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‘Enigma’ was a supposed advantage for the Third Reich during the Second World War, but the fuehrer tested its usefulness in Spain in 1936
May 22, 2017 - 1:37 PM
Sevilla is exhibiting the coding machine which Hitler experimented with Franco
‘Enigma’ was a supposed advantage for the Third Reich during the Second World War, but the fuehrer tested its usefulness in Spain in 1936
May 22, 2017 - 1:37 PM
One of the ten Enigma machines which were sent to Spain from Nazi Germany in November 1936 has been on show since yesterday in the House Science Museum in Sevilla, of the Superior Counsel for Scientific Investigations (CSIC in Spanish).
The coding machines were used by the uprising gang for communications between the Salamanca General Barracks and different military units and to code messages also to Rome and Berlin. The idea was for the legitimate Republican Government forces to decode the telegraphic messages emitted during the advance on Madrid.
According to Coronel Alberto González Revuelta, director of the Sevilla Military Museum, which have obtained the machine for a temporary exhibition ‘Once upon a time….computers’ which was a gift from Hitler with an interest in knowing how much Spain was in consideration with Italy and Germany during the following years. It had been as a ‘field experiment’ before being used by the German Army and was decoded by a team of men and women mathematics and code-breakers, notably Alan Turing and Joan Clarke who broke open the billion possible combinations hidden in ‘Enigma’. Their research and associated interests permitted later the design of the first computers.
The example of the coding machine ‘Enigma’ is identified with the code A1234, as explained Francisco Arranz during the presentation. Although it arrived in Spain at the end of 1936 with the first lot of machines acquired by Franco, it was not until December 1938 when it arrived in Sevilla, assigned in principle to the Southern Army, and later in July 1939, was given the Mayor State of the Second Military Region in Sevilla, as explained González Revuelta. Since then the example has remained in the city, and is a permanent exhibit in the Historical Military Museum.
One of the main links between the coding machine ‘Enigma’ and today’s computers is thanks to one celebrated British mathematician, logical, philosophical and cryptographer Alan Turing (1912-1954), whose figure is highlighted in the exhibition as the fundamental protagonist in computer science. Turing worked for the British Secret Services during WW2 in Bletchley Park, a Victorian mansion was in realty a military bunker where a legion of cryptographers, mostly women, worked relentlessly on Code Breaking as noted in the 2014 film ‘The Imitation Game’.
The experience acquired by the British mathematician, with the support of cryptographer Joan Clarke (1917-1996) whose role is highlighted by the commissioner of the exhibition, and forms part of the baggage of knowledge which years later would create the first binary computers.
The exhibition is open to the public until July 30 this year.
CSIS
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The coding machines were used by the uprising gang for communications between the Salamanca General Barracks and different military units and to code messages also to Rome and Berlin. The idea was for the legitimate Republican Government forces to decode the telegraphic messages emitted during the advance on Madrid.
According to Coronel Alberto González Revuelta, director of the Sevilla Military Museum, which have obtained the machine for a temporary exhibition ‘Once upon a time….computers’ which was a gift from Hitler with an interest in knowing how much Spain was in consideration with Italy and Germany during the following years. It had been as a ‘field experiment’ before being used by the German Army and was decoded by a team of men and women mathematics and code-breakers, notably Alan Turing and Joan Clarke who broke open the billion possible combinations hidden in ‘Enigma’. Their research and associated interests permitted later the design of the first computers.
The example of the coding machine ‘Enigma’ is identified with the code A1234, as explained Francisco Arranz during the presentation. Although it arrived in Spain at the end of 1936 with the first lot of machines acquired by Franco, it was not until December 1938 when it arrived in Sevilla, assigned in principle to the Southern Army, and later in July 1939, was given the Mayor State of the Second Military Region in Sevilla, as explained González Revuelta. Since then the example has remained in the city, and is a permanent exhibit in the Historical Military Museum.
One of the main links between the coding machine ‘Enigma’ and today’s computers is thanks to one celebrated British mathematician, logical, philosophical and cryptographer Alan Turing (1912-1954), whose figure is highlighted in the exhibition as the fundamental protagonist in computer science. Turing worked for the British Secret Services during WW2 in Bletchley Park, a Victorian mansion was in realty a military bunker where a legion of cryptographers, mostly women, worked relentlessly on Code Breaking as noted in the 2014 film ‘The Imitation Game’.
The experience acquired by the British mathematician, with the support of cryptographer Joan Clarke (1917-1996) whose role is highlighted by the commissioner of the exhibition, and forms part of the baggage of knowledge which years later would create the first binary computers.
The exhibition is open to the public until July 30 this year.
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