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Welcome to the Museum ofWelcome to the Museum ofWW2 CodesWW2 Codes

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Contact us at jakeandjared@gmail.com

In this powerpoint presentation we placed our main focus on the codes used during WW2. We studied Enigma, SIGABA, the Native American Code Talkers, and other codes used during the war. Jake became an expert on Enigma and how it was broken while Jared became an expert on the Native American Code Talkers and SIGABA. We both contributed to the other codes during the war. Please enjoy your visit to the museum!

Group Four (Jake and Jared)

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Room 1

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Enigma Code (Room 1)

Room 2

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Breaking Enigma (Room 2)

Room 3

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Native American Code Talkers (Room 3)

Room 4

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SIGABA (Room 4) (Room 4)

Room 5

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How WWII Affected Society (Room 5)How WWII Affected Society (Room 5)

The Enigma machine was a device created by Arthur Scherbius near the end of WWII. It was used by the Germans to encipher messages that they sent to their troops. It consisted of multiple electrical/mechanical subsystems, which made up a keyboard and series of rotors positioned around a rod. One of the most helpful things about the Enigma machine was how portable it was, making it easy for the Germans to distribute throughout the Navy.Citation

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Enigma Code Machine

While the Enigma machine was originally sold for banks and such, the military later adopted the device. This meant the security had to be upgraded even more. For the military Enigma machines, an extra component called the plug board was added which scrambled the current of the input letter to output letter even more. The military also developed five more rotors for a total of eight to choose from, making it harder for any person attempting to decode the message. For someone to decode a message written in Enigma, that person would have to have the same settings on their machine. These settings determined the position of the wires on the plug board, the types of rotors used, and the number setting of those rotors. The military would share the settings within themselves through a book that would only work for a month. After a month, a new book would be distributed.Citation

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Monthly Enigma Machine Setting Sheet

Arthur Scherbius born in 1878 was the creator of the patented Enigma Machine. Scherbius studied electrical engineering at the University of Munich. After college he started a company that made different electronic devices that he either made himself or bought from other inventors like Hugo Koch. Arthur later applied for a patent for a cipher machine with different wired rotating wheels. This machine was later adopted by the German navy and soon became known as the Enigma Machine.Citation

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Inventor of Enigma

The Enigma code machine uses a system of rotors, rods, and keyboards. Inside the rotors is a random jumble of wires connecting different letters to one another. When one presses a letter on the keyboard, another letter lights up. Every time a letter is pressed, the rotor on the far right rotates. The three rotors work like an old car odometer, where one moves fast, the other medium, and the last slowest. When the rotors move, the path the current takes is changed. This means there is a different output letter. This jumble of letters would be sent and decoded on the other side using another machine set at the same setting. Overall there are a total of 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 different outcomes for one letter.Citation

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How the Enigma Code Works

The Bombe was an electromechanical device created by Alan Turing during WWII. The purpose was to find out the daily setting of the enemy’s enigma machine in very little time. It used a complicated system of rotors and electronic connections to determine the settings. It was said the device could produce the data in less than twenty minutes after an important refinement done by Gordon Welchman. The construction of this machine was done mostly in Bletchley Park.Citation

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The Bombe

Alan Turing is the man that is credited for breaking the Enigma code. The British army to try and crack the code along with team of other genius’ that were recruited along with him or that he recruited himself. The flaw with the Enigma code that Turing detected was the that if the input letter “A ” was put in, the output would never be “A ” due to the Enigma machines electrical makeup. He created a machine known as the Bombe, which made it possible to find the settings of the machine that sent the message, in under 20 minutes. Unfortunately he was prosecuted for homosexual acts, which was illegal in the UK at the time. He committed suicide by cyanide poisoning sixteen days before his 42nd birthday. Citation

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Alan Turing

An absolutely essential part of cracking the enigma code was for the British to get their hands on an actual Enigma machine. This happened on May 9th where the British boarded a German U-Boat to get their hands on an Enigma machine. Sub-Lieutenant David Balme reported how he boarded U-110, “Also the coding machine was found here, plugged in and as though it was in actual use when abandoned.” This letter is the report on how the machine was found.Citation

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Top Secret Letter

This is a picture of the rotor set used in the Enigma machine. As mentioned before, the military had added even more rotors to the rod. Once the rotor on the far right moves in one revolution, the second moves once. When the rotor on the far right has done 26 revolutions, triggering the middle rotor to do one revolution, the rotor on the far left will move once. You can see how adding even more rotors made it nearly impossible for anyone to break the code.Citation

