A squad of mathematicians headed by Marian Rejewski of the Military Office of the Crypts broke the Enigma cipher on December 31, 1932 and developed a method allowing to read German-coded messages. The success of Poles was the basis for further descriptive works carried out by the Allies, which helped them to win over the 3rd Reich.
In the mid-1920s, German armed forces began to usage Enigma encryption machinethat allowed to encode messages sent at a distance. The first specified machines were intended for the civilian market, then the German army became interested. The military began to make improvements to the safety of reported reports.
The device uses an innovative mechanics of rotating rollers with letters and an electrical connection network. Depending on their setting, each letter of open text was coded with a different, changing alphabet letter. The keys to the cipher were changed respective times a day. – Thanks to this, the breach of Enigma code was considered impossible at the time – explains Dr Janusz Bednarski, 20th Century historian.
Mathematical Approach
Nevertheless, attempts at decryption were made by the French and the English, but without result. This was besides done by the Polish section of the General Staff of the Polish Army, which in 1931 was transformed into the Office of the Codes of the 2nd SGWP Branch. First, linguists who tried to descript were invited to cooperate, taking into account the circumstantial features of the language. However, their work has not been successful either.
It was then decided to include mathematicians in the decryption work. A cryptology course for the best students of mathematics was organized at the University of Poznań on the initiative of military intelligence in 1929. Among them were the 3 most capable: Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki. After college, young mathematicians worked on working out the secrets of Enigma's activities first in Poznań, and since the fall of 1932 at the Office of the Ciphers at the Saski Palace in Warsaw.
The breakthrough came thanks to cooperation with the interview French. In 1932, Poles received data about Enigma from Captain Gustav Bertrand, including instructions for the usage of military machinery and the usage of encryption keys, as well as any outdated key tables. “These data were besides available to French and British cryptologists, but they considered them insufficient to break the ciphers. Only Poles were able to usage them," the historian emphasizes.
After months of work, Rejewski managed to solve Enigma's mystery on the basis of an analysis of the generated cipher. On December 31, 1932, he read the first German dispatches. However, the process of decryption did not end with 1 success due to the introduction of further safety of communication by the Germans.
Therefore, in the 1930s, Polish cryptologists under the direction of Colonel Gwido Langer, head of the Digital Bureau, constantly developed methods of code breaking. A faster descriptor was used, among another things, a cyclometer, a device invented by Rejewski, which was utilized to calculate the cyclical settings of cryptograms and peculiar perforated cards, the alleged Zygalski payroll.
The cryptologists were supported by engineers from the Warsaw AVA Radiotechnical Works created with the secret participation of SGWP. They constructed a military copy based on Rejewski's instructions Enigmy and devices and tools to aid descript. 1 of them was a cryptological bomb developed by Rejewski, or six interlinked encryption machines that automatically broke German ciphers.
Polish success
In the summertime of 1939, due to the expanding threat from Germany at the command of the Polish authorities The leadership of the Codex Bureau revealed to allies secret of the work of Polish intelligence services. “At the end of July, during a gathering at the Centre of the Cyphers Office in Pyry close Warsaw, representatives of British and French intelligence received from Poles a copy of the recreated Enigma along with information on how to read encrypted messages utilizing it,” says Dr. Bednarski.
After the outbreak of the Second War, Polish cryptologists were evacuated to France and there, close Paris, they built a common Polish-French cryptography centre with the code name "Bruno". In turn, the British formed a cryptological center at Bletchley Park close London. Based on the achievements of Poles to date, they constructed their own Enigma decryption machines and with the participation of mathematician Alan Turing started breaking subsequent versions and improving its cipher.
The squad of the centre "Bruno" after the fall of France in June 1940 continued to work at the radio intelligence centre "Cadix" located close Nîmes in an unoccupied area administered by the Vichy government. The centre's operation ended with German troops occupying confederate France in November 1942. At the time, Rejewski and Zygalski made their way to Britain, where they dealt with German ciphers in the Chief Chief Staff. Jerzy Różycki died in January 1942 on a ship that sank in the Mediterranean.
Enigma encryption breach and reading the reports of the German army importantly affected the destiny of planet War II and was 1 of the factors facilitating the mention of triumph by the Allied over the 3rd Reich. According to any historians, due to the fact that the Allies knew the information sent by Enigma, the Second War lasted for up to 3 years.
Dr. Bednarski points out that behind the success of decoding inactive upgraded Enigma ciphers was the effort of a multinational cryptologist group. However, it was Poles who created the basics of decryption, invented a way of breaking code and first read German reports. “Without the achievements of Poles, the works of the British and French people would not have had a chance of success,” says the historian.
Unfortunately, for many years after the war, the English struggled to attribute only their achievements in breaking the cipher. The function of Polish cryptologists was silenced. This was due, among another things, to the reluctance to share success, as well as to the secrecy that was covered until the late 1960s by cryptological centres. – The first information showing that Poles contributed to Enigma's decryption was published in the early 1970s. However, the authoritative confirmation by the British of the function of Poles in breaking the code took place only in the 1990s – says Dr. Bednarski.