In the beginning of World War II, Great Britain was under less threat from the ever-expanding German forces on the European continent. Poland, on the other hand, was sandwiched between the Soviet Union to the east and rapidly encroaching Nazi armies to the west. Under the pressure of otherwise being forced under Nazi rule, the Polish cipher bureau made incredible headway in analysis of early German Enigma intercepts.
“Bletchley Park Bombe”
Photo by Antoine Taveneaux- Licensed under Public Domain by Wikipedia Commons
When Great Britain’s ships were attacked by German subs, a greater need to decipher Enigma arose. What was perhaps the most important contribution to British cryptanalysts’ efforts was the fact that they were able to build upon the Polish cryptanalysts’ work. Without those insights, the analysts at Bletchley Park might never have developed a full image of how the Enigma machine worked. Or rather, they might not have fully understood the weaknesses of the cipher (as well as its operators). For example, the Polish cipher bureau supplied copies of the military models of the Enigma machines to the British and French, and also provided the operator procedures that were in use at the time. This allowed groups like Bletchley Park’s Hut 6 to focus on finding a way to crack Enigma without the use of fragments such as the six-letter message key repeats at the beginning of every message. Additionally, the cryptological bombe that Alan Turing developed was based on a model designed by Polish cryptoanalyst Marian Rejewski, mechanizing the process of working out daily message keys.
Through collaboration and the ability to build upon the work of earlier cryptanalysts, the British were able to break the Enigma cipher. Not only did this save Allied lives and make victory much easier, but also the decryption shortened World War II in Europe and saved the lives of many in the Axis states who would have otherwise been killed in the longer fighting.
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