WHAT WAS THE ENIGMA MACHINE?
The Enigma machine was a device used to encrypt messages by the German military during the Second World War
The Enigma was a type of enciphering machine used by the German armed forces to send messages securely during the Second World War.
It used a complex series of rotors and lights to encrypt messages by swapping letters around via an ever-changing 'enigma code'.
Polish mathematicians worked out how to read enigma messages prior to 1939, and shared this information with the British.
But German cryptographers upgraded the security of the machines at the outbreak of the war by changing the cipher system daily.
A team of researchers, including famed British mathematician Alan Turing, eventually broke the enigma code in 1941.
They invented devices known as Bombe machines that could decipher the enigma code, allowing Allied forces to intercept German messages.
It is believed that the work of Turing and his team shortened the war's duration by up to two years.
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