Poland

Enigma

The materials pesented here focus specifically on the Polish role in the breaking of the German Enigma cipher system. General materials on the British work on the Enigma cipher system and the Allied use of the results during World War II can be accessed at Ultra Table of Contents.

Bateman, Gary M. "The Enigma Cipher Machine." Military Intelligence 8, no. 2 (Apr.-Jun. 1982): 24-28.

This is a brief survey of the development of the German Enigma cipher machine and of its initial breaking by Polish cryptologists.

Beesly, Patrick. "Who Was the Third Man at Pyry?" Cryptologia 11, no. 2 (Apr. 1987): 78-80.

According to Sexton, "Beesly identifies Humphrey Sandwich, not Stewart Menzies of SIS, as the third member" of the British group that met with the Poles in July 1939.

Bloch, Gilbert. Tr., C.A. Deavours.

1. "Enigma Before Ultra: Polish Work and the French Contribution." Cryptologia, Jul. 1987: 142-155.

2. "Enigma Before Ultra: The Polish Success and Check." Cryptologia, Oct. 1987: 227-233.

3. "Enigma Avant Ultra/Enigma Before Ultra." Cryptologia, Jul. 1988: 178-184.

Sexton identifies these articles as translations of chapters 3, 4, and 5 of Bloch's privately published Enigma Avant Ultra (1930-1940) (1988).

Bloch, Gilbert. "Polish Reconstitution of the German Military Enigma and the First Decryptments of Its Messages." Journal of Intelligence History 1, no. 1 (Summer 2001). [http://www.intelligence-history.org/jih/previous.html]

From abstract: "The improved 1930 Militär-Enigma was considered to present cryptanalysts with an insoluble problem. Nonetheless, the system did involve provisions liable to jeopardize security, which, in combination with documents furnished by Hans-Thilo Schmidt (HE/Asche) to the French, would eventually enable three brilliant Polish mathematicians [Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski, and Jerzy Rózycki] to decipher most of the German Army messages between 1933 and 1938.... Only in March 1939, after the Germans had added two more rotors to the Enigma, did the flow stop. When the British promised the Poles assistance in time of need, it was the beginning of close cooperation between Poland, France, and Great Britain."

Carter, Frank. The First Breaking of Enigma: Some of the Pioneering Techniques Developed by the Polish Cipher Bureau. Bletchley Park Report no. 10. Bletchley Park, UK: Bletchley Park Co. Ltd., 1999.

Kruh, Cryptologia 24.4: "An account of three remarkable methods developed by the Polish Cipher Bureau from 1932-1938, to decrypt intercepted German Enigma messages."

Ciechanowski, Jan Stanislaw, ed. Living With the Enigma Secret: Marian Rejewski 1905-1980. Bydgoszcz, Poland: Bydgoszcz City Council, 2005.

Peake, Studies 52.1 (Mar. 2008) and Intelligencer 16.1 (Spring 2008), notes that this "is a collection of reminiscences" in honor of Marian Rejewski, one of the Polish cryptographers who broke the German Enigma machine cipher in 1933 and gave their results to the British just before World War II. The book "is an important, long overdue contribution to the history of cryptology and sets straight the record of Marian Rejewski’s role." (footnote omitted)

Erskine, Ralph. "The Poles Reveal Their Secrets: Alastair Dennison's Account of the July 1939 Meeting at Pyry." Cryptologia 30, no. 4 (Oct. 2006): 294-305.

Erskine provides both the document and commentary on "the only British first-hand account of the historic meeting near Pyry, outside Warsaw, on 26 and 27 July 1939." (footnote omitted) He also includes a letter from Dillwyn Knox to Dennison about the meeting.

Gallehawk, John. Some Polish Contributions in the Second World War. Bletchley Park Report no. 15. Bletchley Park, UK: Bletchley Park Co. Ltd., 1999.

Kruh, Cryptologia 24.4: "This report recounts the pre-war breaking of the German Enigma cipher system and the famous meeting of July 1939, when this work was revealed to the British and French Intelligence Services."

Gallehawk, John. "Third Person Singular (Warsaw 1939)." Cryptologia 30, no. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 2006): 193-198.

