"Hitler's Mill" found in the black lake
Until now, secret cryptographic machines developed at the end of the war by German specialists are kept in the American and British military archives. Those modifications, information about which could be found say that even today German cryptographic machines are of great scientific value: some instructions were widely publicized only in 1996 year. But the majority is under the heading "most secret" (the highest secrecy - Eng.). Specialists are left to study the machines found in the Austrian Lake Toplitz: the locals call it a “black pearl”.
German point of contact. On the left - Enigma encryption machine
Enigma marked the beginning of the creation of the German military cryptographic service. But the German command, planning strategic operations, did not trust Enigme, with which orders were transmitted. Despite the complexity of the design and the complicated algorithm of work, the cryptographic machine widely used in the Wehrmacht’s land forces periodically cracked the Polish, English and Russian intelligence ciphers.
Candidate historical Sci. Vladimir Lot believes that "in 1942, employees of a special decryption group discovered the possibility of decrypting German telegrams, encrypted by the same Enigma, and began to design special mechanisms that accelerate this decryption."
First, Polish cryptologists, and then a special group of British scientists at the British Decryption Center (Code and Cipher School at
Bletchly Park) hacked the Enigma encryption code. The final blow was struck with the help of an electromechanical device "Bomb" by American Alan Thuring, who led one of the five groups in the center of transcript. And after the war, all the machines of Alan Turing were dismantled, and many of their components - destroyed.
Meteorologists were indirectly guilty of the Enigma cipher. The key to the clue was the word "weather."
Punctual German weather forecasters sent weather reports to headquarters every day at the same time — six o'clock in the morning. Knowing this, English cryptologists were able to establish a pattern: messages always contained the word wetter (weather - German), which according to the rules of German grammar always stood in a certain place in a sentence.
Scientists tried to improve the reliability of the machine - to prevent hacking, the rotors were periodically replaced (their number reached 5-6 pieces). There were several modifications of Enigma, created by inventor Arthur Sherbius: Enigma A, Enigma B, Enigma C, Enigma C, Enigma-1 and 4.
Understanding the enormous threat that arose, the Nazis were actively working to create new cryptographic machines. It took about four years for the first experimental batch of SchluesselGerae-1944 (SG-41) and its modification SG-41Z to appear in 41 year. The car was called Hitlersmuhle - "Hitler's Mill" because there was a handle on the right side of the machine, such as on hand-held coffee mills. In the future, the mechanical handle, from which it was planned to replace the name with an engine, drafts were developed, but this project could not be implemented due to the rapid onset of the Soviet Army.
When creating a new machine, the German designers took something from the Enigma design: encryption and decryption were identical.
But the main difference between "Hitler's Mill" and Enigma was the absence of electronic tubes: SG worked with two thin strips of paper. Printed letters were entered on one of them, information received as a result of encryption or decryption was output on the other.
But the Germans copied most of the mechanisms. Under the tracing paper, they put the M-209 encryption machine, created by Boris Hagelin, an inventor of Russian origin: his father worked as the manager of the Nobel Brothers Oil Production Association: Boris Hagelin was born in Baku, his family moved to St. Petersburg, and in 1904 - to Sweden .
During the war, one of the copies of the M-209 fell into the hands of German designers. They dismantled it on cogs, carefully studied every detail and completely copied them. Therefore, the internal part of SG-41 had a great similarity with the American M-209 encryption machine. For example, pin wheels were installed in both cryptographic machines for uneven rotation.
Despite the fact that German specialists copied many important details and the very principle of M-209 operation, they were able to create a more secure modification with a new design: it would be unwise and dangerous to completely repeat the opponent’s car - the encryption model was more complicated than with M-209.
The military order for the manufacture of new cars was received by the German company Wonderwerke, located in the small town of Chemnitz (at the time of the GDR, the city was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl-Marx-Stad — it). At that time, this company was one of the most famous in Germany, the manufacturer of writing and cryptographic machines, including the Enigma.
