The most interesting story in the history of cryptology is probably the story of the German Enigma machine, Bletchley Park, Alan Turing, and the Bombe

How the Allies Cracked the German Enigma Machine

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2021-07-01 20:30:08

The most interesting story in the history of cryptology is probably the story of the German Enigma machine, Bletchley Park, Alan Turing, and the Bombe. It is the story that sparked my entire interest in history and cryptology in fact. But that’s another story, for another day, and another post.

The first time I ever thought of history as something other than a series of facts to be memorized for a school quiz or test was when I learned about the Allied codebreaking effort in WW2.

It occurred to me that the history we learn is only set in stone now; at the time it was happening, things were profoundly uncertain, and the choices and effort of individuals would have huge ramifications on what would happen.

At the beginning of each day the operators would have settings for the machine that they would all use. The settings were which letters in the plug board to connect, and which starting position to have the 3 non-static wheels on. The operator who wished to send an encrypted message would type a letter and an electrical current would run through the plugboard, swapping the pressed letter for another letter, then through all the wheels swapping the input letter every step of the way for the new “input” of the next step, before finally lighting up the output letter on the lampboard. The wheels would rotate as the message went along, further complicating any effort to crack the cipher.

The difference between knowing what your enemy in the largest war of all time are saying amongst themselves in secret, and not knowing, is enormous. British Intelligence knew this and started a massive crowdsourced initiative to find a way to crack it. They didn’t know how they would do it so they casted a wide net. Are you excellent at crossword puzzles? Come to Bletchley Park (where the Enigma breaking efforts were centered) and help the war effort. Are you a brilliant mathematician? Come help. Are you a linguist? Get over here.

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