What was the Enigma Machine?
The Enigma Machine was used in WWII by the German's
The Enigma Machine
The Enigma Machine was used during the Second World War and it was created by Arthur Scherbius, a German engineer. It was capable of transcribing coded information; he tried to get the interest of commercial companies in secure communications.
Enigma allowed an operator to type in a message, then scramble it by using three to five notched wheels, or rotors, which showed different letters of the alphabet.
Hans Thilo Schmidt, a German spy, allowed his French spymasters to photograph stolen Enigma operating manuals.
The code changed every day making it impossible to crack for anyone.
The Enigma's Bombe
The Bombe was an electromechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma Machine. The Bombe was created at Bletchley Park in 1939 by Alan Turing.
Alan Turing
Alan Turing was the inventor of the device that solved the Enigma Machine's codes. He was born on 23rd June 1912 and died on the 7th June 1954. During WWII he worked for the Government Code and Cypher School.
Colossus Computer
The Colossus Computer was the worlds first electronic computer that was programmable. The computers were used by the British Code Breakers during WWII to help work out how to crack the codes of the Enigma Machine. The computer was reconstructed and is on show in Milton Keynes, England at the National Museum of Computing.