Polish codebreakers 'cracked Enigma before Alan Turing'(telegraph.co.uk)
telegraph.co.uk
Polish codebreakers 'cracked Enigma before Alan Turing'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/12158055/Polish-codebreakers-cracked-Enigma-before-Alan-Turing.html
86 comments
I'll second the recommendation. That's a really fantastic book.
Another good book, but broader than just Enigma, The Code Book by Simon Singh:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/...
http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/...
I'll second the recommendation. That's a really fantastic book.
Looked for a 1990s publishing date, but apparently this really is contemporary because :
>Diplomats say Poland's key part in the deciphering the German system of codes in WWII has largely been overlooked
Except for being mentioned, sometimes in great detail in every single account - popular and technical - I've ever read and underneath every internet article on Enigma since comments were invented and being basically the first thing any cipher geek brings up when Enigma is discussed anywhere on the planet.
But apart from that, yeah, totally overlooked.
>Diplomats say Poland's key part in the deciphering the German system of codes in WWII has largely been overlooked
Except for being mentioned, sometimes in great detail in every single account - popular and technical - I've ever read and underneath every internet article on Enigma since comments were invented and being basically the first thing any cipher geek brings up when Enigma is discussed anywhere on the planet.
But apart from that, yeah, totally overlooked.
In fairness, the polish contributions were completely sidelined in The Imitation Game.
Wouldn't be the first time Hollywood glossed over contributions for a better story.
Regarding Argo: “In the movie, Canada and Ottawa didn’t exist,” said Kenneth D. Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador to Iran at the time and helped six Americans who escaped from the American Embassy as it was overrun by militants to flee the country. “It’s a great film, it’s great. But at the same time it was a Canadian story that’s been, all of sudden, totally taken over by the Americans. Totally.”
Regarding Argo: “In the movie, Canada and Ottawa didn’t exist,” said Kenneth D. Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador to Iran at the time and helped six Americans who escaped from the American Embassy as it was overrun by militants to flee the country. “It’s a great film, it’s great. But at the same time it was a Canadian story that’s been, all of sudden, totally taken over by the Americans. Totally.”
That's a little much to say Canada doesn't exist at all. It was pretty well established in the movie that they were at the Canadian embassy.
That movie did a vast disservice to everyone featured, including Denniston and Turing.
On the other hand, not too long ago Turing's contributions were neglected as well, and before that, Bletchley as a whole was neglected as it remained classified long after the war ended.
I read that the Soviet Russians captured and used the Enigma machine, unaware it had been cracked - and remained unaware for 40 years, so the UK and USA could read Soviet encryption.
It was therefore of the highest strategic importance to keep the work at Bletchly secret - the unfortunate side effect was Turing's work was classified as well as other pioneers like Tommy Flower's who build the first electronic computer from valves.
It was therefore of the highest strategic importance to keep the work at Bletchly secret - the unfortunate side effect was Turing's work was classified as well as other pioneers like Tommy Flower's who build the first electronic computer from valves.
They must have been aware that Enigma was broken, they had an agent in Bletchley Park [1], that part The Imitation Game did get right.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cairncross
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cairncross
Cairncross smuggled out raw Tunny decrypts performed by Collosus.
However Cairncross worked in translation not code breaking and did not have access to Enigma decrypts
He is unlikely to have comprehended nor been aware of the role of the method or the role or existence of the machine - due to the excellent op-sec secrecy separating huts.
Anyone know of a good cold war history of encryption ?
However Cairncross worked in translation not code breaking and did not have access to Enigma decrypts
He is unlikely to have comprehended nor been aware of the role of the method or the role or existence of the machine - due to the excellent op-sec secrecy separating huts.
Anyone know of a good cold war history of encryption ?
there is this line, when Turing is talking about his machine:
"It’s inspired by an old Polish code machine, only infinitely more advanced. "
"It’s inspired by an old Polish code machine, only infinitely more advanced. "
This was more than a little frustrating. They could have a throw-away line like "The Polish first cracked the early Enigmas..." but I imagine the screenwriters though that would have detracted from Turing's greatness.
