Code-cracking and computers ( WWII and German Codes )

BBC ^ | Thursday, 6 November 2008 | Mark Ward Technology correspondent, BBC News

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

By the end of WWII, 11 Colossus machines were in use

Bletchley Park is best known for the work done on cracking the German codes and helping to bring World War II to a close far sooner than might have happened without those code breakers.

But many believe Bletchley should be celebrated not just for what it ended but also for what it started - namely the computer age.

The pioneering machines at Bletchley were created to help codebreakers cope with the enormous volume of enciphered material the Allies managed to intercept.

The machine that arguably had the greatest influence in those early days of computing was Colossus - a re-built version of which now resides in the National Museum of Computing which is also on the Bletchley site.

Men and machine

The Enigma machines were used by the field units of the German Army, Navy and Airforce. But the communications between Hitler and his generals were protected by different machines: The Lorenz SZ40 and SZ42.

The German High Command used the Lorenz machine because it was so much faster than the Enigma, making it much easier to send large amounts of text.

"For about 500 words Enigma was reasonable but for a whole report it was hopeless," said Jack Copeland, professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, director of the Turing Archive and a man with a passionate interest in the Bletchley Park computers.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the update.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looking at this picture.....wonder what the structure with pulleys and cords around the pulleys might be....is it somehow part of the machine....or is it ...perhaps there for physical exercise?

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[taxcontrol]

Kylin is a knock off of FreeBSD

[ozzymandus]

A couple of interesting points stand out in this story.

1. The Germans were stupid enough to use a modified version of a commercially available encryption machine for their military codes.

2. The Allies knew every move the Germans would make, at the same time the German commanders themselves found out, and they still barely won the war.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A review of the literature shows there were many groups working on the idea of computers in the late 30s/early 40s.

[CTOCS]

Please remove me from this ping list.

tks...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks E.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I could be mistaken.... but I don’t think the ping would have come from any list that I have....

[Professional Engineer]

ping

[Moltke]

No mention of Konrad Zuse in all this. Where do you think he and his Z1, Z2, Z3,... fit in?

[sionnsar]

Thanks to Professional Engineer for the ping.

Geezer Geek ping.

This is a very low-volume ping list (typically days to weeks between pings).
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this list.

[Not now, Not ever!]

I think it’s paper tape, used for data entry.
They moved it pretty fast and used the pulleys/springs to cushion/prolong the life of the tape.

[Marine_Uncle]

Interesting article.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That could be....now that makes sense....

I bet not many here have ever had the pleasure of working with paper tape...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well I think I need to be on the prestigious ... Geezer Geek ping list....

I'll let Blam and Marine_Uncle decide for themselves...but I know we all have some good War Stories of them OLD DAYS...

As a Graduate Student I wrote a program for an IBM 650...which had a rotating Drun ....for Memory...Buried the Sucker...program was to smooth the recorded data off a rocket test stand ....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Typo correction.....Rotating DRUM

[Covenantor]

Reading about Bletchley Park, IIRC the paper tapes contained the transcribed signals intercepts. So my guess is that these are the baudot tape readers.

There were whole platoons of women operating the typex (sp?) machines to produce the miles and miles of tapes which feed Colossus.

Neal Stephenson in his book “Cryptonomicon” had a phrase that stated these Bletchley ladies killed more of the enemy than Napoleon.

[null and void]

The Forbin Project?

[Marine_Uncle]

Ernie. My brain is fried. I am now working both inside seasonal, outside seasonal (think working like a donkey or horse in the field hualing a lot of heavy stuff), then going back to electrical to face the crowds asking all kinds of crap I should not even be telling them so that they then burn their houses down.
So I am a bit burnt out to conjure up some unique stuff I might have worked on. Between 1966 and 1979 while working at Westinghouse AeroSpace/Defense in MD, I was involved in weapon system design development and testing for the most part, only being involved in one model of mini computer we produced (16 bit 3.3MHZ) that was used on a number of different projects, Harpoon Cruise Missile, and F16 Fire Control Radar Computer. Afterward at Bell Labs I got into many different type systems mostly from a user view point for circuit simulations, database development, networking, as well as a few years as a UNIX System Admin. on various hardware platforms. My only real connection with the second generation mainframes was when I went to tech school in 65 and trained for a half year on a Philco Transac 2000 mainframe, where we used a Teletype 75 baud rate as the interface. Of course over the years I took Fortran courses, C programing whatever on various systems at the two companies I worked for. But I did not work directly on or program any of those early mainframes. Was more a casual user.

[GOPJ]

But before computers, before phones, there were codes. The NSA was born out of the codebreakers of World War II. And even today, the most secret room inside the most secret building at the NSA is called the black chamber. This is where the nation’s top codebreakers work.

From a piece on Drudge...