In the middle of 1944, the German High Command planned to purchase SG 11 machines for the Armed Forces from Wonderwerke 000 41. Also, as part of the military order, 2000 copies of the machines should have been received for the weather service. Presumably, these were smaller versions of the machine, whose mass production had not yet begun. Moreover, for meteorologists, the machines were made with a coding of ten digits - from zero to nine.
The manufacturer failed to cope with the military order: Soviet troops were advancing in the area. The German command ordered the secret factory to be blown up, where the encryption machines were manufactured - all technical documentation was also to be destroyed.
Allied helped to conceal military secrets aviation: in the spring of 1945 the city of Chemnitz was actively bombed by the Allies, knowing full well that many secrets were hidden in this small town that could fall into the hands of the advancing Soviet soldiers. "We will bomb Germany - one city after another. We will bomb you harder and harder until you stop waging war. This is our goal. We will ruthlessly pursue it. City by city: Lubeck, Rostock, Cologne, Emden, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Duisburg, Hamburg - and this list will only be replenished, "said the leaflets, which were scattered in millions of copies.
Amazing twists are made by history! In peacetime, it was in Chemnitz that the largest Technical University with a budget of 138,9 million euros (in 2012 prices) will open its doors, where a wide variety of cryptography meetings will be held, several dissertations on encryption machines will be defended.
Already after the end of the Great Patriotic War, individual copies of Hitler’s Mill came to Norway: today we know about two operating machines, the cost of which reaches 160 000 euros (in 2009 prices of the year). On one of them was the last encryption, obtained from Doenitz as follows: "The struggle will continue."
At the end of the war, German specialists worked on other projects of encryption machines, but little is known about them today.
One of these projects is the Siemens T43 encryption machine, called by experts the ghost of a cryptographic history, because the information about it is classified until now. When another secret of the encryption machine will be revealed is unknown.
Т43 was one of the first machines, working on the principle of a one-time pad. The random numbers required for this operation are fed into the device in the form of a perforated band, which cannot be used twice. T43 punched through all the treated strips and made them thus unsuitable for reuse.
According to experts, around 30 to 50 of these machines were built and used by the Germans in the last months of the war in some combat units. Some instances of T43 after the war ended up in Norway, Spain and South America.
There is still a lot of unexplained around T43. After the war, six copies of these cars were destroyed in the United States. The machines used in Norway were sent to the British Decryption Center, in Bletchley Park. It is clear that the allies strictly classified all information about this ultra-modern machine.
And this veil of secrecy does not rise today. As before, the British and Americans, having confirmed that they have T43, refuse to publish the archives relating to these machines.
Little is known about the post-war fate of the device, called Hellschreiber (light letter or Hella letter - it), invented by the German Rudolf Hell (Rudolf Hell - it) in 1929 year. This machine became the prototype of the fax.
The first six samples of encryption machines based on the invention of Rudolf Hell arrived on ships and submarines based in the Mediterranean Sea. on the letter. "
From various sources it is known that several cryptographic machines rest on the 100 meter depth in the Austrian lake Toplitz or as it is also called the Black Pearl, where the Nazis experimented with explosives, tested the T-5 self-guided torpedoes to destroy submarines, " Fow-1 "," Faw-2 ".
This area is surrounded by impassable mountains and forests for many kilometers - you can get there only on foot. Explore the lake is dangerous: the Austrian government, by special order, banned diving into the water. Nevertheless, divers dive into a black lake and they see, as a rule, a thick layer of trees - the Nazis deliberately threw thousands of cubic meters of wood into the lake, made a double bottom from the nets. But this does not scare historians and treasure hunters - they are looking for and find a lot of interesting things in the lake. One of the recent findings is the coding machine "Hitler's Mill".
The lake is slowly revealing its secrets - the military archives of foreign intelligence agencies are not in a hurry to do this. Perhaps because inventions in the field of cryptography by German experts are of great scientific and political interest today.