There's just something awful about movie storytelling which focuses so much on the "hero" or the "incredible person" that we can't acknowledge the contribution of others in a meaningful way. I guess we love the idea of the superman inventor/genius/whatever and find it difficult to credit teams instead of people. I wish this kind of thinking would just go away.
There's just something awful about movie storytelling which focuses so much on the "hero" or the "incredible person" that we can't acknowledge the contribution of others in a meaningful way. I guess we love the idea of the superman inventor/genius/whatever and find it difficult to credit teams instead of people. I wish this kind of thinking would just go away.
They did have a throw away line: http://www.subzin.com/quotes/M163327400a/The+Imitation+Game/....
I think it's hard to fit team storytelling into the constrains of cinema. It would be interesting to see something like the Imitation Game re-imagined as a TV miniseries developing multiple character arcs.
I think it's hard to fit team storytelling into the constrains of cinema. It would be interesting to see something like the Imitation Game re-imagined as a TV miniseries developing multiple character arcs.
It's Hollywood, Jake.
That film was more a memorial towards Alan Turing though.
It doesn't make a good memorial to say, 'These guys did it first'.
It doesn't make a good memorial to say, 'These guys did it first'.
Polish contributions were ignored in the film U-571, which showed Americans recovering enigma machines before they entered the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-571_(film)#Controversies_reg...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-571_(film)#Controversies_reg...
IIRC, the British only made the fact Enigma had been cracked public in the 1970s, and at that time it probably was not very convenient to give credit to a country that now was an "enemy" in the Cold War.
Particularly on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=polish%20enigma&sort=byPopular...
I originally learned about the Enigma from Len Deighton's "Blood, Tears, and Folly" (http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Tears-Folly-Objective-World/dp/0...). In it he doesn't even mention Turning, and gives full credit to the Polish code-breakers. I thought the recent focus on Turning was more of a "Hollywoodazation" of the event than anything else.
They cracked only the older 3-wheel version of the machine. And their achievements were all well known to the Brits, they just didn't help after 4th and 5th wheel was added, along with other complications.
My grandfather worked at Bletchley park (used to play chess with Turing) and when he saw "The Imitation Game" he said it was nothing like working there. He said they were all much more respectful and wouldn't yell at each other like in the movie.
My Grandfather (Max Newman) was also at Bletchley Park. From 1942. Who was your Grandfather? Which Hut did he work in? Perhaps they met or knew each other.
:-) His name was Gordon Preston. He also worked in the Newmanry, so yes they did work together! :-)
It was a shit movie, and in addition to the "team tensions" trope, apparently Turing wasn't ashamed of being gay at all
Could you get your grandfather to blog his memories of Bletchley & Turing ? People would be fascinated
Could you get your grandfather to blog his memories of Bletchley & Turing ? People would be fascinated
I would love to, but sadly he died last year.
When I was at Bletchley 4 years ago, we were told all about the Polish mathematicians. There's even a statue/tribute to them there.
My understanding is that the Polish team cracked the three rotor Enigma. Turing & co extended that work to four rotor plus plug board.
They reverse-engineered the machine sight-unseen (determining the permutation wired into each rotor) and cracked the original way that per-message settings were sent.
A daily key was used to encrypt the "indicator" which determined the initial state of the machine for the rest of the message. Initially, the indicator was repeated (ABCABC); it turns out that if you collect a bunch of indicators, this repeated structure allows you deduce the rotor wiring and also to determine what the key of the day is and thus read all the traffic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma#Re...
Gradual changes to German practices (different key management, additional rotors to choose from, etc.) increased the work required to the point where it was beyond the limited means of the Polish cryptographers alone, but shortly before the start of WWII they started working with French and British cryptographers and gave Bletchley Park a running start.
A daily key was used to encrypt the "indicator" which determined the initial state of the machine for the rest of the message. Initially, the indicator was repeated (ABCABC); it turns out that if you collect a bunch of indicators, this repeated structure allows you deduce the rotor wiring and also to determine what the key of the day is and thus read all the traffic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma#Re...
Gradual changes to German practices (different key management, additional rotors to choose from, etc.) increased the work required to the point where it was beyond the limited means of the Polish cryptographers alone, but shortly before the start of WWII they started working with French and British cryptographers and gave Bletchley Park a running start.
