From ADAM BLAZEKEWSKI
Jim Lesurf in his interesting paper about codes and chaos (‘A spy’s
guide to chaos’, 1 February) stated that the secret of Enigma (German scrambling
machine) was uncovered by British code breakers from Bletchley. That is
not true. The Enigma code was broken by three mathematicians of Polish intelligence:
Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Rozcki, and Henry Zygalski. The first message was
decoded by these three as early as January 1933.
I am aware that this may be unconvincing for some readers. I refer them
to Gordon Welchman’s article ‘From Polish Bomba to British Bombe: Birth
of Ultra’, Intelligence and National Security, London, January 1986. (Gordon
Welchman was one of the key cryptanalysts of the Bletchley centre.)
Adam Blazekewski Poznan, Poland
