The Enigma, Part II: THE MACHINE
The Enigma Machine
(Part I)
OK: “Enigma” was the big clue to solving this I think. It’s talking about the “Enigma machine,” like Rizam thought it was. The Enigma machine was used by the Germans in WWII to code their messages and the Allies cracked it eventually and it helped them win the war and the rest is boring, boring history:
“The inter-allied intelligence operation Enigma… was “the greatest secret of World War II after the atom bomb”. The breaking of the sophisticated German machine cipher was the most spectacular event, in terms of difficulty and far-reaching consequences, in the entire history of secret writing.”
I have to disagree: One time I wrote this really crazy coded message to a girl I had a crush on and after she decoded it she began vomiting uncontrollably and had to go to the hospital. I think that was the most spectacular event in the entire history of secret writing.
Anyway, there’s a simulation of the Enigma machine here (and a cool downloadable one here). Pretty sure we have to use it to decode the words. The machine uses three rotors that you have set to a letter, and I’m assuming you set them to “C”, “B”, “B”—corresponding to the Skull and Bones’ “322”.
THE ENIGMA MACHINE
The hard part is the plug board (on the lower right). You can switch the “plugs” connecting different letters so it gives you different results. Obviously “Years before Hitler and Stalin came to power they should have been plugged” is telling us how to set the plugs. But I still haven’t figured out which plugs to swap… my head feels like a cantaloupe. Help? -A.L.
ENIGMA PLUG BOARD
A TRUE ENIGMA?
***UPDATE: 4:03PM*** MYSTERY SOLVED! ***UPDATE: 4:03PM***
