The use of Enigma caught the attention of Poland and France, therefore the Polish began efforts to break the preliminary form of Enigma.
Polish Contributors
Jerzy Roxycki, Henryk Zygalski, and Marian Rejewski, brilliant Polish mathematicians, began working on Enigma on September 1, 1932 at the Cipher Bureau in Warsaw.
"Nearly all the early work on the German Naval Enigma was done by Polish cryptographers, who handed over the details of their very considerable achievements just before the outbreak of the war."
- Patrick Mahon
Head of Hut 8 in 1944
Polish Contributions
Germans changed the rules of enciphering messages on September 15, 1938 so that the Enigma operator could select the position. This required more efficient machinery.
Rejewski's Bomba (October 1938) allowed for Enigma's daily keys to be recovered.
"An electrically driven system of rotors turned round automatically, creating in each Bombe 17,567 different combinations of letters within 2 hours. When the rotors were placed in the sought-for position, a light appeared, the motors stopped automatically, and the cryptologist read the indications... the daily keys could be recovered within 2 hours." |
Germans changed the Enigma ciphers on December 15, 1938 again, to introduce two more rotors. This proved too formidable for the Polish.
In July 1939, Polish revealed that Enigma was penetrated to the French and British.
"We showed and told them everything that we knew about Enigma."
- Marian Rejewski