Code makers and breakers of WWII

After many years of trying, Polish mathematicians during World War II discovered how the mathematical calculations of the Enigma were created. Because the machine's key was changed every day, however, decoding Germany's secret messages by hand was too slow. They created the Bombe to test the Enigma's 17,576 settings, according to the National Security Agency.

At the beginning of World War II, British cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, which now houses the National Museum of Computing, used Polish techniques and exploited weaknesses in German operating procedures to read Enigma messages.

According to the book Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park, Winston Churchill once described Bletchley Park as Britain's secret weapon that won the war. Bletchley Park is currently trying to secure funding to keep its doors open and save its numerous exhibits from rotting away, including several buildings used by the World War II code breakers.

Pictured here is a mockup of a Bombe machine at Bletchley Park.

Credit: Sarah Hartwell