The Enigma machine is an icon of World War II. It was the machine with which Nazi Germany sent its messages using an encryption that was impossible for the Allies to break until the British mathematician Alan Turing succeeded in 1943. Would you like to see one of these legendary machines up close and even encrypt and decipher a message with her? Well, you will have your chance on June 2, 3 and 4 during the open days at the El Bruch barracks.
An original K723 model of the Enigma machine is the jewel in the crown of the IV/22 Transmission Battalion, which has kept it in perfect working order since 2007, along with other historical pieces of military telecommunications. This battalion has its command and staff at the Pedralbes barracks.
The first Enigma machine dates back to 1923, when it was made by a Berlin company after acquiring a Dutch patent. It was initially conceived for commercial use, until the German army adopted it to transmit its messages with maximum security. In 1936, Hitler sent a batch of Enigma machines to Franco, as part of the German contribution to the coup side. Thus, the Spanish Civil War became the first testing ground for the Enigma in a war.
After the war, the machines were withdrawn from service and abandoned in a warehouse at the Army Headquarters, until a few years ago they were located and turned into museum pieces. El Bruch's K723 was one of the last to arrive in Spain, so if it was used in the Civil War, it was at the end of the war.
The Enigmas sent by Hitler to Franco were not as sophisticated as those used by Germany in World War II. To encrypt the messages, they were equipped with various rotors and other mechanisms that provided more than 1.8 million possible letter combinations. The K723 has three interchangeable 26-character rotors, but those used by the Nazis once had five, which multiplied the encryption options and made deciphering virtually impossible. Until Turing's privileged mind broke the code, which is estimated to have shortened the end of the war by two years.
The next Friday, Saturday and Sunday of open doors at El Bruch, visitors will be able to contemplate the Enigma in the courtyard of the barracks, and some will even have the historic opportunity to experiment with it.
