http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park hourly 1 1901-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://gmane.org/img/gmane-25t.png http://gmane.org http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/966 <pre>28 March 2013 OBITUARY : John Wright ---------------------- John Wright, wartime cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park Wartime cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park who decoded the German high command's vital "Tunny" messages One of the dwindling band of veterans of Bletchley Park who worked on the German "Lorenz" cipher, John Wright was a toiler at the coalface of intelligence gathering, deciphering encrypted German signals traffic at their highest level of command. In early 1942, before Wright was diverted from the Royal Armoured Corps where he was a radio operator, the Lorenz cipher system - codenamed Tunny by the British code-breakers - had been cracked. The system was used to encrypt messages between the German Army HQ in Berlin and field commanders of huge forces on all the key battle fronts....../snip/ http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article3724558.ece http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00398/124786243_Wright1_398865c.jpg http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archiv</pre> Martin Postranecky 2013-03-28T12:17:10 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/965 <pre>---------- Forwarded message ---------- *The **CONET** Project : spy station recordings reissued* ========================================================= http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/HRj9-kl14Pw/story01.htm In 1999, I wrote an article &lt;http://boingboing.net/spyvspy.html&gt; for the bOING bOING Digital site about the CONET Project, a multi-CD collection of mysterious "numbers stations" heard on shortwave. For decades, intelligence organizations have reportedly broadcast one-way messages to their agents in the field via shortwave, and the transmissions happen to sound weirder than any Stockhausen score or minimalist electronica you've ever heard -- a child's voice, or the obviously synthesized intonation on what's known as the "Lincolnshire Poacher" station, named for the folk song accompanying the numbers. Wilco's album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is named for, and samples, a numbers station. The CONET Project has been available for several years for free download from various pl</pre> Martin Postranecky 2013-03-28T11:28:37 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/964 <pre>Saturday 16 Feb 2013 OBITUARY : Sarah Baring ----------------------- Sarah Baring, who has died aged 93, was a leading light on the London social scene before spending three years at the top-secret code breaking establishment Bletchley Park; on VE-Day she met the heir to a viscountcy and was engaged to him within a week. She was born Sarah Kathleen Elinor Norton on January 20 1920, the only daughter of the filmmaker the 6th Lord Grantley and his wife Jean ( née Kinloch ). Brought up mainly in Scotland, Sarah was educated by a succession of disagreeable European governesses, but when she was 17 her parents dispatched her to Munich to broaden her horizons and learn German. In later life she reflected on her impressions of the Nazis : "Hitler and his entourage used to take tea in the Carlton Tea Rooms in Munich, and my girlfriend and I would sit at a neighbouring table and pull faces at him. They knew us by sight and knew we were English, so they just pretended we weren't there. We weren't arres</pre> Martin Postranecky 2013-02-16T15:57:18 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/963 <pre>23 Nov 2012 Wanted for one last mission : call for Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack the D-Day pigeon cipher --------------------------------------------------------------------- Historians from GCHQ are appealing for the veteran codebreakers of Bletchley Park to volunteer for one last act of service for their country: cracking the D-Day carrier pigeon cipher that has stumped Britain's finest minds. By Hannah Furness The coded message had been carefully filed in a small red capsule and attached to a carrier pigeon to be delivered 70 years ago. But instead of arriving safely at its destination, the unfortunate bird got stuck in a chimney en-route and lost. The message was found by homeowner David Martin, who ripped out a fireplace to find the skeleton while renovating his house in Bletchingley, Surrey. Historians believe the bird was almost certainly dispatched from Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944, during the D-Day invasions. The mysterious message, which was written in unfamiliar c</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-11-23T12:00:36 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/962 <pre>14 November 2012 Rare German World War Two Enigma machine which scrambled the code broken by Bletchley Park experts is sold for £85,000A keen buyer from the US