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Enigma: from Poznań to Bletchley

Eight lexicon cards in order: how the Polish methods of breaking Enigma led to the British Bombe. The descriptions summarise the glossary entries and the “Enigma Trail” route; for details and differing dates, see the cards.1,2,3,4,5,6,7

  1. Poznań, 1929–1932

    Różycki, Zygalski and Rejewski worked in the Poznań branch of the Cipher Bureau (Biuro Szyfrów). Today it houses the Enigma Cipher Centre.

  2. Warsaw, December 1932

    The Enigma cipher was broken in the BS-4 section at the Saxon Palace.

  3. Card catalogue and cyclometer

    Rejewski’s cyclometer made it possible to establish the current key in a dozen or so minutes; the card catalogue was created together with it.

  4. Clock method

    Różycki’s method made it possible to determine the choice and setting of a rotor.

  5. Zygalski sheets

    Perforated sheets made it possible to establish the order of the rotors.

  6. Cryptologic bomb

    Rejewski’s bomb recovered keys automatically; GCHQ describes it as the first electromechanical device to support cryptanalysis.

  7. Pyry, 25 July 1939

    The Poles showed their methods and devices to French and British cryptologists (see The Enigma Trail).

  8. Bletchley Park, 1940

    According to GCHQ, Turing’s conversations with Rejewski in Paris in January 1940 were the basis for the concept of the first British Bombe. A working reconstruction can be seen at Bletchley today (see Intelligence museums).

Sources

  1. dzieje.pl (Polish Press Agency and Polish History Museum), P. Bojarski, head of the Enigma Cipher Centre: here, where we are now, the cryptologists Różycki, Zygalski and Rejewski worked (in Polish)
  2. Grzegorz Łukomski, The Poznań beginnings of ‘Enigma’, ‘Mars. Problematyka i Historia Wojskowości’ vol. 10, Warsaw–London 2001 (reprint: Adam Mickiewicz University) (in Polish)
  3. Internal Security Agency, Marian Rejewski: in the service of Polish cryptology (ABW Publishing House, Wiązowna 2022, ISBN 978-83-964225-4-5) (in Polish)
  4. Foreign Intelligence Agency, They broke Enigma (in Polish, with English versions of the biographies)
  5. Foreign Intelligence Agency, Enigma decryption
  6. GCHQ, The Pyry Forest meeting
  7. The National Museum of Computing, Museum Open (day ticket, galleries)

Checked: 4 November 2026