Details on Poles Cracking the German ENIGMA Code. Kozaczuk

Enigma: How the German Machine Cypher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War II, by Wladyslaw Kozaczuk. 1984. Hippocrene Books, New York

The Polish Breakthrough on ENIGMA…Placed in Broad Historical Context. British Ingratitude

The author Kozaczuk summarizes the facts: “As far as the first phase–fundamental to all further work–is concerned, it has been shown that the solution to ENIGMA, in all its manifestations during the years 1933-39, was a purely Polish achievement. The mathematical methods, Polish ENIGMA doubles, and ancillary technology, when passed on to the British, enabled them to exploit this achievement in record time.” (p. 95). Among non-Polish sources that recognize the fact of the Polish achievement (although not necessarily without errors), Kozaczuk, in an Appendix towards the end of this book, discusses two books reviewed by Marian Rejewski. (p. 257). In another Appendix, Christopher Kasparek and Richard Woytak provide further evidence for the same. (p. 225). Finally, this book goes beyond ENIGMA by providing a good deal of auxiliary historical information.

BRITISH INGRATITUDE TO POLAND

Much of what has been written in the west about the German codes is sheer nonsense. For instance, the account of Poles physically stealing an ENIGMA machine from the Germans is a cock-and-bull story (p. 292). Unfortunately, the British seemed to feel no need to acknowledge their ENIGMA debts to the Poles. (pp. 207-208). It is even more disturbing to read that, after Polish agents had stolen the components of a fallen V-2 rocket in German-occupied Poland (Operation Wildhorn), and had arranged for these to be flown to England, British agents attempted to forcibly take away these components from the Polish agents. (p. 192).

ESPIONAGE INVOLVING AN “IMPOSSIBLE” CODING MACHINE

There were about 10 to the 103 power different possible combinations in ENIGMA. (p. 24). But, although machines may be ostensibly infallible, humans are not. The Germans had designed ENIGMA with certain intuitively-likely internal configurations, entered information into ENIGMA a stereotypic manner, and often got careless. Evidently, the Germans never had a clue that ENIGMA had been broken. (p. 89).

SOME IRONIES OF WORLD WAR II

One irony is the fact that the Polish General Staff, thanks to ENIGMA having been solved by the Poles years earlier, had been able to identify 80-90% of the Wehrmacht forces surrounding Poland in August 1939 (p. 61, 66), yet this was of little military benefit to Poland in the massive ensuing German attack, as the promised French attack on Germany (p. 75) never materialized. Later, the Polish cracking of ENIGMA probably had played a more important role in the Allied victory in the Battle of Britain than the disproportionate number of “kills” inflicted by skilled Polish pilots. (p. 187). The successful sinking of the Bismarck may owe to the Polish solution of ENIGMA no less than the tiny Polish destroyer Piorun having drawn the Bismarck’s fire and thereby stalled for time. (p. 202). Still another irony is evident in Photo 13, which shows Hitler at his victory parade in Warsaw. The Fuhrer was strutting within sight of the building in which the Polish mathematicians had solved the ENIGMA before the war, thus sealing Hitler’s eventual doom.

THE HELL OF PAWIAK PRISON IN WARSAW

Finally, Kozaczuk provides a good description of the infamous Pawiak prison during the German occupation: “Named for its proximity to ulica Pawia–Peacock Street–the old czarist prison, built in 1829-35, would be blown up by the Nazis in August 1944, after they had processed one hundred thousand Poles–20 percent of them women–through it, murdering 37 percent of them outright and sending nearly all the rest to concentration camps.” (p. 214).

DIFFICULTIES OF LIQUIDATING COLLABORATORS

No account of espionage would be complete without discussion of traitors and collaborators. Of course, not all Polish service to the Germans was consensual. Far from it: “Volksdeutsche were citizens of various European countries, of German extraction, who, during the German occupation in World War II, officially declared themselves to be of German nationality and served the German authorities. In Polish Silesia and Pomerania, the Germans also used terror to force the populace of Polish descent to sign the Volksliste.” (p. 221).

MISPLACED JEWISH BLAME FOR POLES “NOT DOING MORE” ABOUT THE SZMALCOWNIKI

Kozaczuk comment: “Surveillance of a person suspecting of collaborating with the Germans was very difficult under occupation conditions.” (p. 215). Although of course not written in this context, this fact addresses those who attack the Polish Underground for not assassinating more Polish informers involved in the denunciation of fugitive Jews.

LONG-TERM GERMAN AGGRESSION

It is clear that renewed German aggressive plans against Poland had long predated the rise of Hitler to power. Already by the late 1920’s, all of the German political parties supported the wresting from Poland of those territories that had been under Prussian rule beginning with the time of the Partitions (p. 2). By the early 1930’s, the Germans were actively and openly undermining Poland’s half-rights to Danzig (Gdansk). (p. 11).

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More on Poles and the Cracking of the “Invincible” German ENIGMA Code:

Non-Polish Author Recognizes That Poles Cracked the German ENIGMA Code. Singh

Non-Polish Author Recognizes That Poles Cracked The ENIGMA Code. Kahn

Spy Thriller: Poles Crack ENIGMA Code–Says Bletchley Participant Jones. Garlinski

The ENIGMA Achievement in the Broader Context of WWII Polish Espionage Achievements:

Not Only ENIGMA! Many Polish WWII Espionage Achievements. Germans Destroyed 40% of Poland’s Wealth. A. K. Weapon Shortage. Stirling

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Original article here: https://www.jewsandpolesdatabase.org/2020/04/03/details-on-poles-cracking-the-german-enigma-code-kozaczuk/