Based on "official documentary evidence," the author identifies the third person who met with Polish and French cryptologists in Warsaw in July 1939 as Commander Humphrey Sandwith, head of the Admiralty Interception Service.

Garlinski, Jozef. The Enigma War. New York: Scribner's, 1979. Intercept: The Enigma War. London: Dent, 1980.

For Constantinides, this is neither Garlinski's best book nor the best book on the cryptographic aspects of World War II. The author relied too much on secondary sources and was "prone to repeat errors or speculations."

Nautical Brass Bibliography, http://members.aol.com/nbrass/biblio.htm, calls Garlinski "[a]n excellent narrative story of Enigma, spies, and intelligence from the Polish point of view."

Kapera, Zdzislaw J., ed. Before Ultra There Was Gale: Some Contributions to the History of the Polish Enigma, 1939-1942. The Enigma Bulletin, No. 6. Mogilany, Poland: The Enigma Press, 2002.

Kruh, Cryptologia 27.4, notes that these essays come out of a conference on "The Contribution of Polish Intelligence to the Allied Victory in the Second World War," and mark the 70th anniversary (2002) of the breaking of the military Enigma by the Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski. This work provides "interesting reading about the vital role of the Polish Cipher Bureau in the Enigma battle."

Korbonski, Stefan. "The True Story of Enigma -- The German Code Machine in World War II." East European Quarterly 11 (Summer 1977): 227-234.

Sexton notes that by focusing on "the pioneering Polish contribution to the solution of ENIGMA," this article "[s]eeks to correct the impression that ULTRA was primarily an Anglo-American achievement."

Kozaczuk, Wladyslaw. Ed. and tr., Christopher Kasparek. Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War II. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1984.

According to Pforzheimer, the author focuses on "the role of Polish cryptologists in breaking the early German (pre-World War II) Enigma ciphers." Kozachuk may "give his Polish compatriots more credit than perhaps they should receive, major though their early work was." This volume belongs "on the shelf of important books on the Ultra secret."

Sexton finds the book to be a "valuable corrective to Bertrand and Winterbotham" and an "essential source."

For brief excerpts from this work, see Wladyslaw Kozaczuk, "Enigma Solved," Cryptologia 6, no. 1 (Jan. 1982): 32-33.

Kozaczuk, Wladyslaw, and Jerzy Straszak. Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code. New York: Hippocrene, 2004.

Foot, I&NS 20.3 (Sep. 2005), notes that the authors"make it clear how successful the Poles were in breaking the machine cipher the Germans thought impregnable.... This short book ... is eminently readable, and deserves study."

Mayer, Stefan. The Breaking of the German Ciphering Machine "Enigma" by the Cryptological Section in the 2nd Department of the Polish Armed Forces General Staff. New York: Pilsudski Institute, 1974.

Nautical Brass Bibliography, [http://members.aol.com/nbrass/biblio.htm - no longer available], points out that while this work is "[p]rimarily of historical significance," it "may have been the first to point out that Polish contributions to breaking Enigma were vastly understated by Bertrand and Winterbotham."

Rejewski, Marian. Tr., Joan Stepenske.

On 10 November 2007, a monument to Rejewski and his compatriots in the breaking of the Enigma was dedicated in Poznan. Marek Grajek, "Monument in memorium of Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rózycki, and Henryk Zygalski Unveiled in Poznan," Cryptologia 32, no. 2 (Apr. 2008): 101-103.

1. "How Polish Mathematicians Deciphered the Enigma." Annals of the History of Computing 3, no. 3 (Jul. 1981): 214-234.

Sexton: The author "describes the grid and clock methods he used to uncover ENIGMA settings and briefly discusses the first bombes."

2. "Mathematical Solution to the Enigma Cipher." Cryptologia 6, no. 1 (Jan. 1982), 1-25.

Sexton: An expansion of the earlier article.

Woytak, Richard A. On the Border of War and Peace: Polish Intelligence and Diplomacy in 1937-39 and the Origins of the Ultra Secret. Boulder, CO: East European Quarterly, 1979. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.

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