Mission Decoding: Missions to decode.
Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2012 5:33 am
Authentic wartime U-Boat Message from the North Atlantic.
The following message was intercepted by the British destroyer HMS Hurricane in the North Atlantic on
November, 25, 1942. This was during the ten months black-out which occurred after the introduction of the
notorious four-rotor Enigma. During that period, the codebreakers in Bletchley Park were unable to decrypt the
Kriegsmarine radio traffic, encrypted with the Triton keys on the new Enigma M4. This message is one of three,
believed to be unbroken until today, and published by Ralph Erskine in a letter to Cryptologia.
With the contents of the message unveiled, we were able to find the story
of the U-boat in the Archives. It is a story that brings the message and its
reader closer than ever to the dramatic events of naval warfare during
the Second World War. The message was written by Kapitänleutnant
Hartwig Looks, commander of U-264, a type VIIC U-boat. Between
November 1942 and February 1944, U-264 sailed out on six patrols. On
its first patrol, U-264 sank the Greek 'Mount Taurus' in convoy ONS-144.
On the third patrol, U-264 sank the British 'Harperley' and American 'West Maximus', both in convoy ONS-5. On
February 5, 1944, U-264 left St-Nazaire for its seventh and fatal patrol. The message, presented here, was sent
on their first patrol.
In 2006, Stefan Krah started the M4 Project, an effort by to break these three authentic messages, enciphered on
four-rotor Enigma M4. Stefan has already succeeded in breaking 2 of the 3 messages, with the help of distributed
computing (a large number of computers, working together in a network).
Command Control: You have to be logged into NSD Forum to help decode this intercepted Message.
[hide]The settings as recovered by Stefan Krah:
Maschine: Kriegsmarine M4
UKW: B
Walzenlage: Beta 2 4 1
Ringstellung: A-A-A-V
Stecker: AT BL DF GJ HM NW OP QY RZ VX
(1/20, 2/12, 4/6, 7/10, 8/13, 14/23, 15/16, 17/25, 18/26, 22/24)
Start position: V-J-N-A
Note: the M4 software returned the plug settings as letters. In reality, Kriegsmarine key sheets contained plug combinations with numbers (the M4 carried a sequentially numbered plugboard layout).
The message, as received by HMS Hurricane (a few small errors included, probably during reception): T.O.R.1152/19/221 (53 GROUPS).
FCLC QRKN NCZW VUSX PNYM INHZ XMQX SFWX WLKJ AHSH NMCO CCAK UQPM KCSM
HKSE INJU SBLK IOSX CKUB HMLL XCSJ USRR DVKO HULX WCCB GVLI YXEO AHXR
HKKF VDRE WEZL XOBA FGYU JQUK GRTV UKAM EURB VEKS UHHV OYHA BCJW MAKL
FKLM YFVN RIZR VVRT KOFD ANJM OLBG FFLE OPRG TFLV RHOW OPBE KVWM UQFM
PWPA RMFH AGKX IIBG FCLC QRKM VA
German, and English Transmission will follow once people start providing the Decoded Message.
---End of Transmission---
[/hide]
The following message was intercepted by the British destroyer HMS Hurricane in the North Atlantic on
November, 25, 1942. This was during the ten months black-out which occurred after the introduction of the
notorious four-rotor Enigma. During that period, the codebreakers in Bletchley Park were unable to decrypt the
Kriegsmarine radio traffic, encrypted with the Triton keys on the new Enigma M4. This message is one of three,
believed to be unbroken until today, and published by Ralph Erskine in a letter to Cryptologia.
With the contents of the message unveiled, we were able to find the story
of the U-boat in the Archives. It is a story that brings the message and its
reader closer than ever to the dramatic events of naval warfare during
the Second World War. The message was written by Kapitänleutnant
Hartwig Looks, commander of U-264, a type VIIC U-boat. Between
November 1942 and February 1944, U-264 sailed out on six patrols. On
its first patrol, U-264 sank the Greek 'Mount Taurus' in convoy ONS-144.
On the third patrol, U-264 sank the British 'Harperley' and American 'West Maximus', both in convoy ONS-5. On
February 5, 1944, U-264 left St-Nazaire for its seventh and fatal patrol. The message, presented here, was sent
on their first patrol.
In 2006, Stefan Krah started the M4 Project, an effort by to break these three authentic messages, enciphered on
four-rotor Enigma M4. Stefan has already succeeded in breaking 2 of the 3 messages, with the help of distributed
computing (a large number of computers, working together in a network).
Command Control: You have to be logged into NSD Forum to help decode this intercepted Message.
[hide]The settings as recovered by Stefan Krah:
Maschine: Kriegsmarine M4
UKW: B
Walzenlage: Beta 2 4 1
Ringstellung: A-A-A-V
Stecker: AT BL DF GJ HM NW OP QY RZ VX
(1/20, 2/12, 4/6, 7/10, 8/13, 14/23, 15/16, 17/25, 18/26, 22/24)
Start position: V-J-N-A
Note: the M4 software returned the plug settings as letters. In reality, Kriegsmarine key sheets contained plug combinations with numbers (the M4 carried a sequentially numbered plugboard layout).
The message, as received by HMS Hurricane (a few small errors included, probably during reception): T.O.R.1152/19/221 (53 GROUPS).
FCLC QRKN NCZW VUSX PNYM INHZ XMQX SFWX WLKJ AHSH NMCO CCAK UQPM KCSM
HKSE INJU SBLK IOSX CKUB HMLL XCSJ USRR DVKO HULX WCCB GVLI YXEO AHXR
HKKF VDRE WEZL XOBA FGYU JQUK GRTV UKAM EURB VEKS UHHV OYHA BCJW MAKL
FKLM YFVN RIZR VVRT KOFD ANJM OLBG FFLE OPRG TFLV RHOW OPBE KVWM UQFM
PWPA RMFH AGKX IIBG FCLC QRKM VA
German, and English Transmission will follow once people start providing the Decoded Message.
---End of Transmission---
[/hide]