Why was Bletchley Park able to break the German Enigma Codes?

Why was Bletchley Park able to break the German Enigma? During the Second World War, Station X revolved around cracking the German Enigma codes. This was possible due to many important reasons. Firstly, the Poles were the first to work on the German Enigma and the first to understand its mechanism. A German spy had over the years before the war, collected documents on how the machine worked. In 1938 the Poles struck a deal and the documents were sold to them. In July 1939 the Poles passed on their knowledge and their collected information to the British. This enabled Station X to understand more of how the Enigma machine worked. The machine was equipped with three wheels (later on in the war more were added) each one printed with the letters of the alphabet in order. The rotors contained one of the central secrets of the Enigma machine, which was the cross wiring inside the wheels. The enigma also had a plug board in which letters would be joined together into pairs. When a key was pressed an other would light up thereby coding the message. The Germans thought the Enigma codes unbreakable and they were not far from the truth as the machine was extremely complex. There were around 150 million, million, million different combinations. The Poles' help was vital and the staff of Bletchley Park worked in collaboration with the three Polish mathematicians, Zygalski, Rozycki and

  • Word count: 771
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why was Bletchley Park able to break the German Enigma codes

Why was Bletchley Park able to break the German Enigma codes? Bletchley Park was able to break German Enigma codes because of the technology that existed such as the Bombes and the Colossus, because of individuals such as Alan Turing and Rejewski, due to the German errors and the aid of the Poles. The most important reason however, was the assistance of the Poles. As Germany invaded Poland, Polish officials met up with the British and gave them all they knew about the Enigma which they had been trying to crack previously. This not only told the British as to what the Germans were using to code their communications, but also gave them a solid head start in order to go about decoding them. The Bombe machine was developed from a Polish concept (The Bomba) and then significantly enhanced by an employee at Bletchley Park (Alan Turing) was invented and became the main machine used by the British to break the German Enigma codes. Many of these machines were built and were produced throughout the war.The Poles also directly helped Bletchley Park crack "Green Code" and were also the foundation for helping the employees of Bletchley Park crack other German Enigma codes such as Green Code. You can link Poles to individuals because the Poles (Rejewski) helped certain individuals (Turing) a great deal and their help led the individuals to succeed in breaking "Green Code". Overall, the

  • Word count: 4089
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why was britain able to win the battle of britain

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? After the evacuation of Dunkirk by the British and the fall of France in June 1940, Hitler had one other obstacle in his bid for more Lebensraum and expansion of his empire, this was Britain. Hitler didn't really intend to attack Britain; however they were in the way of his plans. Hitler felt that Britain was his natural ally and not his enemy. As Hitler wanted to expand his empire he wanted to carve it out into the communist USSR, however Britain didn't want to make any deals with Germany, which angered Hitler. On the 16th June Hitler announced that he would be invading Britain even though he didn't really want to go to war with Britain in the first place. In summer of 1940 between July and September the Battle of Britain took place. However as Britain had just arrived just over a month ago, they were weak as they had burnt most of their weapons and vehicles, therefore they would be weak and easier for Germany to attack. However this was going to be an aerial and sea battle between the nations. The battle itself wasn't just a battle but a series of small battles. The French General predicted that Britain should fall in 3 weeks, as he saw what Hitler had did to France As the battle was going to be mostly air and sea due to the location of Britain, therefore there would be no Blitzkrieg or ground troops. There were many

  • Word count: 3760
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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why was britain able to win the battle of britain?

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? I believe that Britain was able to win the Battle of Britain for two main reasons; British successes and German failures. The British successes were the development of radar, coordination of the RAF into three groups, high rate of fighter production and the superiority of British aircraft. The German failures were; the fuel limitations of the Messerschmitts, slow German fighter production and Hitler's decision to change operation Sea Lion. I believe that the British successes were the main reasons why Britain was able to win the battle of Britain. By 1935 Britain had already set up 50 radar stations around her south and eastern coast which allowed RAF Fighter Command to have an accurate idea of where German attacks were going to take place and how strong they would be, this allowed for the RAF fighters to remain grounded until they were needed allowing them more air time fighting the Luftwaffe. The controllers could also guide the British fighters directly to Luftwaffe. Also the British had cracked the German "Ultra" code and were able to intercept and de-code German transmissions By coordinating the RAF into three main groups: 10, 11 and 12 meant that Fighter Command was better able to control the RAF by reducing large scale coordination of British forces as each group had its own zone of control. Furthermore this

  • Word count: 612
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why Was Britain Able To Win The Battle Of Britain

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? The Battle of Britain was an air war fought between the British RAF and German Luftwaffe which lasted from July 1st 1940 to October 1940. There were many factors which helped Britain win the battle, strengths of the British, weaknesses of the Germans. However it was a very close and costly battle for the British. Britain's greatest strength, and probably the main reason why Britain won the battle was their RAF leader, Sir Hugh Dowding. He was a veteran ace-flyer from World War I who had been due to retire from his position before World War II but had been persuaded to stay in control of the air force. He had been devising Britain's aerial defence since 1936, which gave Britain a great strength over the Germans in those few months of battle. He also played a vital part in the development of technologies such as the radar which ultimately helped the RAF overcome the German Luftwaffe. Another of his strengths was his vast knowledge of modern air warfare, which the German air force leader, Hermann Goering lacked. One of Goering's weaknesses was his limited knowledge of modern air warfare but the tactics he used were also very questionable, as he liked to frequently switch attack targets. He was also arrogant. Probably the second most important factor which helped Britain win the battle was the technology the RAF had and used.

