Vintage Enigma Photos

There are very few pictures of the Enigma in use during WWII or of the Bletchley Park codebreakers at work. I've tried to collect as many as I can in one place. If you have a picture not incuded here (or if you have a better version of these images) and would be kind enough to give me permission to use it, I would be glad to add it to this collection. (Note: I do not own the copyrights of any of these images, and assume they are all in the public domain.) I prefer very high-resolution images which I can then scale down for the thumbnail images. Please click on my contacts page to send me email.

Enigma in use
(Courtesy U.S. National Cryptologic Museum)

This picture features two soldiers: one using the Enigma and the other transcribing. There isn't a lot to tell from this picture, other than it looks a little staged. It looks like the Enigma operator is using two hands, which would probably require some practice.

Panzer General with Enigma
(Courtesy U.S. National Cryptologic Museum)

This image features a German general in what looks like a communications truck at rest. There appears to be some radio equipment of some sort. One of the young soldiers is wearing headphones, and another biting his nails as he prepares his message for the Enigma.

About the only thing we can see from this image is that the Enigma power source is set to "Battery". I wonder how often they used a battery rather than an external power source. Notice that there is a soldier leaning into the truck. There wasn't much privacy here, even for sensitive communications.

The back of this image has the following text:

"Panzer General"
General Heinz Guderian
Polish campaign 1939

The reference to the Polish campaign is crossed out and text to the right reads "Per Jack Ingram - has Knights Cross which came after Poland."

(Jack Ingram is the NSA Curator at the National Cryptologic Museum.)

The original picture is rumored to be in the German State Archives in Koblenz and the comment in R Lewin's book is: "Gen Guderian's command vehicle in France 1940..."

If you have more information on this image, please contact me.

Panzer General with Enigma
(Courtesy U.S. National Cryptologic Museum)

This image is similar to the one above, and now we see the operator using the Enigma. The soldier leaning into the truck continues to "shoulder-surf".

German soldiers using Enigma
(Courtesy U.S. National Cryptologic Museum)

Three soldiers: one using the Enigma, one transcribing, and one watching. Given the cactus plant in the forground, and the entire area seems covered in a netting, perhaps to keep bugs out? If you have any ideas on where this picture was taken, please let me know.

Eight-rotor Enigma
(Courtesy U.S. National Cryptologic Museum)

The back of this picture says:

Right front view of 8-rotor Enigma cipher machine captures at Mitterfels, German, on 25 April 1945.

Cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park in Hut 3 (1943)

Michael Smith's book Station X has this information about this page:
"One of the teams in Hut 3 where the decyphered German messages were translated and turned into intelligence reports."

(Courtesy Synder's Treasures, Bowie, Maryland).

This picture shows two non-Wehrmacht privates. perhaps SS or SD, on account of what can be seen from their (fatigue) uniforms. The man nearest to the camera has the rank of Sturmmann, if in the SS.

If you have any information on this picture, please let me know.