Like most, I always thought that the allies were desperate to get their hands on these machines during the war.
I was lucky enough to get to play with one of these things when a lecturer from the Bletchley Park foundation toured here some years back. She gave a fascinating and riveting talk on the history of the device.
I was surprised to hear that these were actually commercially available before the war, and that the allies had quite a few of them in store already. The crucial thing they were after were the booklets with the daily rotor and plugboard settings - far more valuable than the machines themselves.
I was lucky enough to get to play with one of these things when a lecturer from the Bletchley Park foundation toured here some years back. She gave a fascinating and riveting talk on the history of the device.
I was surprised to hear that these were actually commercially available before the war, and that the allies had quite a few of them in store already. The crucial thing they were after were the booklets with the daily rotor and plugboard settings - far more valuable than the machines themselves.