Breaking the Enigma code - Polish contribution to victory

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The Polish WW2 success in breaking the code of the German Enigma machine
The Polish contribution here was never recognised either.


1. Synopsis

After WW1 Poland found itself squeezed between nationalistic Germany and communist Russia. The Treaty of Versailles, a mere slap on Germany's wrist, offered little security. Political, economic and social unrest gave rise to fascism and to rapid rearmament. Russia, after a bloody revolution, continued its imperialism by engaging in war with Poland and by annexing its Asian neighbours.

The adoption of an encrypting machine called Enigma for the German army's high level communications created a problem for Polish intelligence in decoding intercepted messages. Consequently, in 1932, Poland established a modern cryptology department at the University of Poznan. After a few months the three young Polish mathematicians shown below derived very smart methods and succeeded in breaking the Enigma cipher. Marian Rejewski Jerzy Rozycki Henryk Zygalski For the next few years, before and during the war, Poland had the ability to decrypt intercepted coded German messages. As Enigma evolved into a more complex and sophisticated machine, so too did the Polish methods and techniques. Just before the beginning of WW2 the Poles transferred all their know-how and equipment to the French and British Allies for their use in the coming war. When war started on September 1st, 1939, the Polish cryptologists were quickly evacuated through Romania to France. By October 1939 the reorganised cryptology unit started to decrypt Enigma messages again. Until the fall of France on June 17th, 1940 the Polish unit operated officially in France. After that they went underground in "Vichy" France, where they operated until November 1942 when the Germans occupied southern France. Their escape to neutral, but friendly with Germany, Spain was a disaster as they were apprehended and imprisoned in cruel interment camps. Two key cryptologists and three radio operators managed to escape and reach England but most fared much worse. Two senior intelligence officers and three engineers were caught by the Gestapo and were sent to German concentration camps. The two officers were liberated by the US Army but the three engineers perished.

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