Fwd: BCS Edinburgh Branch Meeting - The Codebreakers - Enigma, Bletchley Park and the Battle of the Atlantic

[Sam Collins]

Hi,

Myself and Paul Rattray at BCS have decided to cross-post our events
for a while so that everyone is informed about what's happening and
you can decide what you would like to attend. BCS has their Edinburgh
meetings at the same time as TechMeetup Edinburgh and across the road,
in The Forum.

This might be of interest to some of you/free up some pizza slices for others:

---
BCS Edinburgh

The Codebreakers - Enigma, Bletchley Park and the Battle of the Atlantic
Wednesday 9th December 2009, 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Dr. Mark Baldwin.

University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street,
Edinburgh, EH8 9AB - map (click on Informatics Forum in the list of
buildings).

This talk is free of charge. Refreshments available from 6:00 pm.

Synopsis
One of the Second World War's most fascinating stories is that of the
Enigma machine, a portable encryption device widely used by the
Germans, whose ciphers they believed to be totally secure.
Nevertheless, by mathematical analysis and modern technology (and a
certain amount of good luck), the Allies devised techniques for
'breaking' Enigma ciphers, and thus read several million German
messages, providing a wealth of reliable Intelligence. The attack on
Enigma, initiated by the Poles in the 1930s, was later perfected by
the British at Bletchley Park, today open to the public as a museum
site.

The Intelligence gained was of immense value to the Allies in
virtually every theatre of war, but nowhere more so than in the Battle
of the Atlantic, that fierce conflict which lasted nearly six years
and cost over 60,000 lives. Dr Baldwin uses the Battle of the Atlantic
to exemplify the importance of codebreaking in winning the war.

After the presentation, the audience are invited to take part in a
hands-on practical demonstration of one of the few surviving Enigma
machines. Only about 200 are known to survive worldwide; of these,
only about a dozen are in public collections in Britain. As these
machines are so rare, Dr Baldwin is providing a unusual opportunity
for the audience not just to view, but also to operate, an original
4-rotor Enigma machine (i.e. the more sophisticated model, developed
for the U-Boat service in 1942). This is of particular interest, as
there is no working machine on permanent public display anywhere in
England north of Bletchley Park, and nowhere at all in Wales, Scotland
or Ireland.



Paul

---
Paul Rattray MBCS CITP
Chair, BCS Edinburgh Branch
paul.r...@bcs.org
edinburgh..bcs.org

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--
Sam Collins
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