Exactly. The Polish cryptanalysts cracked the cypher, and even built the prototype bombe. But the technology had to be scaled up for production.
That scaleup is the real story of WWII cryptanalysis. Prior to WWII, cryptanalysis had been a few people in offices working by hand. During WWII, on the Allied side it became an industrial operation. Bombe key-testers were built in quantity by the British Tabulating Machine Company and National Cash Register. They were spread around England, so that no one bombing raid could take out more than a few. The US had a big machine cryptanalysis operation at Arlington Hall, and another one in Hawaii. There were radio intercept stations all over Britain, and the US had ones on Pacific islands.
See NSA's history of WWII cryptanalysis.[1] They credit the Poles; Turing gets a mention. Gordon Welchman's contribution, the "diagonal board", which reduced the effort required by a factor of 26, is seen as more significant.
Turing didn't like the NCR machines. The British bombes just stopped when they got a hit, and someone had to copy down all the wheel positions by hand. NCR's machine was faster and had a printer. When the machine got a hit, it would go past the hit (because the contact drums were spinning too fast to stop instantly), back up, slowly go foward to find the hit again, stop, print the wheel positions, and restart.
More automation followed. The Enigma was a hand machine, and someone had to copy the output by hand as the lamps lit up. The US cryptanalysis operation had a machine driven from paper tape to do that job, once the keys had been cracked.
Turing thought this automation was unnecessary.[2] But once it was all working, info about German submarine positions was flowing through the system rapidly, and within months, so many German submarines had been sunk that Donetz abandoned the Battle of the Atlantic.
It took a huge industrial operation to bring this off.
[1] https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/center_crypt_... [2] https://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/public...
That scaleup is the real story of WWII cryptanalysis. Prior to WWII, cryptanalysis had been a few people in offices working by hand. During WWII, on the Allied side it became an industrial operation. Bombe key-testers were built in quantity by the British Tabulating Machine Company and National Cash Register. They were spread around England, so that no one bombing raid could take out more than a few. The US had a big machine cryptanalysis operation at Arlington Hall, and another one in Hawaii. There were radio intercept stations all over Britain, and the US had ones on Pacific islands.
See NSA's history of WWII cryptanalysis.[1] They credit the Poles; Turing gets a mention. Gordon Welchman's contribution, the "diagonal board", which reduced the effort required by a factor of 26, is seen as more significant.
Turing didn't like the NCR machines. The British bombes just stopped when they got a hit, and someone had to copy down all the wheel positions by hand. NCR's machine was faster and had a printer. When the machine got a hit, it would go past the hit (because the contact drums were spinning too fast to stop instantly), back up, slowly go foward to find the hit again, stop, print the wheel positions, and restart.
More automation followed. The Enigma was a hand machine, and someone had to copy the output by hand as the lamps lit up. The US cryptanalysis operation had a machine driven from paper tape to do that job, once the keys had been cracked.
Turing thought this automation was unnecessary.[2] But once it was all working, info about German submarine positions was flowing through the system rapidly, and within months, so many German submarines had been sunk that Donetz abandoned the Battle of the Atlantic.
It took a huge industrial operation to bring this off.
[1] https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/center_crypt_... [2] https://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/public...
According to the wikipedia article[1], the Polish lacked resources to automate decryption once the Germans upgraded Enigma.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma#Po...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma#Po...
That's my understanding too. They got the basics, Turing worked on a more sophisticated problem derived from that.
Well, it's the same as everyone using the name "Marie Curie" even though every Polish child will tell you her proper name was "Maria Skłodowska-Curie". Curie was her husband's name, and she explicitly used both names on all of her work, yet it's almost unknown that she was Polish in the West.
To be honest, Marie Curie rolls off the tongue more easily than "Maria Curie" or "Maria Sklodowska-Curie". It also rhymes.
I would expect that quite a few French people know that she's not originally from France, but to be fair, I don't think people would be able to give her Polish name.
To be fair, Polish jokes don't work as well if they get a reputation as being smart.
You probably don't want to use those jokes anyway: http://www.polamjournal.com/Library/Fighting_Defamation/The_...