secured the historic machine - A keen buyer from the US secured the historic machine - The Enigma was the most advanced machine of it's kind - Using a system of rotors, it sent encoded messages via Morse code By Thair Shaikh A German Enigma coding machine has sold for more than £85,000. The rare device went under the hammer today and estimates expected it to sell for £40,000 to £60,000. However, a lively bidding session at Bonhams in Knightsbridge saw it fetch an impressive £85,250. Auction officials said there was a lot of interest with a large number of online and phone buyers joining those bidding in the auction room. A keen buyer from the US made the final bid and secured the historic machine. Built by Heimsoeth and Rinke in 1941, the oak-encased machine, which encrypted German codes during the Second World War, is the three-rotor vers</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-11-14T23:00:21 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/961 <pre>05 Nov 2012 Left on the floor of a Fleet St pub, Britain's greatest Cold War secret ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The leaking of one of Cold War Britain's greatest state secrets was foiled when a journalist's notebook was left lying on the floor of a London pub. By Lucy Kinder The notebook contained never before seen details of Britain's top secret code-breaking site Eastcote, which was later to become the Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ ). Eric Tullett, a Sunday Express journalist, had been passed the explosive information detailing Britain's operation to intercept and decode Soviet signals by Arthur Askew, the Foreign Officer's former head of physical security. But his extraordinary scoop was lost when he left his notebook on floor of the Old Bell pub, on London's Fleet Street. At the time the public were in the dark about the Cold War cipher work being carried out at Eastcote. Nor did they know about Bletchley Park, the wartime crypto</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-11-06T18:08:00 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/960 <pre>Saturday, 20 October 2012 Campaign for Recognition of Polish Enigma Codebreakers ------------------------------------------------------ Poland's parliament has launched a campaign to restore justice to the Polish men and women who first broke the Enigma codes, but who have tended to be overlooked with the limelight going to the Bletchley Park codebreakers. Historians tend to agree that World War II was shortened in Europe by perhaps two years due to the Allies' ability to eavesdrop on German coded communications. However, thanks to media exposure - in the blockbuster movie Enigma, Alan Turing Year and even I-Programmer's coverage of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Bletchley Park - credit for cracking the codes is often accorded only to the work of British cryptologists..../snip/ http://en.poland.gov.pl/Marian,Rejewski,Jerzy,Rozycki,and,Henryk,Zygalski,Enigma,or,the,Biggest,Secret,of,World,War,II,1978.html http://www.i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/4958-campaign-for-recognition-of-polish-enigma-c</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-10-21T15:15:13 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/959 <pre>I am subscribed to this Bletchley Park List but need to make a change to my account. Would the List Master (or whoever runs the List) please email me how to do this please? Thanks. Bill Ridgeway </pre> Bill Ridgeway 2012-10-21T10:52:07 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/958 <pre>I am subscribed to this List but need to make a change to my Bletchley Park List account. Would the List Master (or whoever runs the List) please email me? Thanks. Bill Ridgeway </pre> Bill Ridgeway 2012-10-21T10:45:18 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/957 <pre>I need to make a change to my Bletchley Park List account. How can I do this please? Regards. Bill Ridgeway </pre> Bill Ridgeway 2012-10-15T19:07:45 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/956 <pre>15 October 2012 Fearless World War Two woman spy who slipped into occupied Norway aboard a submarine before becoming Bletchley Park codebreaker dies aged 91 - Received Bletchley Park Badge and The Freedom of Bletchley Park honour for her 'vital work' in Second World War - Kept code-breaking work secret - even from her family - until last year - Operations helped famous sabotage attack by 'Heroes of Telemark', immortalised in 1965 film - After mission was over Sigrid Green walked from Norway to Sweden - Escaped back to Britain in empty bomb bay of Mosquito aircraft By Amy Oliver Sigrid Green led an ordinary life in Darwen, Lancashire. She had been active in the local Conservative party and had volunteered at her local hospital. Few knew the 91-year-old had spent the Second World War infiltrating German sea patrols before cracking codes at Bletchley Park - home of the Enigma decoder. Miss Green, who died on Friday, was so determined to keep that 'difficult' part