  • Word count: 789
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain?

Why was Britain able to win the Battle of Britain? Following the evacuation of Dunkirk, Hitler controlled the entirety of Western Europe except from Britain. Britain stood alone against the might of the German army, Air Force and Navy. The German army was situated in France whilst the Luftwaffe was regrouped into three Air Fleets (Luftflotten). Luftflotten 2 was responsible for southeast England and the London area, whilst Luftflotten 3 targeted the West Country, Midlands, and northwest England. The final fleet, Luftflotten 5 targeted the North of England and Scotland. Hitler's planned invasion of Britain was codenamed "Operation Sealion" and he first planned to land on the south coast of England but was told by Admiral Raeder (leader of the German Navy) that the invasion would only be possible if they had complete air superiority over the British. Hitler, therefore, ordered the invasion to take place once this had been achieved. This is when the Battle of Britain was first put on the table, the Battle of Britain was the name given to the period of time in which the Nazis tried to invade Britain. "I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin" these are the words spoken by Winston Churchill; PM of Great Britain, on 18th June 1940. There are many different views as to when the Battle of Britain started and finished. The first German plane crossed the channel on 1st

  • Word count: 2328
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why was Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933?

Why was Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany in 1933? In the 1928 general election, the Nazis only had twelve seats in the Reichstag, but the events of October 1929 gave Hitler a second chance to gain power. On 3 October Gustav Stresemann died. He had been the most important politician in Germany since 1923. Stresemann had overcome the effects of hyperinflation in 1923 and had then negotiated the Dawes plan in 1924. In 1925 he persuaded the other European governments to agree to the Locarno Pacts, which guaranteed German borders. Finally in 1926 Germany was admitted to the League of Nations and became a Permanent Member of the Council. For the next three years Germany appeared to be well on the way to recovery. In June 1929 the Young Plan reduced German Reparations still further. By 1929, Germany appeared to be prospering, but the effects of the Wall Street Crash produced an economic crisis in Germany. This led to unemployment rising to 6 million. In desperation, the German people turned to Hitler's Nazi party to solve their problems. By July 1932, it was the largest party in the Reichstag, and in January 1933 President Hindenburg asked Hitler to become chancellor. DATE BRIEF DESCRIPTION 889 Born April 20 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. 914-1918 Serves as a private in the Bavarian army during World War I. 919 Joins the nationalist German Workers' Party, soon renamed

  • Word count: 689
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why do sources A to F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children?

Why do sources A to F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children? There are many reasons why attitudes in sources A to F are different. As all the sources are different authors, it is inevitable that the attitudes will be different as thousands of people were affected by evacuation and no two experiences could be exactly the same. Also, they are not all the same types of sources and the sources do not all have the same motives and would want to show certain attitudes. Also, the dates of the sources vary which could make each source more reliable or unreliable than the others. Source A is a photograph showing evacuees walking down to the station in London in September 1939. Its view of evacuation is that children who were evacuated looked forward to it and it was an enjoyable experience. I think it has this view because the government wanted to promote evacuation by showing an image of smiling happy children on their way to being evacuated to counter the real concerns that parents had about evacuation. This source is reliable because the photo was taken at the time of evacuation. However, this source may not be reliable if there is government influence in it because they might have staged the photo to capture the view that they wanted. The children might have been told to wave by their teachers. The fact that all of the children are smiling and waving

  • Word count: 4539
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why do sources A to F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children?

Why do sources A to F differ in their attitudes to the evacuation of children? Sources A to F offer vastly different interpretations of the evacuation experience. Throughout the war, as many children and adults were evacuated and you would perhaps expect their experiences to be similar, however in sources A to F the views of people are widely varied showing points for the evacuation process and against it. This is probably because the sources are different types, produced by different people at different times for different purposes. A primary source is a document or other sort of evidence such as a picture written or created during the time studied, or by one of the people or organizations directly involved in the event. Primary sources offer an inside view of a particular event.A secondary source interprets and analyzes primary sources. Secondary sources are one step after the events in question. These are not always reliable as they can be written or created 50 or 100 years after the event in question happened. Sources A to F show both Primary and secondary sources and this then helps us to analyze the attitudes of the evacuation of the children. Source A is a photograph taken in September 1939.The purpose of this source could be for a private album, book or collection. However source A is a photograph of evacuees walking to the train station, this could be staged perhaps

  • Word count: 1633
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why had international Peace Collapsed by 1939?

*************************************************************************** Ginny McCullough 10B2 Homework Why had international Peace Collapsed by 1939? 27th of March 03 *************************************************************************** When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933 he was pledged to reverse the treaty of Versailles and to increase German territory. Hitler was pledged to reverse the treaty of Versailles and to increase German territory because he said he would in his book Mein kampf. He was pledged to carry out these actions because he had promised them in 1924 only if he was elected into power. In 1933 the people liked his pledges so they elected him so he could carry out his pledges, now Hitler could get to work. The treaty was a constant reminder of defeat and humiliation. Hitler believed the treaty was unfair and made Germany look weak so he had to abolish it. If Hitler were going to demolish the treaty of Versailles then he would also get back the land that was taken away from Hitler in the treaty. So he could really kill two birds with one stone. Hitler wanted to gain more land too and build an Empire so he could also increase German territory. Hitler's people expected the pledges to be for filled so Hitler must complete them to keep Germany satisfied with its leader.

  • Word count: 1620
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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