One reason that the code breakers were eventually successful over the German cryptographers was the identification of patterns in the Enigma codes. There were certain key discoveries that aided in the eventual crack of the codes. One of these discoveries was the new message key between the sender and recipient was repeated twice to avoid potential error or confusion. This was a good idea for the Germans to make communication more clear and since they thought that the Enigma machine would never be broken, they never thought about the vulnerability that this action could cause. Once Allies cryptanalyses realized this, this knowledge allowed them to decipher codes more easily because they had this knowledge of a pattern. Another pattern that aided that Allies was the weather reports everyday. This could help start the day with a message that they knew what the content, for the most part, was about therefore giving them a clue when solving for the plain text. Another pattern that the Allies used in their favor was the U-boats that would surround convoys and send information to other U-boats. The Allies knew what information was to be sent because they knew where the convoy was. The knowledge of this information aided in the decryption of that day’s key. The realization of these various patterns aided greatly in the Allie’s breaking of the Enigma machine.

Photo Credit: Karl-Ludwig Poggemann via flickr

Photo Credit: Karl-Ludwig Poggemann via flickr