A few from Bletchley Park

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A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by Dave on Mon May 2 02:17:05 2016 fiogf49gjkf0d Did you see The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, about the Enigma codebreakers? Bletchley Park, was the central site for Britain's codebreakers is where it took place during WWII. Here's the entrance to Bletchley Park, where it really happened: Block B is the building where the Italian and Japanese codebreakers worked. It now houses a working reproduction of a segment of the Bombe, the codebreaking machine built by Alan Turing. I filmed a short video of it in use and will post it next week: The German coding machine was called Enigma by the Allies. There were various models made during the war years, each of increasing complexity. Part of what made it such a difficult code to break was that it used five wheels, of which three were used by German Army and Luftwaffe coders and four by German Navy coders. These wheels were changed daily at midnight. Here is an actual Enigma machine; note that it has three wheels so this machine was used by the German Army or Luftwaffe: Much of the work was done in 18 wooden huts. For example, Hut 3 was a wartime section tasked with the translation, interpretation and distribution of German Army and Luftwaffe messages deciphered by Hut 6. Alan Turing's office was in Hut 6: I'll post some more pictures over the next few weeks.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by SelkirkTMO* on Mon May 2 02:25:51 2016, in response to A few from Bletchley Park, posted by Dave on Mon May 2 02:17:05 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d For your amusement on the Enigma, not only were the wheels replaced, but see those cables in front? The connections were also rearranged at the same time as well which provided en further complexity for the codes. What helped, once the code was broken was that the last transmission before the changes included the wheel numbers and orders as well as the order for the connectors to be swapped as well. Once they were able to reliably decode, they were able to predict the next code sequence and be ready when transmissions resumed to capture it all.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by Express Rider* on Mon May 2 06:54:47 2016, in response to A few from Bletchley Park, posted by Dave on Mon May 2 02:17:05 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d THanks for posting these very interesting photos and their captions.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by JayZeeBMT* on Mon May 2 07:44:55 2016, in response to A few from Bletchley Park, posted by Dave on Mon May 2 02:17:05 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d Great pics and narrative!
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by TerrApin Station* on Mon May 2 08:02:34 2016, in response to A few from Bletchley Park, posted by Dave on Mon May 2 02:17:05 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d Yes, saw it. Cool.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by SMAZ* on Mon May 2 08:10:59 2016, in response to A few from Bletchley Park, posted by Dave on Mon May 2 02:17:05 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d so cool
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by Dave* on Mon May 2 16:03:37 2016, in response to Re: A few from Bletchley Park, posted by SelkirkTMO on Mon May 2 02:25:51 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d Yes, those are patch cords. Every day at midnight the German coders changed the cords so, for example, if Y was connected to L, pressing the Y key would come out as L, which would be further scrambled by Enigma into an altogether different letter. The coders had a chart showing which wheels, patch pairs, and other changes were to be used each day for the month.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by Dave* on Mon May 2 16:04:19 2016, in response to Re: A few from Bletchley Park, posted by Express Rider on Mon May 2 06:54:47 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d You're welcome. I'll post a few more in a couple of weeks after I get home and finish processing all the train photos.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by Dave* on Mon May 2 16:06:14 2016, in response to Re: A few from Bletchley Park, posted by JayZeeBMT on Mon May 2 07:44:55 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d Thanks! Sorry I interrupted all the flame wars here by posting something interesting.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by Dave* on Mon May 2 16:06:41 2016, in response to Re: A few from Bletchley Park, posted by TerrApin Station on Mon May 2 08:02:34 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d Glad you liked them.
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Re: A few from Bletchley Park
Posted by Dave* on Mon May 2 16:07:00 2016, in response to Re: A few from Bletchley Park, posted by SMAZ on Mon May 2 08:10:59 2016.* fiogf49gjkf0d Thank you!
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