United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory

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The United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory (short: NCML , German  for example: " Labor for calculating machines of the Kriegsmarine of the United States " ) was a top-secret military facility during the Second World War that successfully deciphered the encrypted enemy communications of the German and the Japanese Navy . Was the seat of the laboratory building 26 ( English Building 26 ) of the National Cash Register Company (NCR), a manufacturer originally for cash registers , in Dayton ( Ohio ).

history

U 110 and HMS Bulldog (May 9, 1941)
The American high-speed version of the Turing bomb , called Desch bomb , here operated by a wave , reached up to 2000 revolutions per minute, more than fifteen times the speed of its British model and was specifically directed against the four-roller Enigma.
The Desch bomb in the National Cryptologic Museum is the only known original bomb from World War II.

After Germany declared war on the USA on December 11, 1941 , the fight against German submarines was of particular importance to the war effort of the United States . These operated mainly in the North Atlantic on Allied convoys . As part of the pack tactics used , a bug-proof radio link between the commander of the submarines and "his" boats was essential for the German Navy . For this purpose, a special key network "Triton" was set up and the Enigma-M3 key machine (with three rollers) was used until the end of January 1942 , which was replaced on February 1, 1942 by the cryptographically stronger Enigma-M4 (with four rollers).

The British allies of the USA had already deciphered the messages encrypted by the German Air Force and shortly afterwards the messages encrypted by the German army with the Enigma I under the code name " Ultra " in Bletchley Park , England . After the capture of the German submarine U 110 (picture) and the capture of an intact M3 machine and all secret documents ( code books including the crucial double-letter swap boards ) by the British destroyer Bulldog on May 9, 1941, they also managed to break into the naval enigma . As an aid, they used an electromechanical "cracking machine", the so-called Turing Welchman bomb, devised by the British cryptanalyst Alan Turing and improved by his compatriot Gordon Welchman .  

With the commissioning of the Enigma-M4 in February 1942, however, there was a painful interruption ( black-out ) for the Allies , because the submarine radio traffic could suddenly no longer be " read ". On behalf of the US Navy's OP-20-G (Office of Chief Of Naval Operations, 20th Division of the Office of Naval Communications, G Section / Communications Security) , based on the British concept , an American high-speed version of the Bomb to be developed. The then 34-year-old Joseph Desch (1907–1987), an engineer who was born and raised in Dayton, was given the lead . The aim was to increase the speed by a factor of 26 compared to the British model. In fact, you got a little more than a factor of fifteen. The realized bomb (pictures) had the dimensions of a large living room cupboard; it was more than two meters high, three meters wide and almost a meter deep, with a weight of around 2500 kilograms .  

From April 1943, more than 120 of these Desch bombs were produced and the submarine radio traffic was deciphered again. At the time, the NCML group led by Desch comprised about thirty civilian employees. There were also hundreds of WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) , i.e. women who had been accepted for voluntary emergency service in the US Navy . They were about a kilometer south of Building 26 in the so-called Sugar Camp ( German  "sugar camp" housed), one in a maple forest idyllic about twelve hectares large residential complex ( 39 ° 44 '  N , 84 ° 11'  W ) with sixty comfortable log cabins ( English cabins ). Another thousand or so civilian NCR employees worked on the manufacture of the bombs . Hundreds of male Marines guarded the facility and its secrets and ensured the safety of the personnel.

Was a direct result of the American decipherments starting with U 463 on May 16, 1943 a U-tankers from Type XIV ( "cow") until U 220 on 28 November 1943 one used to supply mine-laying by type XB , the sinking eleven of the eighteen German supply submarines within a few months in 1943. This led to a weakening of all Atlantic U-boats that could not be supplied at sea now, but to the long and perilous journey home through the Bay of Biscay to had to enter the submarine bases on the French west coast.

Late appreciation

In October 2001, at the second meeting of the veterans of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory in Dayton, the former employees of Building 26 were honored for their outstanding electrical engineering achievements, which "... significantly influenced the course of the Second World War" ( English ... significantly influenced the course of World War II ), awarded the renowned IEEE Milestone .

Against the protests of many relatives and residents, the venerable building 26 was finally demolished in January 2008.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John AN Lee, Colin Burke, Deborah Anderson: The US Bombes, NCR, Joseph Desch, and 600 WAVES - The first Reunion of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory . IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2000. p. 35. PDF; 0.5 MB , accessed May 16, 2018.
  2. ↑ Impact Of Bombe On The War Effort , accessed May 16, 2018.
  3. ^ Hugh Sebag-Montefiore: Enigma - The battle for the code . Cassell Military Paperbacks, London 2004, p. 136. ISBN 0-304-36662-5 .
  4. ^ Hugh Sebag-Montefiore: Enigma - The battle for the code . Cassell Military Paperbacks, London 2004, pp. 149 ff. ISBN 0-304-36662-5 .
  5. ^ Hugh Sebag-Montefiore: Enigma - The battle for the code . Cassell Military Paperbacks, London 2004, p. 311. ISBN 0-304-36662-5 .
  6. ↑ David Kahn: Seizing the Enigma - The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1939-1943 . Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, USA, 2012, p. 280. ISBN 978-1-59114-807-4
  7. ↑ Jennifer Wilcox: Solving the Enigma - History of the Cryptanalytic Bombe . Center for Cryptologic History, NSA, Fort Meade (USA) 2001, p. 52. PDF; 0.6 MB ( memento from January 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ John AN Lee, Colin Burke, Deborah Anderson: The US Bombes, NCR, Joseph Desch, and 600 WAVES - The first Reunion of the US Naval Computing Machine Laboratory . IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2000, p. 27 ff.
  9. ↑ Keeping the Secret - The Waves & NCR Sugar Camp / Building Twenty-Six , accessed May 16, 2018.
  10. ↑ The Story in Brief (English), accessed on May 16, 2018.
  11. ↑ Erich Gröner: The German warships 1815-1945; - Volume 3: U-Boats, auxiliary cruisers, mine ships, net layers, barrage breakers . Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-7637-4802-4 , pp. 118f
  12. ↑ According to Hans Herlin: Damned Atlantic - Fates of German U-Boat Drivers . Heyne, Munich 1985, pp. 282-288, ISBN 3-453-00173-7 , the following boats of type XB (4 of 8) and type XIV (7 of 10) were lost from May to October 1943 :
    01) on May 15; however according to Wikipedia on May 16 U 463 (type XIV),
    02) on June 12 U 118 (type XB),
    03) on June 24 U 119 (type XB),
    04) on July 13 U 487 ( Type XIV),
    05) on July 24th U 459 (Type XIV),
    06) on July 30th U 461 (Type XIV),
    07) on July 30th U 462 (Type XIV),
    08) on Aug 4th U 489 (Type XIV),
    09) on 07 Aug. U 117 (Type XB),
    10) on 04 Oct. U 460 (Type XIV),
    11) on 12 Oct .; however, according to Wikipedia on Nov. 28, U 220 (type XB).
    In total, 11 of the 18 submarines used for supply.
  13. ↑ Milestone in Engineering IEEE-Milestone as award for the employees of Building 26 (English), accessed on May 16, 2018.
  14. ↑ Milestones: List of IEEE Milestones (English), accessed on May 16, 2018.
  15. ↑ War Over a Building That Helped Win One The New York Times, April 1, 2007, accessed May 16, 2018.
  16. ↑ Demolition of Building 26 , accessed on May 16, 2018.

Coordinates: 39 ° 44'22 "  N , 84 ° 11'29"  W.