BBC - Secrets of World War II Set 1 (1998) Part 7 The Enigma Secret

You probably know the History, now discover the incredible SECRETS OF WORLD WAR II. Rarely has a war produced such clear cut reasons to fight as World War II. On the one hand were the totalitarian Dictators - Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini. On the other were the great democracies of the Western World which were gradually regaining their feet after the Great War of 1914-18 and the Wall Street Crash. Suddenly, ordinary men and women from all walks of life found themselves thrown into fearsome, nerve-tingling situations worthy of any Hollywood movie. The only difference in this series is that every story is true. Real people emerge as the Heroes of Telemark. Ordinary GIs and US Airforce and Navy personnel suddenly find themselves flying against the Japanese in China, jungle fighting in Burma and being dropped by submarine on enemy coasts at midnight. These untold stories can now be examined in great detail with the benefit of hindsight, newly-discovered archive film, maps and computer graphics which can complete the picture for today's viewer. Each fifty-two minute story covers the background to the main action. It will give the viewer a clear view of the historical context, the strategic objective and the tactical effort made by flyers, sailors and foot-soldiers - often in the most oppressive and life-threatening situations - to win victory from the enemy. This is an inspiring series with a giant canvas including much never before seen colour film. Over 300,000 hours of archive material have been searched for its compilation. Specially orchestrated music and compositions from the great composers all contribute to the excitement and drama of some of the world's greatest stories of bravery under fire. It is the largest series of its kind ever produced and with recently released secret footage will give the viewer a new insight into the great untold war stories of World War II. In many cases, this series gives the true stories for the first time this Century.

Part 7 The Enigma Secret

By early 1940, British codebreakers at Bletchley Park, working with information from the Poles, had begun to crack the German military codes produced on the Enigma cipher machine. Once this had been achieved, the challenge was how to prevent the Germans from finding out their codes had been broken. It was transmitted on a top-secret device capable of scrambling a message millions of different ways. The German high command was absolutely certain it was impossible to break. But the Allies did crack the enigma code, helping to shorten the war by years and save countless lives. How did Allied code-breakers decipher the unbreakable code? And why did their amazing accomplishment, “Cracking the Enigma Codes,” remain classified for thirty years. Find out how a tool originally designed for business became the world's most sophisticated military coding machine. Meet the mathematicians, chess masters and eccentrics of Britain's top-secret Bletchley Park – and see how they overcame incredible odds to break Enigma. Examine a re-creation of the first electronic programmable computer and find out how it was able to read Hitler's most closely guarded commands. And learn how Allied code-breakers were crucial to victories in the Pacific, North Africa and on the beaches at Normandy.

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Episode Two Shown Here