Scuba Diving News: Divers Find Nazi WWII Enigma Machine in Baltic Sea

A historical artifact during the Second World War was discovered by divers looking for discarded fishing nets in the Baltic Sea. A remarkable find was the Enigma machine that was used by the Nazis when they were sending and receiving coded messages during the war.

According to a German diving team, they thought this was just a typewriter. But an underwater archeologist was able to determine the object’s identity to be of historic value.

The significance of the Enigma machine

Back in the day, it was the job of the British cryptographers to intercept and decipher the messages sent by the Nazi using the Enigma machines. The Allies were able to have an edge over the enemies, as they were able to save thousands of lives by shortening the war.

The Poles were able to break the first Enigma code in early 1930s. Due to the likelihood of a growing German invasion, information was turned over to the British. They eventually set up a secret code-breaking group identified as Ultra under the leadership of mathematician Alan M. Turing.

Turing and a fellow code-breaker named Gordon Welchman was able to invent a deciphering machine called the Bombe. The job of the code-breakers were significantly reduced.

Restoration of WWII Enigma machine

This discovery of the WWII Enigma machine is one thing and the restoration is another. Just imagine seven decades of lying underneath the Baltic Sea will do to a particular object such as the Enigma machine.

But its restoration can go about a year to complete according to the head of the state archeological office in Schleswig-Holstein, Dr. Ulf Ickerodt. The process of restoring this great archeological find will be supervised by his office. This will then be donated to the Schleswig archeology museum when the restoration has completed.

Value of the Enigma machine today

A WWII Enigma machine was said to be worth almost half a million U.S. dollars when sold over at an auction. It was described as one of the rarest and hardest Enigmas to decrypt because of the four rotors used instead of just three.