A&E Documentary "The Sinking of the Bismarck"

[dogtag]

Jeep carriers (merchant hulls with carrier decks) were a great invention -- they provided aircraft in the middle of the ocean. And, of course, we boarded a couple of U-boats (U505 and U559) and captured their cipher machines and codebooks.

America got the codes from the British after HMS Bulldog brought a U Boat to the service.
The German crew jumped overboard having set charges. Didn't go off so Cmdr tried to
get back on board but British boarding party shot him, retrieved cypher machine and codes.
Crew were sworn to secrecy, German crew sent to Canada. Hence Turin and Enigma.

[Vern Humphrey]

"U-505 is a German Type IXC submarine built for Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was captured by the U.S. Navy on 4 June 1944."

The capture of the cypher machine and code books was deemed so sensitive that her crew (almost all of whom were rescued by United States Navy Task Group 22.3) were denied access to the Red Cross to prevent them from informing the Germans their boat had been captured.

[Art]

You sure they're different? Thought all optical rangefinders worked on the same principal--two prisms reflecting two images that are merged in the viewfinder to show range, accuracy determined by distance between the two prisms. Photos of WWI turrets often show projections on each side of the turret which contain the prisms. I used a 12" Ranging 1000 when woodchuck hunting yrs ago, but accuracy became unreliable beyond 300 yds.; on the other hand, it always worked, whereas my laser RF has a dead battery every time I want to use it.

Yup, except the German stereoscopic system didn't need the range finding officer or rating to merge the images, the system did that for him. All he had to do was put a little yellow "wandermark" on the superstructure or an enemy ship and read out the range. The British rangefinders, and everybody else's for that matter required the operator to merge two images into one to get the range. The German system was fast and very accurate but the Brits thought it required special aptitudes to use which might be lost under stress. They and the rest of the world stayed with co incidental rangefinders that required merging two images into one which worked just fine.

The Germans did a lot of things differently from everybody else.

Naval rangefinders of WWII were very large, sometimes 30 to 40 feet plus between the prisms.

[dogtag]

"U-505 is a German Type IXC submarine built for Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was captured by the U.S. Navy on 4 June 1944."

The capture of the cypher machine and code books was deemed so sensitive that her crew (almost all of whom were rescued by United States Navy Task Group 22.3) were denied access to the Red Cross to prevent them from informing the Germans their boat had been captured.

So the Americans broke the Enigma code and Turin and Bletchley Park had nothing to do with it ?
Is that what you're claiming ?

[togor]

So the Americans broke the Enigma code and Turin and Bletchley Park had nothing to do with it ?
Is that what you're claiming ?

Let's hope he isn't.

[Vern Humphrey]

So the Americans broke the Enigma code and Turin and Bletchley Park had nothing to do with it ?
Is that what you're claiming ?

When did I say anything like that? I said the Americans boarded and captured a German submarine and took off the Enigma machine and code books. Did I somehow offend you by saying that?

[jgaynor]

Alan TURING's principal contribution to the solution of the enigma CiPHER system was the construction of an early analog computer (named the "bombe") which allowed for more rapid decryption of the German messages.
"Cracking" the enigma machine involved the efforts of many people including Polish mathematicians who fled to Paris and then to London.

[Vern Humphrey]

Alan TURING's principal contribution to the solution of the enigma CiPHER system was the construction of an early analog computer (named the "bombe") which allowed for more rapid decryption of the German messages.
"Cracking" the enigma machine involved the efforts of many people including Polish mathematicians who fled to Paris and then to London.

It was the Poles who created the first duplicate of the Enigma.

Incidentally, the Enigmas used on submarines had six rotors instead of five. That made them MUCH harder to crack.