Technologies
NAVAL ENIGMA Ciphers
- The Enigma machines were a series of electromechanical rotor ciphers based on a German engineer, Arthur Scherbius's invention. Enigma machines were widely used.
- An Enigma machine is a famous encryption machine used by the Germans during WWII to transmit coded messages. An Enigma machine allows for billions and billions of ways to encode a message, making it incredibly difficult for other nations to crack German codes during the war — for a time the code seemed unbreakable.
- For pictures, history, and technical information about the Enigma and other cipher equipment, please visit our online museum. Introduction Patented by Arthur Scherbius in 1918, the Enigma cipher machine was adopted as the primary coding machine for all branches of.
prepared by Ralph Erskine
The main Enigma ciphers used by the U-boats are listed below. The Bletchley codename for a cipher is given first, with the Kriegsmarine name in brackets.
Dolphin (Heimische Gewässer, later Hydra)
The Enigma cipher machine is well known for the vital role it played during WWII. Alan Turing and his attempts to crack the Enigma machine code changed history. Nevertheless, many messages could not be decrypted until today.
Dolphin came into service at the beginning of the war. It was used by all U-boats (and ships) in 'home waters' (an area which included the Atlantic) until 5 October 1941 (see Shark).
Bletchley broke Dolphin from 1 August 1941 until the end of the war.
Shark (Triton)
Used by the Atlantic and Mediterranean U-boats from 5 October 1941. Introduced because of fears about security, especially the threat from the British Secret Service, which was highly (but overly) respected by the Kriegsmarine. Shark used three-rotor Enigma (M3) until 1 February 1942, when it switched to the four-rotor version (M4).
Bletchley broke Shark in M3 form. The M4 version was only broken on three days before 13 December 1942. From then until the end of August 1943, it was generally broken, but quite often late. From September 1943 onwards, Shark was normally broken within about 24 hours.
![Cipher Cipher](https://images2.bonhams.com/image?src=Images/live/2014-04/23/8861017-30-3.jpg&width=960)
Turtle (Medusa)
Used by the Mediterranean U-boats from June 1943 to October 1944. Turtle was broken from June 1943 onwards.
Narwhal (Niobe)
Used by the Northern U-boats (based in Norway) from 25 June 1944 to the end of the war. Narwhal was broken from September 1944.
[No British name] (Thetis)
The cipher for U-boats on tactical training exercises in the Baltic. Thetis was never broken.
Grampus (Poseidon)
Used by U-boats in the Black Sea from October 1943 to August 1944. Grampus was broken from October 1943.
Sunfish (Tibet)
Used by supply ships and U-boats in the Far East from September 1941. Sunfish was intermittently broken from August 1943.
Other naval Enigma ciphers
These included:Barracuda (Neptun)
The cipher for fleet operations. Barracuda was used from May 1941. It was never broken.
Bonito (Eichendorff)
Enigma Cipher Machine Schematics
Used by the Small Battle Units Command (which covered midget submarines, such as Marder and Seehund) from March 1944 to the end of the war.
Bonito was first broken in May 1944, and generally solved from July 1944.
Sources
- Der Schlüssel M Allgemeine Bestimmungen (M. Dv. Nr 32/3)
- British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations,
F. H. Hinsley, with E. E. Thomas, C. F. G. Ransom and R. C. Knight,
volume 2 (London, 1981), Appendix 4; volume 3(1) (London, 1984), Appendix 3.
Selected media links
Very Special Intelligence Beesly, Patrick (2000) | Battle of Wits Budiansky, Stephen (2000) | Ultra versus u-boats Roy Conyers Nesbit (2009) | Decoding History Gardner, W. J. R. (2000) | The secret in building 26 Debrosse. Jim (2004) |
Enigma
Technologies
Divers scouring the Baltic Sea for discarded fishing nets have stumbled on the rarest of finds: an Enigma encryption machine used by the Nazis to encode secret messages during World War II.
The electromechanical device was used extensively by the Nazi military to encrypt communications, which typically were transmitted by radio in Morse Code. Three or more rotors on the device used a stream cipher to convert each letter of the alphabet to a different letter.
The Enigma had the appearance of a typewriter. An operator would use the keys to type plaintext, and the converted ciphertext would be reflected in 26 lights above the keys—one light for each converted letter. Photoshop 6 download trial. The converted letters would then be transcribed to derive the ciphertext.
![Enigma Enigma](https://cnet2.cbsistatic.com/img/1xj5LCg3EyfWmkUrClCrhv-B_GI=/940x0/2018/02/28/85b7d390-86c8-4c96-a232-94e2a6f11e91/enigma-machine-8600.jpg)
Cipher keys were changed using a series of device settings that were changed regularly using lists that were made available in advance. People receiving the messages had to use the same lists as the senders for the messages to be readable.
German Enigma Cipher
Divers on assignment by the environmental group WWF found the Enigma machine last month while looking for abandoned fishing nets in the Bay of Gelting off the coast of Germany. As the image above shows, the recovered device was rusty and corroded, but individual keys showing the letters they designated remain intact and clearly visible.
Advertisement “A colleague swam up and said, 'There’s a net there with an old typewriter in it,'” Florian Huber, the lead diver, told the DPA news agency. The team soon realized the device was something much more remarkable.
“I’ve made many exciting and strange discoveries in the past 20 years. But I never dreamt that we would one day find one of the legendary Enigma machines,” Huber told Reuters.
The diver said he suspects the device was lost shortly before Germany’s surrender in May 1945. At the time, Nazi leaders issued an order for submarines to be scuttled in the Gelting Bay to prevent their capture by the Allied Forces.
The Enigma made it hard for the Allied Forces to track German submarines until a British team led by mathematician and scientist Alan Turing broke the encryption the device used. The feat, which built off of breakthroughs made by scientists from the Polish Cipher Bureau, made it possible for the Allies to decipher messages about German military movements. Many historians credit the accomplishment with shortening the war and preventing many thousands of deaths. Web transfer app.
Experts from the State Archaeological Museum will restore the machine. The process, which will include a comprehensive desalinization, is expected to take about a year.
Post updated to add detail about Polish Cipher Bureau.