The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC)
Lorenz SZ42 cipher machine
On loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, Norway being the country where this particular machine was discovered, the communication cipher is currently being exhibited at The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC), Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes.
Engineers from the Her Majesty’s Government Communications Centre (HMGCC) are to use 3D printing to reconstruct the missing motor from one of Adolf Hitler’s ‘unbreakable’ Lorenz SZ42 cipher machines.
On loan from the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, Norway being the country where this particular machine was discovered, the communication cipher is currently being exhibited at The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC), Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes.
The Lorenz SZ42 was a ground-breaking technology developed by the Nazi Forces during the Second World War. First distributed to the Wehrmacht in 1942, the Lorenz SZ42 was considered to be a secure way for German High Command to deliver encrypted strategic messages to troops on the ground. Out of over 200 machines used between 1942 and the War’s end in 1945, only four have survived. Yet, even this one is not unscathed. Without a motor, the machine is unable to work.
“The HMGCC team will take three-dimensional images of an existing Lorenz motor and then reconstruct it using 3D printing techniques,” said John Whetter of the National Museum of Computing. “Externally, the motor will be almost indistinguishable from an original.”
The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC)
Lorenz SZ42 Brit Vets
WW2 veterans Betty O’Connell and Irene Dixon were involved in Bletchley Park attempts to intercept messages from Lorenz SZ42 ciphers using the British Colussus machines.
By reconstructing the motor with 3D printing techniques, something HMGCC put itself forward for after a BBC Radio 4 appeal, museum staff hope to demonstrate how the Nazis initially used it to their benefit, and later, how Great Britain and the rest of the Allied Forces were able to break the unbreakable machine. The British intelligence work, thanks in large part to Bill Tutte, a professional codebreaker, and Tommy Flowers, the engineer behind the infamous Colossus machine, was the first system produced to counter that of the German Lorenz SZ42.
Though by the time the Colossus machines were fully up and running in December 1943 (a second, improved version coming six months later) the momentum of the War had swung in the Allied Forces’ favour, its invention is still cited as an important reference point in the Allied Victory. The Colossus is credited with reducing the length of the war, attributing to the German downfall and saving thousands of lives in the process.
The Lorenz SZ42, owned by the Norwegian Armed Forces Museum, was discovered in Norway. The North European nation was occupied by Germany in 1940 and remained under Nazi control until the 1945. To the respective museums’ best knowledge, this machine will have received the final surrender instruction message at 24.00 hours on 8 May 1945, marking the end of the Second World War.
With preparation for the reconstruction now under way, the team hopes to have the reconstruction complete and ready to demonstrate by the summer.
