Secret histories

On a 1996 assignment to the Arctic archipelago of Spitsbergen, one of
Netropolitan’s intrepid reporters sauntered into the museum in the main
settlement of Longyearbyen. Among the relics of its whaling past and its
mining-centred present (see www.svalbard.net) was a display of Second World War
detritus left behind by the Allied and Nazi soldiers who fought over the
islands. While gawping at an enormous, rusting machine gun, our man stubbed his
foot on a wooden box. Raising its lid, he was amazed to find it was an Enigma
coding machine. Yes, on the floor. Not even in a display case.…