useful in my paper.
James. "Enigma Machine:Facts and Information." Primary Facts . Primary Facts, 4 Dec. 2014. Web. There was a list of interesting facts found in this source. Some of the text that deemed useful to my paper provided information that it was very painstakingly hard to decipher the Enigma code and that Germans thought the Enigma code to be unbreakable. Uboat information was also presented in this source.
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Lycett, Andrew. "History." BBC . BBC. Web. Data relating to the inventor of Enigma and his intentions for creating the device was stated in this source of information. Poland and Britain’s attempts at deciphering Enigma were also explained in this source.
Murray, Williamson. "The Misunderstood Allied Secret Weapon." HistoryNet . HistoryNet, 12 June 2006. Web. The facts that the Allied Forces knew about Enigma, that they were deciphering it, and that it had to remain a secret came from this source (as well as others alike). The idea of secrecy is presented and emphasized throughout the entire source.
Pelling, Nick. "Cryptography vs Cryptanalysis vs Cryptology." Cipher Mysteries . WordPress, 3 Feb. 2009. Web. The definitions of the words cryptanalysis, cryptology, and cryptography are commonly mistaken for one another. This source efficiently explained the difference between each word and gave superior examples. Thanks to this source, my title contains the correct of the three: cryptanalysis.
Tertiary Sources (Primary and Secondary Sources combined) Adams, Simon. World War II . Munich: Andrew Macintyre, n.d. Print. Eyewitness. This source was found in a book that contained a number of facts about World War II. Two pages were dedicated to Enigma. This source gave an overview and included the most important and relevant facts.
Corrigan, Jim. Profiles in Mathematics Alan Turing . Greensboro: Morgan Reynolds, 2009. Print.
This source gave me information about Arthur Scherbius, the father of Enigma.
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Hodges, Andrew. Alan Turing the Enigma . Centenary ed. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2012. Print. This book provided not one, but many facts. All the information that I was able to find in this book was also to be found in the other sources. I did find some information about Dilly Knox, the person who picked people to work at Ultra.
Leavitt, David. The Man Who Knew Too Much . London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print. Great Discoveries. This book contained me really valuable information about the Polish attempt to decipher the Enigma code. The “Group Theory” was mentioned in this source.
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