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> This is weird because Bombes are really, really not computers That's why it's generally called machines rather than computers. But the media plays loose with

by qubax 8y ago

> This is weird because Bombes are really, really not computers That's why it's generally called machines rather than computers. But the media plays loose with words to make the story more interesting. Also, the british bombes were way too slow to be effective. It was actually the US Navy that produced effective code breaking bombes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe#US_Navy_Bombe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe#US_Navy_Bombe You can see one at the National Cryptologic Museum in Maryland.

tialaramex 8y ago
This rather depends on your perspective of what the word "effective" means. Those US navy bombes are for Kriegsmarine "M4" Enigma, which didn't even exist when Bletchley Park began breaking Enigma. They came on line in mid-1943. So, by this point the Axis is defeated in Africa, and Barbarossa is failing, the German Army is in trouble on the Eastern Front, it has faced some big military defeats there and cannot continue to sustain these losses, but Russia hardly seems likely to accept a peace deal after being betrayed previously. Now, the war wasn't _over_ in 1943 even in Europe. But there had been three years of code-breaking (including of Enigma) at Bletchley by that point. It's true that Huts attacking M4 sent data across the Atlantic to the US navy, but again, that's from mid-1943, prior to that the British were using their slower machines because you can't win wars by waiting until you have better equipment.
kiwijimm 8y ago
Thats just not true... The British Bombes worked just fine and were VERY effective. You might be confused in thinking that the British Bombe was a single machine. It wasn't there were several iterations of it and it evolved throughout the war to meet the new demands. Additionally the ORIGINAL Bombe didn't include the diagonal board enhancement invented by Gordon Welchman. This improved the performance of the Bombes greatly. The US Bombes were better and workloads moved over to them for that reason, mainly because the US could make them faster with a better (later) design. But they come online 3 years after the first British Bombes which were in effective use until the US Bombes were available. It was the 4 rotor naval enigma that slowed things down somewhat. Thanks, James

by qubax 8y ago

tialaramex 8y ago

This rather depends on your perspective of what the word "effective" means. Those US navy bombes are for Kriegsmarine "M4" Enigma, which didn't even exist when Bletchley Park began breaking Enigma. They came on line in mid-1943. So, by this point the Axis is defeated in Africa, and Barbarossa is failing, the German Army is in trouble on the Eastern Front, it has faced some big military defeats there and cannot continue to sustain these losses, but Russia hardly seems likely to accept a peace deal after being betrayed previously. Now, the war wasn't _over_ in 1943 even in Europe. But there had been three years of code-breaking (including of Enigma) at Bletchley by that point. It's true that Huts attacking M4 sent data across the Atlantic to the US navy, but again, that's from mid-1943, prior to that the British were using their slower machines because you can't win wars by waiting until you have better equipment.

kiwijimm 8y ago

Thats just not true... The British Bombes worked just fine and were VERY effective. You might be confused in thinking that the British Bombe was a single machine. It wasn't there were several iterations of it and it evolved throughout the war to meet the new demands. Additionally the ORIGINAL Bombe didn't include the diagonal board enhancement invented by Gordon Welchman. This improved the performance of the Bombes greatly. The US Bombes were better and workloads moved over to them for that reason, mainly because the US could make them faster with a better (later) design. But they come online 3 years after the first British Bombes which were in effective use until the US Bombes were available. It was the 4 rotor naval enigma that slowed things down somewhat. Thanks, James