What Was the Enigma Machine?

During World War II, the German military relied on a device called the Enigma machine to encrypt their communications. Originally developed in the 1920s as a commercial encryption tool, the machine was adapted by the Nazis to secure everything from U-boat positions to military offensives.

With more than 150 quintillion possible settings, the Enigma machine was designed to be unbreakable. Every day, its internal configuration changed, meaning even if a message were decoded once, it would be unreadable the next.

To the Allied forces, Enigma represented the most dangerous kind of enemy, one they couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, and couldn’t understand.

Why Was the Enigma Machine So Dangerous?

The Enigma machine didn’t fire bullets or drop bombs, but it enabled precision warfare. Because of it:

• Nazi U-boats sank Allied supply ships with terrifying accuracy
• Troop movements were coordinated under a cloak of silence
• Resistance efforts were exposed and destroyed

Without a way to crack the code, the Allies were left guessing, and in war, guessing means dying.

How Did the Allies Break the Enigma Code?

The breakthrough came thanks to the brilliance of mathematicians and linguists, many of whom operated from Bletchley Park, Britain’s secret code-breaking headquarters.

Figures like Alan Turing, Joan Clarke, and Mavis Batey worked around the clock to crack Enigma messages. Using a machine called the Bombe, they simulated thousands of possible rotor settings to find the right one. And they succeeded.

By 1943, the Allies could read German messages nearly as fast as they were being sent. Historians estimate this breakthrough shortened the war by at least two years and saved over 14 million lives.

Women in the Shadows: The Unsung Codebreakers of WWII
While names like Turing are well known, many of the true heroes of codebreaking were women, brilliant minds whose work remained classified for decades.

• Mavis Batey cracked vital Italian codes during the Battle of Cape Matapan.
• Joan Clarke worked alongside Turing and was instrumental in deciphering Enigma traffic.
• Thousands of unnamed women intercepted messages, ran machines, and decoded intelligence in absolute secrecy.

Their story is one of invisible brilliance, and it inspired the espionage arc in the historical fiction novel Walking Away from Midnight.

The Enigma Machine in Historical Fiction: Walking Away from Midnight

If you're a fan of novels like The Alice Network or The Night Watch, you'll find similar historical intrigue in Tom Kane’s novel, Walking Away from Midnight.

Set between the World Wars, the story follows Jessie Fordham, a sharp, headstrong young woman who finds herself caught in the web of international espionage. As she uncovers family secrets and navigates military power plays, Jessie’s journey mirrors the real-life codebreakers of WWII.

While fictional, Walking Away from Midnight is grounded in true events, including the rise of Nazi code systems like Enigma and the Allied efforts to defeat them.

What if you discovered your father helped smuggle parts of an Enigma machine? What if your uncle was a traitor? That’s where Jessie’s journey begins.

Start reading Walking Away from Midnight here.

Final Thoughts: Why the Enigma Machine Still Matters

The story of Enigma is more than a technical achievement, it’s a testament to the quiet, unseen brilliance that helped save the world. It reminds us that wars are not just won by soldiers, but also by thinkers, analysts, and those who dared to believe an unbreakable machine could be broken.

And in the world of historical fiction, that makes for one hell of a story.

Copyright © Tom Kane July 2025

Walking Away from Midnight is available on Amazon Kindle and Kindle Unlimited. Click here for more information.