The Enigmatic "Enigma Code"

What do you know about World War Two that ravaged the whole world? The cost of waging war was immense for all parties, but this situation warranted a new approach for many, and the “Enigma” was one of them. Let’s find out what this Enigmatic “Enigma code” is now.

The "Enigma code" refers to the encryption system used by Nazi Germany during World War II, centered around the Enigma machine-a sophisticated electromechanical device that scrambled messages using a series of rotors and a plugboard, resulting in billions of possible combinations. This made Enigma-encoded communications seem unbreakable for years.

Polish Breakthroughs

In the early 1930s, Polish mathematicians Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski, who worked at the Polish Cypher Bureau, were the first to break the Enigma cypher. Rejewski deduced the machine's wiring using mathematical analysis and procedural flaws in German message handling. The Polish team developed tools such as the "cyclometer" and the "bomba" (an early cryptanalytic machine) to automate parts of the decryption process. By 1938, the Germans had increased the Enigma's complexity, making continued Polish decryption efforts unsustainable due to resource limitations.

Collaboration with the British

Crucially, in 1939, the Poles shared their methods, findings, and replica Enigma machines with British and French intelligence. This transfer of knowledge laid the foundation for the British codebreaking efforts at Bletchley Park.

The British Bombe

Building on the Polish innovations, Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman at Bletchley Park developed the "Bombe," an electro-mechanical machine designed to speed up the process of finding Enigma settings. The Bombe worked by testing possible rotor and plugboard combinations, using known or guessed plaintext fragments ("cribs") to narrow down the possibilities. This mechanisation allowed the Allies to break Enigma-encrypted messages at scale, providing vital intelligence-known as "Ultra", that contributed significantly to the Allied victory.

The breaking of the Enigma code was a collaborative, multi-national effort that began with Polish mathematicians and was dramatically expanded by British cryptanalysts, whose innovations in automation transformed the intelligence war.