Today around 02:30 GMT+2 ThrasherX-17 from team Keep The Fire Alive! returned the plaintext of 76 letters long FNYG MXHU message:

leitungvvvuuustuetzpktxwwwhavenxxfffttteunszwozwovierhuermitvrrhhhvvvgeloest

The message says:
"AN LEITUNG VON U BOOT STUETZPUNKT WILHELMSHAVEN: FUNKTELEGRAMM EINS ZWO ZWO VIER HIER MIT RHV GELOEST"

Which translates to:

"[To] Control from Submarine Base Wilhelmshaven: Radio message 1224 solved with RHV"

If you'd like to know more about the context of this message, read Dan Girard's explanation

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Please abort all the remaining m4-fnygm76_* tasks, they're not needed anymore.
The work generator is stopped - it will make cleanup easier for me, I'll restart it later today.

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Great! Congratulations to ThrasherX-17 and the project.

How long took the project to decode the message (time/cpu)?


By, Grubix.

I don't have the data yet, but I'll get it from the database. I have all the returned results stored, so it should be easy.

My quick guess is 40 to 45 years of Q9450 running optimized app on all 4 cores.

EDIT:

Time stats:

Batch 1 - m4_fnygm76_1 - 404,6 years on Athlon 64 3500+ running stock app which is roughly 98,9 years on Q9450 running opt app on a single core, or 24.7 years running on all 4 cores.

Batch 2 - m4_fnygm76_2 - 393,8 years on Athlon 64 3500+ running stock app, roughly 24 years on Q9450 running opt app on all cores.

The P1030713 was added on 4th of April and it shared the project CPU time with P1030680 (nearly 50/50), so effectively it took like 1,5 month.

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Again: GREAT JOB!

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

I guess we should correct the translation a little bit:

"To the administration of U Boot Command..."

Michael

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

Thx, I edited the first post.

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I guess this project now holds a new record. As far as I know, the shortest message ever broken with hillclimbing (ciphertext only attack) was an Enigma I message with 78 letters. Broken by Geoff Sullivan and Frode Weierud.

The FNYG MXHU has only 76 letters!

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

The first two words are one word, and the message should read:

ANLEITUNG VON U BOOT STUETZPUNKT WILHELMSHAVEN: FUNKTELEGRAMM EINS ZWO ZWO VIER HIER MIT RHV GELOEST

Translated to: INSTRUCTIONS FROM U BOAT BASE WILLIAM HAVEN: RADIO TELEGRAM ONE TWO TWO FOUR HERE WITH RHV SOLVED.


Excellent work by the team that broke the code!

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I don´t think so. The word "AN" is not in the original plaintext!

The first phrase is normaly FROM or TO...

(German service regulations)

Maybe: From the administration of U Boot Command ...

TO = AN or ANAN
FROM = VON or VVV

Sometimes they leave this words because it´s clear

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

Another explanation:

It is an abbreviation of the german word "FUNKLEITSTELLE" --> radio control center (LEITUNG)

"From radio control center ..."

The Germans used "radio control centers" to manage the radiotraffic.

"Via radio control center from the administration of U Boot Command ..."

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

See also U534 messages P1030689, P1030695, P1030699, P1030709 on the "Breaking German Navy Ciphers" website!

The correct translation seems to be:

[To] [Radio] Control [Center] from U Boot Command [Headquater] Wilhelmshaven. Radio message 1224 solved with RHV (Hand Cipher System)

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

Hearty congratulations to your team on your new break!

To follow up on TBREAKER's explanation, I would suggest a slightly different translation for the beginning of the message (the square brackets indicate that the word "To" has been added for the sake of clarity):

"[To] Control from Submarine Base Wilhelmshaven..."

Some additional background: Message P1030713 (FNYG MXHU) is a reply to a message from the main radio control station (Message P1030686):

"Spruchschlüssel von F.T. mit Uhrzeitgruppe 1224 sofort hergeben, da F.T. nicht zu lösen.
[Von] Funkleitung"

Translation:

"Transmit at once message key of radiogram with time-group 1224, as radiogram cannot be solved.
[From] Radio Control"


The radio control station seems to have been referred to in radio messages in several ways, as "Funkleitstelle", as "Funkleitung", and sometimes as just "Leitung". In the U.S. and British translated Ultra intercepts, these appear as "Radio Control Station", "Radio Control" and "Control"; and I followed their example in my translations of the U-534 messages.

Incidentally, later that day Submarine Base Wilhelmshaven sent Control another message (P1030695), which evidently refers to Message P1030713:

[An] Leitung von U-Stützpunkt W-Haven [Wilhelmshaven?]:
F.T. [mit Uhrzeitgruppe] 2013 erledigt. Inhalt:
F.T. 1224 [hier] ... [Rest fehlt.]

Translation:

[To] Control from Submarine base W-Haven [Wilhelmshaven?]:
Radiogram [with time group] 2013 has been dealt with. Contents:
Radiogram 1224 [here] ... [Remainder missing.]

Again, congratulations on an outstanding break!

Dan Girard

An additional thought regarding my last post:

I've just realized what must have happened with messages P1030713 and P1030695. Evidently the Submarine Base at Wilhelmshaven enciphered message P1030713 with the wrong key, probably the Potsdam key for the wrong day. Later, after realizing their mistake, they sent Radio Control a second message, P1030695, enciphered with the right key, and giving the contents of the previous message.

Still later, Radio Control sent out another message, number P1030699, complaining about "the large number of unclear radio messages" that they had been receiving. P1030713 must have been one of the ones that Control was complaining about.

Dan Girard

Great!!!!

Lets go to another message!!!

Anyone know the context in which this message was sent?

so we can draw a parallel with the story.

Take ANLEITUNG as two Words AN LEITUNG now you have the Translation TO LEADERSHIP or TO ADMINISTRATION.
Sorry don't know what is the correct navy term (german native speaker)

Well done!

Does this mean we have just 2 messages to decrypt ?

http://www.enigmaathome.net/server_status

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@All read Dan´s post!

The correct translation is:

[To] Control from Submarine Base Wilhelmshaven: Radio message 1224 solved with RHV

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

@All read Dan´s post!

The correct translation is:

[To] Control from Submarine Base Wilhelmshaven: Radio message 1224 solved with RHV

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-=> Breaking German Navy Ciphers - The U534 Enigma messages <=-

by the way, can we use the each next decrypted key/combination to decrypt the remaining messages ?

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