General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
Interesting theory
Posted by:
SuperKraut
()
Date: November 10, 2001 05:10PM
<HTML>There had to be more to it than that. Changing the rotors was not that difficult a task. One way to find out if the problem was a spy or an Enigma penetration would have been a one time change of all rotors limited to one service, for example the U-boats. The experiment would involve sending all messages specific to U-boat operation using the new rotors and the other stuff would be sent with the old rotors to avoid cribs. It would soon become apparent that it was Enigma which was leaky.
As it was, the 4 rotor machine did shut out Ultra for almost a year and it would have been longer if there had not been some backward compatibility issues with weather ships which did not have the 4 rotor machine. The time of Ultra blackout also coincided with operations on the US coast, so much of the U-boat operations of the time did not involve the British.
Another unanswered question on this subject is how much B-Dienst knew about Enigma, how much effort was spent trying to find at least a theoretical way to break it and what the assumptions were. I have difficulty in believing that experienced cryptanalysts would claim Enigma to be tight assuming the enemy had a sample machine. On the other hand, assuming the enemy could not somehow acquire a sample is also negligent.
Another question is why Konrad Zuse was never consulted on any of this. He had been building programmable computers since 1936, but had a lot of difficulty attracting official attention and money.
Regards,
SuperKraut</HTML>
As it was, the 4 rotor machine did shut out Ultra for almost a year and it would have been longer if there had not been some backward compatibility issues with weather ships which did not have the 4 rotor machine. The time of Ultra blackout also coincided with operations on the US coast, so much of the U-boat operations of the time did not involve the British.
Another unanswered question on this subject is how much B-Dienst knew about Enigma, how much effort was spent trying to find at least a theoretical way to break it and what the assumptions were. I have difficulty in believing that experienced cryptanalysts would claim Enigma to be tight assuming the enemy had a sample machine. On the other hand, assuming the enemy could not somehow acquire a sample is also negligent.
Another question is why Konrad Zuse was never consulted on any of this. He had been building programmable computers since 1936, but had a lot of difficulty attracting official attention and money.
Regards,
SuperKraut</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
Doenitz, Ultra, and the Red Orchestra
|
kurt | 11/10/2001 01:37PM |
|
Interesting theory
|
SuperKraut | 11/10/2001 05:10PM |
|
Re: Interesting theory
|
oliver | 11/10/2001 10:04PM |
|
Re: Interesting theory
|
Yuri IL'IN | 11/11/2001 07:16AM |
|
Re: Interesting theory
|
kurt | 11/11/2001 09:44PM |