Nadia Baker & Enigma demo

Live demonstration of the Engima machine in Hut 8 Bletchley Park

• Category

  Education

[Freddie1980]

It's true the Polish cracked it first and showed the British and French how they done it. The problem was when Poland was occupied by Germany the British has to assume that the Germans were going to discover the Polish had done on Enigma and that's where Turing came along and developed a new way to crack the code.

What's sad was the Polish mathematicians were extracted from Poland but the Army/Secret service wouldn't allow them to work at Bletchley as they were seen as a security risk.

[applecounty]

Turin was responsible for advancing, then pulling together the work of the Polish team (Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski etc), I suggest it would be fair to consider him a 'principle' contributor in that context. I am not sure he would see himself in that way - the impression given is that the work was important to him. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to ALL those who worked at Bletchley. Proof that thinkers are important, something todays soundbite world needs reminding of.

[jonston3]

the American's claimed it was them!

MI5 sold the captured enigma units to "friendly" powers in the 50's & 60's which is why the work at Bletchley Park was kept a secret for so long after the war... and we kept reading their encrypts

[Michal Špondr]

Thanks for video. Personally I'd like to see more detailed info about setting the Enigma (description of Walzenlage, Grundstellung, Ringstellung and Steckeverbindung) and an explanation why did it encrypt the pressed letter just so.

[m2i1trex]

Well, I think the way the British figured out the enigma code was actually by obtaining an actual enigma machine together with its manuals.

[stasber]

RIP Alan Turing, a brilliant mind by all accounts, but don't forget that the Polish had deciphered Enigma as far back as 1932 before they passed on their achievements to the Allies in 1939. It is this (i.e. ULTRA) which gave the British their secret weapon. Alan Turing however did break the U-Boat code.

[Adipatus]

Long live Alan Turing !!!!!