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Enigma Rotor Set

The Navajo, along with a few other American Indian tribes, were hired as code talkers in WWII. They used an adapted version of their language, which will be explained at the next artifact. The reason this was effective was because not many people outside of the tribes knew or understood the language. The language was hardly ever written, and therefore very secretive.Citation

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The Navajo Code Talkers

As you can see in this chart, every letter of the alphabet had a corresponding word in the Navajo Language that’s true meaning’s first letter matched with. For example, the Navajo word Tkin stood for the letter I, but actually meant Ice. This allowed the Code Talkers to secretly converse in a language only they knew.Citation

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The Navajo Code

Navajo not only served as code talkers in the military, but as active military members and fighters too. Most of them served in the Marines. Here is a picture of them standing with their rifles.Citation

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Navajo in the Military

Until a long time after WWII, Navajo code talkers were not properly recognized until the operation was declassified in 1968. In 1982, they were given a Certificate of Recognition by President Ronald Reagan, who then named August 14, 1982 as "Navajo Code Talkers Day".Citation

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Receiving their Recognition

The SIGABA machine is a code machine used to decipher and send codes by America. This machine is similar to the Enigma machine, in that it uses the rotor system, but during its usage period, it was never broken. Its appearance is somewhat like a bulky typewriter.Citation

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The SIGABA machine

To use the SIGABA machine, an operator would type the code into the keyboard on the front, which through the rotor system, would encode the message and send it.Citation

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SIGABA Operator

William F. Friedman was a US Army cryptographer who ran the research division of the Army's Signals Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1930s. He is also the inventor of the SIGABA cryptography machine.Citation

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William F. Friedman

The SIGABA machine used rotors in its works, just like the German Enigma machine. How it worked was when a letter was pressed on the keyboard, the signal would be sent through a system of rotors as it was in Enigma, producing an encoded version of the signal. The SIGABA was much more precise and complicated than Enigma, making it harder to break.Citation

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SIGABA’s Rotor System

A new generation of literature came out of the war, and its ethnic, regional, and social character was quite different from the older one. Among the new writers were immigrants, many of them Jews; African Americans, just out of slavery; and women with the rise of feminism.Citation

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How WW2 Affected Literature

The technology of radar was barely invented at the start of the war but became highly developed in just a few years. Penicillin was first mass produced during the war, making it available to millions of people. And as old materials became scarce, new materials such as plastic wrap became a substitute for aluminum foil for covering food; cardboard milk and juice containers replaced glass bottles; plywood emerged as a substitute for scarce metals, for everything from the hulls of boats to aircraft wings. Citation

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How WW2 Affected Science

Resistance movements during World War II went on in many countries, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda, and even warfare and recapturing towns. In many countries, resistance movements were referred to as The Underground. Some of the most famous resistance movements included the British SOE, and the American OSS, which was the forerunner of the modern day CIA.Citation

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How WW2 Affected Movements

WW2 had a couple of major impacts. The first was how during WW2, posters and propaganda were introduced using art to keep the publics opinion positive about the war. Another thing that was introduced during the same time WW2 happening was the era of art called abstract and expressionism which is still widely popular today. Citation

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How WW2 Affected Arts

During WW2, many institutions were created to help fight and support the war. One of these institutions was the effort to break Enigma at Bletchley Park. Today, we have many institutions that raise money or donate to the veterans in the war. We also have top secret organizations like the one at Bletchley Park to help stop the war.Citation

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How WW2 Affected Institutions

America joining WW2 was a huge step for the country. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the Americans felt the need to get revenge. Today we have more allies like Japan from joining the war. However, the county of Japan and America still both grieve and regret the death of hundreds of thousands of Japanese people when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Citation

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America’s Effect on The War (Actions)

If America hadn’t participated in WW2, things would be a lot different in the world. Japan and America would most likely have hade more wars after the attack on pearl harbor. However, the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have not happened. We would also not have as many allies as before.Citation

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America’s Effect on The War (Inactions)

There are multiple similarities between the time during WW2 and the way things are now. You can see these similarities demonstrated in literature, arts, institutions, movements, and science from both eras. The Enigma machine is considered by some the first computer. Look at computers now! Propaganda and posters were used in the war just like they are used now to help support organizations. The list can go on and on. In conclusion, this whole museum has been describing things during WW2, and even some things from our current era.Citation

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How WW2 Affected Society Today

Bibliography• http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/content/hist/worldwartwo/

enigma.rhtm• http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=enigma+code+flaw&view• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2_Q9FoD-oQ• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing• http://ww2today.com/9th-may-1941-enigma-machine-captured• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2NWPG2gB_A• http://ww2today.com/• http://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/united-states-ww2-events-

timeline.asp• http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1661.html• http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_periods