A project I was involved in, which is still ongoing. A large number of Enigma messages recently discovered were broken by computer software. Many of these originate from the The Flossenbürg labour camp and others, in the last few weeks of WW2. Some very interesting messages were recovered, including some related to the last survivors of the July 20 assasination bomb plot and prisoner executions. Here is the link: http://www.cryptocellar.org geoff
A warm welcome Geoff, I was reading your Hut 6 site last night. Absolutely fascinating stuff (though much of the technical stuff goes right over my head). One question on the Flossenburg data If I may; (I've not read the entire thing yet) Where did you find these 'Funkspruch'? Are they scattered across several archives or were you more lucky than that as it sounds like you obtained a large sample in one go? Anyway, it sounds like an exceptionally worthy project to me, not just digging out original sources but resurrecting them by cryptography to add to the record is pretty cutting edge. More power to your elbow! Cheers, Adam.
Were the Flossenburg coded messages broken recently by computer software?.I say this because during the war it was said that Bletchley Park was never able to break the SD/Gestapo codes. Consequently Vera Atkins at the war's end had the intensive and challenging task of tracing those SOE operatives who had vanished into Nacht und Nebel.Had we had access to Gestapo signal traffic we would have known the fate of agents by intercepting SD/Gestapo instructions .Likewise the fate of the RAF 50 from Sagan would have been known earlier.As it was, the fate of these airmen was only established by post war investigations although the German authorities had notified the Protecting Power "a cock and bull "story of "shot while attempting to escape" after the event.
A warm welcome Geoff, One question on the Flossenburg data If I may; (I've not read the entire thing yet) Where did you find these 'Funkspruch'? Are they scattered across several archives or were you more lucky than that as it sounds like you obtained a large sample in one go? Adam. Adam, Thanks for the welcome. The messages were in a single batch held privately. I believe they are now in the Flossenbuerg museum. A paper gives more details (Big download) : www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pdf/papers/ucry_06.pdf The meaasges were in two groups, one from Russian front units, 1941 and the others Flossenbuerg, April 1945 geoff
Were the Flossenburg coded messages broken recently by computer software?.I say this because during the war it was said that Bletchley Park was never able to break the SD/Gestapo codes. I believe the Gestapo Enigma key was never broken, which 'to this day is a mystery'. The batch of messages in question, around 700 in total relating to Flossenbuerg and other labour camps, were almost all broke by computer software (written by me!) It took about a year do this. However breaking the messages is not the whole story. They first had to be transcribed from the hand written forms and the raw decrypts 'cleaned up' and in some cases translated. So rather a lot of work. The paper mentioned in my previous post tells how the breaking was achieved. Desktop PCs were used - I had one running for 6 months continuous. geoff
A paper gives more details (Big download) : www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pdf/papers/ucry_06.pdf More fascinating stuff Geoff, thanks for that. Barbarossa details and Flossenurg from an 'inside' SS perspective, sounds like a very lucky find indeed. Good luck with what looks like an ongoing struggle. Cheers, Adam.
I gather that the site has to do with secure comms? I understood the gist of it, but was quickly lost in the details. I think I'll wait until the decoded/translated messages are posted.
