Saturday Morning

The last of the codebreakers:

Jerry Roberts, the last surviving member of the British code-breaking team that cracked strategic ciphers between Hitler and his top generals, helping to hasten the end of World War II, died on March 25 in Hampshire, England. He was 93.

His death was confirmed by the Bletchley Park Trust, a nonprofit group that administers the Victorian estate north of London where the British government lodged Mr. Roberts and hundreds of other code breakers during the war, among them linguists, mathematicians and puzzle masters of various backgrounds.

Mr. Roberts, a German linguist, was part of a small top-secret group assembled in 1941 to help decrypt messages picked up in radio signals between Hitler and his field marshals on the front. The team’s very existence remained a secret until 2006, when the British government declassified wartime intelligence files.

"Enigma" was the easy part, apparently:

By 1941, Bletchley Park cryptographers had already deciphered thousands of messages transmitted by lower-level German commanders in the field, thanks to the work of the mathematician Alan Turing, who in 1940 cracked the daunting German secret code that the British called Enigma. But they were stumped by the even more complex ciphered messages being transmitted among Hitler and the generals Erwin Rommel, Wilhelm Keitel, Gerd von Rundstedt and Alfred Jodl.

Code breakers initially called the system Fish, taking the name from a German code operator who, in an unguarded moment, had referred to the code as “sägefisch” (sawfish). Mr. Roberts and his group nicknamed it Tunny — as in tuna fish — and they were able to crack it.

Mr. Roberts eventually served as the head cryptologist for the team, which grew to more than 100.

Today Mr. Roberts would be working for the NSA decrypting encoded private tweets from Paris Hilton. Among other things.

Comments

[narciso]

Stephenson's Cryptonimicon, gives a good window into this world, from the US side, Harris's book was not that good,

[Danube on iPad]

Why can't the NSA nail Rachel from Card Services?

[Threadkiller]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1316694/Key-to-breaking-Nazi-code-was-in-the-patent-office.html

[narciso]

the key to this, is Mark Lloyd, regardless it is Wheeler or his predecessor;

http://freebeacon.com/columns/ready-to-smirk/

[narciso]

So the support is still higher then when the Court steamrollered with Furman;

http://minx.cc/?post=348361

[Threadkiller]

I wonder if one month is enough time to put a bs set of data in a soon to be found "black box" where no debris field seems to have existed.

[narciso]

the rest of the story, also fits into this thread;

http://babalublog.com/2014/04/04/leahy-the-leaker-was-his-nickname-helping-dictators-was-his-game/

[maryrose]

TK:
They just heard a ping about 117 miles from land in Australia. I wonder if they tried to land but fell short? One conspiracy theory at a time please.

[4JackisBack!2 (On His iPhone)]

Doom.

Sitting at soccer waiting for Frederck's game to start. Two moms from another team are discussing ObamaCare and agree 1) not free, 2) unworkable and their solution is to do like they do in Britain.

[Threadkiller]

One conspiracy theory at a time please.

I'm branching out.

[boris]

do like they do in Britain

Placebo health care. The kind that lets you feel secure until you get sick or hurt.

[narciso]

37.% khz does seem fairly specific, of course as with everything in this incident, subject to review;

[narciso]

Interesting how in the Horde link, the convergence point is 1968, I guess it reflects the lack of confidence in institutions at that time,

[Miss Marple]

TK, I was thinking that, but of course, that is just crazy talk.

I figure we will find a few pieces of wreckage of dubious nature, a black box, and some generic Chinese body parts.

[Threadkiller]

some generic Chinese body parts.

Maybe that is the "Ping" they detected.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

No one does Obit as well as the Telegraph;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10727735/Jerry-Roberts-obituary.html

'Roberts found himself facing an enigmatic recruitment process at a War Office building just off Trafalgar Square during which he was asked by an anonymous major if he played chess. When he responded in the affirmative, the major asked if he could also “tackle crosswords”.

'Another nod of the head was sufficient to see him sent to the codebreakers’ “War Station” at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, where John Tiltman, the chief cryptographer, recruited him into his research section, warning him that “absolute silence must be preserved” about what happened there.'

[narciso]

Yes, the Telegraph is great at this, because they assume the audience would understand what Enigma was,

that Chinn fellow, shirley he can't be serious;

[narciso]

this was the gem, he turned up;

http://hisstoryisbunk.blogspot.com/2014/04/sis-boombah.html

[maryrose]

PBS had a series entitiled Bletchley Park. Interesting.

[narciso]

On the US side, the real life versions of Waterhouse and Shaftoe, from the book re earlier, Justice Stevens and this fellow;

Redstone attended the Boston Latin School, from which he graduated first in his class. In 1944, he graduated from Harvard College,[7] where he completed the studies for his baccalaureate in three years. Later, Redstone served as First Lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II[7] with a team that decoded Japanese messages.[8]

[narciso]

strangely, I don't think they are reassured;

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-05/hagel-to-reassure-ally-japan-after-russia-s-crimea-annexation.html

[4JackisBack!2 (On His iPhone)]

Mrs.JiB and I love Bletchey Park. It is up in Bucks north of London and very popular museum. When in London it is A Don't Miss destination.

[Patriot4Freedom]

Patrick Sullivan - Thanks for the interesting link to the Telegraph story.

Imo, *any* story about the history of Bletchley Park is a “must read.“

Nice blog that you have there, and linked to, also.

[narciso]

So who knows if that ping is real:

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/terrific-batteries-on-missing-mh370-black-box-were-expired-due-to-be-replaced/

[Miss Marple]

You know, there is something fishy about every single thing about the missing plane.

Next Godzilla will have eaten it or something.

I am going to clean off the patio.

[sbwaters]

JiB, take it from my sister, recently home from many years in London. We do not want to do like the Brits: Too little hit and too much miss.