From 75542.1003@compuserve.comWed Jul 12 19:22:08 1995 Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 17:12:46 EDT From: "Randy Nichols, ACA Pres." <75542.1003@compuserve.com> Reply to: ACA-L To: Multiple recipients of list ACA-L Newsgroups: bit.listserv.aca-l Subject: German Part II GERMAN REDUCTION CIPHERS PART II NOTES ON ENIGMA CIPHER MACHINES ENIGMA is the generic term for the German machine ciphers. It was both the name of the first enciphering device and the many variations used during WWII. ULTRA was the British code-name for intelligence derived from cracking the Enigma machine ciphers by an organization of about 10,000 at Bletchley Park (BP). The extent of the penetration of the German command structure was so profound and so pervasive that it is clear that BP's work changed not only the conduct but the outcome of Allied European Operations in WWII. Most brilliant of ULTRA successes was against German Afrika Korps whereby the 8th Army HQ read Enigma telegrams before Rommel himself. (8) There is a lot of material available- too much for E-Mail! Here is my annotated outline. ENIGMA CIPHER MACHINE(S) A: HISTORY A1: Historical Perspective - Atlantic Theater (8 Phases) Since Enigma was so central to the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII, primary sources for the historical perspective would be from Germany, Canada, UK, and USA. Prof. Jurgen Roher's Comparative Analysis of Allied and Axis Radio-Intelligence in the Battle of the Atlantic, (Ref 10,) presents the history in 8 phases. Phase 1 - Single U-Boats vs Independent Ships 9/39-6/40 Failure of BP on Schlussel M (Navy Machine) Phase 2 - Wolf Pack vs Convoy 7/40-5/41 Success of B-Dienst Phase 3 - Evasive Routing, US Entry 6/41-12/41 U-33 3 rotors recovered, U-110, Munchen Bombe limited success 336 settings German 4 rotor improvement Phase 4 - BP Successes on Enigma D, US losses 1/1-6/42 Phase 5 - Convoy Battles 7/47-12/13 Triton Broken ; Rerouting; Milch runs Phase 6 - Bay Offensive 6/43-8/43 Phase 7 - Decreased Operations vs Convoys 9/43-5/44 Increased use of Ultra Phase 8 - Holding Campaign with Schnorkel U-boats 6/44-end New Enigma not released in time for Germany Professor Roher presents 105 primary references. A2: Shipping Losses and Input Tonnage Allied shipping losses were significant and import tonnage was reduced because of the U-boat success and communication. T. J. Runyan and Jan M. Copes "To Die Gallently" (Ref 11) presents details. A3. Enigma Chronology David Kahn presents an Enigma chronology in terms of world events. A clearer picture of the effect of ULTRA can not be found. The timelines are based on his and the honorable F. H. Hinsley books. (12), (13), (14) Reference (15) is considered the cryptographer's bible on the subject. A4: British Perspective The early history of the Enigma, the Polish attack and the beginnings of BP are covered in Ref (16). Winterbotham and Beesley have given us special insights into the fray. (17), (18) Other perspectives are found in ref's (39) and (40) A5: Polish Perspective The story of the Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski pioneering work in the Biuro Szyfrow (Cipher Bureau) and their escape to France is told in Ref (8). B: SPECIFICATIONS B1: Enigma Machine Classes A-E (Deavours) ENIGMA was a class of machines. Cipher A Deavours and Louis Kruh, " Machine Cryptography and Modern Cryptanalysis", Artech House Telecom Library, 1985, Chapter III gives detailed descriptions with pics, rotor order, settings, plug-board and influence on frequency distribution. (19) B2: Enigma - 3 rotor (Kahn) David Kahn in his "Seizing the Enigma" , Houghten Mifflin, 1991, pp 178 ff gives good detail. Also "Codebreakers" p422. , also various articles by Kahn in Cryptologia give pictorials. (20), (21) B3: Army Enigma - 3 rotor (Hinsley) F.H. Hinsley and Alan Strip in "Codebreakers - Story of Bletchley Park", (Ref 22) gives good pics and supporting detail for the Army version 3 rotor device. B4: Early Variations - (Friedman) NSA's Friedman Legacy - A Tribute to William and Elizabeth Friedman, 1992, pp 201 ff discusses the early Enigma variants. (23) B5: Naval Variation - Air Ministry (3 of 8) See Ref's (8) and (21) and (22) B6: Air Force Variation - 3 rotor (British Air Ministry) See section B3. B7: University of Hamburg - WWW : Enigma pictures Dr. Klaus Brunnstein (University of Hamburg) has provided some excellent Enigma pictures in their Working Groups "museum": Address: http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de Select "international homepage" From 2nd entry "groups", select AGN (first of the working groups) There, select "Museum" (4th entry) where you get a list of about 40 pictures. C: PATENTS C1: General - (Levine) Jack Levine presents the most comprehensive treatment of US Cryptographic Patents 1861-1981 in ref (24). C2: Scherbius #1,657,411 (Lauer) [Geheimschrijfmachine] 1919 Rudolph F Lauer discusses the original A Scherbius Enigma patent # 1657411 in his "Computer Simulation of Classical Substitution Cryptographic Systems" in ref (25). This machine eventually was used for diplomatic communications and had ten rotors. BP broke it late in the game using the Colossus machines. C3: Herbern # 1,683,072 [Electric Code Machine], 1917 Reference (8) gives an interesting account of Herbern's efforts. D: ENCIPHERING PROCESS D1: Naval Enigma (Kahn) David Kahn in his "Seizing the Enigma" Appendix presents a detailed Enciphering procedure with the Naval Enigma. Approximately 20 pages of notes, biblio, interviews and diagrams. (26)