What was the "Ultra" secret of World War II?

Ultra was the British intelligence designation of WWII. Ultra broke German, Italian and Japanese encrypted radio communications. The enemies believed their secret messages were indecipherable, but the Ultra project helped to draw the end of the European war nearer by cracking them.

The designation was based at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, and a small group of the best developers worked on it. They created a set of cipher machines, the most important ones were called Enigma and Tunny. Ultra's contribution in the Allied victory in WWII can hardly be overestimated. Anyway, the exact Ultra's influence on the course of war is still debatable.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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30 Comments

Mark Johnson

I think The Imitation Game was about that.

Louella Wilson

The following quote is from the link. It does not seem to support the notion that a machine was captured. Rather that the work of Polish scientists and mathematicians should be regarded on a par with that done at Bletchley Park. "German military Enigma was first broken in December 1932 by the Polish Cipher Bureau, using a combination of brilliant mathematics, the services of a spy in the German office responsible for administering encrypted communications, and good luck. The Poles read Enigma to the outbreak of World War II and beyond, in France. At the turn of 1939, the Germans made the systems ten times more complex, which required a tenfold increase in Polish decryption equipment, which they could not meet. On 25 July 1939, the Polish Cipher Bureau handed reconstructed Enigma machines and their techniques for decrypting ciphers to the French and British."

Steve Tingle

Alan Turing lead the group, a telephone engineer developed the first computer from a telephone switchboard, Alan developed the maths to program it. Sadly he was hounded to death by the authorities (being homosexual, and they were worried he could be blackmailed by enemies) , so he was never in his lifetime given any recognition for his war work, indeed due to the British government's secrecy it wasn't until many years later the Bletchly Park work came out and Alan was given the recognition for his and his team's contribution to modern computers and and programming them.

Chris Hall

ultra secret... kind of arbitrary term.

Denise Currie

I knew it was something to do with the Enigma code breaking

Fred Keogh

Ken Cannings, That is true Ken, machine and code books but the first machine came from the polish underground. Hollywood made a film about the capture of the submarine and the Enigma machine, obviously showing that it was the American Navy that did it. Once again Hollywood ignoring the truth. A boycott of the film in many countries.

Robert Henderson

Enigma was actually a German coding device captured by the Poles and given to the British

Keith Richard Mears

Wendy Petty, As I recall it was a machine captured by the Polish that was smuggled to Britain, at the cost of lives, that gave the code breakers their first look at an enigma machine, so, these brave people, often overlooked, need to be recognised for their contribution to the success of Bletchley park.

Douglas Oaten

a great part of History!

Wendy Petty

If I recall correctly, please feel free to do so anyone, the tribulations of those that captured the enigma machine and delivered it to British Military Intelligence should remembered.

Rob Farr

A clever history-based trivia question and explanation ... well done.

Johnny Rock

The world might have been a different place had it not been for the British team of intelligence encryption crackers.

Mark Ann Dubaz

Learned this from my many years in the military.

Janice Lea Vanlandingham

Susan Biggard Wiggins, the code talkers were the best defence move of the Allies by keeping us safe but breaking the enemy's code was the best act of aggression for the Allies. It is always better to know the intelligence of the enemy.