X-Nico

5 unusual facts about Lorenz cipher


C. Lorenz AG

Military products from Lorenz during WWII included land-based and airborne radars, two-way radio sets, wire recorders, radio tubes, and Germany’s most secure communications device, the Lorenz cipher machine.

Called the Schlüsselzusatz (cipher attachment), the Lorenz cipher was an in-line addition to their standard teleprinter.

Lorenz cipher

Its interception was originally concentrated at the Foreign Office Y Station operated by the Metropolitan Police at Denmark Hill in Camberwell, London.

Tutte did this with the original teleprinter 5-bit Baudot codes, which led him to his initial breakthrough of recognising a 41 character repetition.

Testery

From 1st July 1942 on, this team switched and was tasked with breaking the German High Command’s most top-level code Tunny after Bill Tutte successfully broke Tunny system in Spring 1942.


C. E. Wynn-Williams

The one using the Lorenz SZ 40/42, code-named Tunny at the Government Code & Cypher School at Bletchley Park, was used for high-level traffic between German High Command and field commanders.

Ralph Tester

The Lorenz cipher machine had twelve wheels, and was thus most advanced, complex, faster and far more secure than the three-wheeled Enigma.


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