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Enigma Machine and Its U-boat Codes

STORY PREFACE

http://awesomestories.com/images/user/d8a17140bf.jpg

This image depicts U-760 (a Type VIIC U-Boat) at sea.  Because this type of vessel (in the foreground) is a submarine, it does not have much freeboard above the water.  Image online, courtesy U-Boat.net.

 

I still wake up at night
fifty-six years later
to find myself
going down that ladder.

David Balme

The North Atlantic seas south of Iceland were relatively calm on May 9, 1941 as a British convoy made its way from England to Nova Scotia. Escort ships, like the corvette HMS Aubretia, were desperately needed to protect supply ships from the ever-present threat of German U-boats.

On board the destroyer Bulldog, senior ship of the 3rd Escort Group, Sub-Lieutenant David Balme had no clue his impending heroism would give British intelligence what they needed to decipher the secret code of the Third Reich - Hitler's "Enigma" encryption machine.

Commanding the Bulldog, A.J. (Joe) Baker-Creswell had no idea his instinctual decisions over the next several hours would turn the tide of the war against Germany.

In charge of a lurking nearby U-Boat, Fritz-Julius Lemp (commanding officer of U-110) could not have known he had only a few hours to live.

 

 

Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.

 


Original Release Date:  February, 2001
Updated Quarterly, or as Needed

To cite this story, using MLA Guidelines:

Bos, Carole D. "Enigma Machine and Its U-boat Codes" AwesomeStories.com. Date of access
       <http://www.awesomestories.com/history/u571>.

IN OTHER WORDS: Author. Title of story. Name of web site. Date of access <URL>.