PC Collective Cracks 2nd Enigma U-boat Message

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March 16, 2006 (1:59 PM EST)

By Gregg Keizer , TechWeb Technology News

A distributed computing project has cracked another 63-year-old message encrypted with the German navy's vaunted Enigma machine, the M4 Message Breaking Project has announced.

Started by Stefan Krah, an amateur cryptographer, in January, the project took on three messages intercepted by British code-breakers during WWII, but never cracked by the famous British cryptology facility at Bletchley Park. Using small programs installed on over 5,000 desktop computers, the group has parceled out small bits of the Enigma-cracking chore to each machine. As each Unix or Windows computer finishes its bit, it transmits the results back to a central server.

Earlier this month, Krah said that the collective had deciphered a message sent by U-264 in 1942.

The second cracked message was also transmitted in November 1942 from a submarine in the Atlantic, the U-623. In German, the message read:

Ausgang FT. 0246/21/203: Auf Geleitkurs 55° nichts gefunden, marschiere befohlenes Qu. Standort Marqu. AJ 3995. SO 4, See 3, 10/10 bedeckt, 28 mb steigend, Nebel, Sicht 1 sm. Schroeder

Which translated to:

Outgoing Radio Signal 0246/21/203: Found nothing on convoy's course 55°, [I am] moving to the ordered [naval] square. Position naval square AJ 3995. [wind] south-east [force] 4, sea [state] 3, 10/10 cloudy, [barometer] [10]28 mb [and] rising, fog, visibility 1 nautical mile. Schroeder

The U-623 was sunk on Feb. 21, 1943 during its second combat patrol by a Royal Air Force (RAF) bomber, which dropped six depth charges over the slow-to-submerge boat. All hands on the U-623 were lost, including its captain, Hermann Schroeder, 31, who had sent the deciphered message three months earlier.