General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
New rotors
Posted by:
SuperKraut
()
Date: August 20, 2001 08:45PM
<HTML>You greatly exaggerate the expense and inconvenience of issuing new rotors. First of all they were rather cheap to make, just some copper wire, some contacts and some Bakelite. Couriers with secret documents traveled to military units on the front regularly and they could easily have carried the rotors. Besides, at least 3 rotors were issued during the course of the war. Issuing them to ships and Luftwaffe units is even easier since they are behind the front.
Another alternative is to design a reusable rotor which can be opened and the wiring shuffled, so all that needed to be done was to issue a piece of paper with the wiring diagram to each Enigma clerk. Note the wiring pattern was no great secret for the clerks since they could easily work it out with some wire and a light bulb.
Regards,
SuperKraut</HTML>
Another alternative is to design a reusable rotor which can be opened and the wiring shuffled, so all that needed to be done was to issue a piece of paper with the wiring diagram to each Enigma clerk. Note the wiring pattern was no great secret for the clerks since they could easily work it out with some wire and a light bulb.
Regards,
SuperKraut</HTML>