Whereas modern CPU do other things besides "crack codes", the Betchley Park machines were optimized for the task, and even then didn't always crack the code.

Also, the 1st few letters of the message weren't encoded, sometimes bits of the message could be "predicted" based on the predictable nature of some military messages (i.e. many messages could start with "All units in...." which would allow you to reverse-engineer the message and determine the rotors needed to decrypt the rest of the message). I believe the use of "cribs" is the term.

So there was also a human element involved in cracking the codes in WW2, not just the machine. Whereas we are simply letting the CPU's do all the work here.


Mike D

---

The two main machines used at Bletchley were the Bombe and the Colossus. The Colossus is usually considered to be the first valve-based computer, but it tackled a different German cipher, not Enigma. The Bombe, incredible as it may seem, was (at least chiefly) a highly parallel electromechanical machine.

Another difference is that the Colossus looked for statistical patterns - did this trial decrypt look vaguely like German? - which is the technique we use on Enigma today with our modern computers. The Bombe, by contrast, relied on a "known-plaintext" attack, and tried to find ring-settings which were consistent with that plaintext at any position in the message.

Setting up a Bombe was rather difficult - they had to think of plaintexts that were likely but also long enough (so weather reports were popular targets) - and then manually work these into patterns that the machine could use. Once a "stop" was found (the machine would stop spinning when it found a match), more manual work was needed to extract the proper ring settings and steckerboard.

Modern computers could be made to automate most of these steps - but not thinking up the cribs in the first place - without much trouble, but that was unthinkable in the early 1940s. The good news was that once one message was decrypted, the settings were known or easily discovered for other messages sent on the same day.

Is there any message left to crack ?

See the link in the second message in this thread.

There are still plenty of work, Grubix.

Team Russia? Anyone who has read extensively in the history of the Intelligence services in the 20th century suspects that the RUSSIANS had the clear text the day after the message was sent. If John Cairncross didn't get it from Bletchley Park, they probably got it via HumInt from the Red Ochestra!

Good show nonetheless!

i went to the link of the second post ...
But i don't understand how many code we still crack !
I'm sorry cause i just joined this project today cause i was reading wikipedia and it said " Casser le chiffrement de 3 messages codés par la machine Enigma en 194"

So i guess there where only three codes ...

there are lots of codes left, as far as I know. Look here:

http://cryptocellar.web.cern.ch/cryptocellar/bgac/GArmy_messages.html

and I think there are more still.

---

As far as I know, the original M4 project were started to crack 3 codes. This project was a wrapper for that one to attract more people through the easy-use BOINC framework. The original project now seems to be abandoned, or at least in stasis, so we're trying to break some other codes. There are a lot of unbroken ones left, so we'll have plenty of work to uncover small blind spots in history.

Well ... I'm okay that was fun to crack the free first codes ...
But now it's finished ... And i see many BOINC application very interesting like (World Community Grid for example) which are very important !
They fight against cancer, childhood cancer, AIDS ....
Don't you think it's more important to help you're children and their children to live than to crack some useless codes ?

Not really.

---

Click Here to see My Detailed BOINC Stats

Well ... I'm okay that was fun to crack the free first codes ...
But now it's finished ... And i see many BOINC application very interesting like (World Community Grid for example) which are very important !
They fight against cancer, childhood cancer, AIDS ....
Don't you think it's more important to help you're children and their children to live than to crack some useless codes ?

Ummmm....no, that's a BS argument. If you think you're "fixing cancer" while sipping a latte playing Quake 3 Arena, that's fine. If you think your CPU time is more valuable doing other things, pick a different project. If you think your time is spent better elsewhere....leave. We do as we please, you should do the same....Good Luck.

Mike Doerner

---

Which I translate into English as:
THE TWO 5-TON TRUCKS COMMANDED BY COLUMN DETACHMENT 593 ARE TO BE IMMEDIATELY DISPATCHED ON THE MARCH TOWARDS PLYUSSA TO THE SUPPLY-OFFICER OF PANZER GROUP 4.

It seems that Plyussa is a river in the vicinity of Leningrad (St. Petersburg.)

Dan Girard

Dan - you are partially correct. Plyussa is a train station: Plyussa (SIMONOVSKY)
The original name Simonovsky as it was near the village of Simonovo. It wasa strategic rail line called also known as the "Warsaw Road".

