Warfare in News

Posted on Friday 4th May

On 9 May 1941, the Royal Navy captured the first fully functioning Enigma machine complete with rotors and codebooks from the German U-boat 110.

The three rotors for an Enigma machine have been re-discovered in a storage cupboard, and are believed to have originated from HMS Mercury, the Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School, as did the National Museum of the Royal Navy's Enigma machine.

The Enigma Machine was donated to the NMRN in 1983 by HMS Mercury and is a type M4 machine. It was probably used by the Norwegian Harbour Police, but is missing the reflector. The first rotor, therefore, has been adapted to enable it to do the reflector’s job. This makes the machine an unusual specimen.

It seems that the museum's machine and its rotors have been separated for the last 29 years, and they are due to be reunited on Wednesday, 9 May at an official handover at the NMRN by Commodore Mansergh to Professor Dominic Tweddle, Director-General of the Museum.

Further Reading

Secret Days

Only £19.99

Secret Days

(Hardback - 256 pages)
by Asa Briggs

The Bletchley Park memoir of Lord ASA Briggs will be one of the most important documents to be published in 2010. Lord Briggs has long been regarded as one of Britain's most important historians. He has never, however, written about his time at Bletchley Park.

The publication, which will coincide with Lord Briggs 90th birthday, is a meticulously researched account of life in Hut Six, written by a codebreaker who worked there… Read more...

Of further interest...

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'Killing the Bismarck' - Slaying the Myths

Tue 20th May

Iain Ballantyne considers the myth and the reality of the Royal Navy’s pursuit and destruction of the German battleship Bismarck, as investigated in the new paperback edition of his book ‘Killing the Bismarck’ Read article...

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The Zeebrugge Raid

Tue 23rd April

Philip Warner describes what happened during the Zeebrugge Raid on 23 April 1918 - one of the most daring raids in history launched by a special force drawn from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Read article...

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Operation Source - 70 Years On

Thu 19th September

Seventy years on from Operation Source, Paul Watkins, author of Midget Submarine Commander - the Life of Godfrey Place VC, describes the events of September 1943. Read article...

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The First Day of the Somme

Fri 15th April

Jerry Murland talks about his new book, co-authored with Jon Cooksey, The First Day of the Somme. Read article...

Dates in History

German forces cross the Somme River

24th March 1918

On March 24, 1918, German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front. Operation Michael, engineered by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Ludendorff, aimed to decisively break through the Allied lines on the Western Front and destroy the British and French forces. The offensive began on the morning of March 21, 1918, with an aggressive bombardment. The brunt of the attack that followed was directed at the British 5th Army, commanded by General Sir Hubert Gough, stationed along the Somme River in northwestern France. This section was the most poorly defended of any spot on the British lines, due to the fact that it had been held by the French until only a few weeks before and its defensive positions were not yet fully fortified. Panic spread up and down the British lines of command, intensified by communications failures between Gough and his subordinates in the field, and German gains increased over the subsequent days of battle. On March 23, Crown Prince Rupprecht, on the German side of the line, remarked that The progress of our offensive is so quick, that one cannot follow it with a pen. The next day, German troops stormed across the Somme, having previously captured its bridges before French troops could destroy them. Despite having resolved to concentrate on weaker points of the enemy lines, Ludendorff continued to throw his armies against the crucial villages of Amiens (a railway junction) and Arras—which the British and French were instructed to hold at all costs—hoping to break through and push on towards Paris. By that time, German troops were exhausted, and transportation and supply lines had begun to break down in the cold and bad weather. Meanwhile, Allied forces had recovered from the initial disadvantage and had begun to gain the upper hand, halting the Germans at Moreuil Wood on March 30. On April 5, Ludendorff called off Operation Michael. It had yielded nearly 40 miles of territory, the greatest gains for either side on the Western Front since 1914. He would launch four more offensive pushes over the course of the spring and summer, throwing all of the German army’s resources into this last, desperate attempt to win the war. (www.history.com)

Further Reading

The Somme
(Paperback - 355 pages)
by Richard van Emden

The offensive on the Somme took place between July and November 1916 and is perhaps the most iconic battle of the Great War. It was there that Kitchener’s famous ‘Pals’ Battalions were first sent into action en masse and it was a battlefield where many of the dreams and aspirations… Read more at Pen & Sword...

Only £14.99 at Pen & Sword Books.

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