U Boat Captured Enigma Machine

German submarine u 110 was a type ixb u boat of nazi germany s kriegsmarine that operated during world war ii she was captured by the royal navy on 9 may 1941 and provided a number of secret cipher documents to the british.

U boat captured enigma machine.

He had the presence of mind to put a couple of tools in his pockets so when he got into the w t compartment he was able to unscrew the machine from the desk and place it with all the associated key lists and other publications in a canvas bag and pass. Three months later bletchley park got another break. The unsung hero of the u 110 enigma capture was telegraphist alan osborne long r n. The recovery was one of several such events e g the earlier capture of u 110 that inspired the fictional account of the submarine capture in the 2000 film u 571.

Long was a member of h m s. The incredible tale of u 110 is told through rare archival footage and photos captured documents and interviews with german and british sailors. This captured material allowed them to read the cyphers for several weeks and to break u boat enigma thereafter right through to the end of the war. Ww2 hero who stormed nazi u boat to capture top secret enigma machine dies a hero veteran who helped shorten the second world war has died aged 95.

U 110 s capture later given the code name operation primrose was one of the biggest secrets of the war remaining so for seven months. Britain s first big breakthrough in cracking the more complex kriegsmarine enigma code occurred following the capture of u 110 and the successful seizing of its enigma machine and codebooks in may 1941. Sponsored ad there are conflicting accounts about the crew s subsequent actions in the u boat particularly on whether or not they were successful in destroying and or tossing overboard codebooks and the enigma cipher machine. The first enemy capture since the war of 1812.

The enigma machine did not actually send the messages. The boat accidentally sank when being towed to. From that moment the naval enigma code used by the u boats in the. But also with the desire to capture a u boat and its codebooks.

U 570 was the first and only u boat to be captured by an aircraft.