Information Technology Reference
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ited States Army Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) by 1939. Some of the more use-
ful Purple messages that were decoded were Japanese foreign office messages by
the Japanese Ambassador to Berlin.
One famous decrypted message, which has been shown in several feature films,
was the message to the Japanese Ambassador in Washington that Japan was break-
ing off negotiations on the day of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. In fact, the U.S.
officials had the text of this message before the Japanese Ambassador received it.
Later during the war, messages from Ambassador General Hiroshi Oshima in
Berlin were translated. These secret messages often included vital military inform-
ation, including some told to Oshima by Hitler himself.
Computers in Poland During World War II
World War II started on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
However, on July 25, 1939, about five weeks before the invasion, there was a
secret meeting between Poland, France, and Britain at Pyry in a forest about 30
miles south of Warsaw. At this meeting, several cryptanalysis methods and an ac-
tual Enigma machine were turned over to France and Britain by Polish mathem-
aticians.
By good fortune, Alan Turing was one of the British mathematicians who re-
ceived the Polish information. This fact would become significant as the war con-
tinued and the British began to develop decryption computers. As most readers
may know, Alan Turing is a famous mathematician who contributed to the funda-
mental theory of digital computers, and he also contributed practical engineering
knowledge to the development of British decryption computers.
Starting in 1932, Polish mathematicians had been working on breaking the
codes used by the German Enigma machine. One of the methods used for decryp-
tion was a mechanical calculating device called a cryptologic bomb , or “bomba”
in Polish. This was one of the methods provided by Poland to the Allies, and it
later developed into the famous bombe built at Bletchley Park. The Polish math-
ematicians probably sped up British decryption efforts by more than a year and
hence aided the Allies in deciphering Enigma codes.
Although Poland as a country was occupied by Germany and later Russia, Pol-
ish troops in exile continued to serve with the Allies in both air and ground op-
erations. Polish intelligence during World War II was among the most successful
of any of the combatants. During 1939 to 1945, about 40% to 45% of all useful
intelligence reports from the German-occupied countries were from Polish agents.
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