Enigma Hero Relives Exploits 60 Years Later...
Excerpt:
David Balme was a 20-year-old sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy in May 1941 when he led a boarding party down the conning tower of a German submarine south of Iceland and changed the course of World War II.
The prize at the bottom of three vertical ladders was the unbreakable German code machine Enigma and a set of code books that would finally enable the British to read enemy radio traffic and turn the tide of war in the Atlantic.
Now 82, Balme, who retired with the rank of Lieutenant Commander, still remembers vividly the details of the dangerous descent into the bowels of the crippled submarine but admits he had no idea how crucial his discovery would be.
"We didn't know what Enigma was. We thought it was a funny looking typewriter -- an interesting bit of kit," he told Reuters Friday.
"It was only when we got back to Scapa Flow (naval base) 10 days later that the senior intelligence officer came aboard and told me what we had got and how hard they had been looking for one."
Posted by GilbertZ at 04:11 PM
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