At the end of WW-II the German military needed to dispose of their secret
Enigma Cipher machines and other instruments of war. They were scattered all
over Europe and could not be brought together for mass destruction.
Although the German soldiers were instructed to use explosives placed and
detonated inside the Enigma cases, many chose an easier (and safer)
alternative and dumped them into nearby lakes. Simetimes they had time to
try to damage them with tools that were nearby and sometimes they just threw
them into a convenient lake.
This website describes a German WW-II 4-rotor Marine Enigma that was recovered
in 2010 after remaining underwater in a lake for over 65 years and attempts
to reconstruct the murder scene and identify the cause of death.
This Enigma machine was located in a privately-owned lake in northern Germany
where government restrictions do not apply. Local residents had heard stories
about equipment being dumped into the lake and it seemed worthwhile to check
the lake with underwater metal detectors.
Clearly the person who destroyed this Enigma never expected it to be recovered.
Not only did it remain in the water for over 65 years but it gradually sank
into the muddy bottom of the lake. If it had not been for a sensitive metal
locator and some persistent hunting, it might never have been recovered.
Even with a good metal detector that discriminates well between metals, many
signals are heard in the headphones and it is usually wise to dig each metal
object out of the mud rather than relying on the discrimination of the
detector to eliminate unwanted objects.
Here are some photographs of the metal-bearing objects that were found during
the dives that eventually brought the Enigma back to the surface.
Some of these pieces are parts of a secret acoustic torpedo: "ZAUKONIG". It
was powered by a 55 hp electric motor and had a speed of 24 knots and a range
of 5.7 km. It had a very sensitive acoustic homing capability but in bad
weather it detonated either early or late and it was only sensitive to ships
traveling at 15 knots! Allied skippers would set their speed either above or
below 15 knots knowing that they would be safer. The Allied forces also
developed anti-GNAT devices that made noises and distracted acoustic homing
torpedos: (See: http://www.one35th.com/seehund/sh_armament.htm for more
information on the torpedo.) It is unclear why parts of a secret torpedo were
found in an inland fresh water lake and that may remain an unsolved mystery.
Other recovered objects are pieces of fairly common German WW-II field radios.
At first, it is very hard to recognize it as an Enigma but even a rapid
inspection reveals that it is a 4-rotor Enigma because there are 4 slots for
the rotor thumb wheels. 4-rotor Enigmas were exclusively used by the German
navy (the Kriegsmarine).
One of the puzzles presented by the discovery of this Navy Enigma is why it
was found in an inland lake far away from the sea.
Some of the mud is removed to show more of the Enigma and to eliminate the
moisture trapped in the mud that would cause further rusting and
corrosion. Warm water is applied to loosen and dissolve the mud and then it
is allowed to dry.
Unfortunately, the visibility at the bottom of the lake is so bad that the metal locator could not be found after the Enigma parts were recovered. A good deal of time was spent hunting for the metal locator but it was never found. A new metal detector has been purchased and it is hoped that it will not only locate additional Enigma parts but also that it will locate the original metal detector.
As with any autopsy, the main goal is to determine the cause of death. A close
look at the Enigma reveals major damage from a crushing impact applied to the
top of the lamp panel as well as many other less dramatic impacts.
The damage can best be assessed by comparing it with an undamaged Enigma of the same model. This is an undamaged Marine 4-rotor M4 Enigma:
The damage is obvious after this comparison. The lamp panel cover has been
removed and the center of the lamp panel has been depressed an average of 3 cm
below the ends of the panel by some kind of vertical force.
The lamp panel cover must be removed in order to gain access to the rotor
mechanism so at least a small amount of time and thought must have preceded
the fatal blow to the lamp panel itself. The following photographs show
various views of this damage.
This observation allows us to tentatively eliminate a kick or stomp with a
boot as the cause of death because a boot would have produced a more even
depression and a more curved center. It was common for the German soldiers to
try to damage Enigmas at the last moment before they were captured by
delivering a strong kick to the machine and indeed the damage to the front of
the Enigma where the plugboard or steckerboard was located may have been
caused by a kick.
The tools that German soldiers had available to them in the field were
limited. They did not typically have hammers or heavy weights that they could
use to smash something. The one tool that virtually all soldiers had with
them, however, was their rifle.
Most soldiers had ready access to their Mauser bolt-action rifles. It would
have been natural for them to reach for their rifle even in times of stress
and to use it in whatever way was required. To quickly damage an Enigma, it
is logical that a soidlier might have pounded the butt end of his rifle into
the top of the Enigma. Any other way of damaging it with his rifle would have
been less effective and perhaps dangerous to the operation of the rifle or
dangerous to the soldier.
On the assumption that a Mauser rifle might have been used to damage this Enigma, a typical WW-II German Mauser was borrowed from historian and collector Charles Woolley and placed in position directly over the depression in the Enigma light panel.
It is obvious that the butt end of the Mauser rifle fits precisely into the
depression in the lamp panel. This shows that it was most likely the direct
cause of the death of the Enigma.
The left part of the butt of the Mauser is directly in line with the heavy
barrel and action of the rifle and thus would have exerted more downward force
than the right part of the wooden stock. This would account for the
observation that the left side of the lamp panel is more depressed than the
right side.
The pattern of crushing damage to the light bulbs in their sockets suports the
conclusion that the damage was caused by a rifle butt. Notice the crushed and
flattened light bulb and socket directly under the spot where the major blow
was administed in the left photograph and the slightly less damaged light
bulbs and sockets elsewhere in the light panel as shown in the right
photograph.
Very little is left of the plugboard. Since it is made of brittle bakelite,
the damage could have been inflicted by a kick with a heavy boot or by more
strikes with the butt of a rifle stock.
In order to get at the rotors and to destroy them the metal cover that lies
over the rotors must be hinged back and out of the way. This procedure took
some time and thought so it is again clear that the destruction of this Enigma
was not done in a momentary act but that it was thought out and carried out
with some care.
The metal rotor cover received an impact from it's underside that broke part of the rightmost rotor window and forced it and nearby areas outward. The Right picture shows that the entire rotor mechanism was hit one or more times. These blows destroyed the rotors and damaged the rotor drive mechanisms.
The rotor unlocking lever over to the left where the reflector was mounted was left relatively undamaged. However, the input wheel to the right of the rotors was shattered by a blow from a heavy object leaving just the metal bushing.
Enough of one rotor was recovered to determine the serial number of the rotor
and most likely of the Enigma itself. As you can see, the serial number is:
M10015. The "M" identifies it as a marine Enigma.
Little additional information can be obtained by looking at the bottom of
the lid of the battery box but it is shown on the right.
Although only two pieces of the sides of the wooden case remain, they too have
sustained no direct impact damage and only show some rusting and corrosion of
their metal fittings.
The most extensive damage was found on the light panel, the keyboard, the
plugboard, and the rotor mechanism. The case was undamaged.
The pattern and extent of the damage indicates that the machine was destroyed
by a person who knew the most important parts of the machine and who set about
to destroy each of them.
Some organism or chemical in the lake water was responsible for removing all
of the insulation from every wire in the entire Enigma. It would be useful to
try to determine precisely what removed the insulation.
One of the most important unanswered questions is why a German WW-II Navy
Enigma and experimental torpedo were dumped in a lake that lies a considerable
distance from the sea.
Additional diving expeditions are planned and they will hopefully retrieve
more Enigma parts and possibly provide more information that will fill in the
questions posed by the recovery of this Enigma.
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