Alan Turing's Enigma Code

During World War II, the Germans used a type of code that is almost impossible to break. They used this code to communicate between each other and would get directions of where to go and also state where their locations are through that code. What made that code unique was the way that they used it. The way their code worked would be that someone would write a letter in a machine, and then the machine would print a coded version of the message. But that was not the worst part of it. At the end of every day, they would change the key to the messages, all at the same time in a synchronized manner. The way that the Enigma machine was built made it even more complicated to understand. “There are approximately 150,000,000,000,000 - that is, 150 million million - possible combination” (Claire Ellis “Exploring the Enigma”). Alan Turing started working in a

“the keyboard for inputting letters, the scrambler unit for encrypting the letters and the lamp board for displaying the enciphered letters” (Lendl). In order to break the Enigma Machine, the code breakers had to find the daily settings that the German used and understand them. However, it is important to know that Polish cryptographers already broke the Enigma machine in 1932 as Marian Rejewski reconstructed a replica of the Enigma i.e. Bomba machine. However, Turing used Rejewski’s ideas and improved the bombe machine so that the machine could go through all the possible combinations of the Enigma rapidly (Lendl). The polish Bomba inspired Alan Turing for the construction of his own Bombe machine. The Bombe machine was crucial for the breaking of Enigma’s signals. This machine is not considered as a computer and does not perform calculation, but was designed “to carry out a systematic search to determine the following components of an Enigma key: the rotor order, the ‘rotor core starting positions’, and some of the ‘steckers’” (Carter). Due to the work of the Bletchley Park codebreakers, the United Kingdom had access to the German communications and could predict future naval attacks, this allowed the prevention of several

Code breaking was a crucial part of the secret efforts of the allied forces during World War II. Though modern day code breaking is a feat which can be achieved by means of using advanced technology, during World War II, code breaking was a vital and dangerous endeavour. The Nazi’s Enigma code was one of the most difficult and essential ciphers to unscramble. The Bletchley Park code breakers actually created what was considered the first prototype of a computer for the purpose cracking the Enigma code. In deciphering the Enigma code many lives were lost, however, a larger number of lives were saved. The Coventry Blitz was a prime example of how lives were lost in order to preserve the secrecy of the Enigma code. Cracking

Additionally, Britain’s success in the battle for the Atlantic was also crucial to the outcome of the war. In order for the allies to have won the battle, they needed to not only avoid the U-boats but also attack them (Pearson, 162) they managed to do this by cracking the Enigma code where the Germans were sending coded messages to and from submarines. The allies had an enigma machine before the outbreak of World War II which helped British code breakers stationed at Bletchley Park to crack the Enigma code. (IA SOURCE) This is considered to be crucial to the outcome of the war as the Allies had an intelligence advantage over the Axis powers, allowing the allies to know exactly what and where the Germans were planning to attack. The Enigma codes

While bloody fights were taken place, the communication war raged on in secrecy. Bletchley Park is where the fight mostly took place. In the late 1930’s in a remote area outside London, lived a mansion (Gladwin). This mansion was soon to be converted into a super-secret compound called Bletchley Park. The park was surrounded by small cottages in which students from the local colleges were recruited from to live there (Gladwin). Their task was to decipher all types of encoded messages in secrecy away from the public eye. Soon to be there was the infamous Alan Turing. Although it was mainly a code breaking facility, there was not a more daunting task to decode messages coming from the infamous German machine Enigma. Enigma was an encrypting type righter which used rotors which created nearly impossible trillion different results each time it sent out a message (Gladwin). It was nearly impossible to decipher by just using paper. Turing had an idea of creating a large machine in which could emulate nearly thirty six Enigmas at any time while running (Gladwin). The machine Turing had created was known as a bombe. Soon after they would use these bombes to crack the Enigma codes being sent from the Germans (Gladwin). Although Bletchley Park was one of the main places, in an interview with Jean Valentine, it was found that by the end of the war there was at least five other places where bombes were stationed at (Lewis). This machine was one of the first successful models of its kind. Also in the interview Jean states that, “These machines did the equivalent work of 36 Enigmas and 200 of them were working 24 hours a day…” (Lewis). Bombes were one of the most successful machines of its time for breaking the Enigma. Secrecy was also a key component in Bletchley Park. In the interview with Jean Valentine, it was found that if anyone asked them about what they were doing they were to tell others that

The discoveries made at Bletchley Park could be used as an advantage due to the intelligence both coming in the door and that of those who worked there resulted in a slow progression towards the pattern of Enigma becoming understood. The understanding and knowledge of Enigma and major German military tactics allowed for the Allies to have control, yet they knew the push to take the advantage of Germany meant understanding the Enigma Code. Even when the British had cracked the code, they deliberately always gave credit to their reconnaissance scouts, agents, and spies to keep the Germans unaware that Enigma had been

