The Enigma I, often called the "Heeres" Enigma, was used by the German Heer (Army), Luftwaffe (Air Force), and later, by the Kriegsmarine (Navy) before the introduction of the "M4" 4-rotor machine. The serial number A00673/bac/43E of the present machine indicates that it was manufactured in 1943 by Ertel-Werk für Feinmechanik, a German manufacturer of scientific and mechanical instruments founded in 1802. Ertel-Werk was located in Munich's Westend neighborhood from 1911 on, until it was completely burned down in a bomb attack in April 1944. It was the exclusive manufacturer of Enigma machines in the rare metal Panzerholz case. This particular machine is possibly unique; the Panzerholz cases are normally a black color, and this is the only one we have ever seen in a green Panzerholz case.
Patented in 1918 by Arthur Scherbius, the Enigma machine uses three electromechanical cipher wheels, each with 26 contacts at either side. The three rotors would be placed in pre-arranged positions, and the user would then type in a plain text message using the keyboard. The machine would encipher the message, and each corresponding encoded letter would light up on the light panel. The enciphered message would then be sent to the receiving party, usually via Morse code. The receiving party would decipher the message using another Enigma machine with the rotors set to the same position as the first. The rotors of all Enigma machines were interchangeable, and indeed, rotors were swapped out frequently. The fact that all three rotors on this machine match each other and the chassis indicate that this machine was used in isolation from any others.
The Enigma machine set a challenge that was answered by the remarkable team at Bletchley Park, whose achievements provide one of the most compelling stories of World War II. Cracking the Enigma was the work of many, including Polish cryptographers who had already begun to decipher Enigma traffic before the war; naval forces who risked their lives capturing Enigma machines and code books; Alan Turing and other mathematicians with their revolutionary models for deciphering; Tommy Flowers and other mechanical geniuses who designed "Colossus," the world's first programmable digital computer, at the GPO Research Centre at Dollis Hill in northwest London; and the hundreds of Wrens who operated the Bombes and, later, Colossus machines that made daily decrypts possible. Their work saved countless lives and had an enormous impact on the submarine war in the Atlantic, the North African campaign, and the Normandy invasion; the work of Bletchley Park is often said to have shortened the war by two years. Furthermore, by coming to the understanding that it was necessary to mechanize much of the work of decryption in order to defeat the Enigma machine, they helped to inaugurate the computer age.
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