World War II–Era Code Machine Recovered from Baltic Sea

News December 4, 2020

(World Wildlife Fund/© Florian Huber)
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Baltic Enigma Machine
(World Wildlife Fund/© Florian Huber)

SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, GERMANY—According to a report in The Guardian, a team of World Wildlife Fund divers looking for abandoned fishing nets in the Bay of Gelting found a Nazi Enigma encryption machine resting on the sea floor. Naval historian Jann Witt of the German Naval Association thinks the machine, which has three rotors, was tossed into the sea from a German warship toward the end of World War II, since U-boats were usually equipped with more complex four-rotor machines for sending and receiving secret messages. Ulf Ickerodt of the local state archaeological office said desalination and restoration of the machine would take about a year, after which the Enigma will go on display at Schleswig-Holstein’s state archaeology museum. To read about a sunken German U-boat found in the Skagerrak strait, go to “Nazi Sub Discovered.”

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