Web sites related to WW2 cryptology
Links last checked December 2010. Please help by reporting broken links
Essential background information
- Documents specific to the American Bombe posted by Frode Weierud
- Information about the Battle of the Atlantic posted by the Mariner’s Museum of Newport News, Virginia
- Index to the Navy Department Library
. In particular, see …
- Cryptologic Documents in the Navy Department Library
- NSA SRH 235: Contribution of US Naval Communication Intelligence to Submarine Warfare
- The Information Age: The Smithsonian Exhibit where the US Navy Bombe made its first public appearance
-
5 Myths About the ‘Information Age’
The role of cryptology in American history:
- NSA Cryptologic Heritage
- The NSA National Cryptologic Museum
- The National Security Agency, heir to the technologies developed at the U.S.N.C.M.L..
- New to the NSA History site: Index and online copies of many of their publications
- Naval Security Group Command, descendent of Op-20-G (NB: COMNAVSECGRU was disestablished 29 Dec 2005. Those former commands are now renamed Navy Information Operations Commands. For more information, please see this web site.)
- Navy CT History , the “unofficial” web site, preserving the history of the Naval Security Group Command and the worldwide CT community.
- Background on the US Navy’s cryptologic efforts in the Far East: The Empire is Listening, published in the Journal of the Australian War Memorial.
I.E.E.E. History Center interviews with 7 of the NCR personnel who worked on this project
Background information about the Medal for Merit
Information about the U-boat wars
The pioneering work of the British at Bletchley Park, and Bletchley’s relationship with the US:
- Index to Frode Weierud’s CryptoCellar a site of varied and extensive information.
- The Official Site of the Bletchley Park Trust–updated and loaded with new information.
- Codes and Ciphers in the Second World War, hosted by Tony Sale
- A section of The Alan Turing Internet Scrapbook, Alan Turing as UK-USA link, 1942 onwards: Hands Across the Sea
- The Alan Turing Archive
Information about the ground-breaking work on cracking the Enigma accomplished by Polish cryptanalysts early in the War:
- Polish success in breaking the German Enigma machine
- The Enigma Machine; History of Solving, hosted by Lech Maziakowski
Sites dedicated to our veterans:
- The Navy Memorial Foundation
- The U.S. Naval Cryptolgic Veterans Association
- The U.S. Navy Historical Center
- Women in Military Service for America Memorial
- WAVES National , a site I highly recommend to families researching a member’s service record.
For a glimpse at Dayton’s role in international cryptologic history, visit the web pages of the Dayton History. Among their assets is the immensely valuable NCR Archive
Would you like to learn more about codes and ciphers, encrypt a message, or learn more about tubes and circuits? decrypt other ciphers? tackle Enigma itself?
- Two entrances to a site belonging to a good friend, JIm Oram, restoring of Enigmas for museums and collectors, with volumes of information about versions of the Enigma. Entrance 1, an introduction to the topic and Two, devoted to work for the Graveyard of the Atlantic
- Elonka’s List of Famous Unsolved Ciphers and Codes
- An analysis of the Enigma; a paper originally published in Cryptologia, October 1995
- Another look at methods of Enigma decryption
- The home page of a web site (somewhat technical) by Jerry Proc, of Ontario Canada, devoted to Crypto Machines.
- A fun site to visit: Tales of the Encrypted.
- Encrypt a message using their animated Enigma
- The Dutch Crypto Museum, a virtual museum sponsored in the Netherlands. Included is a list of Enigma simulators available for different operating systems (Windows, Perl, etc.)
- Learn about the Enigma machine and how to build your own: Information on how to do it..
- The British Bombe rebuild — an admirable and successful project
- The Cracking of RSA-129: In 1994, a worldwide conspiracy of more than 1600 computers (and two FAX machines!) solved the most famous cryptography challenge in existence, a challenge that was thought to be unbreakable!
- Basic Javascript Encryption and Decryption
- Tubes: learn about the RCA Selectron, the Radar Tube “the tube that changed the war”
Excellent background information based on primary sources:
- Best of History Web Sites
- A long scroll but loaded with links: World War II Resources
- An excellent reference with a misleading name: Hyperwar; a Hypertext History of World War II
- Site sponsored by the History Department at Ohio State University: E History
- A good bilbiography page: ULTRA bibliography