Jokes do not work well in HN altogether, with few exceptions. Many people consider them not adding value to the conversation.
> yet it's almost unknown that she was Polish in the West
Sorry, this is complete nonsense.
I can only speak as someone from the UK, but I'm willing to bet almost every schoolkid has heard of Marie Curie, and everyone who has heard of her knows that she discovered polonium and knows why it is called polonium.
I'd be surprised to find out the rest of Western Europe is any different.
Sorry, this is complete nonsense.
I can only speak as someone from the UK, but I'm willing to bet almost every schoolkid has heard of Marie Curie, and everyone who has heard of her knows that she discovered polonium and knows why it is called polonium.
I'd be surprised to find out the rest of Western Europe is any different.
Well, I live in the UK now and every single person I asked what nationality she was said "uhm..........French?". I'm sure a lot of people know that she was Polish, but it's certainly not a common knowledge, given that the Polish part of her surname is omitted from nearly every mention of her I saw over here so far.
> every single person I asked what nationality she was said "uhm..........French?
Well French isn't a bad guess, is it, considering she moved to France, married a Frenchman, became a French citizen, took his French name and probably spent most of her life in France?
Ask people what nationality Einstein was and many will say American, despite his German name, which is also not necessarily incorrect.
That doesn't change the fact that most people who learn about Curie or Einstein at school probably learn about their origin. That people don't remember everything they learn at school isn't particularly remarkable.
As for polonium, it's practically a pub quiz question who invented it and why it's so named.
> the Polish part of her surname is omitted from nearly every mention of her I saw over here so far.
Where her Polish name is being "omitted" I suspect it's more for reasons of simplicity than any 'Western' conspiracy to keep Poland down.
Well French isn't a bad guess, is it, considering she moved to France, married a Frenchman, became a French citizen, took his French name and probably spent most of her life in France?
Ask people what nationality Einstein was and many will say American, despite his German name, which is also not necessarily incorrect.
That doesn't change the fact that most people who learn about Curie or Einstein at school probably learn about their origin. That people don't remember everything they learn at school isn't particularly remarkable.
As for polonium, it's practically a pub quiz question who invented it and why it's so named.
> the Polish part of her surname is omitted from nearly every mention of her I saw over here so far.
Where her Polish name is being "omitted" I suspect it's more for reasons of simplicity than any 'Western' conspiracy to keep Poland down.
> Well French isn't a bad guess, is it, considering she moved to France, married a Frenchman, became a French citizen, took his French name and probably spent most of her life in France?
You make it sounds like she did it out of choice, like someone who would take a nationality out of kinship, but the reason why she moved to France have little to do with French sympathies but more prosaic reasons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_curie#Early_years
> After Russian authorities [Poland was partly controlled by Russia at the time] eliminated laboratory instruction from the Polish schools, he [MC's Father] brought much of the laboratory equipment home, and instructed his children in its use.[11]
> Unable to enroll in a regular institution of higher education because she was a woman, she and her sister Bronisława became involved with the clandestine Flying University, a Polish patriotic institution of higher learning that admitted women students.[10][11]
> Maria made an agreement with her sister, Bronisława, that she would give her financial assistance during Bronisława's medical studies in Paris, in exchange for similar assistance two years later.
Also, as per wikipedia:
> While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie (she used both surnames)[6][7] never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland.[8] She named the first chemical element that she discovered—polonium, which she isolated in 1898—after her native country.[a]
You make it sounds like she did it out of choice, like someone who would take a nationality out of kinship, but the reason why she moved to France have little to do with French sympathies but more prosaic reasons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_curie#Early_years
> After Russian authorities [Poland was partly controlled by Russia at the time] eliminated laboratory instruction from the Polish schools, he [MC's Father] brought much of the laboratory equipment home, and instructed his children in its use.[11]
> Unable to enroll in a regular institution of higher education because she was a woman, she and her sister Bronisława became involved with the clandestine Flying University, a Polish patriotic institution of higher learning that admitted women students.[10][11]
> Maria made an agreement with her sister, Bronisława, that she would give her financial assistance during Bronisława's medical studies in Paris, in exchange for similar assistance two years later.
