Enigma Machine Emulator

The Enigma machines are a series of electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines. The first machines were invented at the end of World War I by German engineer Arthur Scherbius and were mainly used to protect commercial, diplomatic and military communication. Enigma machines became more and more complex and were heavily used by the German army during World War II to encrypt radio signals.

One of the key objectives for the Allies during WWII was to find a way to break the code to be able to decrypt German communications. A team of Polish cryptanalysts was the first to break Enigma codes as early as 1932, however the German used more advanced Enigma machines making it virtually impossible to break the Enigma code using traditional methods. In 1939 with the prospect of war, the Poles decided to share their findings with the British. Dilly Knox, one of the former British World War I Codebreakers, set up an Enigma Research Section at Bletchley Park, England. He worked alongside Tony Kendrick, Peter Twinn, Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman. Together they developed a complex machine called the Bomb used to workout Enigma settings from intercepted German communications. The first wartime Enigma messages were broken in January 1940. Being able to decrypt German messages gave the Allies valuable information which has had a major impact on the outcomes of WWII.

To gain a better understanding of the encryption techniques used by the enigma machine we have decided to recreate a virtual Enigma machine/emulator.

You will be able to use this machine to both encrypt or decrypt enigma messages (Enigma encryption is symmetric, which means that the same settings can be used to both encrypt or decrypt a message).

Our Enigma machine emulator is replicating the encryption process of the Enigma M3 series that was used by the German Navy (Kriegsmarine). It is fitted with a UKW-B reflector. Later on through the war, it was replaced by the M4 series which included a 4throtor.

Before pressing any keys on the keyboard section of the machine you will need to apply the required settings. To do so you will need to click on the rotors to adjust the wheels initial settings and then make the required connections by clicking on the different plugs (bottom section of the machine) to connect letters from the plugboard.

Enigma Machine Emulator