During WWII:
Partisans of the 6 th Brigade, commanded a guerrilla Comrades Obedkova VP, and Zaitseva, VD in the night from 18 to 19 October 1943 a bold raid on the main enemy's communications, the Warsaw road, smashed Plyussa station and in the decisive battle killed 136 Nazis ... With the defeat destroyed the station: the station, the commandant's office, the police building, ammunition, 2 warehouses with food. blown two pump stations, 2 train booth, sem, 300 rail and undermined by two locomotives, burned down two enemy trains .. .. I order: 1. 6-th guerrilla brigade for the successful defeat of the railway station Plyussa and salvation from stealing the German slavery civilians - to hand the Banner of the Leningrad headquarters of the partisan movement ...." (From the order LSHPD on October 23, 1943)
"6-I Leningradskaya guerrilla brigade under the command of Comrade. Obedkova numbering 470 people on the night of 10.18.1943, he made a raid on the railway station and the regional center Plyussa.
As a result of the raid detonated: 300 tracks, 2 water pumps, sem, 2 arrows, destroyed two-tier in the two locomotives and 19 cars with the manpower and equipment, 13 vehicles, 2 warehouses with ammunition and a food, burned all the terminal and ancillary buildings 2 Railway booths and 320 tons of hay. Damaged railway MRFTA across Plyussa. "(From the combat reports Chief LSHPD MN Nikitin TSSHPD from December 1, 1943)
February 3, 1944 was again re-raided the station Plyussa.
16 - February 18 6LPB troops under the leadership of VP Obedkova and 9LPB under the command IG Svetlov, along with the regular units participated in the liberation Plyussa.
"A dark autumn night, we soon came to the starting position. We have before us a railway station Plyussa.
The men, clutching a machine, lay down on the approaches to the station.
Intelligence had reported that the station tracks are three-tier opponent. Delayed. The detachment commander comrades Nikolaev, Kaychenko and Artte from the signal raised fighters in the attack.
Comrade Commander. Kaychenko, Chief of Staff Kim and his men crawled under the car, doused them with kerosene and lit. Stone, screams were drowned out by the Germans hurricane automaton-gun fire guerrillas.
Big fight broke out. Brave guerrillas led by the commander comrade. Artte crushed the German commandant's office, threw grenades bronevagon with officers. Commanders vols. Kaychenko and Nikolaev their units shot Germans in the barracks of the village. Exploded and burned 2-y train with equipment and ammunition ...
The garrison was defeated. By train approached the station. However, this did not help.
A few days later the Germans began to restore the station ...
... January 1944. Breaking through the enemy defense of Leningrad, our troops moved forward to the West. The Germans resisted stubbornly. Train after train passed through the station at the front Plyussa.
The team came to the aid front.
Interrupting telephone and telegraph communications, we made a second raid on the station.
The Germans were fiercely resisted, repeatedly counterattacked. However, the guerrilla raid took her. The first burst into the station detachments Zarubina, Lozina and Petrov. They blew up the rails 750, 15 bunkers, 75 cars, destroyed eight machine-gun nests, two guns and killed 400 fascists. Plyussa as the railway station, ceased to exist ...
Approached the Red Army ... After a fierce battle in the 23 hours of Feb. 18, 1944 Plyussa was completely in our hands .. "The commander of the brigade - V. Obyedkov (From the correspondence from the newspaper" Leningrad partisan "29 March 1944.)

Here is a pic of what the station looks like now:



Retsehc

Any this is why de-cyphering unbroken Enigma messages is so freakin' cool! It is an aspect of history I did not know, and would have never had known, had that message never been broken. Mega-Thanks to Retsehc for the picture and history regarding regarding this message. Kinda puts a little more perspective on the "send me 2 trucks ASAP" message as to the why and how these messages were created in the first place. Took an otherwise mundane and ordinary message and makes it that much more exciting.

Mike Doerner

---

and now, what will the next message??

The next message remains unbroken, I'm preparing dictionaries for 3rd and 4th try.

---

M4 Project homepage
M4 Project wiki

and what are these messages???

Today I stopped to read all the posts of this forum.

And I was impressed, knowing that I'm helping to rediscover some of hitori, especially from WW II that both fascinates us.

And now, what will be the next messages to be worked on??

Dan Girard

I hope you folks don't mind an outsider butting in;

Thanks for the translation. I had a go, but what with the abbreviations, misspellings, slang, mistakes and proper nouns in the original message I didn't do as well as you did! The Bletchley Park people had language and human error to deal with too - must have made it even harder.

I have a solution and i had note it.

I would like to send a e-mail to enigma team can you help me.

Maybe some Germans should help. If I had known the project in May I would have been abled to tell you the first spaces already at 8:40 UTC.

I'll try to read the forum regularly to help you reading the German texts.