Also, as per wikipedia:
> While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie (she used both surnames)[6][7] never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland.[8] She named the first chemical element that she discovered—polonium, which she isolated in 1898—after her native country.[a]
That's interesting, but I wasn't making any insinuation about why she became French. I was simply giving reasons why "French" wasn't an unreasonable guess for people to make.
I never said anything about any conspiracy, I just said that the fact that her Polish surname isn't mentioned is similar to how the Polish origins of the Enigma work are hardly ever mentioned. Sure, most people who read anything about the subject will know it, but it is not common knowledge.
Is there any reason why it should be common knowledge where Marie Curie was born? Is it common knowledge in Poland where, for example, Alexander Graham Bell was born?
Objectively it's hardly the most interesting or significant fact about her, is it?
As for Enigma, as others have also stated, it's virtually impossible to have heard of it without hearing about the Polish involvement, to the point where it almost seems like the British role is being denigrated.
Here's a story from 2012, for example, on a previous occasion where Poland was repeating the story that's "hardly never mentioned":
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215003/Secrets-Enig...
And a brief Google on BBC site alone produces these headlines and stories:
Objectively it's hardly the most interesting or significant fact about her, is it?
As for Enigma, as others have also stated, it's virtually impossible to have heard of it without hearing about the Polish involvement, to the point where it almost seems like the British role is being denigrated.
Here's a story from 2012, for example, on a previous occasion where Poland was repeating the story that's "hardly never mentioned":
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215003/Secrets-Enig...
But now [4 years ago], the Polish Government has launched
a campaign to highlight the important - and overlooked -
role played by its nation in solving the Enigma code.
And a brief Google on BBC site alone produces these headlines and stories:
2014 Poland's overlooked Enigma codebreakers
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28167071
2011 Bletchley Park remembers Polish code breakers
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-14141406
2009 How Poles cracked Nazi Enigma secret
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8158782.stm
2000 UK gives Enigma machine to Poles
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/930873.stmI'm not sure I'm conveying my point here clearly. I feel almost upset that the Polish part of her surname is omitted pretty much everywhere but Poland, since that is something that to herself was of great value, for reasons brought up by other commenters. Not adding it feels like it almost insults what she believed in, and strips her legacy to bare scientific achievements.
I don't know how else to describe it, maybe if Alexander Graham Bell had another surname, say French or German, and people everywhere were using that instead, without ever mentioning Bell? Would that be an understandable example then?
I don't know how else to describe it, maybe if Alexander Graham Bell had another surname, say French or German, and people everywhere were using that instead, without ever mentioning Bell? Would that be an understandable example then?
It sounds like she is known or remembered in Poland for her science and for her nationalism then. Outside of Poland, her Polish nationalism is obviously going to be less important/relevant than her contribution to science.
>I don't know how else to describe it, maybe if Alexander Graham Bell had another surname, say French or German, and people everywhere were using that instead, without ever mentioning Bell? Would that be an understandable example then?
I think I would understand more if she had never used the name Marie Curie, or even rejected it at any point in her life (did she?) and was simply called that by other people. If she herself used and was happy with the name "Marie Curie" though, and AFAIK she was, I don't see what the issue is with her being known by that name.
>I don't know how else to describe it, maybe if Alexander Graham Bell had another surname, say French or German, and people everywhere were using that instead, without ever mentioning Bell? Would that be an understandable example then?
I think I would understand more if she had never used the name Marie Curie, or even rejected it at any point in her life (did she?) and was simply called that by other people. If she herself used and was happy with the name "Marie Curie" though, and AFAIK she was, I don't see what the issue is with her being known by that name.
My guess is that it's because "Curie" is a lot easier for an English-speaker to type and pronounce than "Skłodowska". I don't even have one of those characters on my keyboard -- I had to copy-paste from above.
Not only that but people unfamiliar with Polish names would not necessarily assume Sklodowska is Polish anyway.
Someone from the UK here and I was taught she was Polish. But personally I don't think her nationality matters. She is better remembered for her contributions to science rather than which arbitrary border she was born inside.
At least with the war encryption crackers, nationality mattered in terms of which side those individuals were fighting on.
At least with the war encryption crackers, nationality mattered in terms of which side those individuals were fighting on.