In the photo: Soviet meteorologist Dmitry Grohman, transmitting his weather reports with the help of a Soviet cryptographic machine, did not guess that the word "weather" would be the key for hacking the codes of the German Enigma cryptographic machine.
German point of contact. On the left - Enigma encryption machine
Enigma marked the beginning of the creation of the German military cryptographic service. But the German command, planning strategic operations, did not trust Enigme, with which orders were transmitted. Despite the complexity of the design and the complicated algorithm of work, the cryptographic machine widely used in the Wehrmacht’s land forces periodically cracked the Polish, English and Russian intelligence ciphers.
Candidate historical Sci. Vladimir Lot believes that "in 1942, employees of a special decryption group discovered the possibility of decrypting German telegrams, encrypted by the same Enigma, and began to design special mechanisms that accelerate this decryption."
First, Polish cryptologists, and then a special group of British scientists at the British Decryption Center (Code and Cipher School at
Bletchly Park) hacked the Enigma encryption code. The final blow was struck with the help of an electromechanical device "Bomb" by American Alan Thuring, who led one of the five groups in the center of transcript. And after the war, all the machines of Alan Turing were dismantled, and many of their components - destroyed.
Meteorologists were indirectly guilty of the Enigma cipher. The key to the clue was the word "weather."
Punctual German weather forecasters sent weather reports to headquarters every day at the same time — six o'clock in the morning. Knowing this, English cryptologists were able to establish a pattern: messages always contained the word wetter (weather - German), which according to the rules of German grammar always stood in a certain place in a sentence.
Scientists tried to improve the reliability of the machine - to prevent hacking, the rotors were periodically replaced (their number reached 5-6 pieces). There were several modifications of Enigma, created by inventor Arthur Sherbius: Enigma A, Enigma B, Enigma C, Enigma C, Enigma-1 and 4.
Understanding the enormous threat that arose, the Nazis were actively working to create new cryptographic machines. It took about four years for the first experimental batch of SchluesselGerae-1944 (SG-41) and its modification SG-41Z to appear in 41 year. The car was called Hitlersmuhle - "Hitler's Mill" because there was a handle on the right side of the machine, such as on hand-held coffee mills. In the future, the mechanical handle, from which it was planned to replace the name with an engine, drafts were developed, but this project could not be implemented due to the rapid onset of the Soviet Army.
When creating a new machine, the German designers took something from the Enigma design: encryption and decryption were identical.
But the main difference between "Hitler's Mill" and Enigma was the absence of electronic tubes: SG worked with two thin strips of paper. Printed letters were entered on one of them, information received as a result of encryption or decryption was output on the other.
But the Germans copied most of the mechanisms. Under the tracing paper, they put the M-209 encryption machine, created by Boris Hagelin, an inventor of Russian origin: his father worked as the manager of the Nobel Brothers Oil Production Association: Boris Hagelin was born in Baku, his family moved to St. Petersburg, and in 1904 - to Sweden .
During the war, one of the copies of the M-209 fell into the hands of German designers. They dismantled it on cogs, carefully studied every detail and completely copied them. Therefore, the internal part of SG-41 had a great similarity with the American M-209 encryption machine. For example, pin wheels were installed in both cryptographic machines for uneven rotation.
Despite the fact that German specialists copied many important details and the very principle of M-209 operation, they were able to create a more secure modification with a new design: it would be unwise and dangerous to completely repeat the opponent’s car - the encryption model was more complicated than with M-209.
The military order for the manufacture of new cars was received by the German company Wonderwerke, located in the small town of Chemnitz (at the time of the GDR, the city was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl-Marx-Stad — it). At that time, this company was one of the most famous in Germany, the manufacturer of writing and cryptographic machines, including the Enigma.
In the middle of 1944, the German High Command planned to purchase SG 11 machines for the Armed Forces from Wonderwerke 000 41. Also, as part of the military order, 2000 copies of the machines should have been received for the weather service. Presumably, these were smaller versions of the machine, whose mass production had not yet begun. Moreover, for meteorologists, the machines were made with a coding of ten digits - from zero to nine.
