ISR Tour: Enigma - a podcast by National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

The cipher machine known as Enigma encrypted and decrypted secret message traffic for the Germans in World War II. Although invented in the early 1920s, Germany used it before and during the war. The Polish Cipher Bureau earned the distinction of first breaking Enigma ciphers in December 1932. Beginning in 1938, the Germans increased the complexity of the Enigma system, which required the Poles to develop a calculating computer known as a Bomba. Realizing the German plans to invade their country, the Poles turned the Enigma secret over to French and British military intelligence in July 1939. With that information, British codebreakers decrypted almost 84,000 messages a month from 1943 until the end of the war. The Allies codenamed the intelligence collected by this SIGINT source, “Ultra.” It provided critical intelligence that saved countless Allied lives and speeded the ultimate victory.

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