From Enigma to the NSA

1. Warsaw: Pyry

   Warsaw, Kabaty Forest near Pyry

   On 25 and 26 July 1939 Polish, French and British cryptanalysts met outside Warsaw at the Cipher Bureau centre codenamed ‘Wicher’. Britain was represented by Alastair Denniston and Dilly Knox. According to GCHQ, the knowledge gained in Poland transformed the British approach to Enigma cryptanalysis.^1,2

2. Bletchley Park

   Bletchley, Milton Keynes (United Kingdom)

   In 1939 the British Government Code and Cypher School moved to Bletchley Park and took the cover name GCHQ. According to GCHQ, Alan Turing’s talks with Marian Rejewski were fundamental to the design of the first British Bombe, which was working here in time for the German offensive in the West. Breaking German communications, especially those enciphered on Enigma, contributed greatly to the Allied victory.^1,3

3. Arlington Hall

   Arlington, Virginia (USA)

   During the Second World War Arlington Hall was the headquarters of the US Army’s Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) – renamed the Signal Security Agency during the war and the Army Security Agency after it. By the end of the war about 7,000 of the 10,500 SIS staff were women. Here, on 1 February 1943, Gene Grabeel began studying Soviet communications – the start of the VENONA programme. The site now houses the National Foreign Affairs Training Center.^4,5,6

4. Cheltenham: GCHQ

   Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (United Kingdom)

   In 1946 GCHQ left Bletchley Park and, after a short spell in the London suburbs, moved to Cheltenham; its first site there, Oakley, opened in 1952. Since 2003 the agency has worked in the round building known as the Doughnut, formally inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004.^7,8

5. Fort Meade: the NSA and the National Cryptologic Museum

   Fort George G. Meade and Annapolis Junction, Maryland (USA)

   The NSA was created in 1952 to replace the Armed Forces Security Agency. At first its staff were split between Arlington Hall and Nebraska Avenue in Washington. In 1957 the Ops I building at Fort Meade was completed and all the agency’s communications intelligence (COMINT) personnel moved in shortly afterwards; communications security staff stayed in Washington until 1968. Right next to NSA headquarters, in a former motel, the National Cryptologic Museum opened to the public on 17 December 1993.^9,10,11,12

The history of these places is told in the operation card Venona.