gurtnzr

towelday

a member of the audiance shouted the correct phrase.

“i imagine there are quite a few of you who knows just what that is and perhaps even more of you who worship 42. but as i said. the caesar cipher was a key factor in secret communication during battles. can anyone tell me who else understood that?”

the answer came rapidly from the audience.

“hitler!”

“correct. and the machine?”

“enigma!”

“correct again! the enigma. for you math-nerds i believe that machine can be quite alluring, i am a mere history buff, and it is intoxicating to me.”

laughter again filled the auditorium.

“now. before i continue. it is imperative that i share an important rule for us historians. one source of any information is never reliable as a fact. a copy of the same source from another place or time is better, but is still some what shady. several sources pointing to the same information, and we have what we like to call a historic fact. unlike you, we have a hard time to academically, or scientifically, prove those facts. we often need to take some old fossils word and trust that, while you can just run the numbers and be done with it.”

professor bergman smiled at the young, enthusiastic crowd.

“now, back to the enigma. we know that it was created and patented by arthur scherbius in 1918. he intended it for commercial use, but there were someone in the german defence department that understood the significance of little magical typewriter. who created it is a well documented fact. what i will share with you now, is my own speculations. i believe that the someone in the german hq was non other than hermann göring. it is a speculation that i base on two loose facts that are not very well documented. the first being that there are records of herr scherbius being friends with a herr göring, who unfortunately died during world war 1. there is one source pointing towards a young hermann briefly working at herr scherbius company around 1917. last name not recorded anywhere. which is very untypically german.”

again the crowd laughed.

“now, before i continue with the facts, i will indulge in some speculations. if a certain hermann would be working with herr scherbius, i’d say it is not unlikely that he would see a thing or two. and i also dare state, that if scherbius registered the patent for the enigma 1918, it is likely that he had developed some kind of prototype, perhaps even several, in 1917. and why do i mention this, you might wonder. well, this is where we go over to facts.”

he paused and clicked the remote, sending another picture to the view screen. some in the audience cheered.

“i believe someone already recognized this gentleman i assume you all know by name. alan turing. the man often credited for cracking the enigma code. up until that point, the british had no idea what the german transmissions were all about. turing and his crew changed that. and now you would think that all german communications were as reading the morning paper. and for most parts it was. with a few exceptions. the early records after cracking the enigma code are vague to say the least, but there are two specific transmissions that are very well documented. both occurring in a rather short time frame before the war ended. the first transmission is a short message.”

he clicked the remote again.

ct2v qev smpu49 4q83k 81 dcvcl m5k4ff cs 1rvz, 1oar2uq7 x0bf. mvqg pt yo3d2v o8 zfcv3 cqqo 9 39l3byo6.
qqd6 edc2q4.

“this message was sent with a directed radio antenna from berlin towards innsbruck, where the germans had a large storage facility with everything from art, ammunition, written records, machines, to i don’t know what. a lot of raided and stolen items was kept here, according to the records found later by historians visiting the caves and tunnels in the mountains. me being one of them. and before we continue the story of what happened. or rather, what i believe happened. let’s take a look at the code, shall we?”

he rhetorically paused and took a sip from a glass of water.

“does anything strike you with this code?”

a young man in the front row answered.

“it looks like enigma code.”

“exactly! what else?”

the man continued.

“it looks like the ended the transmission with ‘heil hitler’ as they did with a lot of their transmissions.”

“correct again. now, why couldn’t the british read it?”

he looked at the man who seemed to be out of answers.

“indeed, why couldn’t the british read it? it looks like enigma code. we believe that the transmission ends with the known words, heil hitler. and you all know that known words are like gold to code breakers. but still, they could not decode this message with the enigma. curious.”

he took another sip of water.

“another curious thing is that after this transmission, a large convoy of trucks started a journey north. the witness reports of this are sadly not very reliable since they vary in details, spanning from how many vehicles, of what type, when it was and the roads they took. but the records give some kind of idea that about 50 trucks or so, headed north. probably all the way up to kiel. a journey of about 1000 km. on poor roads. low on fuel and support functions along the way. unknown load.”

he looked at the code on the screen a while before continuing.

“now to facts. i mentioned kiel. the home harbour of one of the biggest submarines created in the german naval history up to that point. in fact. her designation was u-864. she happened to sail from kiel a few days after this mysterious transmition from berlin to innsbruck. and shortly after, she fell victim to the allied torpedoes. as i said earlier. something we historians like about the germans are their notorious and meticulous precision in record-keeping. down to every bolt and nut. every single screw. and here is an interesting fact. when u-864 was built, she was the only submarine built at that time. no other subs was ever recorded during that time. but. the materials transported and stored there during that time, was well enough to build at lease three more exactly like her. but the records state that they didn’t.”

