The Enigma During WWII

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During World War II, in 1939, it was obvious that the Germans had a machine that contributed to the war effort. The Germans designed a machine that they believed was unbreakable and they called it the Enigma (1). It was used to send encrypted messages to other German military forces. The codes changed each day, making the Germans believe they were unstoppable, however, the code was cracked by the British with the help of Alan Turing’s machine, “The Bombe”, on January 23rd 1940. The Enigma was a very well thought out machine that may have lead to the Germans victory in the war if the British didn't find a fatal flaw. Therefore, the flaws of the Enigma affected the outcome of World War II by a significant extent. The Enigma was beneficial for…show more content…
“In 1943, advantage shifted to the Allies once again. By now, the Allies had sufficient escort aircraft carriers and long-range aircraft to cover the Atlantic Gap. The battle reached its peak between February and May 1943.” (2) This shows how the allies gained an advantage using the Enigma to distinguish where the boats were. After the war it was found that within Bletchley Park, they were sending 11 decryptions per hour to Navy Operational Intelligence, which benefitted them majorly, as it meant they knew exactly where the boats would be and what their plans were (4). In 1939, during the battle of Atlantic, the allies were not only using their radars to find German submarines but they were also using the Enigma to find; the exact number of German submarines, the home ports, the speeds of the different types of submarines, the radio signals and the return voyages (4). No one except the Navy knew about this plan, therefore it could be kept secret from German spies (4). They went by the code “Ultra” (4). In February 1942 when the Germans started to suspect that their information was being used against them, they decided to change the Enigma’s procedure. They called it “Triton”. Triton was different because it was designed for the U-boat sailors only rather then every military base. Throughout these five months the information from Bletchley Park stopped and the Germans began to use a technique called the Wolf Pack. Instead of spreading the submarines out, they kept closely packed and ready to attack (4). This however did not go to plan because in December 1942, the British once again broke the new procedure for the Enigma, which lead to them sinking a majority of their submarines in

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