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I’ve been..well…just about everywhere other than here the last couple days. I started writing a piece about encryption and Enigma yesterday, but couldn’t really conclude it. I suppose its the fickle side of inspiration and its corresponding creative juices.
But it’s a new evening, things are flowing a little better and, coincidentally, today’s topic is also about encryption…and Enigma.
By May 23, 1940, the German invasion of the Low Countries (begun just two weeks prior) was beginning to look like a rout. Fighting in the Netherlands had already ended (for the most part) and Belgium was teetering. And in France, poor organization and a real lack of support from the populace was putting paid to any chance they had of stopping the onslaught.
And for the British Expeditionary Force (the BEF) fighting along side the French and Belgians, May 23rd was a day that things were going to get worse. Which is where Enigma comes in. Enigma was the encryption machine (and corresponding system) the Germans used to code all their message traffic. The system was really advanced for the day. So advanced, in fact, that its users believed it to be unbreakable.
But not only were Enigma ciphers breakable, they had been broken. In fact, my not-finished “lesson” from yesterday concerned the British breaking the Luftwaffe’s Red Key Cipher, which they did on May 22, 1940.
But that good news would be tempered by the message the British deciphered the next day. General Walther von Brauchitsch sent orders to Army Groups A & B and told them to turn north. The British intercepted the message, decoded it, and realized their time on the European continent was over. That turn north was designed to trap the BEF and force them to capitulate, and the loss of several hundred thousand British soldiers would be catastrophic.
The British went to the drawing board and (very quickly) came with Operation Dynamo, an attempt to rescue their forces (and as many French forces as possible). But the logistics were daunting, and the British had yet to reach the coast where a rescue could even be attempted. That intercepted message revealed the precipice over which the British dangled, and there was strong doubt that they could be rescued. It would be a near-run thing, and we’ll visit this developing situation again in a couple days.
Recommended Reading: The Enigma War
