The US 6812 Division Bombe Report Eastcote 1944 Page 5

Tony Sale's Codes and Ciphers

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DECODING ENIGMA MACHINE MESSAGES


1,October,1944.



DESCRIPTION OF ENIGMA MACHINE.

The Enigma machine is a portable, self contained cryptographic

device used to encode or decode letter by letter in a reciprocal
substitution system. Its three main elements are keyboard,stecker
board(patch board) and Enigma wheel maze. The machine looks as shown.



The keyboard consists of 26 typewriter type keys. The stecker

board is made up of a total of 26 pairs of jacks arranged in 3 rows.
Each pair includes one large and one small jack to permit inserting
the plug in only one direction, The patching cords are two conductor
cords equipped at each end with a plug with two prongs of unequal
diameter. The enigma wheel maze consists of a current supply
commutator, 3 movable wheels having 26 contacts on one face of the
wheel cross connected to 26 contacts on the opposite face, and a
reversing unit called an Unkehwalz (Uncle Walter). Two other move-
able wheels are carried in a separate carrying case. The wheels look
as shown.



Miscellaneous features include a rack for apare lamp bulbs ,a

holder for the message being encoded or decoded, a holder for 2 spare
cords, a shield to put over the 1amp when it is desired to suppress
the light from the set, and arrangements for testing lamps and cords.



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