Personally I think it matters a lot for the same reason why it mattered to her - Poland at the time was under occupation and for a long time wasn't even on the map - Polish language was forbidden and associating yourself with Polish values would get you thrown in prison or executed. She continued to emphasize that she was Polish and it mattered to her enormously - and that's why I think it should be remembered.
I guess in historical context, you have a point. Much like how it mattered that she was female whereas now woman largely have equal rights in the scientific community so you wouldn't feel the need to point out the gender of a scientist.
"During peace time a scientist belongs to the World, but during war time he belongs to his country." --Fritz Haber
I would be very surprised if many people in the US knew that Marie Curie was Polish. I assumed she was French - she worked in Paris, and both Marie and Curie have a Gallic ring to them.
Also UK, knew about her but had no idea (or had completely forgotten, very possible) that she was Polish until walking path her old home in Warsaw and seeing a plaque.
It's not complete nonsense. While growing up, I read about her in numerous U.S. textbooks that failed to point out the Polish connection.
> It's not complete nonsense.
I'm not saying everyone would know, but an unsubstantiated sweeping generalization that almost nobody in the West knows where she was from is patently complete nonsense.
I'm not saying everyone would know, but an unsubstantiated sweeping generalization that almost nobody in the West knows where she was from is patently complete nonsense.
Australian here, who did do the science electives in high school... I'm sure I must have read that she was Polish at various points, but I sure as heck didn't remember it until seeing the above comment...
Sorry to see that uneducated people are downvoting you. I know from memory that 1) she was Polish, 2) her exact birth name, and 3) the correct pronunciation of the third letter in said name. All this without speaking Polish at all.
I had no idea. The whole point is that, because we were not educated about that fact, the statement is likely incorrect.
Frank Rowlett, a cryptanalyst breaking Japanese codes at the Navy Annexe in Washington in the 1930s, accidentally invented computers when he haywired some conditional branch circuits into an IBM card sorter [1]. He was only trying to solve his problem, and was working in a classified area, so almost no has heard of him today. There is a relevant xkcd, of course [2].
[1] Frank B. Rowlett, The Story of Magic: Memoirs of an American Cryptologic Pioneer, ISBN 978-0894122736 (1998)
[2] https://xkcd.com/664/
[1] Frank B. Rowlett, The Story of Magic: Memoirs of an American Cryptologic Pioneer, ISBN 978-0894122736 (1998)
[2] https://xkcd.com/664/
This seems a little odd.
Yes, Alan Turing looms large in the public consciousness; his various Polish contemporaries, not so much.
But to anyone who has looked into the history of these events, the work of the Polish is no secret, nor has their story been "lost".
For example, some years ago I visited the National Cryptologic Museum[1] in Fort Meade, MD. They were very clear that the enigma code was cracked primarily through the efforts of Polish cryptologists.
[1] Highly recommended. They have -- among many other interesting things -- an actual enigma machine, and they let you type on it! (Well, they let me type on it, anyway.)
Yes, Alan Turing looms large in the public consciousness; his various Polish contemporaries, not so much.
But to anyone who has looked into the history of these events, the work of the Polish is no secret, nor has their story been "lost".
For example, some years ago I visited the National Cryptologic Museum[1] in Fort Meade, MD. They were very clear that the enigma code was cracked primarily through the efforts of Polish cryptologists.
[1] Highly recommended. They have -- among many other interesting things -- an actual enigma machine, and they let you type on it! (Well, they let me type on it, anyway.)
Bletchley Park has a memorial to the Polish codebreakers too. Another spot worth a visit. http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/11049/Polish-Memorial-Blet...
There were different Enigma versions, even at the same time the different German organizations used simpler or more complicated versions (there were 4 or 5 iirc for Navy, Army etc) the Polish broke an earlier model and Turing's team broke the Navy one (more complicated than the one Polish broke, but simpler than others), why can't journalists read a book or ask someone who read a book before publishing?
I realize most people are going to think of the Polish government as bandwagon jumping, but the more we can get past the simple fairy tale versions of history the better.
