WW2 US Army Cipher Machine Explored
WOW, US Army Cipher Machines!
Hey guys, today I have a quickie for you. I almost didn't bring it to you because I got to be honest, it's not a gun. And I know most of you only tune in to see some guns but I have something very very unique which is a cipher machine. I actually have two cipher machines. I'm going to talk about those, made for the US Army. But before I talk a little bit about these and by the way we'll be offering these for sale. Not something I collect and not something I know very much about. In fact, I know very little about. I'm sure some of you will be able to help me out, give me more information. I'm going to be passing it along to a lucky winner of our auction. But let me do a little bit of background on the cipher machine.
The Enigma Machine
Since the beginning of time people have been transmitting information back and forth, and people have tried to intercept that information to gain political or strategic advantage over the enemy. Probably the most famous example in World War II was the Enigma. There's a number of movies that have been made about the Enigma and if you're hunkered down still because of COVID, many of you are free at last, getting outside and feeling much better about the world in general. But the Enigma machine, some of the movies...there was a movie in 2001 I believe it was called Enigma, that's worth watching if you want to go back and check it out on Netflix.
Remake of the Enigma
But then also there was a remake which I'm told is a lot more accurate called the Imitation Game. And that was where the British at Bletchley Park in England, put together a crack team of scientists that cracked the code for the Enigma. They actually were able to rebuild the machine. The technology behind that is well advanced of this cipher, well advanced of anything else the world had at the time.
The Unbreakable Code
The Enigma machine built by German scientists, actually used the rotators. You will see the rotators where you set a code for the day and it'll change the letters so that A equals C, or B equals...So as you change the letters and you put them in it translates it into a different letter. But the Enigma machine was so advanced it used rotors and also circuits, so that even if you typed AAA, they would be three random letters, not the same. And that's what made the Germans believe that it was an unbreakable code.
The Polish partially cracked the code
The breaking of that code actually was started by Polish scientists and we know before the war even started there were Polish scientists who were trying to crack the code and made some progress with it but were not able to fully crack it. They got little bits and pieces of it.
Polish teamed up with the French
And of course when the Germans invaded, those Polish scientists escaped to France. They then worked with French scientist officials, actually they're mathematicians. I don't want to be mean about it but no other way to put it, nerdy people, who just had phenomenal brains. I can't even imagine doing what they did but they were able to take all the possible combinations which was...I actually read in articles said there are billions of possibilities and they were able to narrow it down and get most of the code translated.
Constant attacks, constant moving
Of course, France was attacked in 1940 and therefore the scientists and mathematicians then moved on to England, where they were housed in Bletchley Park and joined with the British scientists, mathematicians and that's really the story of imitation game. I believe that movie was made in 2014 and it is also worth watching. The end result of the work that they did there, it took a very long time but they were able to rebuild or re-enact a [inaudible 04:10] more of a large computer, early computer that was able to take the message and over a period of time decipher all the random possibilities and come up with breaking of the code.
They kept it a secret!
Now they couldn't do that very quickly. It took a long period of time. So if the German said we're going to attack in an hour, it was too late, they didn't have time to do that. But if they gave a strategic plan for six months out or a month out the British were able to decipher that code. Again in reading articles, it was a very close-knit group of people. So other than the people working at Bletchley Park, other than the people working directly there, there was only a handful of people in the entire world that even knew that they had broken the German code. It is believed that both Churchill and Roosevelt knew that they broke the code. Of course, they never told Joseph Stalin because even after the war this secret was kept for 30-40 years after the war. Because they used the same technology to break the codes of some of our other political enemies.
Great War Movies
Now other movies - I love war movies I keep telling you guys that and hopefully, you can find some good ones as a result of this video. But there's another movie which I really love. I loved submarine movies, U-571. Loosely based on some facts but generally not accurate. The actual submarine was U-110, not U-571, and it wasn't the Americans. I know for you Brits, we like to take credit for everything, sorry about that. But in this movie the Americans were able to disable a submarine and before sinking it, they ran in and got the Enigma machine out of submarine and brought it back to England. But in fact, it was U-110 and it was the British. They did disable a submarine, they were able to get most of the crew off as far as I know, got most of the crew off and the Enigma machine. They then, of course, had to keep that crew under lock and key. They sunk the submarine and the Germans never got out a message that they had been captured. So, therefore, the Germans just assumed that it was sunk and the Enigma machine was safe but in fact, they captured the Enigma machine. Now interesting to note that each branch of service had a different Enigma machine. So with that machine, they were able to break the Navy codes much more quickly whereas Bletchley Park was gathering the political and military messages and then the Luftwaffe had a separate Enigma machine that they used.