The manufacturer failed to cope with the military order: Soviet troops were advancing in the area. The German command ordered the secret factory to be blown up, where the encryption machines were manufactured - all technical documentation was also to be destroyed.
Allied helped to conceal military secrets aviation: in the spring of 1945 the city of Chemnitz was actively bombed by the Allies, knowing full well that many secrets were hidden in this small town that could fall into the hands of the advancing Soviet soldiers. "We will bomb Germany - one city after another. We will bomb you harder and harder until you stop waging war. This is our goal. We will ruthlessly pursue it. City by city: Lubeck, Rostock, Cologne, Emden, Bremen, Wilhelmshaven, Duisburg, Hamburg - and this list will only be replenished, "said the leaflets, which were scattered in millions of copies.
Amazing twists are made by history! In peacetime, it was in Chemnitz that the largest Technical University with a budget of 138,9 million euros (in 2012 prices) will open its doors, where a wide variety of cryptography meetings will be held, several dissertations on encryption machines will be defended.
Already after the end of the Great Patriotic War, individual copies of Hitler’s Mill came to Norway: today we know about two operating machines, the cost of which reaches 160 000 euros (in 2009 prices of the year). On one of them was the last encryption, obtained from Doenitz as follows: "The struggle will continue."
At the end of the war, German specialists worked on other projects of encryption machines, but little is known about them today.
One of these projects is the Siemens T43 encryption machine, called by experts the ghost of a cryptographic history, because the information about it is classified until now. When another secret of the encryption machine will be revealed is unknown.
Т43 was one of the first machines, working on the principle of a one-time pad. The random numbers required for this operation are fed into the device in the form of a perforated band, which cannot be used twice. T43 punched through all the treated strips and made them thus unsuitable for reuse.
According to experts, around 30 to 50 of these machines were built and used by the Germans in the last months of the war in some combat units. Some instances of T43 after the war ended up in Norway, Spain and South America.
There is still a lot of unexplained around T43. After the war, six copies of these cars were destroyed in the United States. The machines used in Norway were sent to the British Decryption Center, in Bletchley Park. It is clear that the allies strictly classified all information about this ultra-modern machine.
And this veil of secrecy does not rise today. As before, the British and Americans, having confirmed that they have T43, refuse to publish the archives relating to these machines.
Little is known about the post-war fate of the device, called Hellschreiber (light letter or Hella letter - it), invented by the German Rudolf Hell (Rudolf Hell - it) in 1929 year. This machine became the prototype of the fax.
The first six samples of encryption machines based on the invention of Rudolf Hell arrived on ships and submarines based in the Mediterranean Sea. on the letter. "
From various sources it is known that several cryptographic machines rest on the 100 meter depth in the Austrian lake Toplitz or as it is also called the Black Pearl, where the Nazis experimented with explosives, tested the T-5 self-guided torpedoes to destroy submarines, " Fow-1 "," Faw-2 ".
This area is surrounded by impassable mountains and forests for many kilometers - you can get there only on foot. Explore the lake is dangerous: the Austrian government, by special order, banned diving into the water. Nevertheless, divers dive into a black lake and they see, as a rule, a thick layer of trees - the Nazis deliberately threw thousands of cubic meters of wood into the lake, made a double bottom from the nets. But this does not scare historians and treasure hunters - they are looking for and find a lot of interesting things in the lake. One of the recent findings is the coding machine "Hitler's Mill".
The lake is slowly revealing its secrets - the military archives of foreign intelligence agencies are not in a hurry to do this. Perhaps because inventions in the field of cryptography by German experts are of great scientific and political interest today.
In the photo: Soviet meteorologist Dmitry Grohman, transmitting his weather reports with the help of a Soviet cryptographic machine, did not guess that the word "weather" would be the key for hacking the codes of the German Enigma cryptographic machine.
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