Enigma: The Battle for the Code[0] is a very good read. It details the Polish achievements, the rush to save the Polish cryptographers out of France as the it was collapsing in 1940, and then goes into details with the many more details that gone into the cracking effort, besides Turing's team. Eg. tt shows the importance of weather report patterns in finding cribs that short-circuited the decryption (known clear text headers) and the importance of the submarine captured Enigma machines that showed the disk settings in the Navy setup (the Navy machine was much harder to crack than the Army ones). Not only a good read, but also very educating for anyone using cryptography today!
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Battle-Code-Hugh-Sebag-Montefio...
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Battle-Code-Hugh-Sebag-Montefio...
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma also a lot of details
Makes me want to re-read Cryptonomicon again. The Imitation Game movie was a disappointment to me, after having read that book -- but I have to admit I don't remember if the Polish contribution was mentioned in the book!
Haven't read a fiction book in over two months and I'm thinking of trying one out. Cryptonomicon has been in my Kobo for ages so it is going to be the next book I tackle after the current book I am reading. I guess I will be kind of cheating since Neil Stephenson's books tend to be well researched :) Hoping I can learn a few things from it. A lot of pages though :(
It was mentioned in a few places, but very briefly as well. Which is a bummer because Neil Stephenson could've afforded to push a few details more into the story.
też mi nowość
Yes the Polish code breaking was underplayed in The Imitation Game and reduced to just one line. Turing built a more complex version of the Polish Bombie machine to crack a more complex version of Enigma.
Doesn't surprise me because only english are great :)
More to do with Hollywood wanting a short easy story.
Much detail about the huge operation that did not involve the Turing character directly was left out or reduced. Most in the UK who have read anything about the use of cryptography in the second world war know about the Polish contribution.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28167071
I've read most of Kahn's history of code breaking (2006 edition) which was originally written before the Bletchly Park project was publically acknowledged and I found out about the US cracking of Japanese codes using machine assistance but not what we would recognise now as an electronic computer. Kahn's book is handy for historical depth - this whole cryptography/cryptanalysis thing has been something of an arms race from the invention of radio onwards.
Much detail about the huge operation that did not involve the Turing character directly was left out or reduced. Most in the UK who have read anything about the use of cryptography in the second world war know about the Polish contribution.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28167071
I've read most of Kahn's history of code breaking (2006 edition) which was originally written before the Bletchly Park project was publically acknowledged and I found out about the US cracking of Japanese codes using machine assistance but not what we would recognise now as an electronic computer. Kahn's book is handy for historical depth - this whole cryptography/cryptanalysis thing has been something of an arms race from the invention of radio onwards.
I loved how they made it look like known plaintext cryptanalysis was some kind of breakthrough months in the process when the reality is that was the job description - the initial premise of bringing him onboard was based partially on that. KPAs date back to at least the 1800s and were at least well-documented by then, if not also well known.
But really, that lovely movie messed with the timeline all over the place. I talked with the screenwriter at the Hammer museum about it ... he said "it makes a better story" without any reservations. I had to agree.
But really, that lovely movie messed with the timeline all over the place. I talked with the screenwriter at the Hammer museum about it ... he said "it makes a better story" without any reservations. I had to agree.
Better stories should not trump accuracy. After all future generations are likely to see this 'better story' as the real one, such accuracy should be preserved where possible.
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This is a good short summary of the accomplishments of the WWII Polish code breakers;
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/virtualbp/poles/poles.htm
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/virtualbp/poles/poles.htm
The Polish mathematicians were truly great. It was Rajewski and crew who broke the enigma codes.
What's even more extreme about the Polish codebreakers, a story you would read in Battle of Wits, is that they were evacuated from Poland to France after the invasion of Poland, and then stayed in occupied France working in secret for the Allies as part of the occupation government. They posed to the occupation government as the occupation governments signals intelligence system but secretly supplied GC&CS with information they intercepted from the continent (which the Allies had a lot of trouble doing only from the UK).
They did that for years, when they tried to evacuate themselves to Spain, a few of them were captured, interrogated, and did not give up the goods about either the invasion or the secret of Enigma. If you want wartime crypto heroes you would have a hard time doing better than Jerzy Różycki, Henryk Zygalski and Marian Rejewski.