Now to the Cipher Machine
And that brings us to our cipher machine. Much less sophisticated, much like my speaking much less sophisticated but this cipher machine, also known as a converter, also known as an M-209-B, we'll get a close-up of that. It has a little cutout on the bottom, you can rest it on your lap, you open it up and there we'll just take a look inside.
Inside the Cipher Machine
You can see here it has a row almost like a ticker, that's the original paper, there's a screwdriver in there that looks almost too new but could be original and with a code of the day, you would just set the rotors to the code of the day and I would imagine that the code for the day was delivered personally. So maybe a courier, a motorcycle driver would come up with the code for the day. You would then set the rotors and each day that would be changed. So each day we would have a different code. So even if the enemy captured one of these, which was entirely possible these went to generals, not the frontline troops but it certainly would go pretty high up to the headquarters. They would get orders for the day which would then be passed along to the commanders at the front line. If one of these was captured, of course, if you don't know the code of the day and the rotors there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 - six-letter possibility for the code for the day. With it changing every day capturing one of these would not help you a whole lot.
They made a lot of these Machines
This is completely workable. By the way, it's order numbers from Philadelphia which is where I'm from but this was made by Smith-Corona Typewriters in Syracuse New York. From the serial number we know the made at least 30,000 - 40,000 of these which is far more than I expected. This is US Army variation you can see it on the template and they had separate ones for the Navy as well.
The original case
Here's one in the original case which you could carry on your belt. It's fairly heavy, I would say this is about 5lbs. Inside when I open it up, first of all, we'll pull out these manuals. One of them is dated 1942 and the converter is dated 1942. So they were used throughout the war. You can see it's marked restricted. I would think it would have top-secret stamped all over it. Then they also have a message book where you would translate the message, write them down. This manual is dated May of 1947, so we know it was used beyond the war and certainly into the Korean War. This serial number on this second one is a lot earlier.
Similar to the M1 Carbine
This one is the one I think I will auction first. So the one with the original cover and the manuals, this complete kit, I will auction first. It has a similar screwdriver but also these little tubes, there's two of these. This reminds me of the M1 Carbine, it has one of these in the stock. And when you unscrew it, just like the M1 Carbine, it's an oiler. As I imagine the rotors would be oiled fairly often. So this is the original oiler and all the equipment that came with this machine.
Limited time on gun broker!
Because I don't know a whole lot about these I'm not sure what the public's interest is. I know there are whole museums and several movies, whole museums dedicated to cipher machines and decoding and I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that find this fascinating, I'd rather own a gun. But for those of you who might be interested, I have seen these on the internet at $5,000. I don't know if that's what they're worth but I think the best way to determine the value is to put it on gun broker for $1 and let you the public decide what it's worth. We will put this one on gun broker for $1 and it'll be a two week auction. So when we post this video, the time will begin. It'll be on gun broker, feel free to ask questions but if you would like to bid on this converter and then depending on what it sells for we'll probably then offer the second one for those of you who might have missed the auction.
Thanks for the support!
Hey thank you for watching and you know when we think about winning the war we think about the heroes who fought the war. But these brilliant men and women who cracked these codes, again, I have the utmost respect for them. Certainly they shortened the length of the war.
Kudos to those who study!
In fact, there are several articles that I read on the internet that said they're cracking of the code really turned the war around because we knew what the Germans were going to do. Not all the time but many of the times we knew well before and gave us a huge advantage and certainly saved thousands and thousands of lives on the Allied side. So kudos to those of you who are mathematicians and staying home and study. Not something that I'm really good at but for those of you who are, God bless you and thank you so much for your service to our country.