| THE ENIGMA |
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| continued |
In 1939, teams of French, British, and Polish experts set up a radio monitoring system in Paris, code named Bruno, where German Enigma signals were intercepted. These messages were then transmitted to the team in London Bletchley Center. From the messages intercepted the Allies discovered information on special German operations and communication systems, reports of German agents and instructions given to them, as well as intelligence reports that the Germans were collecting on Allied operations. Also discovered were the orders of battle. Over 287 radio transmissions were intercepted in a matter of a few months. They were deciphered and relayed to counter-intelligence. Despite numerous claims to the contrary, the solution to the Enigma was made by the Poles. Numerous British periodicals attest to the Polish discovery, in articles written by F.W. Winterbotham, Patrick Beesly, Ronald Lewin, Ralph Bennett, Gordon Welchman, and many others The Use of Enigma in World War II The Battle of Britain (1940) Bletchley intercepted a stream of German Enigma messages in which detailed information was obtained on the strength and deployment of German air fleets. The African Campaign (1941-1943) A complete order of battle was obtained concerning Rommels' forces and his plans to attack the British Eighth Army. Counter measures were enacted to subvert Germanys' plans. The Italian Campaign The ciphers at Bletchley Park were able to read frequent Engima messages sent by Hitler to his Commander Kesselring, in southern Europe, and to Rommel stationed in Naples. The Battle of the Atlantic Unfortunately, early in the war, England had not yet attained consistent success at decrypting Enigma messages. In the period from January 10, March 1941, Germans were sinking more British ships than could be replaced by British shipyards. The British were able to score an incredible coup in May 1941 when they captured a U-110. The prize confiscated from the ship was a German Enigma machine, complete with a set of charts, code books and cipher keys. By 1943, England had no problem reading Enigma signals, and was able to determine the arrival and departure of U-boats, as well as the quantity of U-boats at sea. Even when the English gained the upper hand, the Germans never suspected that they had discovered the Enigma key. Through the secret advantage, the British were able to improve command and protect Allied convoys. Operation Overlord- France ( June 6, 1944) The Allies used the Enigma machine to feed misleading information to the Germans regarding the site of Allied landings, resulting in the Germans remobilizing in the wrong area. When the Allies landed at Normandy, it came as a complete surprise to the Germans. It was the oldest trick in the book and the Germans fell for it. German V1 and V2 Rockets Through reports transmitted by the Poles, the Allies were informed of the location of the manufacturing plants producing Hitlers' V-1 and V-2 rockets. The RAF was dispatched to bomb the entire installation located at Peenemunde. It set back German rocket production for six months. The Enigma machine alerted the Allies of Germany's plans to attack Denmark, Norway, and France. Cryptologists worked around the clock intercepting and deciphering messages. When France fell to the Germans, the Bruno team evacuated, but due to Allied command returned to France, albeit to its southern region, still not occupied. There they continued their radio transmissions under the code name CADIX. The Nazis never suspected. The Polish team kept frequent communication with the Polish Commander-in-Chief in London. Assignments were received and reports sent, sometimes even using the Enigma machine, and facetiously ending with the message " Heil, Hitler!" When the Nazis invaded the rest of France, the Cadix team scattered and escaped to Britain through a circuitous route through Spain, and Portugal. Rejewski and Zygalski finally reached London in 1943 after a perilous journey, and detention in a Spanish concentration camp. They were astonished to discover that they were being excluded from the inner sanctum of Bletchley Park. Instead they were relegated to lower level ciphering work at the Radio Battalion at Stanmore Boxmoor. The British had tried to break the Enigma code but failed. Only with the collaboration of the French and Polish teams could Britain crack 83 % of the codes out of a total of 126 Enigma keys. From 1940 to 1945 the Polish success rate skyrocketed - from decoding a few hundred messages to over 9,000 messages. " The breaking of the Enigma by Poland was one of the cornerstones of the Allied victory over Normandy." ( David A. Hatch, cryptology expert, Center of Cryptologic History, NSA Fort George G. Meade, Maryland Since the end of the war, there emerged a staunch refusal by the British to even acknowledge the contribution made by the Poles to the Enigma. British records which might have attested to this fact mysteriously disappeared or were destroyed. Some attribute this stonewalling to a sense of rivalry experienced by the British Intelligence. In volume 5 of " British Intelligence in the Second World War " only a passing was made to the fact that the Poles intercepted and deciphered German messages about the V-1 and V-2 rocket plant at Peenemunde. |
| The Polish and French crew at Cadix, France |