ENIGMA

COLOSSUS

 
 

map book and vidio enigma

Enigma the film stared Kate Winslet who played Hester and it centred around a fictional character called Tom Jericho played by Dougray Scott based  very loosely on Alan Turing.  It revolved around the breaking of the Enigma code using an Enigma machine and the discovery of a wartime event that would involve five nations. The Katyn massacre.

In the film it used in its location shots Bletchley Park home of the Enigma Code breakers.

Hut 11 in the park contained a machine called "The Bombe” Turing’s invention.  It was used to break the Enigma code, this and another machine in Hut 7 called "Colossus" built and paid for by Tommy Flowers a GPO worker using Ex-GPO equipment

INDEX

Over 200 of the Bombes were built by the British Tabulating Machine company at Letchworth, many of which were destroyed after the war but some were saved by moving them to a different location.

"Colossus" was the very first programmable computer, but because it was so secret, its existence remained unknown until some 50 years later.  It has recently been restored to its former working state by a team of dedicated enthusiasts using original plans and bits and pieces salvaged, begged, stolen, given from many sources

In the film between the Bombe, Colossus and the so-called Cryptonoligists, a team of mathematicians and crossword fanatics, were brought together to break the code.  In reality this was an essential part of Britain’s wartime defences, it would enable the British Navy to track and defend British ships and convoys from America from submarine attacks, plus the added advantage of reading the intelligence of the Axis powers, both in Europe and the Far East (Ultra and Magic)

Magic as it was called, was the American name for their enigma-decoding machine, and was to play a part in the decoding of Japanese intelligence.

Gleaned from the film and my interest as an Ex GPO of some 40+ years.

 
 
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