ENIGMA Machines

[David Dunlop]

Hi Bruce.

I did a bit of internet reading last night and found the following site where a collection of ENIGMA and NEMA prices were posted.

http://www.eclipse.net/~dhamer/enigma_p.htm

Sure wish I had some spare cash around when the NEMAs first came out, particularly the earlier model which was a near clone of the originals used in Germany during the war.

David

[Mike Cecil]

Gents,

A little known fact: at war's end, many captured/'forfeited' Enigma machines (3 rotor) were distributed by the Brits to countries like Australia for signals encoding-decoding in the years just post-war. Australia's intelligence community (the pre-decessors of DSD: Defence Signals Directorate) received several (numbers are fuzzy) and used them for several years, mostly for diplomatic signals traffic (since only the 'good guys' had the means to break the code).

When the organisation moved to Canberra from Melbourne many years ago, the bulk of them were broken up and destroyed. Two survived - they were incomplete/broken and in the back of a storage cupboard, and escaped the breakers hammers. They are still owned by DSD. One is on display in their foyer (secure area: no public access) and the other is on long-term loan to the AWM, and on display in the WW2 gallery.

There is also an Enigma machine at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, but I don't know its source: it was not acquired from DSD.

Mike C

[Bruce MacMillan]

Here was a pre war Enigma G that just closed. It looks like somebody made a deal behind the scene as the item was withdrawn.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/RRR-Original-...item35b53e8d1b

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

The General Post Office was a Government department under the Postmaster-General, a Cabinet minister, [employees were civil servants technically until 1969] that was responsible for the mails as well as telephones and telegraphs except for the City of Kingston-upon-Hull, having taken over all private exchanges. They had an experimental workshop/depot in south-east London that contributed to the building of Colossus, the world's first electronic computer that was used by Bletchley Park. They were obviously experienced with valves and circuits.

I think an example of an Enigma machine was first supplied by the Poles as the war started. It was the capture of a German naval Enigma with its extra rotor[s] that was so dramatic for the course of the war at sea.

[Jon Skagfeld]

My claim to fame in this link is that I was born in Luton...my birth certificate lists a maternity home in Battlesden.

Bletchley is a bit west of there.

Perhaps, by osmosis, that's where I where I derive my thirst for knowledge about all things WW11 in war time Britain.

[Marc Montgomery]

enigma story.
http://www.secondworldwar.org.uk/enigma.html

couple things.. you probably are aware but the basic enigma had 3 wheels, the naval version..tougher.. with 4 wheels.
Canada captured an enigma, but it was in 1944 and by then several others had been already been captured.

From what I understand, Turing's "Colossus" is considered to be the first true programmable computer, beating out Eniac which was only working properly by 1946 and which was outdated by then.

The American film of 2000 called U-571, and capture of an enigma was well received by the American public and critics, in spite of the fact it was riddled with ridiculous factual errors.

The film was even brought up in the British parliament as an affront to British seamen..and then Pres Clinton had to write a letter to the Brit PM saying the film was fiction. Although the filmakers were urged to include a disclaimer that the film was entirely fiction, and note the British captures of enigma, they declined the "fiction" note, but did add info at the end about the British captures of engima.

[Marc van Aalderen]

Hi,

A good friend of mine did some diving in Germany at the location of a castle where the German Army Command spent many weekends during the war. Fleeing for the Russians a lot of stuff was destroyed and dumped in the pond. My friend says there is lots more and he will go there again.

IMG_7315.JPGIMG_7322.JPGIMG_7336.JPG

Cheers,