“a thing about her size, was the loading capacity. she needed several tons of ballast. easy 60-70 tons. and on top of that there was storage for a complement of 73 crew members, food, water and accommodations, along with fuel and advanced naval weaponry… and another odd thing, found in the german records. crew manifest. at that time, there was a crew assembled for u-864 in kiel, captain and a crew of 72 people. but the crew roster also listed an additional three submarine captains, each with a crew of twelve souls. lucky thirteen. and an odd observation from one of the submarine specialist i talked to when doing research for my book, is that in theory, a sub like u-864 could be operated by a skeleton crew of that size.”

a new picture.

“now back to facts again. in total 7 codes, like these, has been found on various locations. all in all, they look insignificant, but despite their uninteresting appearance, the interesting part about these is the way they were found. all are embedded by watermark in papers, either blank or of insignificance. so the germans went great lenghts to keep them secret. the question is why?”

he paused long enough to keep the students on his hook before continuing.

“before i will wrap this up, i will share two more things with you. one is a fact, the other is a questionable source, from a historic perspective.”

“the narrow and shallow waters between denmark and sweden, the sound, one of a few possible routes by water from kiel to open waters. during world war 2 most water paths were mined with floating mines attached to heavy objects and chained to float above the ocean floor, from one to a few meters, depending on depths and so on. the sound included. forcing all submarines to the surface, not to risk running into one of those floating under-water killers, or submarine killers. and this is the questionable source. a swedish officer reported, around the time where u-864 would pass between denmark and sweden, that he saw a submarine sailing surfaced in the sound. his testimony adds a vital piece to the puzzle. she is later reported at a submarine port in the occupied norway in bergen where she is reported to be bombarded from an air raid from the allied forces. and shortly there after made her last descend to the ocean floor out on open waters. but. the officers first report said that he saw four submarines in surface mode. not one. later revisions of his statement was changed to one submarine. adding to the uncertainty, he was also charged with being under the influence of alcohol at his post by the time of the submarine sighting. but one, possibly four submarines did perhaps pass between helsingborg and helsingör that day.”

“my last piece of fact, before wrapping this up and presenting my conclusion. 8th of may, 1945, the war is finally over in europe, but lasted a bit longer in the pacific region. a few days before that, as the soviets approached berlin, the führer chose to end his own life the 30th of april, along with his wife. the exact time is debated, but what is not debated, but a historic fact, is the radio signal that came out of the bunker about 13.35 on the 30th of april. unlike the signal that was sent to innsbruck, this radio signal was broadcasted widely in all directions for anyone and everyone to pick up. even the allied, including the soviets marching closer to berlin. and of course also the british intelligence, who still had not revealed their possession of the enigma code breaker. but alas. again. a message that they could not decode using the enigma. and unlike the short transmission towards innsbruck, this was a bit longer, and, as our alert friend on the front row pointed out in the previous undecodable message, this message did not appear to end with the expected end phrase.”

3do 3d7tp bro48 7lma o7lh 1d lu 3do oio1a6 ge 1pb 3rbhxd 6snbl9. 68r 07aa bn1c gl4o xsbr g4 3do 7sb49p uoom jlzi 3s 3do 7sbi a813 z1lw14 bo elun1doe a1e8p. 8a 49c4r 41gbi7d8ao3 07aa 95h fr8w4 3s thbgnai xh xl8lm1soo. xj.vx.zu.w.l.w0.ey.vv.s.0. asuh o7lh 95h 95ome bc7f9.

“and now to my conclusion. i believe that hermann göring was associated with arthur scherbius and knew of a few prototypes or sister inventions to the enigma. i believe that germany hid a large amount of gold in the mountains in innsbruck and that they got an order, coded with this other enigma device, to move it to kiel. i believe that it was not just one run, but several with all that they could transport, given the capacity and time frame, perhaps up to 400-500 tons of gold. i believe that the gold was loaded on to three submarines of the same size and model as u-864. i believe that the secret three of these submarines carried the gold and disappeared somewhere in the atlantic, not too far from main land, in order to be retrieved at a later time, and i do believe that this last undecoded message, also encoded by the other enigma device, might reveal where.”

professor bergman gave his words time to reach and impact all minds of the gathered students.

“so, young students of the mathematical faculty. this is why i was invited here by your very own professor jensen, to spark your imagination and interest of your next field, code and code breaking. the wonderful mathematical patterns of human language. and should anyone actually crack this code. please give me a call. i would be very thrilled to find out what it actually says.”

professor bergman took a small bow as his audience applauded him.

a member of the audiance shouted the correct phrase.