of her life private, even </pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-10-15T17:53:43 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/955 <pre>Just in case anybody wishes to find more about the Polish efforts, here are few links : http://alpha60.de/research/bomba_krypt/DavidLink_BombaKrypt_Print.pdf http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/virtualbp/poles/poles.htm http://cryptocellar.web.cern.ch/cryptocellar/Enigma/BombeHistNote.pdf http://www.ilord.com/enigma-manual1940-german.pdf http://www.spybooks.pl/en/enigma.html For these, I thank Dr. David Link, who kindly send me the reference to his article in Cryptologia ( see the first link above ). He also wrote : I am afraid I do not have any contacts in Poland, but if by any chance any readers of this list can help, please answer David directly : &lt;david-p2VXG61g1Pg&lt; at &gt;public.gmane.org&gt; ------------------------------- 11 Oct 2012 Telegraph Letters Polish codebreakers ------------------- SIR - Poland's parliament has accused Britain of taking too much credit for cracking Nazi Germany's Enigma code ( report, October 9 ). I recently took my son to Bletchley Park to celebrate his birthday. Ou</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-10-14T16:48:14 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/954 <pre>Congratulation on wining the first Tony Sale Award !! Cheers, Martin http://www.i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/4927-loveletters-wins-tony-sale-award.html </pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-10-12T15:41:21 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/953 <pre>09 Oct 2012 Poles launch campaign for Enigma code-breaking recognition ---------------------------------------------------------- It is hailed as an masterstroke of British code breaking that helped defeat Adolf Hitler and save the lives of thousands of Allied soldiers. Poles launch campaign for Enigma code-breaking recognition By Matthew Day, Warsaw However, decades after Nazi Germany's Enigma code was first cracked, Poland has gone on the offensive to reclaim the glory of a cryptological success it feels has been unjustly claimed by Britain. Frustrated at watching the achievements of the British wartime code breakers at Bletchley Park lauded while those of Poles go overlooked, Poland's parliament has launched a campaign to "restore justice" to the Polish men and women who first broke the Enigma codes. As part of the effort the upper house of Poland's parliament is to pass a resolution praising Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski, the three Polish mathematicians who first broke </pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-10-09T16:23:22 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/952 <pre>10 September 2012 Bletchley Park Launches Special Edition Alan Turing Monopoly Board ------------------------------------------------------------------ - Turing's face adorns ten pound note - Board design based on unique hand-drawn board in Park museum - a board Turing himself played upon ( and lost ) - All proceeds go toward Bletchley Park and its further development into world attraction. Bletchley Park is delighted to officially launch the Alan Turing Monopoly board, developed from a unique original board in the Bletchley Park Museum, hand-drawn by William Newman, son of Turing's mentor, Max, over sixty years ago. In this special edition of Monopoly, the squares around the board and revised Chance and Community Chest cards tell the story of Alan Turing's life along with key elements of the original hand-drawn board, which the great mathematician played on with a young William in the early 1950s - and lost. The board has been developed by the Bletchley Park Trust, William Newman and Winn</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-09-10T14:16:34 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/951 <pre>04 Sep 2012 What happened to the women of Bletchley Park ? As a new ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle, imagines them as post-war sleuths, Iain Hollingshead learns the truth. By Iain Hollingshead After three decades shrouded in secrecy, there now appear to be few stories untold about Bletchley Park, the code-breaking centre in Buckinghamshire whose work is thought to have shortened the Second World War by up to three years. Historians have had huge fun with a cast of 12,000, ranging from mathematicians to Egyptologists. Dillwyn Knox, a Cambridge classical papyrus expert, used to work in his pyjamas, while Alan Turing, the pioneer of the computer age, liked to take his cat on walks. When Churchill, an avid supporter, visited, he said to the head of MI6, "When I told you to leave no stone unturned recruiting for this place, I didn't expect you to take me literally." Much, too, has been written about the impact of the Bletchley alumni after the war. Michael Smith, author of "The Secrets of Statio</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-09-04T17:51:00 