Polish codebreakers 'cracked Enigma before Alan Turing'
I think it's cool to find it in a British newspaper, given that this info in Poland is a common knowledge.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/15/polish-codebreakers-cracked-enigma-before-alan-turing/
Polish codebreakers 'cracked Enigma before Alan Turing'
Alan Turing could not have cracked the Enigma Code without the help of Polish mathematicians and it is time to "right the wrong" and acknowledge their contribution, the Polish government has said.Deciphering the German system is believed to have shortened World War Two by two years and saved countless lives.
But few people realise that early Enigma codes had already been broken by the Poles who then passed on the knowledge to Britain shortly before the outbreak of war.
They even taught Turing how to build electro-mechanical devices which simulated the workings of the Enigma machine and enabled operators to cycle through one possible setting after another.
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Maciej Pisarski, deputy chief of mission, Polish Embassy in Washington, said: "The story of Engima 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.
"Out 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.
"We were trapped on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War which meant we did not get the credit that we should have received and nobody wanted to admit that anyone in Eastern Europe had anything to do with Enigma.
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Speaking about The Imitation Game, Pisarski, added “I am sure it is a very good movie but I don’t think it tried to tell the whole story.
"We want to present a more complete picture of the past. It’s important to do justice to the people involved but to underline and underscore the strong cooperation between Britain and Poland when it came to Enigma."
Polish pilots had the highest kill rates in the Battle of Britain, Polish troops fought in the North African, Italian and Normandy campaigns, and were involved in the Battle for Berlin.
Despite their efforts, a British desire to appease Stalin meant that Polish forces, still under the command of Poland's independent government in exile, were banned from taking part in official V-E Day celebrations.
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