Berlin, Dec 15: German divers in search of discarded fishing nets in the Baltic sea, have come across a rare Enigma machine used by the Nazi military during World War II. Initial, hypothesis of the discovery is that it might have been thrown overboard from a wrecked submarine.
Underwater Archaeologist Florian Huber soon realized the importance of the discovery and corrected the apprehension that it was a typewriter. Huber said, “I’ve made many exciting and strange discoveries in the past 20 years. But I never dreamt that we would one day find one of the legendary Enigma machines."
The Nazi military used the machines to send and receive secret messages during WWII but British cryptographers were able to crack the code. This helped the Allies gain an advantage in the naval struggle to control the Atlantic.
Towards the end of WWII, the Nazis began to destroy their Enigma machines, to prevent the machines from falling in to the hands of the Allied powers. After the war, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered to destroy the surviving Enigmas as well.
The number of enigmas that exist today is not more than 200. They are cherished by collectors. That is why, the discovery of one such enigma is significant.