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/950 <pre>I don't know if anybody had watched this last night, but it repeats TODAY ( Monday ) at 1pm ( UK ) on "Yesterday"....: Dieppe Uncovered ---------------- Sunday 19th August 2012 at 21.00hrs on 'Yesterday' REPEAT : Monday 20 August 2012 at 13.00hrs on 'Yesterday' -------- In 1942, Allied forces mounted a disastrous attack on the French port of Dieppe. Now the truth behind the ill-fated raid and the role played by author Ian Fleming is revealed. On 19th August 1942 Allied forces attacked the French port of Dieppe. The disastrous mission resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,000 men and 2,000 men taken prisoner. For 70 years many have asked what happened and why the mission was such a failure. To mark the 70th anniversary of the event, Yesterday is finally able to reveal the truth behind one of the biggest secrets of World War II. Dieppe Uncovered brings back to life the raid thanks to dramatic reconstructions and talks to those who really know the truth. Fifteen years ago Professor David O'Keefe,</pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-08-20T11:01:24 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/948 <pre>Saturday August 18, 2012 COO BLIMEY ! RIDDLE OF PERCY THE PIGEON AND A WARTIME MISSION ------------------------------------------------------------- By Giles Sheldrick THEY were the army of unlikely heroes who helped us defeat Hitler in the Second World War. More than 250,000 pigeons were trained to carry coded messages from the front line to generals back home. Almost all made it, except one. The story of Percy, the pigeon who died in the line of duty, can now be told for the first time after being unearthed by the Daily Express. While ripping out an old fireplace at a derelict house in Bletchingly, Surrey, David and Ann Martin found what they thought to be a discarded chicken bone. But on closer inspection it turned out to be the remains of a pigeon. A fairly unremarkable find, you might think. But just as Mr Martin was about to bag up the soot and twigs and throw them away he noticed a small red cylinder attached to the bird's foot. Inside was a highly sensitive document that was almost </pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-08-18T12:12:47 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/947 <pre>From "The Daily Telegraph"....: 14 Aug 2012 Baroness Trumpington : 'At my age I don't give a damn what I say' ----------------------------------------------------------------- From cracking U-boat codes to flicking a V-sign in the Lords, the formidable 89-year-old Baroness Trumpington has done it her way By Elizabeth Grice 'I'm holding the bloody door !' booms a voice down the hall of the mansion block. Baroness Trumpington's robust greeting sets the scene for what is to follow. In one hand she grasps a walking stick, with the other she is wrestling with her spring-loaded front door. Though built like a galleon, she is nearly 90 and her strength cannot be what it was..../snip/ ....Where most people have family photographs, she has a storyboard of modern British history : a warmly signed photo of John Major, a picture of her with Ted Heath, a framed letter from Gordon Brown, thanking her for "the vital service" she performed for the country at Bletchley Park during the war. In another photo, </pre> Martin Postranecky 2012-08-14T12:08:26 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/942 <pre>Can anyone explain, please, why the index rings on some Enigma rotors are lettered A - Z, whereas others are numbered 1 - 26? Cryptographically there is no significance, and the A-Z/1-26 conversion table is printed on the standard instruction sheet usually attached to the inside of the lid. Thanks! Mark Baldwin </pre> Mark Baldwin 2012-06-22T09:09:47 http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park/940 <pre>The story of Mick Jagger and Enigma is more involved and more interesting than hinted at in recent posts. Mick Jagger has been interested in Enigma for about twenty years, and was outbid at a Phillips auction in 1993, failing to buy a 4-rotor naval machine. The machine sold for £24,172.50, and was included in a subsequent Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive piece of 'radio related equipment'. He did later manage to buy another machine. Jagger founded Jagged Films in 1995 and in 1998 announced that the company's first film was to be 'Enigma', which was duly released in 2001. In a letter to The Daily Mail in May 2002, Dennis Yates (the man convicted of handling G312 stolen from Bletchley in 2000) revealed that it was he who had outbid Jagger at the 1993 auction, thus securing the first 4-rotor machine to appear on the market. On the Science Museum's website, a 3-rotor machine is shown, described as having been donated to the museum in 1980. Perhaps Jagger's 4-rotor machine is also on </pre> Mark Baldwin 2012-06-21T19:09:32 Search the mailing list at Gmane query http://search.gmane.org/?group=$group=gmane.science.cryptography.bletchley-park