ENIGMA SECRETS

In July 1939, at a secret intelligence conference in Pyry near Warsaw, Polish cryptologists provided their French and British counterparts with knowledge and tools for decrypting Enigma. This knowledge, in the form of a report describing decryption methods, written in German (the only language common to German cipher specialists from Poland, France and Great Britain at that time), was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Allies and influenced the outcome of World War II.

Unfortunately, all copies of the Pyr report have been reported to be lost. So far, no documents clearly confirming the achievements of Poles have been disclosed in the sources available in the West. As a result, the contribution of Polish cryptologists to breaking the Enigma code has been controversial for decades, and in each of the countries involved in activities that significantly contributed to the Allied victory in the war with Germany, there is a separate narrative, largely shaped by disinformation intended to protect a mystery that after 1945 smoothly transformed into the mystery of the Cold War. Since machines based on the same working principle as Enigma were still in use, among others in the USSR.

The presented documentary titled: ENIGMA. WE GOT NEWS. Presents some new information found lately in France. This film was produced by the Polish Military Library and directed skillfully by Norbert Rudaś.

ENIGMA STORY

In July 1939, at a secret intelligence conference in Pyry near Warsaw, Polish cryptologists provided their French and British counterparts with knowledge and tools for decrypting Enigma. This knowledge, in the form of a report describing decryption methods, written in German (the only language common to German cipher specialists from Poland, France and Great Britain at that time), was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Allies and influenced the outcome of World War II. Unfortunately, all copies of the Pyry report have been lost. So far, no documents clearly confirming the achievements of Poles have been disclosed in the sources available in the West.

As a result, the contribution of Polish cryptologists to the breaking of the Enigma cipher has caused controversy for decades, and there is a separate narrative in each of the countries involved in the operation, which contributed significantly to the Allied victory in the war against Germany, largely shaped by disinformation designed to protect the secret, which after 1945 was seamlessly transformed into a Cold War secret. Because machines based on the same operating principle as Enigma were still in use, including in the USSR.

The Enigma machine was originally developed as a commercial German encoding apparatus developed after WWI. It resembled to some degree, a typewriter and used complicated sets of rotors, to change the letters or combinations of letters into a message or document to be randomly substitutes. The rotors produced billions of possible combinations for the original coded text. A recipient with another Enigma machine used a special key to decode the original code. In 1920s and 1930s German military transformed this commercial device into a sophisticated encoding system to transmit top-secret information (messages and orders) to German military units on land and sea. Germans were completely unaware that Polish Amry’s Cipher Bureau led by Major Maximilian Ciężki who o led of the team of specially educated brilliant Polish mathematicians and cryptologists. They not only broke the secrets of Enigma encoding system, but also made several copies of the machine (some called ”Bomba”).

The work of Poles was supplemented later by French and British cryptologists (including famous Alan Turing). The international team at Blethley Park, England continued work on Enigma with remarkable results for the Allies’ success in winning WWII. It paved the way for new challenge of breaking Soviets codes of their new Enigma’s concept-based machines during Cold War era.