Can it be coincidence that the big propellers on those B-29s are all aligned vertically and horizontally? Wonder if they set them up that way, or always wanted to start from that position. An imponderable if ever there was one! @Don Alaska Any idea? Frank
They were set up that way for the photograph. Those Wright-Cyclone engines had 2 rows of 9 cylinders each, so with 18 cylinders, there were always 1 or 2 that were ready to fire regardless of the prop position. The aeroplane thus had 72 cylinders turning those four 16' 7" props. Hal
Good idea @Lon Tanner. You must like quizzes and history? I have set up a history quiz.. Step Back In Time if interested.
This encoding device was in use commercially before WW2. It's the most complex encoding device ever invented, yet its circuit diagram is simple! Hal …….……………………..(Take it, Frank!)
The enigma Machine was developed in Germany in the 1930's and was used for secret communications in the business world before it was adopted for wartime use. It does not have the simplicity of using a single key to decode the messages...it has the capability of selecting from 159 million million different keys! That's 159, 000, 000, 000, 000! When encoding a message, the Enigma will select a different decoding key for every keystroke! Thus, instead of substituting V for S, and encoding "mississippi" as mivvivvippi, it will use a different letter in every key stroke on the keyboard. Double letters will be encoded as random single letters, as "look" might be encoded as "bidm" or "jsdp". The encoding "mixup" is accomplished by wheels that rotate to a different position with every keystroke. To appreciate the encoding method, go to YouTube and see a video on the machine...it's fascinating to people like Frank and others. Breaking the Enigma key shortened WW2 by 2 years and saved thousands of lives, enabling American supplies to be delivered to Britain without having them sent to the bottom of the Atlantic by Nazi submarines! Hal
That's certainly true, Hal. What is not much known or seldom mentioned, however, is that that happened although not only the German Enigma code was cracked but that the Germans had also cracked the encrypted radio traffic of the Royal Air Force and Navy.
Remember, Hal, that it's bedtime in Germany and I'm almost asleep. Since a British aircraft crashed near Wilhelmshaven in 1939 the documents the Germans got hold of allowed them to crack the Syko Code used by the Brits. Also the Aircraft Reporting Code used as of 1942 was decrypted by the Germans. The name of the British machine was Typex, which was based on Enigma.
Sorry about it being bedtime, Thomas...you may reply at any other time, it's fine with me, I don't require instant replies! Hal
@Hal Pollner I watched a really good movie about Alan Turing and the enigma called The Codebreaker. He was really villainized in later years for being gay. They ended up stripping him of the honors he earned and destroying his life. He committed suicide over the whole thing. It's a very good movie if you happen to run across it online. Think it was Netflix, not sure.
I have a movie of the same subject...it's called "The Imitation Game". Turing conducted his development of the "Bombe" machine at Bletchley Park in England. Hal
I could go there easily, Bletchley park only 50 miles from here... https://bletchleypark.org.uk/whats-on/bill-tutte-mathematician-codebreaker
The Imitation Game is on my bucket list. I read Andrew Hodges' book about him and would now like to see it turned into a film. I saw that it's available in our local library and hope I can borrow it the next time I go there. I read the film had won an Oscar for the best adapted screenplay and was nominated for seven? others. Sounds a bit like an Oscar bait to me but, as I said earlier, I don't go by Oscars and I like certain historical films even though they might be playing with facts and characters. Yet the atmosphere, the setting, the interaction, the local color, all that is unbeatable. So I don't expect a story that is 100% true to life. If I wanted that, I'd use different sources, which I did. I agree with this guy who once said something like: "... one surge of emotion aroused in the heart of the audience through daring fiction outweighs the strictest historical accuracy."