“i imagine there are quite a few of you who knows just what that is and perhaps even more of you who worship 42. but as i said. the caesar cipher was a key factor in secret communication during battles. can anyone tell me who else understood that?”

the answer came rapidly from the audience.

“hitler!”

“correct. and the machine?”

“enigma!”

“correct again! the enigma. for you math-nerds i believe that machine can be quite alluring, i am a mere history buff, and it is intoxicating to me.”

laughter again filled the auditorium.

“now. before i continue. it is imperative that i share an important rule for us historians. one source of any information is never reliable as a fact. a copy of the same source from another place or time is better, but is still some what shady. several sources pointing to the same information, and we have what we like to call a historic fact. unlike you, we have a hard time to academically, or scientifically, prove those facts. we often need to take some old fossils word and trust that, while you can just run the numbers and be done with it.”

professor bergman smiled at the young, enthusiastic crowd.

“now, back to the enigma. we know that it was created and patented by arthur scherbius in 1918. he intended it for commercial use, but there were someone in the german defence department that understood the significance of little magical typewriter. who created it is a well documented fact. what i will share with you now, is my own speculations. i believe that the someone in the german hq was non other than hermann göring. it is a speculation that i base on two loose facts that are not very well documented. the first being that there are records of herr scherbius being friends with a herr göring, who unfortunately died during world war 1. there is one source pointing towards a young hermann briefly working at herr scherbius company around 1917. last name not recorded anywhere. which is very untypically german.”

again the crowd laughed.

“now, before i continue with the facts, i will indulge in some speculations. if a certain hermann would be working with herr scherbius, i’d say it is not unlikely that he would see a thing or two. and i also dare state, that if scherbius registered the patent for the enigma 1918, it is likely that he had developed some kind of prototype, perhaps even several, in 1917. and why do i mention this, you might wonder. well, this is where we go over to facts.”

he paused and clicked the remote, sending another picture to the view screen. some in the audience cheered.

“i believe someone already recognized this gentleman i assume you all know by name. alan turing. the man often credited for cracking the enigma code. up until that point, the british had no idea what the german transmissions were all about. turing and his crew changed that. and now you would think that all german communications were as reading the morning paper. and for most parts it was. with a few exceptions. the early records after cracking the enigma code are vague to say the least, but there are two specific transmissions that are very well documented. both occurring in a rather short time frame before the war ended. the first transmission is a short message.”

he clicked the remote again.

ct2v qev smpu49 4q83k 81 dcvcl m5k4ff cs 1rvz, 1oar2uq7 x0bf. mvqg pt yo3d2v o8 zfcv3 cqqo 9 39l3byo6.
qqd6 edc2q4.

“this message was sent with a directed radio antenna from berlin towards innsbruck, where the germans had a large storage facility with everything from art, ammunition, written records, machines, to i don’t know what. a lot of raided and stolen items was kept here, according to the records found later by historians visiting the caves and tunnels in the mountains. me being one of them. and before we continue the story of what happened. or rather, what i believe happened. let’s take a look at the code, shall we?”

he rhetorically paused and took a sip from a glass of water.

“does anything strike you with this code?”

a young man in the front row answered.

“it looks like enigma code.”

“exactly! what else?”

the man continued.

“it looks like the ended the transmission with ‘heil hitler’ as they did with a lot of their transmissions.”

“correct again. now, why couldn’t the british read it?”

he looked at the man who seemed to be out of answers.

“indeed, why couldn’t the british read it? it looks like enigma code. we believe that the transmission ends with the known words, heil hitler. and you all know that known words are like gold to code breakers. but still, they could not decode this message with the enigma. curious.”

he took another sip of water.

“another curious thing is that after this transmission, a large convoy of trucks started a journey north. the witness reports of this are sadly not very reliable since they vary in details, spanning from how many vehicles, of what type, when it was and the roads they took. but the records give some kind of idea that about 50 trucks or so, headed north. probably all the way up to kiel. a journey of about 1000 km. on poor roads. low on fuel and support functions along the way. unknown load.”

he looked at the code on the screen a while before continuing.

“now to facts. i mentioned kiel. the home harbour of one of the biggest submarines created in the german naval history up to that point. in fact. her designation was u-864. she happened to sail from kiel a few days after this mysterious transmition from berlin to innsbruck. and shortly after, she fell victim to the allied torpedoes. as i said earlier. something we historians like about the germans are their notorious and meticulous precision in record-keeping. down to every bolt and nut. every single screw. and here is an interesting fact. when u-864 was built, she was the only submarine built at that time. no other subs was ever recorded during that time. but. the materials transported and stored there during that time, was well enough to build at lease three more exactly like her. but the records state that they didn’t.”

