Secrets of mystery Enigma machine revealed: Nazi codebreaking device found buried in a farmyard on the Polish-Czech border is to go on display at Bletchley Park
- G31 Enigma machine will go on display at Buckinghamshire museum tomorrow
- It is one of only two known surviving examples of this model of Engima machine
- Machine can be connected to printer and allows operator to correct a message
- It was likely buried by retreating Hungarian forces in 1945 near the Czech border
An extremely rare model of the German Enigma machine found in a farmyard in central Europe after it was buried by retreating Hungarian forces is to go on display at Bletchley Park.
The heavily rusted machine, which was found on the Polish-Czech border, is one of only two known surviving examples of the G31 Enigma which has a different configuration to many of the other 400 surviving devices.
It included the ability to allow the operator to go back if they made a mistake and a counter to show how long a message was - and also had a plug socket in its side which allowed it to be connected to a printer.
The heavily rusted machine (pictured) , which was found on the Polish-Czech border, is one of only two known surviving examples of the G31 Enigma
More than 100 hours of restoration was required to allow historians to fully understand how it came to be buried on the Polish-Czech border
The only other machine with this feature was auctioned by the German auction house Hermann Historica in October 2009.
Describing how unique the device is, Eric Munroe, Exhibitions Manager at Bletchley Park told MailOnline: 'There is no one enigma machine, and the devices were actually invented in the 1920s and sold around the world.
'They were being developed and adapted all the time, and so there are a variety of different models. What makes the G31 Enigma machine so unique are a number of functional improvements including the ability to print.'
The machine was first borrowed by the museum from a collector in 2012, and then subsequently purchased in 2016, after it was dug up in the central European farmyard.
Historians at Bletchley Park then spent more than 114 hours restoring the device, and were able to discover the secrets of its past - including that it was likely sold to the Hungarian military in the early 1930s who buried it during their retreat in 1945.
The extremely rare type of Enigma machine allows the operator to go back if they made a mistake and a counter to show how long a message was - and also had a plug socket in its side which allowed it to be connected to a printer.
Conservation work revealed the presence of a hidden serial number, 110, allowing the Bletchley Park Collections team to pinpoint the model to the year it was produced and where, revealing the machine to be much rarer than previously thought
The machine's rotors and plugboard had been removed, exactly the top-secret equipment a retreating army would remove before disposing of it.
Conservation work revealed the presence of a hidden serial number, 110, allowing the Bletchley Park Collections team to pinpoint the model to the year it was produced and where, revealing the machine to be much rarer than previously thought.
Ms Munroe continued: 'Enigma machines were not used to send messages, but were instead used to encrypt them. These would then be communicated by other means.
'The G31 had a number of useful features, including a crank which allowed the operator to go forwards and backwards and also a slot for connecting a printer.
'Although the machine was quite small when used on its own, it became quite cumbersome when connected.'
The machine will go display at Bletchley Park tomorrow, once the top-secret home of the WWII codebreakers and where a team of researchers, including famed British mathematician Alan Turing, eventually broke the enigma code in 1941.
Enigmas, which resembled large typewriters, were used by German air, naval and army forces to safely send messages throughout the Second World War.
It used a complex series of rotors and lights to encrypt messages by swapping letters around via an ever-changing 'enigma code'.
The secrets of the G31 Enigma, which will be one of 12 more common models exhibited at Bletchley Park, will be revealed almost 75 years after it was buried by retreating Hungarian forces near the Czech border in Southern Poland.
Intelligence from Bletchley played a vital part in the defeat of the U-boats in the six-year Battle of the Atlantic, British naval triumphs in the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941 and the Battle of North Cape off the coast of Norway in 1943
At Bletchley Park (pictured is one of the huts where code-breaking operations took place), a group of mathematicians found the key to deciphering the German enigma code - which meant the Allies had advance warning of much that the Germans planned
Bletchley Park was the British forces' intelligence centre during WWII, where cryptographers deciphered top-secret military communiques between Hitler and his armed forces. Pictured are codebreakers using the British Typex cipher machines in Hut 6
Code-breakers led by Alan Turing - played by Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, which charts the operation - worked with other mathematicians to decipher the Nazi machines at Bletchley Park (pictured)
Peronel Craddock, Head of Collections and Exhibitions: 'We're really looking forward to putting this rare Enigma on display and sharing its fascinating story with our visitors.
'Thanks to the conservation work, we were able to uncover its serial number and unique features, which allowed our historian David Kenyon, and cryptography expert Frode Weierud, to unravel its secret.
'It's a piece of world history so it is very fitting it is now on public display for all to visit.'
Thanks to research by cryptography expert Frode Weierud, and a listing from the Enigma manufacturer Chiffriermaschinen Gesellschaft Heimsoeth & Rinke from October 1935, it is now known that this machine was from the first batch of the G31 model ever made, and was one of 24 machines delivered to Hungary.
There are around 400 surviving Enigma machines (one of which is pictured) but there are a number of different models. It used a complex series of rotors and lights to encrypt messages by swapping letters around via an ever-changing 'enigma code'
David Kenyon, Research Historian at Bletchley Park, has also deduced that the area where this Enigma was discovered was the location of the final surrender of Hungarian forces to the Red Army in 1945.
Mr Kenyon said: 'There was not just one type of Enigma, but a whole family of different machines. It is exciting to discover an example of one of the rarest types.
'What makes this especially interesting is that our research has revealed the life story of the machine from its original manufacture and sale, to its sad fate at the end of the war.
'The object sums up in an individual way the wider story of world War Two.'
WHAT WAS THE ENIGMA MACHINE?
The Enigma machine was a device used to encrypt messages by the German military during the Second World War
The Enigma was a type of enciphering machine used by the German armed forces to send messages securely during the Second World War.
It used a complex series of rotors and lights to encrypt messages by swapping letters around via an ever-changing 'enigma code'.
Polish mathematicians worked out how to read enigma messages prior to 1939, and shared this information with the British.
But German cryptographers upgraded the security of the machines at the outbreak of the war by changing the cipher system daily.
A team of researchers, including famed British mathematician Alan Turing, eventually broke the enigma code in 1941.
They invented devices known as Bombe machines that could decipher the enigma code, allowing Allied forces to intercept German messages.
It is believed that the work of Turing and his team shortened the war's duration by up to two years.
