Post by mauser on Dec 4, 2017 1:12:35 GMT
All,
The Enigma machine is without question one of the most fascinating pieces of communications security equipment in history. Other important crypto machines were developed based on knowledge learned from the Enigma. Some of us who monitor or participate in this forum actually have either a real Enigma machine or one of several excellent simulators of the Enigma.
But the mystery and wonder of the Enigma is not just the mechanics of the machine, but the procedures users had to follow to encode and decode messages. When I found this forum and the EWCG website, I quickly discovered that those procedures were different, and generally not entirely accurate to the reality that was/is the Enigma. Upon conducting research, I found what many before me had likely discovered. Namely, that the vast majority of manuals, codebooks, and other documents that had actually survived the war were deeply held since if they attempted to sell one of these at auction, they could realize prices all the way to millions of dollars. So, you won't readily find these things in public archives in PDF format. However, being persistent works wonders.
As of today, several very gracious folks with access to actual documents have provided me a great deal of actual scans of documents. With the help of Google Translate, a relative who is fluent in German, and a number of other sources, we can now enjoy coding and decoding Enigma messages the way they really were. I've been working with Mr. Bruce Culp over on the EWCG website and we have revised the Kriegsmarine M4 procedure. It is not 100% but more likely about 85%. We are going to call that procedure the "Basic" procedure since it doesn't change what most of you know today.
But in January, there will be an advanced procedure. This one will be the Kriegsmarine "General Procedure" and will use a Kenngruppenbuch German document M.Dv.Nr.98. We will have two radio cipher nets, Triton (deep ocean) and Hydra (home waters). I will post links to these and the cipher keys for each net. There will be a folder with translated versions of Kriegsmarine manuals for you to do research on. Hopefully at the same time I will publish the Short Message Procedure, aka, the Kurzsignale, M.Dv.Nr.96, and all the parts required to use it. Bruce and I are working on updating the Wetterkurzsignal, and I am finishing the manual for the Offizier Procedure.
At this point, I am not going to work on the M3 or Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe procedures since this project tiurned out to be bigger and more complex than I could envision.
Here are two great references that in January you will have the materials to make Enigma real procedures, a reality
users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/enigmaproc.htm
users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/kurzsignale.htm
Mauser Sends.
The Enigma machine is without question one of the most fascinating pieces of communications security equipment in history. Other important crypto machines were developed based on knowledge learned from the Enigma. Some of us who monitor or participate in this forum actually have either a real Enigma machine or one of several excellent simulators of the Enigma.
But the mystery and wonder of the Enigma is not just the mechanics of the machine, but the procedures users had to follow to encode and decode messages. When I found this forum and the EWCG website, I quickly discovered that those procedures were different, and generally not entirely accurate to the reality that was/is the Enigma. Upon conducting research, I found what many before me had likely discovered. Namely, that the vast majority of manuals, codebooks, and other documents that had actually survived the war were deeply held since if they attempted to sell one of these at auction, they could realize prices all the way to millions of dollars. So, you won't readily find these things in public archives in PDF format. However, being persistent works wonders.
As of today, several very gracious folks with access to actual documents have provided me a great deal of actual scans of documents. With the help of Google Translate, a relative who is fluent in German, and a number of other sources, we can now enjoy coding and decoding Enigma messages the way they really were. I've been working with Mr. Bruce Culp over on the EWCG website and we have revised the Kriegsmarine M4 procedure. It is not 100% but more likely about 85%. We are going to call that procedure the "Basic" procedure since it doesn't change what most of you know today.
But in January, there will be an advanced procedure. This one will be the Kriegsmarine "General Procedure" and will use a Kenngruppenbuch German document M.Dv.Nr.98. We will have two radio cipher nets, Triton (deep ocean) and Hydra (home waters). I will post links to these and the cipher keys for each net. There will be a folder with translated versions of Kriegsmarine manuals for you to do research on. Hopefully at the same time I will publish the Short Message Procedure, aka, the Kurzsignale, M.Dv.Nr.96, and all the parts required to use it. Bruce and I are working on updating the Wetterkurzsignal, and I am finishing the manual for the Offizier Procedure.
At this point, I am not going to work on the M3 or Wehrmacht/Luftwaffe procedures since this project tiurned out to be bigger and more complex than I could envision.
Here are two great references that in January you will have the materials to make Enigma real procedures, a reality
users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/enigmaproc.htm
users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/kurzsignale.htm
Mauser Sends.