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N0KFQ > TODAY 09.07.16 15:13l 41 Lines 1777 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 99067_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jul 9
Path: IZ3LSV<IW2OHX<IQ2LB<F1OYP<F1OYP<KQ0I<N0KFQ
Sent: 160709/1403Z 99067@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1941
Enigma key broken
On this day in 1941, crackerjack British cryptologists break the
secret code used by the German army to direct ground-to-air
operations on the Eastern front.
British experts had already broken many of the Enigma codes for
the Western front. Enigma was the Germans' most sophisticated
coding machine, necessary to secretly transmitting information.
The Enigma machine, invented in 1919 by Hugo Koch, a Dutchman,
looked like a typewriter and was originally employed for business
purposes. The Germany army adapted the machine for wartime use
and considered its encoding system unbreakable. They were wrong.
The Brits had broken their first Enigma code as early as the
German invasion of Poland and had intercepted virtually every
message sent through the occupation of Holland and France.
Britain nicknamed the intercepted messages Ultra.
Now, with the German invasion of Russia, the Allies needed to be
able to intercept coded messages transmitted on this second,
Eastern, front. The first breakthrough occurred on July 9,
regarding German ground-air operations, but various keys would
continue to be broken by the Brits over the next year, each
conveying information of higher secrecy and priority than the
next. (For example, a series of decoded messages nicknamed
"Weasel" proved extremely important in anticipating German
anti-aircraft and antitank strategies against the Allies.) These
decoded messages were regularly passed to the Soviet High Command
regarding German troop movements and planned offensives, and back
to London regarding the mass murder of Russian prisoners and
Jewish concentration camp victims.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
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