Prior to the publication of Winston Churchill’s The World Crisis and the British Royal Navy’s official history of the First World War in 1923, the Germans were completely oblivious to the fact that their encryption system had been compromised.  Since Admiral Hall managed to make it seem as though the unencrypted version of the Zimmermann Telegram had been intercepted in Mexico, they didn’t know that it had actually been deciphered by British cryptanalysts.  As we discussed in class, cryptographers tend to be overly confident in the security of their codes. Most will not assume they have been broken unless there is clear evidence that they have.  Because of this, the Germans had no reason to believe that their messages weren’t secure, so they initially displayed no interest in investing in the Enigma machine after the war.

However, when the British publicly announced that their knowledge of German codes had given them a major advantage in the war, the Germans realized they needed a stronger encryption system.  This realization is what led them to adopt the Enigma machine for use in military communication encryption during the Second World War.  The formidable strength of Enigma posed a major challenge to the Allies’ cryptanalysts, appearing to be unbreakable.  Although it was eventually cracked, Enigma allowed the Nazis to communicate in secrecy for a large portion of the war, giving them a significant advantage.

There are a few reasons that could explain why the British announced their knowledge of Germany’s codes after World War I.  For one, they were likely motivated by pride.  They wanted to show what their cryptanalysts were capable of, possibly with the intention of intimidating other countries.  Furthermore, they probably figured that since the war was over, there was no harm in revealing the strategies they used.  However, after seeing the consequences that arose later on, it is clear that the British should have stayed quiet.  Had they kept their knowledge a secret, the Nazis might have continued to use the same methods of encryption into the second World War.  If so, the Allies would have been able to know their plans ahead of time, resulting in a much shorter and less bloody World War II.