A restored and fully functioning Turing Bombe PA

British maths genius Alan Turing’s battle with the Nazi Enigma code is a tale that’s been repeatedly told by Hollywood in films such as Enigma and the Imitation Game.

But that version of history is a little distorted – and the little-known earlier efforts of Polish mathematicians paved the way for British codebreakers, representatives of the Embassy of Poland say.

The efforts of the codebreakers shortened the war by up to two years – ending the loss of Allied lives.

But while all the credit goes to British mathematician Alan Turing, it was the efforts of three Polish mathematicians – Jerzy Rozycki, Henryk Zygalski and Marian Rejewski – in 1932 which paved the way.




The Poles had realised that using maths – and electro-mechanical devices – was the key to breaking the codes generated by the Enigma machine, which had up to 158 million million million settings.

Alan Turing (Rex)

In 1939, the Nazis upgraded the Enigma machine, so the Poles could no longer crack it – but they shared their research with British intelligence agents.

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Science Museum conservator Bryony Finn inspects a 1930’s three-rotor Enigma cipher machine PA

Maciej Pisarski, Deputy Chief of Mission, Polish Embassy in Washington, said: ‘The story of Enigma was very important to us and the breaking of Enigma code was one of the most important contributions of Poland to the Allies victory during the Second World War.

‘Our contribution to Enigma is something that we learned a lot about as children in Poland but we have a feeling that the knowledge is not so widespread.

‘It was a crucial association which gave the Allies the edge over the Germans.