“a thing about her size, was the loading capacity. she needed several tons of ballast. easy 60-70 tons. and on top of that there was storage for a complement of 73 crew members, food, water and accommodations, along with fuel and advanced naval weaponry… and another odd thing, found in the german records. crew manifest. at that time, there was a crew assembled for u-864 in kiel, captain and a crew of 72 people. but the crew roster also listed an additional three submarine captains, each with a crew of twelve souls. lucky thirteen. and an odd observation from one of the submarine specialist i talked to when doing research for my book, is that in theory, a sub like u-864 could be operated by a skeleton crew of that size.”

a new picture.

“now back to facts again. in total 7 codes, like these, has been found on various locations. all in all, they look insignificant, but despite their uninteresting appearance, the interesting part about these is the way they were found. all are embedded by watermark in papers, either blank or of insignificance. so the germans went great lenghts to keep them secret. the question is why?”

he paused long enough to keep the students on his hook before continuing.

“before i will wrap this up, i will share two more things with you. one is a fact, the other is a questionable source, from a historic perspective.”

“the narrow and shallow waters between denmark and sweden, the sound, one of a few possible routes by water from kiel to open waters. during world war 2 most water paths were mined with floating mines attached to heavy objects and chained to float above the ocean floor, from one to a few meters, depending on depths and so on. the sound included. forcing all submarines to the surface, not to risk running into one of those floating under-water killers, or submarine killers. and this is the questionable source. a swedish officer reported, around the time where u-864 would pass between denmark and sweden, that he saw a submarine sailing surfaced in the sound. his testimony adds a vital piece to the puzzle. she is later reported at a submarine port in the occupied norway in bergen where she is reported to be bombarded from an air raid from the allied forces. and shortly there after made her last descend to the ocean floor out on open waters. but. the officers first report said that he saw four submarines in surface mode. not one. later revisions of his statement was changed to one submarine. adding to the uncertainty, he was also charged with being under the influence of alcohol at his post by the time of the submarine sighting. but one, possibly four submarines did perhaps pass between helsingborg and helsingör that day.”

“my last piece of fact, before wrapping this up and presenting my conclusion. 8th of may, 1945, the war is finally over in europe, but lasted a bit longer in the pacific region. a few days before that, as the soviets approached berlin, the führer chose to end his own life the 30th of april, along with his wife. the exact time is debated, but what is not debated, but a historic fact, is the radio signal that came out of the bunker about 13.35 on the 30th of april. unlike the signal that was sent to innsbruck, this radio signal was broadcasted widely in all directions for anyone and everyone to pick up. even the allied, including the soviets marching closer to berlin. and of course also the british intelligence, who still had not revealed their possession of the enigma code breaker. but alas. again. a message that they could not decode using the enigma. and unlike the short transmission towards innsbruck, this was a bit longer, and, as our alert friend on the front row pointed out in the previous undecodable message, this message did not appear to end with the expected end phrase.”

3do 3d7tp bro48 7lma o7lh 1d lu 3do oio1a6 ge 1pb 3rbhxd 6snbl9. 68r 07aa bn1c gl4o xsbr g4 3do 7sb49p uoom jlzi 3s 3do 7sbi a813 z1lw14 bo elun1doe a1e8p. 8a 49c4r 41gbi7d8ao3 07aa 95h fr8w4 3s thbgnai xh xl8lm1soo. xj.vx.zu.w.l.w0.ey.vv.s.0. asuh o7lh 95h 95ome bc7f9.

“and now to my conclusion. i believe that hermann göring was associated with arthur scherbius and knew of a few prototypes or sister inventions to the enigma. i believe that germany hid a large amount of gold in the mountains in innsbruck and that they got an order, coded with this other enigma device, to move it to kiel. i believe that it was not just one run, but several with all that they could transport, given the capacity and time frame, perhaps up to 400-500 tons of gold. i believe that the gold was loaded on to three submarines of the same size and model as u-864. i believe that the secret three of these submarines carried the gold and disappeared somewhere in the atlantic, not too far from main land, in order to be retrieved at a later time, and i do believe that this last undecoded message, also encoded by the other enigma device, might reveal where.”

professor bergman gave his words time to reach and impact all minds of the gathered students.

“so, young students of the mathematical faculty. this is why i was invited here by your very own professor jensen, to spark your imagination and interest of your next field, code and code breaking. the wonderful mathematical patterns of human language. and should anyone actually crack this code. please give me a call. i would be very thrilled to find out what it actually says.”

professor bergman took a small bow as his audience applauded him.