WWII espionage secrets revealed

...The Enigma code machine was used by German forces to transmit confidential information before and after the war and the Allies attempts to capture Enigma machines and break their codes have featured in films and books such as "Enigma" and "U-571", but former policeman John Alexander will reveal some of the facts behind the fiction at a lecture organized by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) at the Kingsmills Hotel on Wednesday. "The Enigma machine was taken on by the German military, starting in 1926," Alexander explained. "The system meant that no-one could — or should — have been able to read those messages, only the German forces with the correct machine and settings. For much of the time that's fine, but when war does really come along Bletchley Park comes on the scene and they effectively become a factory designed to break into those messages. This is really important because it talks about their operations, what they are going to attack and when and what they know about our strength. To have an inside track on what your enemy is thinking and planning is most important...It is the Bletchley Park cypher-breaking complex in Buckinghamshire which is credited as being the birthplace of the computer age. Among the tools used by the Allied code-breakers was Colossus, the world's first programmable, digital, electronic computer created to break the code carried by the big brother of the Enigma system, Lorenz, which used 12 coded rotor wheels rather than the four to eight of Enigma machines and was used by Hitler to communicate with his generals.....(Inverness-Courier) [source: Centre for CounterIntelligence & Security Studies]