This memorial commemorates Alan Turing and the other contributors of Bletchley Park. Turing was a British mathematician and cryptologist. It honors their creation of the computer that cracked the German coded messages. His deciphering of the messages saved approximately 14 million lives and shaved 2-4 years off of the war. After the war was over, his service was classified for many years and he never received the recognition he should have. In 1952 Turing was arrested for homosexuality and sentened to medications to reverse his homosexulaity, he commited suicide due to the medications. The memorial will honor Turing and the other Bletchley Park worker’s achievements.

In 1925, the Germans decided that they wanted a better way to encrypt their messages for the Army and other militaries. They found the ENIGMA, a machine being produced by the Chiffriermaschinen Aktiengesellschaft Company for encrypting messages in a business setting. (Mowry, 1) The Germany Army got a hold of it and adapted it for their purposes. The machine contained a keyboard with all the letters of the alphabet hooked to three

Cracking the Enigma was a huge accomplishment for the allies in WWII. A huge part of winning the war, laid in cracking the code. This meant that the allies could understand the secret messages the axis were sending, which again helped them tremendously.

Alan Turing’s work with the enigma changed the war, without Alan’s work on the enigma the war would have possibly continued for another two to three years, killing hundreds of more men. Alan created the first thinking machine, the Bombe, in secret helped end the war, he changed the direction of the war. Without Alan’s work on the enigma the lives lost in the war would have been in vain. Alan become the founding father of modern computing because of his work with the enigma, today we still use his ideas in our work.

It ended the conflict against Nazism quicker than originally anticipated. Breaking Enigma provided an advantage to the Allies (i.e, Britain, United States) which led them to victory. The messages in Enigma revealed a lot of useful information that benefited the Allies. Decrypting the German’s device allowed the British Military to know what, were, and when attacks will occur. The code breakers would report to Stewart Menzies, who was the head of MI6, of every message the Germans sent.

British statutes of limitation expiring on sensitive material regarding Bletchley Park have made exploration of Turing's personal finest hour possible from 1976 onwards5. The concerted efforts of social historians in collecting oral narrative such as Micheal Smith6 and Sinclair McKay7 have also gradually exposed Turing's arguable 1939-1945 career apex in assisting the Allied code-breaking effort within the European theatre of WWII to an increasingly greater degree. The revelations that Turing helped to design and construct the pioneering code-breaking Bletchley Bombe (1940) and the first digital computer in the form of Colossus (1943) have become vital episodes within Turing's wider mythologisation8. Turing's work has subsequently helped to secure his reputation as an indispensable war hero as well as a technological genius, giving him a wider appeal amongst groups that could be described as holding (approximately) liberal and conservative viewpoints concerning national and global

During World War II, Alan Turing is recruited by the government to help with discovering the secrets of Enigma. While in Bletchley Park, a top secret government building dedicated to cracking Enigma, the team of mathematicians work on breaking each code but Alan Turing works on making a machine capable of immediately breaking any code. However, doing so requires an enormous sum of money due to the equipment necessary. Finally realizing that the reason “Christopher”, the machine built to immediately crack Enigma codes, was not working was because it was searching for every word. He then programs it to search for only words that are used in each code. The problem in this was that attacks had to be avoided strategically as to keep the Nazis from realizing that Enigma had been cracked. Throughout the movie, moments from Alan Turing’s past are shown to explain his personality, feelings, and talent. At the end of the film, facts about what happened after the team of mathematicians solved enigma are shown before the last part, which consists of what happened after the government found out that Alan Turing was a homosexual. His friend that was once his coworker and fiancé, Joan Clarke comes to visit one last time. It is shown also shown in this scene that she is now happily engaged to another

Turing was recruited as a cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park as he was described as an “exceptional talent” and a genius. His interest in cryptanalysis and the development of modern technology led him to create the machine that eventually broke the German Enigma Code. During his time at Bletchley Park, a co-worker of Turing, Captain Jerry Roberts, once said that “without him we would have lost the war”. Turing’s work was said to have shortened the war by up to 4 years.

The World War 2 was one of the most violent and brutal warfare waged on this planet, leaving us with more than 80 million deaths worldwide. Then one day, the Nazi Germany Fuhrer, Hitler, committed suicide. Shortly after, the Nazi Germany gave up. Celebrations occurred all over the world, in welcoming of lasting peace. Citizens all over the world expected peace, and so they were wrong.