[Cryptography] Enigma's Secret Twin

[ianG]

(snippets only)

http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/enigma039s-secret-twin
Enigma's Secret Twin

>From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, Autumn 2008

Most of us know the story of Enigma, the German cipher machine
eventually broken by clever people at MI6's country house, Bletchley
Park, following brilliant early work by Polish mathematicians. The
achievement, reckoned to have shortened the war by two years, remained
secret for decades. Also secret, and less well known to this day, was
the fact that Britain had Enigma too. That's why the Germans---no
slouches at code-breaking---couldn't read British signals.
...
The story began in 1928 when the Government Code and Cypher School
(GC&CS)---forerunner of GCHQ and then part of MI6---acquired two Enigma
machines at the Admiralty's request. The Admiralty inexplicably lost
interest but in 1934 Wing Commander Lywood of Air Ministry Signals asked
the GC&CS if he might borrow one. ...

Typex was deployed by the RAF and the army at senior levels, often with
MI6 operators. MI5 and MI6 used it but the Admiralty did not, until the
readability of many of their early wartime signals became tragically
apparent. Typex remained secure throughout the war and continued in use
afterwards.
....
/*Alan Judd* is a novelist and former solider. His latest novel is
"Dancing with Eva"/
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