Friday, August 19, 2005

National Museum of Military History in Luxembourg

Enigma at display in Diekirch
In search of wartime equipment, some time ago I did a virtual recon of the Luxembourg National Museum of Military History in Diekirch. I discovered the presence of a German Enigma cipher machine.

Although the museum is located in a little corner in the center of Diekirch, there's an incredible amount of vehicles, material, weapons, and sceneries. Your eyes can't follow, walking through the exhibit rooms.

Since the museum is in the Ardennes, it's obvious that the main topic is the Battle of the Bulge. The sceneries give a good picture of how hard it was in those winter days in '44. Of course, my special interest went to the part with a large exhibit of communications equipment, even including complete Radio Shelter trucks, and not to forget, the Enigma and an American M-209 converter. The picture also shows a yellow AN-CRT3 Gibson Girl radio, just above the M-209.

If you ever get in the neighborhood, the Museum of Military History is a real must. It's located about 40 Km north of Luxembourg city. Even Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton are on the visitors list. If you're interested in crypto machines, you could visit the Crypto Tourism Wiki site, with lots of crypto related locations to visit. It's a wiki based site, were you can add any info you might have on locations of crypto stuff.
 
More about the Enigma, other crypto machines and various cipher systems on Cipher Machines and Cryptology.

2 comments:

College Boy said...

You should check out the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland if you come to the states.

-Mike

Dirk Rijmenants said...

I know, I know, it's also on the crypto tourism list. So many great places and things to do...