Secret Messages

Siemens Geheimschreiber T-52

If you're interested in crypto machines, espionage equipment and the Cold War, there's a unique temporary exhibition called 'Secret Messages' at the Jan Corver Museum in the Netherlands. It is an unmatched collection of very rare cipher machines and radio equipment from the Second World War until today.

There are three beautiful Enigma machines, a Wehrmacht model, the notorious Kriegsmarine Enigma and as if an Abwehr (counterintelligence) Enigma isn't rare enough, they have a special pre-Abwehr model which is a crossing between the Enigma D and the later Abwehr type. But there's plenty more in the Museum. Two Russian Fialka cipher machines, various Hagelin models, a NATO M-190 and even the famous Siemens Geheimschreiber T-52 and a most rare SIGABA CCM. A dream for every Cipher machine lover!

They also have a great collection of WW2 clandestine and spy radios such as the B2 suit case radio. From the Cold War era they have a wide range of spy radios, from the American RS1 to recent Soviet Special Forces radios. Surveillance equipment, bug tracing devices and spy cameras. It's all there.

A unique collection and a must for all those who are interested in WW2 and Cold War clandestine and espionage communications and cryptography. They are very helpful in explaining all the equipment and give all visitors a personal guide tour in different languages. The museum can be visited each Saturday from 10.00 to 17.00 hr, at least until the end of the year. A phone call before your visit is a good idea. Update: due to its success, the exhibition is prolonged until at least the end of February 2009!

You can visit the Jan Corver website, with some great pictures of the exhibition, or download the press release (pdf). I can highly recommend a visit, it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance!

Crypto Box Cracked

Crypto Box Software

After almost eleven months, the last stage of the Crypto Box Challenge is finally cracked. Olaf from Germany used partial exhaustion of the possible combinations, together with a hill climbing technique. My congratulations to Olaf!

Meanwhile, people from 11 countries have joined the challenge to crack the boxes. Of course, you can still participate and earn your place in the table!

The Crypto Box Challenge consists of three boxes with a shuffled text and a little piece of software. Goal is to shift the letters around until you have a readable text. Once you have managed to decipher a box you send in the solutions and get your place in the table of honor.

More on the Crypto Box Challenge on my website. Good Luck!

What If

Naval Enigma M4

What if the messages, encrypted with the German Enigma cipher machine, were never broken? What if the Germans realized their traffic was read by the Allies? It would have had devastating consequences if the code breakers in Bletchley Park were unable to break into the German naval radio traffic. Britain and Europe depended completely on the lifeline across the Atlantic.

All Signal Intelligence, gathered by codebreaking, was called ULTRA, and it was used with the utmost care to avoid the source being revealed. Action was never taken unless the ULTRA information was backed up by other sources. If the Germans would notice that their radio traffic was insecure, they would have changed to other encryption systems or improve the existing ones. They could keep their plans and strategies secret again, which would at least prolong the war for several years.

How would a Second World War until 1947 be like? Many more casualties, to begin with. Maybe no second front in the West against the Germans, occupied with fighting Russia. This might bring Nazi victory in the East. Britain could have fallen, without the crucial supplies over sea. If Hitler was still in power in 1947, would the US have used the atomic bombe on Berlin? Or would the Germans, inventive as they were, already have their own weapons of mass destruction?

Chris Andrew visited Bletchley Park and interviewed several veteran code breakers. It's an interesting view on how things would have been without the Bombe to break enigma traffic and without the Colossus computer to break the German High Command messages. Visit the BBC radio program What If and listen to the 30 minutes interview.